Iowa’s Venom, Oil and Toxic Sap
Iowa’s Venom, Oil and Toxic Sap

I once struck up a conversation with a man from Australia and while talking I asked him the question most people want to know about Australians, “how many times have you been bitten by one of your crazy spiders you have down there?” His answer was shocking, “Oh not many, probably less than 20 times.”

I once struck up a conversation with a man from Australia and while talking I asked him the question most people want to know about Australians, “how many times have you been bitten by one of your crazy spiders you have down there?” His answer was shocking, “Oh not many, probably less than 20 times.” My coworker and I laughed in horror and amazement and counted our blessing of living in the relatively venom free state of Iowa.

I once struck up a conversation with a man from Australia and while talking I asked him the question most people want to know about Australians, “how many times have you been bitten by one of your crazy spiders you have down there?” His answer was shocking, “Oh not many, probably less than 20 times.” My coworker and I laughed in horror and amazement and counted our blessing of living in the relatively venom free state of Iowa. But only relatively venom free, within Iowa’s borders there are a handful of flora and fauna that if encountered can leave an unlucky Iowan itchy, burning, swollen, scarred and in the worst of scenarios, permanently incapacitated or dead.

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Dangerous Plants and Animals in Iowa

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Equipment for Managing Your Iowa Acreage

Equipment for Managing Your Iowa Acreage

Equipment for Managing Your Iowa Acreage Growing up, many of us dreamed of owning a vast piece of Iowa land—somewhere with a pond, rich habitat, and plenty of wild game. I wanted to be able to hunt as much as possible and own my own piece of ground. These days, with land prices skyrocketing, those […]

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Back to the Basics

Back to the Basics 

Back to the Basics  Basic drills are where a great bird dog begins. The basic drills are where bird dogs maintain greatness. I like to think of basics as building blocks. Once my dog consistently accomplishes a foundational skill like retrieving, I can add a layer and start doing memory retrieves. After my dog consistently […]

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Favorite Small Game Cartridge

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Favorite Small Game Cartridge  I have a picture of my grandpa, Ron, sitting on a mountainside in Colorado with his Ruger 22 Single Six on one knee and a Gray Jay sitting on the other. My grandpa was an avid outdoorsman who used to travel to Colorado for an annual elk-hunting trip. One of his […]

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Make the most out of Spring Turkey Season

How to Find Spring Turkeys

How to Find Spring Turkeys There have been many times throughout my turkey hunting years that I have heard the phrase “There aren’t any turkeys on my ground”, or “I only see turkeys when I’m deer hunting, but never in the spring”.  In my early years I never thought much about it when people said […]

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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.