The Art of Persuasion: Deer Scents, Rattles, and Bleats 
The Art of Persuasion: Deer Scents, Rattles, and Bleats 

The Art of Persuasion: Deer Scents, Rattles, and Bleats In the 80’s, my father and grandfather were “entry-level” deer hunters.  They had been invited to begin hunting a timber here in central Iowa that had a steady population of deer.  In their efforts to learn more regarding the tactics to use to fool a wise old whitetail, my grandfather and father would douse their boots with fox urine!  It was an effort to hide human scent when they were in the woods.  It goes without saying that those boots were not allowed in the house, ever! There is no doubt […]

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Planting Switchgrass for Cover

Planting Switchgrass for Cover “Switchgrass on my property would be a great way to bring in the pheasants”. This is what I told myself, an avid pheasant hunter, after I bought a small acreage in northwest Iowa. However, I knew enough about plants to know that I was no agronomist, and the thought of planting […]

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Scouting Spring Toms

Scouting Spring Toms The doldrums of winter will soon be behind us. Spring will begin to spring forth, and a whole world of outdoor opportunities will be available to the Iowa outdoorsman. Shed hunting for deer antlers will be high on folks’ priority list. Finding delicious morel mushrooms will take high priority. Crappie fishing, and […]

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Benefits of Frost Seeding Upland Habitat

Frost Seeding Upland Habitat Have you ever wanted to improve your upland hunting and wildlife viewing success on private land? Maybe you have an area you can improve. Iowa has lots of monocultures of pastures that have overtaken idle areas. These monocultures lack structure and variety that wildlife crave, and in turn do not support […]

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Fishing for Early Walleyes

Fishing for Early Walleyes As winter hangs on here in Iowa, anglers begin to think about what lies ahead for open-water fishing. While many of Iowa’s lakes are still covered in ice, I would consider most of those thoughts wishful thinking for now. However, a few sports shows occur in February, and those feed that […]

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Featured Story

Iowa Public Land Hunting 

Every hunter wants to know where to go to harvest a great deer.  We often assume that there is some “honey hole” spot out there that a person can always go to and harvest a trophy year after year.  While having hope for that, we are always keeping our ears perked for that privileged information on where the best place to hunt would be.   

Now, let me ask you, if somebody had the perfect spot to hunt where they are harvesting trophy deer year after year, do you think that they would share that information with you?  Probably not.  Unless they are VERY gracious and kind.   

In this article, I will not share any “secret spots” with you who are reading.  Frankly, because I don’t have any secret spots to share!  However, I’ve lived in Iowa long enough to steer you to certain areas of our great state that might give you a great chance to fill a tag this fall and winter.  So let’s begin with some regions of the state to key into. 

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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.