Springtime Panfish-Perch, Crappie, and Bluegill
Springtime Panfish

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!

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! 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.

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Springtime Panfish

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Fishing Big Spirit Lake For The Fall Double Header

Fishing Big Spirit Lake: For The Fall Double Header Fall is always a great time for fishing. The months of September and October offer stretches of mild weather and beautiful colors as the trees turn a myriad of colors, and best of all, the fish are putting on that fall “feed bag” and are on […]

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Strategic Rooster Hunting

Strategic Rooster Hunting If I was asked to identify my greatest weaknesses I would be able to compile an extensive list within a moment, and one item on that list would be grocery shopping. I walk into the store, forget to grab a cart and then begin wandering aimlessly down the aisles waiting for my […]

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Overcoming and Adapting to Whitetail Obstacles

Overcoming and Adapting to Whitetail Obstacles Obstacles. Hate ‘em, but gotta like ‘em. Right? I’m old enough now to know that when things get in my way of accomplishing a task, I don’t like it. It might make things harder. It might add time to whatever I’m doing. Or maybe it might create delays. It […]

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Decoying Tactics for Rutting Whitetails

Fake Out: Decoying Tactics for Rutting Whitetails Counterfeit, fraud, hoax, phony: all are words that may be used to describe the art of decoying mature whitetail bucks into archery range. If one can effectively trick the senses of a whitetail buck by using decoying tactics then the odds of having an archery chip shot increase […]

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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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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.