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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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Catching Musky and Pike in Iowa
Catching Musky and Pike in Iowa Muskies (aka the musky or muskellunge, plus many other spellings and titles) are the largest of the pike family. Usually, they prefer clear water lakes and rivers and are most actively feeding in water temperatures 55° to 70° Fahrenheit. They will eat any fish they can catch and prefer […]
READ MOREGreat Catfishing Destinations in Iowa
Great Catfishing Destinations in Iowa We are already well into the open water season and the catfishing is in full swing. As anglers we always want more and bigger fish. Catfish anglers are no exception. If you are willing to do some driving and some walking if you are a shore angler there are some […]
READ MOREAvoiding Disasters With Your Gundog! – Podcast
READ MOREA Bowhunters’ Backpack: Don’t Leave Home Without These Items!
A Bowhunters’ Backpack: Don’t Leave Home Without These Items! By Shawn and Kristi O’Connor Louis Pasteur, the brilliant 19th century French chemist and inventor of pasteurization, coined the phrase, “fortune favors the prepared mind.” What does that have to do with a bowhunters backpack? Well, lets just say I spent a good number […]
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.