Check Out Our Current Issue!
In the May 2026 Issue of the Iowa Sportsman
- Chase the Bite: Early Season
- Calming A Hyper Gun Dog
- Perfecting Your Turkey Setup
- Summer Work That Pays Off in Bow Season
- Artifact Hunting in Iowa
- Wild Edible Foraging
- Tactics for Late-Season Toms
- Iowa’s Venom, Oil and Toxic Sap
Click Here To View This Issue Now!
Ways to Catch Summer Catfish on the River
Ways to Catch Summer Catfish on the River Catching catfish on the surface looks pretty easy and it is. One of the beautiful things about catfishing in the 21st century is it can be as simple or as difficult as you want it to be. Ways to catch catfish are many. In some states you […]
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Trail Cameras: Maximize Success with a Plan of Attack!
Trail Cameras: Maximize Success with a Plan of Attack Trail cameras have come a long way since the early 1980s when a group of students from Missouri State University looked for ways to study whitetail deer behavior for an assignment to complete their Masters. Since then we have gone from monstrous boxes that literally held […]
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Iowa’s Big Water Largemouth Challenge
Iowa’s Big Water Largemouth Challenge Iowa may be known for its small farm ponds when you go outside our borders, but the large bodies of water in the state can provide some great largemouth bass fishing too. Not only for numbers of fish, but quality as well. The bigger bodies of water in the state […]
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How to Improve your Deer Stands
How to Improve your Deer Stands Edge, ridge, creek, saddle, funnel, bench, pinch. These are all words that deer hunters begin throwing around when we consider stand placement for hunting whitetails. Many times we nod our head in agreement and decide that this method or that method is the best when it comes to perching […]
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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.











