Check Out Our Current Issue!
In the April 2026 Issue of the Iowa Sportsman
- Best Places for Early Season Open Water
- Building a Foundation for the Field
- Range Safety Tips
- Building a Farm Pond to Hold More Wildlife
- Shed Antlers: Do they really tell us anything?
- What Makes a Great Food Plot
- Keeping Kids Engaged in Turkey Hunting
- Pre-Spawn Bass
- Springtime Panfish-Perch, Crappie, and Bluegill
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Range Etiquette
Range Etiquette You might be a redneck if you never use the word etiquette. I say, “Join the club”. Just because you might rarely use the word, doesn’t mean you don’t and/or can’t be etiquette at the range. Google’s dictionary defines etiquette as “The customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of […]
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Public Land Shed Hunting Strategies
Public Land Shed Hunting Strategies It was the winter of 2015 and my wife and I were living in a third-floor apartment in Bettendorf. Although we were in the middle of city living. I still had a strong pull to get out in the woods and try this new pursuit. Hearing about it from a […]
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Use Shed Hunting to Combat Cabin Fever
Use Shed Hunting to Combat Cabin Fever I dread cabin fever (February – April). It’s cold. It’s dark longer than it’s light. Most hunting seasons are closed and football season is over. Rather than continuing to let this season get me down, I plan to combat the doldrum with a new hobby of shed hunting. […]
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Planning Your Deer Food Plot
Planning Your Deer Food Plot When February rolls around, I always feel a shift—it’s like the start of a new season for those of us who love the outdoors and deer hunting. The hustle of hunting season has settled down, and now, instead of watching deer from the stand, I start preparing for how I’ll […]
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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.
