iowa

Logo

Late Season Pheasants

Late Season Pheasants By Troy Hoepker The clock was ticking on what was left of my pheasant hunting season and I dreaded the thought of no longer loading up my bird dog Ace and shooting those ringnecks over his points. It was January 2, 2019 and I wanted to make the most out of what […]

READ MORE

Logo

Hunting the 11th Hour

Hunting the 11th Hour By Ryan Graden One of the hardest things for me to swallow is a “tag sandwich”. Would you agree? If you are like me, that’s just not something I like to deal with on a regular basis! So what do you do? What’s your move? What options do you have that […]

READ MORE

Logo

Smoke Poles at the Buzzer

Smoke Poles at the Buzzer My father-in-law loathes the days on the calendar that follow the completion of the New Year’s arrival and fanfare. The “bleak midwinter” is what he dubs these blustery days, and I suppose the vast majority of people living above the 30th parallel share in the sentiment. But if you are […]

READ MORE

Logo

Venison Processing 101

Venison Processing 101 You have just harvested a whitetail deer. Now what? You have two options:  you can take your deer to a locker, or you can proceed with processing the deer yourself. Processing your own deer can seem like a big undertaking, but in all honesty, it is not very complicated. The biggest component […]

READ MORE

Logo

Reflect on your Hunting Season: Whitetails 365

Reflect on your Hunting Season: Whitetails 365 Welcome to a brand-new year! You made it. As always, whitetail deer are on my mind and the first month of the year is no different. So often, January is a month that finds us making (and sometimes breaking) New Year’s Resolutions. One resolution that I have is […]

READ MORE

Logo

Taking on the Midwinter Fishing Doldrums

Taking on the Midwinter Fishing Doldrums Midwinter ice fishing is often completely different than early and late ice. Instead of the aggressive fish that come with both early and late ice, midwinter fish are often more neutral and have seen several months of lures. That’s why here on the Iowa Great Lakes the most successful […]

READ MORE

Logo

Keeping Your Dog Energized In The Field: Nutrition and Hydration

Keeping Your Dog Energized In The Field: Nutrition and Hydration By Ryan Eder It is that time of year again where we work as a team with our gun dogs and look forward to another year of bird hunting. Gun dogs are athletes. Like all athletes, a proper diet and right amount of hydration is […]

READ MORE

Logo

Fall Turkey Hunting? To do or not to do?

Fall Turkey Hunting? To do or not to do? By Aaron Stonehocker I will never forget my first turkey harvested with a bow.  It was my first year of archery hunting. I spent the entire year fine tuning my accuracy on paper targets strapped to hay bales at Mrs. Carol’s farm. As fall season approached […]

READ MORE

Logo

Ice Fishing Scenarios

Ice Fishing Scenarios By Nick Johnson It’s easy to think of life below the ice as a cold, stoic environment, unchanged by the outside world. Creatures living life at a slower pace, biding their time until the spring thaw comes. While some of this is true, and maybe even more true for certain species, the […]

READ MORE

Logo

Quail Make A Return to Southern Iowa

Quail Make A Return to Southern Iowa By Troy Hoepker Red disappeared over the embankment and into the small creek below crossing the rugged ditch and bounding up the other side effortlessly in seconds. Even though I would have preferred to hunt out the very small patch of horseweeds left on my side of the […]

READ MORE