The Iowa Sportsman

Public Land Success: Tips to Bagging a Mature Buck on Iowa’s Public Hunting Land

Public Land Success: Tips to Bagging a Mature Buck on Iowa’s Public Hunting Land I’m proud to be an Iowa hunter! In fact, I’m a fourth generation Iowa hunter. Most of my hunting skills have been sharpened by the hours I’ve spent on the acres of public land that are offered to Iowa residents and […]

READ MORE

Harvesting Does

As October 1st, 2019 looms on the horizon, hunters across the state are preparing for opening day of the whitetail deer hunting season. Licenses and tags along with extra doe tags, where they are available, will be purchased. State goals for the Iowa deer herd have been to reduce the deer population to numbers matching […]

READ MORE

Purchasing a Waterfowl Gun

Even if I have been to the sporting goods store twice in a given week, I cannot leave without a visit to the gun counter. I have shouldered and looked at virtually every shotgun they have in stock, but for some reason I feel compelled to do it again, and again. On one hand I […]

READ MORE

The Changing of Scenery: Where to Place Your Stand at Different Times of The Season

Let’s face it, archery hunting for whitetails isn’t always easy, in fact most of the time it’s the exact opposite. I mean, sure, sometimes you have great luck and you’re in the right place at the right time. But, those situations are few and far between. (At least for me!) And that’s what keeps me […]

READ MORE

Night Eyes: Fall Techniques for Catching Walleye at Night

Fall is a transition time for many species of fish, especially predators like walleye. This is the time of year when feeding becomes heavy and big fish are a realistic goal. Presentations change as the season progresses and the water temps cool but that is one of the beauties of Fall fishing! Night time is […]

READ MORE

Being a Soldier Made Me a Better Sportsman

I Started hunting with my father when I was 9 years old. That Ithaca Model 37 was longer than I was and my heavy insulated rubber boots made walking through the fields and woods quite difficult. Hard as it was I loved every minute of it. Whether it was hunting deer or squirrel in the […]

READ MORE

Weather the Storm: Understanding Weather Patterns and Know They Impact Waterfowl Hunting

Most recreational hobbies revolve around nice weather. We love to go boating on a warm, sunny summer day. Even a skier loves a clear and sunny winter day after a nice powder snowfall. What makes us different as waterfowl hunters is that we live for the gloomy, misty and cold-front conditions with overcast skies and […]

READ MORE

Streamer Madness

As a fly fisherman, I have mixed emotions as I watch summer slowly fade into fall. Gone are the insect hatches that were so plentiful all spring and summer and along with that the heyday of dry fishing in Iowa’s trout country. Always a silver lining type of guy, I also realize that even though […]

READ MORE

Attracting More Bucks During The Rut

With all of the political nonsense clogging our airwaves, it is about time that we turn our attention to the more important epidemic that will soon be consuming sportsmen across the country: HUNTING SEASON!. We may not be able to control the mainstream media, but the photo stream from our trail camera this time of […]

READ MORE

Float Fishing A Must Do Iowa Experience

When I first moved to northwest Iowa over 30 years ago and I wanted to go fishing, I headed to one of the Iowa Great Lakes or some of the smaller lakes around. I never gave interior stream/river fishing much thought. About 20 years ago a friend of mind introduced me to float fishing by […]

READ MORE