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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Fly Fishing the Driftless
Fly Fishing the Driftless Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling….Ernest Hemingway, Big Two Hearted River Part I. It is the Driftless region of Iowa. Located in the northeastern part of the state extending roughly from Manchester to the Minnesota border and east towards the great Mississippi, it is […]
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Windy Walleyes
Windy Walleyes By Ben Leal When it comes to fishing in the wind there are two camps; there are the “I don’t fish in the wind” campers, and then there are the “I love fishing in the wind” campers. Ironically enough, both camps and fishing styles do yield results. But, when it comes to the […]
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Whitetails 365: Can You Plant Too Much Food?
Whitetails 365: Can You Plant Too Much Food? For as long as I can remember, at least the past 20 seasons, I try to make an honest assessment of how my whitetail season went after it’s over each year. The assessment is made in overall terms of how good my chances were at harvesting a […]
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Wonderboy
Story of Wonderboy While many may disagree, one of the greatest sport’s movies is the 1984 masterpiece, The Natural, starring Robert Redford. It is a movie not about baseball, but of fulfilling lost dreams and redemption. Throughout the film, the protagonist, Roy Hobbs, incredible talent, was due to his bat “Wonderboy”. Something made carefully by […]
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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.
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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.
