Articles

Lindsay Thomas Aging bucks on the hoof is not simple or fool-proof, but I’ve got great news for you. The most important age to protect is the easiest to spot. Aging on the hoof means determining which bucks you are going to green-light, and this ultimately depends on your personal age-based goal for buck harvest. So the most critical aging decisions for you are those that straddle your line between “shoot” and “don’t shoot.” THERE’S JUST NO QUESTION Determining whether a buck in a trail-camera

Todd Amenrud Fresh whitetail rubs are a great thing to see in your hunting area, especially when new ones show up just before you hunt an area. Just like scrapes, whitetail rubs are visual and scent-marked signposts that convey information to other deer. Following are some facts about them. 1. WHY DO BUCKS RUB? A few years ago, I read a piece that said there were several reasons why bucks rub. Among several others, one was to remove antler velvet; another was to build up neck muscles. While

Brodie Swisher With hunting seasons opening up across the country, it’s time to climb back in the stand in hopes of notching a tag on the buck we’ve planned and prepared for all summer long. We’ve got our weapons dialed, camo cleaned, and our gear fine-tuned for going to battle with big bucks over the next 3 months. Unfortunately, despite all the planning and preparation, many hunters will fall short on opening day. Here’s a look at the 7 sins that’ll cost you a buck on opening day. 1. SLEEPING

Brodie Swisher The fall season is right around the corner, and deer hunters across the country are putting the wraps on gear prep and dialing in their weapons. But if you still haven’t gotten your fall food plot work complete, don’t sweat it! There’s still time. Here’s a look at how to plant a last minute fall food plot with minimal equipment. WORK WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT The focus of our efforts here is to identify potential spots for a micro-plot or “kill plot.” We are not planting large

Ron Jolly A hunting blind is not always fancy. In fact, many would call it mundane. It is six feet wide, four feet deep, and eight feet tall. The materials used to build it were salvaged from an old tenant house built on the farm in the early 1900s. It sits on the end of a spoil bank leftover from the creation of a run-off pond and spillway. It faces east and overlooks a small, one-acre food plot. In the South, some call it a “shooting house.” Others may call it a “blind,” “box blind” or

Brandon Palaniuk of Hayden, Idaho, to date has earned over $1.3 million in tournament bass fishing in the past nine years. How does he psyches himself up to fish that last hour of a bass tournament? If you're a weekend fisherman, you can apply the same tactic and strategy to the last hour you fish before you go home. When you're tired, and you’ve had a lousy day, how do you fish that very last minute before you crank your big engine and head for the house? When I'm physically and mentally worn

Every year around the end of August into the first of September, hunters become anxious awaiting the upcoming deer season. During this time, hunters tend to all have the same attitude: they are over summer heat and ready for cool weather. When restless feelings arise, there is hope; the fall hunting season is upon them. Deer hunting seasons are beginning to open across the country; all the practice, preparation, and hard work put in through the summer are going to pay off. A couple of years ago

Chris Bush with The Speckled Truth provides tips for fishing for trophy speckled trout. Confidence is key when it comes to fishing for trophy trout. Moon phase, tide and time of year are key indicators of when trout will bite. The new and full moon are when you have the greatest solunar activity and that's when the trout will eat more. Tide correlates to the moon phase. The full and new moons typically have higher tides, but in estuaries where you don't have as much tide range, high solunar

When the mercury starts rising to the mid-90s and touching the 100s, it is easy to want to head to the pool or the beach instead of the lake to fish. However, bass are cold-blooded creatures and the warmer weather will make them feed more than when the water is cold in the winter. But, if you go out fishing unprepared to deal with Mother Nature, you are already destined to fail. I will go over a few tips to keep you cool and more comfortable on the water this summer to enjoy your time on the

Mossy Oak Fishing Team Leader Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won the Major League Fishing (MLF) Championship at Tennessee’s Chickamauga Lake on June 9, 2021. The $100,000 VanDam won increased his career winnings to $6.9 million. We wanted to know not only how VanDam won this MLF Championship, but also what we could learn from how and where he fished that type of lake, as well as the lures and the patterns that will help all of us catch more bass this summer. To learn more about Kevin