Early Spring Trout Fishing
Early Spring Trout Fishing

Early Spring Trout Fishing Spring in Northeast Iowa’s Driftless Region marks the beginning of one of the most rewarding trout fishing seasons in the Midwest. This is one of the prettiest areas in Northern Iowa marked with limestone bluffs, spring-fed creeks, and rolling pastures. The Driftless Region contains a several cold, clear streams that flow steadily year-round. This creates perfect trout habitat, and spring offers fishermen peaceful days on the water. With stable water temperatures, increasing insect activity, and hungry post-winter trout, there’s no better time to explore these legendary streams. Why The Driftless Region? This region is a trout […]

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Early Fall Bass Fishing

Early Fall Bass Fishing September in Iowa, a month where we usually begin to see the signs of the coming fall with cooling temps. By now, we’ve endured the hot summer months with highs in the mid to upper 90’s with heat indexes crossing the century mark. Bring on the cooler weather!! We will see […]

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Fall Whitetail Food Plot Tips

Whitetails 365 – Fall Food Plot Questions

Whitetails 365 – Fall Food Plot Questions Q1. How do I compete with the farmer’s alfalfa field next door? No matter what I plant, the deer won’t leave the alfalfa for my food plots. My friends can plant all sorts of plots and they all get hit. Why aren’t my food plots attractive? A1. I […]

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Choosing a Hunting Lease

What to Look for in a Hunting Lease

What to Look for in a Hunting Lease Let’s face it, finding places to hunt is becoming harder and harder to do. As a society, we are becoming more developed, and farm land is dissipating. For the remaining land, it is highly competitive to secure landowner permission to hunt their farms so hunters struggle to […]

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Starting Your New Gundog Training

Your New Puppy Pt. 4: Starting our Gundog

Your New Puppy Pt. 4: Starting our Gundog Finally, we have reached part 4 of our mini-series covering how to bring our puppy home, what to focus on, and how to progress in our training program. At this point we are ready to introduce the electronic collar, begin introductory field work and conditioning our dogs […]

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Featured Story

Big Buck Profile: The 2025 Gandy Buck

Ok, this first big buck profile is a little self-serving in that it is of a buck that I personally took this past deer season. While it is likely not the “biggest” big buck that we will profile this year it is definitely one of my most special deer ever.

Turning a Dream into Reality

As has been noted in several articles since 2023, my family and I finally put together the means to purchase our very own piece of Iowa ground. “The 32,” as we call it, has become a passion project to see if we could take an unassuming piece of real estate and harvest a mature deer from there by giving him all he needs in the way of habitat. This year was the first year that the farm would be huntable in the state in which we intended due to construction projects over the past couple of seasons.

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Created By Iowans, For Iowans

The Iowa Sportsman website and magazine are Iowa’s only privately owned media sources catering to hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts here in Iowa. Simply put, we are unlike other Iowa outdoor media sources: All our staff is from Iowa, from our publisher to our writers. We actually follow through on what we advertise; we provide knowledgeable content from people who know the industry or sport discussed.