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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Sportsman Trauma Care

Sportsman Trauma Care

Sportsman Trauma Care Iowa is blessed with multiple opportunities to employ shooting sports for enjoyment, hunting, and competition. Unfortunately, weapons capable of harvesting game are also capable of life-threatening injury to sportsmen and their companions. We are blessed that gang-related gunshot wounds are rare, so most wounds we refer to medically as “penetrating trauma” are […]

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Topwater Muskies

Topwater Monsters Muskies at the Surface

Topwater Monsters Muskies at the Surface I am sure many of you starting to read this have a soft spot for tossing topwater lures. Be it bluegill, bass or something with far bigger teeth, the end result when a fish strikes is very visual and very exciting. When anglers think of topwater, most minds are […]

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Mastering Pop-up Blinds

Mastering Pop-Up Blinds

Mastering Pop-Up Blinds As soon as the buck walked out of sight, I hit the antlers. Two minutes later, he was standing on the edge of the food plot looking for the fight he just heard. My cameraman and myself were sitting in a ground blind right smack dab in the middle of the food […]

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Fall Bass Fishing Tactics

Fall Bass Fishing Tactics

Fall Bass Fishing Tactics Fishing in the Hawkeye State can be awesome pretty much year-round. When it comes to largemouth bass fishing specifically, most people trade in their turkey calls and decoys for the rod and reel in mid-spring and throughout the summer. Admittedly, as summer fades to fall, I am guilty of putting away […]

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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.