Innehållsförteckning för April 2023 från Game & Fish West

No matter where you live in the country, at some point this month spring will be in the air. It’s safe to say that every angler will agree there is no better way to greet a new season than with new tackle. Game & Fish editors certainly won’t argue with that, and it’s one reason we have included our annual Tackle Test in this issue. Before you spring (yeah, I meant to do that) for a new rod and reel, turn to page 66 and do some research. The 15-plus pages that compose the Tackle Test represent weeks of analyzing the features and technology at work in more than 50 baitcasting and spinning rods and reels. Better than that, the results listed in the score charts come from on-the-water experience…

One of the annual rituals enjoyed by anglers across the country is the springtime movement of panfish—bluegills, crappies and perch—into the shallow, protected waters of lakes, rivers and reservoirs to form spawning colonies. This can concentrate hundreds of aggressive, protective fish into a very small area, making for some fantastic fishing action. In many ways, finding panfish spawning colonies may not be more difficult than cruising the shorelines of your favorite body of water, as many fish will bed up in water that is 2 to 4 feet deep with a firm bottom. Hard bottom is preferred over silty substrates, as nests built in the mud and muck tend to fill in quickly from wave action. However, you’re sure to face one significant challenge when looking for bedding panfish along…

The summer of 2022 was one of the driest on record on the southern plains. In southeast Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas, Thanksgiving finally broke the long drought. Rain was still sluicing down two days later when I drove south toward Truscott, Texas, and the historic Lowrance Ranch, which I had been hearing offered amazing whitetail hunting. With the ground hard as concrete, my Kansas food plots were scorched earth. I was so happy to see the rain that I didn’t give much thought to the immediate impact on deer hunting. Well, I couldn’t; I’d never hunted deer in north Texas and had no knowledge of the conditions. The rain slowed me down, sure, but I traveled good highways all the way. When the rain and blacktop ended just west…

Stashing our diver and bait rods, I grabbed a back-bouncing rod. Dad pumped the oars of the drift boat. I stood in the front of the boat, and when we hit a deep, slow-moving part of the hole, I dropped a 3-ounce sinker and fresh bait to the bottom. A crank of the reel as I raised my rod tip tightened the line and lifted the bait off the bottom. Slowly dropping my rod tip, I felt the sinker touch bottom. Then I lifted and dropped it again. On the third drop I felt a slight tap, resembling a trout peck more than a chinook hit. Setting the hook left no question what was on the other end, and after a good battle we were soon admiring a 17-pound salmon.…

If this year’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show is any indication, the brands serving hunters and shooters continue to grow in both numbers and variety. The 45th SHOT Show, owned and operated by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, saw a record amount of exhibit space spanning The Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 17 to 20. The show included more than 2,500 companies showcasing products and services across 816,000 square feet of exhibit space stretched along nearly 14 miles of aisles. Although it was virtually impossible for Game & Fish editors to see every product at the show, we were on the floor to cover the most noteworthy. Our coverage comprises the “SHOT Show New Product Premiere,” an in-depth look at the latest trends…

Who doesn’t want less competition, bigger deer, more trout, or countless coveys? Our holy grail is high adventure, returning with a story or, better still, photos of the buck-of-a-lifetime or trophy rainbow. Sure, getting there might be half the fun, but getting back in one piece is where the rubber meets the road, literally. It’s your truck that will spirit you to magical places where grouse cavort and bass jump in the boat. Or will it? Trouble can be just around the next bend, your trip of a lifetime dribbling away like coolant from a punctured radiator, unless you’re ready. My rig has been called a four-wheel-drive Swiss Army knife and rolling garage sale. But nine times out of 10, it has the needed repair piece, part or tool, or…

Shed hunting continues to grow in popularity among deer and elk hunters. If you’re looking to take your shed-hunting success to the next level, train your dog to hunt for them alongside you. While picking up sheds, or any bones, comes naturally to most dog breeds, there are things to teach a pup that will help it become more productive in finding shed antlers. As with all things related to dog training, starting them early in life, and maintaining consistency and discipline, are keys to long-term success. 1. START ’EM YOUNG When your pup is 8 or 9 weeks old, saw off an antler tine from a deer or elk rack and give it to your dog. If you don’t have an extra rack, antler pieces can be purchased online…

We are hunting tributaries of Montana’s Powder River, a network of prairie streams defined by linear stands of ash and cottonwood trees, and enough buffalo berry and chokecherry underbrush to make turkeys feel comfortable. But instead of a high-pitched box call or a coyote howl to locate these Merriam’s turkeys, Rich Loeber uses his optics. “We’re going to get up on a high point and glass,” Loeber says. “To my mind, the best piece of gear for turkey hunting out here is a good pair of binoculars. I’ve noticed that these open-country birds are way more visual [than their timber-country cousins]. They’re doing the same thing we are, getting up on high points and looking out for danger. If we can see them before they see us, then we have…

This is a tale of two rivers, one renowned and revered, the other virtually unknown and ignored (and for good reason). But don’t go pulling out a map to figure out the mystery. They’re really one river, separated by miles of geography, history and, until recently, numerous no-trespassing signs. The California portion of the Walker River enjoys a ton of cred among fly anglers. But until 2018, the central-Nevada stretch was all cattle ranch and locked gates. With the stroke of a governor’s pen, however, it became one of Nevada’s newest state recreation areas—more than 12,000 acres and 29 miles of river. For now, you’ll probably have it to yourself. Just make sure you bring two spare tires, a high-lift jack and an open mind. THE NEW WATER Back-of-beyond barely…

The Game & Fish Tackle Test utilizes a comprehensive scoring system to evaluate each rod and reel. Scores are tallied after each day on the water. Once the numbers are crunched (and after some heated debates), winners in each category are crowned. Evaluation categories include Design, Ergonomics, Fishability, Construction, Aesthetics and Price/Value. All testers score each piece of gear from 60 to 100 in each category. The Editor’s Choice award is bestowed upon the rods and reels with the best overall scores in each category, while the Great Buy award goes to those products that represent the greatest value.…

Turkey hunters often disagree about what delivers the best results on birds. The gauge question is the easiest to answer. A 12-gauge shotshell contains more shot than a 16- or 20-gauge, or a .410-bore, and the more shot you throw at a turkey, the better your chances of killing it. That, as they say, is pretty much settled science. But when it comes to the best loads and chokes for killing turkeys, things quickly get cloudy ... and complicated. LOAD MATH Following the gauge logic, you could argue that small shot is better than large shot. This is because when shells with the same weight payload are compared, the shell with the smallest shot size will contain the most shot. A single No. 7 lead shot pellet is .10 inch…

The song of this season around the country is the booming gobble of the wild turkey. Our waking hours are consumed with calling one into range, and our too-short nights are full of dreams of longbeards strutting right into our camouflaged laps. How many of us think about hen turkeys in April? If we do at all, it’s to cuss them for pulling otherwise interested toms away from our calls, or for offering gobblers the real thing instead of our unconvincing plastic decoys. But we should hold hens in higher regard, because the engine of prosperity for any turkey population depends on hens pulling off successful nesting attempts. And we’d be wise to recognize that the feats of patience, elusiveness and grit of hen turkeys are responsible for all our…

Even though it was early spring and the water was still cold, I watched as two anglers in a bass boat shotgunned spinner-baits along the docks across from us. They were wasting no time. They’d fling their lures parallel to a dock and burn them back to the boat before moving on to the next. Then they moved to our side of the channel and did the same thing. “How are the green fish biting today?” I asked as they quit casting long enough to pass. “Not too well,” the angler on the trolling motor said. “We caught one nice smallmouth, about 3 pounds, but that’s been it.” I wished them good luck and they went on their way, pounding the next series of docks. I didn’t tell them that…

Winter gusts whistled across the phosphate pits of Bienville Outdoors in north Florida, pushing an endless parade of whitecaps onto the leeward shore. The big two-stroke belched blue smoke as we inched through a labyrinth of tight canals, most no more than a hand’s width wider than the boat’s beam. The hull’s wake washed against the banks, sending baitfish and other forage scurrying. We chugged from one skinny quarry to the next, searching for clean water and northern banks with direct sunlight, hoping the sun would thaw the cold front’s tight grip and nudge some bass into biting. With a couple miles and a few dozen pits behind us, we idled into one that held promise. Here, the algae-stained water we’d been slopping through turned a promising tannic color. With…

Introduced in the spring of 1993, the Shimano Stella is widely regarded as the pinnacle of spinning reel design and engineering. For 2023, Shimano has unveiled the Stella 2500HG—the culmination of three decades of intense development and focused refinement. The brand sent us a sample to test, but we chose to exclude it from the field since it would be like testing a Lamborghini alongside a crop of mid-size sedans. We realize, too, that its price tag will give most readers the vapors; however, it is completely justified. The Stella 2500HG possesses every conceivable cutting-edge option, including what’s arguably the finest gear box in the industry, with a drive that syncs and turns silky smooth. The drag is unimaginably fluid and incapable of binding no matter how much force is…