Table of contents for August/September 2018 in Field & Stream

I pack my gear, then toss and turn half the night to the point where I think, Screw this, I’m going now. I get up, get dressed, and head to the stand, where I sit and watch fishing shows until daylight comes. Then it’s tablet off, hunt on. —AL LIBBY I drink with my buddies because the first day of bow season is slow, and the hunting is better in the evenings during the early bow season anyway. —DAVID MCALLISTER For duck season, it’s scouting and talking for hours about where we’re gonna hunt, exactly which way the ducks are gonna come from, and how good we’re gonna do. Last year’s opener didn’t go as planned. —CHANCE DAVIS All of the above. —JEFFREY MURPHY…

Venison bratwursts—brats, to Midwesterners—are a grilling staple for many hunters. Our version keeps them juicy with a dose of pork and a pre-grill beer steam, and balances out the flavors with a quick pickle perfumed with juniper to complement the venison. Pretzel rolls provide the ideal landing strip for these brats. The best drink pairing here is your favorite beer, whatever style or brand provides the most pleasure. INGREDIENTS For the pickles: 1 English cucumber1 Tbsp. kosher salt1 Tbsp. juniper berries, lightly smashed1 garlic clove, smashed½ cup white vinegar1 cup sugar¼ cup gin For the sausage: 1½ lb. venison roast, roughly cubed1½ lb. pork butt, roughly cubed1 Tbsp. salt 1 tsp. black pepper½ tsp. sugar½ tsp. ground ginger1 Tbsp. onion powder1 Tbsp. garlic powder1 tsp. marjoram1 tsp. ground…

Today is the opening day of hunting season. And if it isn’t, just wait a few days. Maybe a week at most. Either way, get ready. It’s funny. We tend to think of opening day as a single date on the calendar, when in fact, more than 2,000 different hunting seasons—early seasons, late seasons, youth, bow, and gun seasons for dozens of critters in scores of zones—will open in 2018. And more than 700 of them will open in August and September. That means that on almost any given day now, someone’s favorite hunt, the one they’ve been waiting for all summer, is either opening or will very soon. Two archery deer seasons have opened already, in July. One of them is a rut hunt. It also means that…

→ For years, I opened the season with snipe. Before there were September doves, early geese, and teal to hunt at home, there were snipe on September 1. Snipe love wet, boggy ground, usually not far from the water’s edge. I won’t lie to you. It’s hot. There are bugs. Mud pulls at your boots with every step. There will be many more snipe when cold frontspush them south later in the year. But it’s an opening day you’ll have all to yourself while others are elbow-to-elbow in the dove fields. Oh, and about that: Doves wish they could fly like snipe. Snipe announce their departure with a nasal scaipe sound, and if they didn’t, we’d never see them in time as they zigzag away. If—I mean, when—you miss,…

→ Doug Wiles, Wisconsin bear hunter and owner of Big Timber Outdoors, says that changing food sources can make killing an opening-week bruin tough. But he’s got three tricks to help you. 1. Change the Menu “In September, the bears’ dietary needs are changing ahead of hibernation,” Wiles says. “That’s when I switch to starchy foods like nuts, seeds, and dates (meat and fish are illegal here). You can also get a new attractant and spray it all around your bait to make bears think there is something fresh at your site, which can really boost activity.” 2. Bait and Switch Wiles also develops a routine before the opener to condition the bears. “I always come and leave at the same time, announcing my presence on each trip by…

1. Rocky Mountain High Colorado has the biggest elk herd in the U.S. In some units, you can buy an OTC archery elk tag and a leftover muley tag and shoot for a September double. 2. Early-Bird Bonanza Start with wood ducks in nothern interior Maine in late September and stay for the grouse and woodcock openers, both on Oct. 2. 3. Cornhusker Combo Chase muleys or whitetails on a cheap OTC bow tag, plus prairie grouse, all starting on Sept. 1. 4. Lone Star Slam Shoot early teal on public land along the coast between Corpus Christi and Houston. Then go wade-fishing for trout and specs. 5. Big-Game Four-Fer Washington elk, bears, deer, and lions all open early. And you can hunt all four on one combo tag.…

Years ago, my father and I started hunting elk in a collection of basins in central Idaho. But not together. I hunt it on the archery opener because the elk are uneducated. My father likes to hit it solo at the end of bow season because he enjoys the colder air, and he thinks that tackling the hike in and out alone proves he’s not too old for this. The best place to bivy camp sits on an 8,500-foot ridge overlooking more country than I can glass. After his first solo trek, Dad left a cache of bourbon and firewood near camp. He buried the flask in a hole, then stacked a small collection of tinder and kindling on top. The treasure and marker sat for 11 months until…

→ Wood ducks don’t play fair. They will ignore your calls and decoys. They’ll rocket overhead in the first nanoseconds of legal light and storm into the far side of the swamp just beyond your shotgun’s reach. One thing they can’t resist, however, especially in the first days of the season, is a small spinning-wing decoy. Instead of a full-size duck deke, though, woo them with a dove spinner. These are compact and light enough to carry deep into the beaver swamps where woodies hang out in droves. These fakes are also small enough so that the pint-size flash won’t flare wary ducks. Use a black PVC pipe to raise the spinner above the water. Cut it on a 45-degree angle on the bottom so it’s easier to drive…

→ “Guys get pumped to hunt the grouse opener, but they forget it’s still warm enough to go swimming,” says Maine guide Randy Flannery with Wilderness Escape Outfitters. “They hit the open popple-and-birch flats. But the birds aren’t in that classic upland cover in numbers yet because it’s too sunny and warm there.” Instead, grouse find shade where aspens, spruces, and firs grow together. “One of my favorite hunts now is to walk the old skidder roads that run through the mixed growth, especially in the cooler air near water.” The birds hit the roads to pick grit in the morning and stay close for hours. Flannery puts one hunter on the lane and another 40 yards in the woods, then he and a dog swing wide in loops.…

A week out from New York’s Northern Zone duck opener, my buddy called. “My dad’s going to make you watch Jeremiah Johnson,” he said. I wasn’t opposed—far from it—but I wondered why. “What can I tell you? He’s got this rule that anyone new to duck camp has to watch it before they can hunt.” As I walked up the porch steps, my buddy’s dad swung the screen door open wide. He looked like Bear Claw Chris Lapp crossed with a Son of Anarchy—big white beard, big white belly, hair that hadn’t seen scissors in years, plus a Harley Davidson do-rag and navy-blue suspenders. “You’ve come far, pilgrim,” he said. “Feels like far,” I said. He smiled large as hell, then shook my hand. We’d get along just fine.…

A good dog can usually find a dead deer—if you don’t screw things up first. Here’s what to know: Stop if you lose blood. A tracking dog follows an individual animal’s scent and slight traces of blood. The more you disturb the trail, the more difficult it will be for the dog to follow it. Mark the hit site. Evaluate as much as you can about the hit, but don’t pick up hair and bone, wipe off arrows, or otherwise disturb the hit site. That’s usually where a tracker will start the dog, even if you’ve followed blood well beyond it. Be honest. A tracker may be unwilling to accept a track if he believes you’ve made a nonlethal hit. They’ll want to know as much as possible about…

Thank God they flick their tails. I’d been hearing one bark for five minutes, but it’s only that visual cue that reveals the rodent, flattened and frozen against a hickory 30 yards away. I brace the .22 against a massive tree and am settling the crosshairs on the critter’s head when the trunk goes rubbery. But then, 150-year-old oaks aren’t that easily rattled, so it has to be me. I’m well acquainted with buck fever, but I’d never dreamed it might extend to the smallest of small game. On the other hand, this was my first squirrel hunt, and there was more at stake than dinner. I’d conned my editors into sending me to Wisconsin to write about the Mepps Dressed Aglia, an iconic lure with a squirrel-tail dressing—the…

THE SCENARIO → When bass get under a canopy of matted vegetation or in the thick pads, there are few techniques that can effectively get through or over the salad and generate strikes. A weedless hollow-body frog is one of them, and it can represent all sorts of aquatic and terrestrial creatures—not just frogs and toads, but shad, bluegills, and rodents as well. Fail to know how to work a hollow body, and you’ll be useless around the veggies. THE HACK °Work on casting and rod manipulation. Most of the time, frogging is done in heavy vegetation, but DeFoe says frogs are also deadly under overhanging trees and docks. Learn to skip your faux amphibian way up into those dark spaces and you have a lure that’s capable of…

PASO ROBLES, CALIFORNIA A hill towered over the land, and at its peak a lone oak loomed like a sentry. The tree provided an escape from the punishing sun, and the hill gave us a vantage of the grounds below where blacktail deer were also seeking shade. Their shelter, though, came from a different source: the edges of 4,000 rows of grapevines across 620 acres of central California wine country. We glassed up and down the vines for antlers, tails, and any hint of movement. As if the setting hadn’t already made it clear that this was not a typical hunt, my guide, Ryan Newkirk, sealed the deal when he shared a quirk about these deer. “They love merlot,” he said. His tone was so matter-of-fact that I needed…

Slipping up to the crest of the sageflecked knoll, we peered down at a pair of stunning tan-and-white pronghorns. “What a buck,” I said, eyeing the closer one. “He’ll go close to 15 inches.” “Yep,” my guide replied. “Now, if he’ll move a bit, we’ll get a better look at the real trophy behind him.” Making a classic novice’s mistake, I had assumed the taller buck closest to us was superior. No sight is more emblematic of Western hunting than a pronghorn buck with jet-black horns staring back at you, poised to prance across the prairie at 70 mph. But just how good of a trophy is he? How thick and impressive will those horns be when you wrap your hands around them? Pronghorns are notoriously difficult to judge…

All due respect to jerky, summer sausage, and gorp, but last fall I was introduced to a superior hunting snack: the peanut butter, bacon, and honey wrap. I have FIELD & STREAM executive VP Greg Gatto to thank for the PB&B&H wrap. It’s long been Gatto’s favorite hunting snack, and he fixed a batch of them at our New York deer camp. As you can imagine, assembly is a cinch: Spread a generous helping of peanut butter onto a large flour tortilla, add a few strips of bacon, top with honey, then fold and wrap in foil. The snack is savory and sweet, and packs a lot of protein. There have been times since last fall when I’ve craved this wrap, but I’ve resisted. Because when I eat this…

BACK WHEN YOU WERE B little,” James Parker asks me, “did you ever shoot a plate-glass window with a BB gun? I know I did, because I remember the whupping I got from my daddy.” The question catches me off guard. I’m sitting in Parker’s deep-woods workshop, high in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, with a rock in each hand, wondering how to use one to turn the other into something sharp and pointy. “Sure,” I reply. “What kid didn’t?” “Good,” Parker says. “Then you already know what a Hertzian cone is. It’s that little round divot of glass you get when you shoot a window with a BB.” What happens, Parker explains, is the BB’s energy travels through the glass and feathers out the other side in…

It wasn’t just an oak, it was the oak. My friend Tom VanDoorn—a logger and the best big-woods deer hunter I know—and I had scouted dozens of similar trees within a 10-mile radius of his cabin since dawn, and this red oak stood out like a beacon. For starters, the giant tree grew like its only purpose was to attract whitetails. Situated 3 miles off the nearest gravel road, the oak had 10 acres of swamp grass to its west, a burbling creek 200 yards to its north, and a thick bedding ridge to its east. Every nearby popple whip had been rubbed, and several snapped cleanly off. Dark, wet droppings surrounded the oak, and tentative scrapes disturbed the duff under its sprawling limbs. But the tree was most…

Variety is the spice of opening day for waterfowl hunters in the Midwest. Just about anything might buzz past once the sun comes up. A few years ago, my opener was a perfect small, medium, large, and extra-large waterfowl mixed bag: a drake greenwing teal, a drake wigeon, a drake mallard, and a Canada goose. Each year, the first days of the season here see plenty of resident ducks and geese, as well as migrating gadwalls, wigeon, pintails, and sometimes the odd diver. There will be days ahead to become a picky greenhead snob. Now you take what the new season gives you with gratitude—except maybe the muddy-tasting shovelers. I let them go and shoot the others. Bring all of your calls. Mallard quacks work on most ducks, but…

The day before opening day was Haircut Day for Ike. He wore a coat of long, feathery tricolor hair that was to burrs as magnets are to iron filings. Even his feet had long hair. Why the inventor of the English setter thought this would be a good feature in a bird dog is hard to guess. After one season of combing, cutting, and pulling burrs after every hunt, I’d had enough. Dog books suggested I coat Ike in Crisco or Pam before each hunt to make the burrs easier to get out, but that sounded disgusting. Before the next season, I bought electric clippers, and so began Haircut Day. It was the last obstacle between us and hunting season. Ike hated the clippers. He practiced passive resistance. When…

I’m lying on my back, afraid to move. The warning of never being more than a tuck and roll away from your rifle or bow is playing out before me. The breeze, or luck, must be in my favor, because whatever is in front of me sounds close—real close—and the shuffling of hooves and slurping of water has me guessing at all the possibilities. Then the smell hits me—that unmistakable, pungent, musty odor I’ve whiffed during so many close encounters. Elk. I slowly raise my head and separate my toes to peer between my boot caps. Two mature bulls are drinking from a mountain spring 25 yards away, unaware of the hunter who has just woken up from an opening-day siesta. Scenarios play out in my head, but the…

→ You know the old saw about fishing: 90 percent of the fish live in 10 percent of the water. It’s the same with Hungarian partridge on the High Plains. Faced with the enormity of the landscape, how do you narrow things down and put yourself in position to make hay on these tough, elusive, gloriously challenging gamebirds? For guide and professional gun-dog trainer Nolan Huffman of Lewis town, Montana (beeline brittanys.com), opening-day success is a two-part recipe. “Early in the morning, when temperatures are comparatively cool, I like to hunt recently cut alfalfa fields,” Huffman says. “These spots are loaded with grasshoppers then, and Huns will feed on those hoppers for as long as they’re available.” Then, as the temperature creeps up, Huffman changes his focus. “Inthe middle…

I didn’t fully understand until later. Not until the day was done, and I was leaning against the truck and waiting for Tommy to walk out of the dove field. It had been a rainy, nasty, post-hurricane dove opener. When I picked up Tommy Krisulewczs at his house, we both felt it. The storm was scrambling our plans. No one would spend the night at Stillwater. There would be no late night by the bonfire, no big feed with Greg’s funky white Alabama barbecue sauce, and no caravan of trucks storming the field at dawn. There would be none of the pageantry and community that typically marks our opening-day dove hunt. But I haven’t missed a dove opener since 1980, when I went home with a college buddy over…

→ It’s 52 yards to the abandoned feedlot office, but we’ve scattered enough corn in the parking lot that a pig is bound to get closer. The empty silo is a perfect hide, providing shade from the South Texas sun. Is it opening day of pig season? Always. Yet I’ve failed to kill a pig with a crossbow on the three opening days immediately preceding this one, because I’ve been trying to spot and stalk them through the mesquite and cactus. Enough of that. Just before sunset, a giant sow with five shoats trots into view. By the time it’s dark, there are 30 pigs in the feedlot, out of range but grunting and squealing their way toward us. I’m ready with a Night Eyes LED Gun Light affixed…

→ I saw the green leaves rustle and spotted an arc of long, fine hairs through my binos. “Stay right behind me,” I said. We slipped to the back side of a huge oak, and when we peered around the side, there he was, sitting on a burl and close. Jackson shot—and the Nerf dart bounced off the tree as the squirrel turned itself inside out getting away. My son’s not old enough to carry a real gun in New York yet. But my real .410 worked fine, and we had a blast that day. The opener is perfect for bringing a kid squirrel hunting because all that foliage means you don’t have to sit and wait—which is boring for a kid. Instead, you have enough cover to go…

→ It should be easy. Bucks are sauntering into ag fields and food plots, often in groups, hours before sundown. You ought to be able to sit a field edge on the archery opener and punch your tag before dinner gets cold, right? I know. It’s such a tease. A trap, really. Summer-pattern bucks are so visible, we’re suckered into assuming we’ve got the drop on them. But it’s rarely as easy as it seems. Well, you’re not falling for it this year. You just need a better plan, and here it is. 1. Get a Friend Your first job is to find a predictable buck or two on your property, and that is a lot easier with more than one set of eyes. It’s more fun too. Make…

A good nose, interest in deer and blood, and a willingness to please are all that’s required of a tracking dog, and so about any breed can work. But some of the most popular breeds include: Curs: The Catahoula cur is the state dog of Louisiana. ’Houlas, like my dog, Levee, are big, high-energy animals with excellent noses, but they’re also responsive to training. Blackmouth curs—think Old Yeller—are similar in size, ability, and temperament, and popular among serious trackers. Dachshunds: Their small size, strong nose, and even temperament make them ideally suited for working on a leash. Bloodhounds: Few breeds have a better nose, but large, powerful bloodhounds can be difficult to control on a leash. Labrador Retrievers: Labs are the most popular breed in the United States, and…

BASS PROS spend 200 days or more on the water every year. You don’t. You’ve got a full-time job and a family. That’s why by the time you get on the lake, learning something new is the last thing on your mind—you just want some bites. The problem is that as bass fishing continues to grow in popularity, fish in public waters are getting more educated than ever. It’s no longer possible to tie on a spinnerbait in March and fling it successfully until November. You’ll still get some solid bites many days throwing nothing but your favorite flipping jig, but there will also be days when you’ll scratch. And if you are a fiend for finesse, woe betide you when the bass get buried up under a thick…

THE SCENARIO → The close-range presentation of jigs and soft plastics allows anglers to make precise and stealthy approaches to shallow fish, generating reaction strikes in any sort of cover—from thick grass, to lily pads, to laydowns, to docks and trash piles. If you can’t flip, you’ll miss the opportunity to get a lure in front of some of the biggest bass in the lake. Period. THE HACK → Master the mechanics. If you’re flipping in a tight area, you want to be able to hit the smallest holes and crevices with the least amount of noise and disturbance from the lure hitting the water. Anything other than a silent entry may be a permanent deal killer, especially when targeting spawning or pressured fish. During cold Ohio winters, Shryock…

→ BEWARE THE MAN who shoots only one rifle. He’s probably as exciting as a colonoscopy when it comes to talking guns and is missing out on a whole world of shooting equipment—some of which is revolutionary. If you’re considering adding an extra gun to your collection, or just want to up your shooting game, this list of gear we’ve tested is the place to start. PROOF RESEARCH SWITCH $3,999 proofresearch.com The problem with high-end rifles has always been that they come chambered for only one cartridge. Not any more. With the highly accurate Proof Switch, you can switch barrels and bolt faces—in a matter of minutes—and shoot multiple cartridges from the same rifle. You can have a dedicated sheep rifle, deer rifle, target rifle, and varmint rifle all…

Most bowhunters write off morning hunts during the first few weeks of the season, believing they haven’t got a chance of catching an a.m. buck on its feet until a little testosterone takes over. But that just isn’t true. There are opportunities to kill early-season bucks at sunrise by hunting morning staging areas—it just requires careful planning and plenty of sweat to get it done. STEP ONE: IDENTIFY DAWN TRAVEL ROUTES Work backward to pinpoint a buck’s routes from a destination food source to his bed. The best strategy is to glass prime soybean, alfalfa, and just-cut cornfields in the evenings; if your buck is hitting these spots at dusk, you can bet he’s there at dawn too, and trail cameras set on major trails can verify it. Also…

Early-season resident Canadas aren’t as talkative as their migratory kin. Try to chat them up too much and they might avoid you like I avoid cocktail parties. This is true no matter how good a caller you are. How do I know? I talked to two world-champion goose callers, both of whom dial down their own calling for local geese—that is, until they have to crank it up, a little. Here are their secrets. PRO NO. 1: ERICH ROGGE Pro staffer with Field Proven Calls “Resident geese know every puddle for miles around and whether or not the slight bump of your layout blind was there yesterday,” Rogge says. “If you’re in a spot that geese have been using regularly and the birds are working, don’t give them any…

Our One Wild Summer issue (June–July 2018) featured 92 tips, trips, and cheap thrills—one for every day of summer. Some of the entries were on the longer side, but for the most part they were short and sweet. So, it’s kind of fitting that most of the reader response we received was equally short…but not necessarily sweet. Regardless, here are some of our favorites. —THE EDITORS SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW? In “Explore New Waters,” contributing editor Mark Modoski listed the 50 hottest fishing spots in the country—one river, lake, or stream for every state. Um, you’ve got to be kidding me: For Arkansas, you guys didn’t say the White River? Keith Hilburn, via Facebook Most of my largest fish have come from the Harris Chain of Lakes (Florida).…

Wild brook trout will rise to almost any dry fly, but according to Michigan guide Brian Kozminski (truenorthtrout.com), no brookie assortment is complete without some Hippy Stompers. This mash-up dry has a profile that represents everything from a caddis to an emerger to a beetle, and thanks to its foam body, it’ll float all day. Kozminski says a Hippy Stomper in any hue will score wild brookies, but if he could pick only one body combo, it would be black and purple.…

Heather’s Choice Smoked Sockeye Salmon Chowder ($15; heatherschoice.com) is made to fuel serious off-trail pursuits. Founder Heather Kelly is an Alaska-born evolutionary nutritionist, former NCAA rowing champion, and backcountry advocate. She sources wild-caught Alaskan sockeye, adds carrots, celery, and potatoes, and finishes the soup off with a coconut milk powder for a super-size taste and calorie punch. If salmon chowder’s not your thing, Heather’s Choice also offers a dark-chocolate chili made with grass-fed bison.…

Q People call the Creedmoor “the magic bullet.” Is it really that good? A It is not magic. It is really good. Remember that its worth was established beyond a doubt by a great many expert shooters, over the course of years, before it became an overnight sensation. High Power competition is a hard and unforgiving world in which things either work or they don’t. People find out very quickly, and The Word goes forth among the multitude. Even if you set aside for a moment the Creedmoor’s sublime balance of light recoil and long-range capability, there is this: Because the cartridge is so popular, and because so many people have such high expectations of it, and because so many ammo makers are competing for a share of the…

→ The seasons for native prairie grouse open early—long before those for pheasants and often before any other upland opportunity. That means plenty of young birds, which sit obediently for pointing dogs, are there to provide your first upland fix. You’ll generally find sharptails and prairie chickens in ones or twos, although occasionally a whole brood will take wing all around you in what a sharptail hunter I know calls a “popcorn flush.” The catch: September on the plains of the Dakotas and in Nebraska’s Sandhills is hot enough to pop corn. For the safety of your dogs, you need to cut this big country into half-hour bites. Therefore, you need to know where exactly, in all this grass, those birds are hiding. Guide Steve Grossman of Wild Prairie…

→ For ruffed grouse hunters in the Great Lakes states, the excitement of opening day is tempered by a sobering realization: September conditions are the toughest of the season. The cidery tang that we all associate with grouse hunting is still aging in the cask; what we often get on opening day is more like a fruity tropical drink. What’s a grouse hunter to do? According to veteran guide Randy Matis with Classic Bird Hunts in Cable, Wisconsin, the key is to focus on spots where classic, thick grouse cover butts up against some kind of clearing. “I’m looking for old orchards, farm fields, streams, anything that creates a well-defined edge,” he says. “You flush more grouse than you see at this time of year, so it’s important to…

For years I hunted the dove season opener in Lexington, North Carolina, with a bunch of pals. This was my introduction to dove hunting, and it was a classic Southern throwdown: crowds in the fields, little kids running around, some of the worst dogs I’ve ever met, and time split between shooting the birds and chewing the fat with other hunters. After the shoot, we all gathered for a huge cookout at R.B. Smith’s farm, where we dumped our doves into vats of simmering barbecue dip. Things changed from year to year—the weather, who could make it, how much corn was cut in the field. But there was one constant: The meal always ended with massive platters of homemade banana pudding. Banana puddings so large, you could land a…

Something had changed. After 40 minutes of still-hunting through silent timber, the woods erupted in chatter. As I neared a creekside oak flat, chipmunks barked alarms. Blue jays and crows screeched. A heavy branch snapped ahead, and I could see the top of an old oak swaying. But there wasn’t a breath of wind. As I took a knee, a bear swung around the trunk and walked along a stout limb, 30 feet up, perfectly broadside, and less than 40 yards away. All across the Northeast, there are camps of diehard bear hunters for whom the September opener is as anticipated and sacred as any whitetail season. Watching baits in Maine or running hounds in Vermont or New Hampshire are highodds options, but nearly half of the states in…

The September resident goose opener is hot stuff in the East. “Here in Virginia, it’s almost as big as the dove opener,” says Avery pro staffer Lawrence Mauck. And it’s your best chance to pattern and bag a bunch of big honkers. “A couple of guys might take 15 or more on that first morning.” With temps typically as sizzling as the gunning, Mauck likes to stay cool by setting up on a river sandbar. “These geese have been unpressured all year, and they’re still in family groups, with plenty of young birds that have never been hunted. So you can get away with throwing something a little different at them.” Just like you, geese want to beat the heat, Mauck says. “They fly off the roost early and…

Training a tracker isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get started. Get control. It’s fine to let a puppy follow some short tracks, but graduate quickly to working the dog on a leash. John Jeanneney recommends using a harness that the dog wears only while tracking. Make it real. Save and freeze blood and legs from every deer you can to later use for working your dog in the off-season. Create a track and allow it to sit for several hours—just like a real blood trail—before working your dog. Don’t be afraid to work at night, since that’s when you’ll be following many a real track. Know the moves. Every track will have challenges where a…

THE SCENARIO → When line-shy bass need to be finessed into biting, the drop-shot allows for both vertical and semi-horizontal presentations with extreme subtlety. The weight anchors the rig to the bottom, but the soft plastic sits above it, unencumbered and undulating seductively. If you’re dealing with pressured fish, especially those in ultraclear water, you’d better know how to drop-shot. Sometimes this is the only tactic that will score when the fish are on high alert. THE HACK → Find the “juice” and prepare to be patient. Pipkens says that he doesn’t expect to cover a lot of water with a drop-shot, not nearly as much as he would with a Carolina rig, and certainly far less than he would with a crankbait. In fact, he most often uses…

THE SCENARIO → For years, bass on offshore structures have been bombarded with all sorts of bottom-bouncing lures like jigs, big worms, and Carolina rigs, but the evolution of crankbaits that can reach depths in the 20-foot range have changed the entire approach to deep bass. These lures rocket through the strike zone and deflect off underwater obstacles, triggering bites and keeping schools of bass fired up. Developing the deep-cranking touch will let you score piles of fish in the depths instead of just a couple on plastics. THE HACK → Become an electronics nerd and learn to identify travel routes and deflection points. Combs says that the best way to become a better deep cranker doesn’t require a rod in your hand but rather your face plastered to…

AFTER MORE THAN 20 years A of being a half-assed turkey hunter, I realize I don’t enjoy it that much. This is heresy for an outdoor writer, who is supposed to be crazy about every kind of fishing or hunting, which no one is. Coming out has been daunting, but the estimated 16 to 22 other American hunters who feel the same way at least know they’re not alone. They are in the company of a guy who doesn’t like tons of things—hemorrhoids, clicking on a 20-second video that requires you to watch a 45-second ad first, and other people’s photos in which I do or do not appear. What follows is a short list of things I dislike about turkey hunting: • Being told, constantly, the birds “aren’t…

Buy a dozen factory-assembled arrows, and invariably one or two won’t group with the rest, especially at longer distances. And what’s left might not be exactly right for your specific hunting needs and preferences. Eliminate flyers and perfect your arrows by micromanaging your build process with these nine steps, then bare-shaft tune them to ensure proper arrow-to-bow fit. 1 Pick your shafts. Micro-diameter shafts penetrate better than standard diameters and do a better job of bucking the wind in flight. But they can make bow tuning a headache. If you like tweaking your bow tune, go micro. Consider grains per inch too. Heavier arrows hit harder than lighter shafts but don’t shoot as flat. 2 Choose your fletching. What is your maximum shot distance? If you hunt whitetails inside…