Check Out Our Current Issue!
In the April 2026 Issue of the Iowa Sportsman
- Best Places for Early Season Open Water
- Building a Foundation for the Field
- Range Safety Tips
- Building a Farm Pond to Hold More Wildlife
- Shed Antlers: Do they really tell us anything?
- What Makes a Great Food Plot
- Keeping Kids Engaged in Turkey Hunting
- Pre-Spawn Bass
- Springtime Panfish-Perch, Crappie, and Bluegill
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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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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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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 […]
READ MOREWaterfowl Decoy Buyers Guide
Waterfowl Decoy Buyers Guide The waterfowl decoy business is competitive; there are so many choices and options where do you even begin? How do you know which brand to go with, what are (if any) the differences between each? Why are there different sizes? Do not overthink this purchase! I will simplify how to go […]
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Featured Story
Springtime Panfish-Perch, Crappie, and Bluegill
Spring is in full swing here in Iowa, and what can be more pleasant a reminder than the sound of birds, the sight of flowers blooming, and the feel of a warm afternoon? I can think of at least one more thing…Panfish!
I can remember it like yesterday, our family would all meet up at the lake house. There was work to do. The yard was to be picked up, the cabin cleaned, and the dock had to be put in. But then, after the work was finished, it was time for all of us cousins to fish! We would all go out to the garage to pick out a few old rods and tie on a hook and sinker as best we could.
The next order of business was to hunt for worms. Flipping anything that we could find stuck in the ground in hopes of just finding a few crawlers. Once the bait was secured, we were ready to fish. We would go out on the dock and cast, vertical jig, and even troll along the side of the dock. We usually did pretty well use those tactics, but my all-time favorite was walking along the rocks on shore and dropping the bait down every little crevice, not knowing what was going to come up next.
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.
