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Mastering Summer Catfish
Iowa Sportsman July 2025
This Issue Brings You:
- Mastering Summer Catfish
- Fishing Iowa: Iowa Hot Spots
- Do It Yourself – Iowa Kill Plots
- Introducing Youth to Shooting Sports
- Whitetails 365 – Drought, Deer & Looming Threat of EHD
- County Spotlight: Iowa Fishing Destinations
- Blind Buyers Guide: Clear Sight Hunting Blinds
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Chasing Late Season Bluegills In Clear Water
Chasing Late Season Bluegills In Clear Water For years and years ice fishermen from across the Midwest have headed to northwest Iowa’s West Lake Okoboji to sight fish the finicky bluegills which West Okoboji is famous for. Late ice toward the end of February and into March can be incredible. Once in a while, for […]
READ MORECoyotes for Beginners
Coyotes for Beginners By Troy Hoepker For me, coyote hunting is about so many things that bring me joy. It’s following an abandon cattle trail to a little place only I know about where coyotes feel safe to visit. It’s the anticipation of what’s about to happen every time I place my lips around my […]
READ MOREField Vocabulary: The Commands we give our Dog
Field Vocabulary: The Commands we give our Dog By Ryan Eder It dawned on me a few weeks back that situations arise in the field where we begin asking our dogs to do things that we may not focus on during offseason training. I was out of my layout blind, running the dog on a […]
READ MOREIce Fishing Jigs
Ice Fishing Jigs By Ben Leal There is nothing more satisfying than creating something all on your own, taking it out and using it with success. Quite honestly folks, we could be talking just about anything. Farmers for example often create special tools out of necessity. At times the only one that knows about it […]
READ MOREFeatured Story
10 Killer Big Buck Bow Hunting Ambushes
Why do top notch hunters shoot quality mature deer year after year? Sure they scout, don’t shoot young bucks, maintain their land, pay attention to the wind, plant food plots, are in big buck country, ect. Yes all of those and many more reasons can attribute to better chances of shooting bigger bucks consistently. However do you know the most important reason why people shoot big deer year after year? Because they place their stands in locations where big bucks like to frequent…it really is that simple. They are in the right place at the right time. You will never consistently shoot mature deer if you are not putting your tree stands in the proper locations.
Whitetails are creatures of habit and instinct, they do everything for a purpose and that is actually a good thing for us hunters. If we know what they like to do, what they don’t like to do, and how they navigate their day then we can key in on certain geographical locations on our properties and ambush an unsuspecting bruiser.
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.