Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i Game & Fish East

Heading into spring, the biggest question among hunters and shooters isn’t about turkeys, or whether next month’s match will be held, or even the year’s new guns. It’s “Where’s the ammo?” I’ve heard it dozens of times at my local range, at the gun shops I frequent, via text messages, and over social media and email. We’re finding bare, or nearly bare, shelves where boxes of cartridges and shells used to be stacked, and we’re concerned. Some of us are scared. Others are angry. But just like when dealing with any other issue, we should not let emotion override facts. Conspiracy theories only make things worse by distorting reality and driving panic. Here’s what is not happening. Ammunition manufacturers are not sitting on stockpiles of inventory to control supply and…

Contemporary anglers have three distinct options when spooling line onto reels: monofilaments, braids and fluorocarbons. Each is fundamentally different from the others and possesses its own particular strengths and weaknesses. Many of these differences are rooted in the unique chemistry and manufacturing processes used to prepare the three line varieties, making each particularly well suited for specific presentations. In recent years, advances in fluorocarbon line design and engineering have dramatically enhanced the scope of its applications in both fresh- and saltwater angling. Let’s explore the factors that make fluorocarbon a must-use line option whenever you hit the water. Fluorocarbon line traces its origins to 1971, when chemists and engineers at Kureha—a Japanese specialty chemicals firm—first extruded fluorocarbon fishing lines from raw polyvinylidene fluoride resins and launched the company we now…

America’s deer hunters are a notoriously cantankerous lot. We find a way to squabble over methods and management, our expectations of what makes a good hunting season, and even what qualifies as a worthy buck. Our fractious nature is one reason deer hunters have been unable to get behind a common approach to deer conservation, even as speciesspecific efforts have successfully advocated on behalf of other critters from wild turkeys and ducks to ring-necked pheasants and elk. The Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) changed some of that by coalescing whitetail hunters around the idea that if we carefully manage herds, we can help Mother Nature produce older and larger bucks. But the QDMA was mainly limited to the South and never escaped the perception that it was a club for…

EAST GRAND LAKE, ME: This fishery could be one of the last best-kept secrets in smallmouth fishing. It’s largely known for its May-to-July bite, but those fish are still in the lake in early spring, and you just might have the water to yourself. LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE, NH: This popular spot is choked with boat traffic during the summer. Hit it early in the spring, however, and you’ll find calmer waters and plenty of big brown bass. LAKE CHAMPLAIN, NY/VT: Boasting both smallmouths and largemouths, Champlain is one of the prettiest lakes you’ll ever fish, and it’s known for its springtime action. ST. LAWRENCE RIVER, NY: This system is a smallmouth factory, and early spring can be awesome. Because it’s a river system, finding fish can be a bit easier than…

PRACTICE FIRST: One year, Santa brought my son one of those small rods designed for practicing casting indoors. He got the motion down once I shortened the line and attached it to the tip-top. Soon, he was “casting” 10 feet of line in the living room, much to the delight of the cats. THE REAL DEAL: I eventually got him his own fly rod, an inexpensive Eagle Claw Featherlight in 3/4 weight, and loaded it with a cheap double-taper line. The slow, forgiving nature of the fiberglass construction helps him throw a decent loop with a short amount of line—and I don’t have to worry when he smacks it against a tree or uses to prod the bottom. FORGIVING FISH: Panfish don’t require technical presentations, which makes them ideal quarry…

Although their popularity has increased considerably, the electronic sights that collectively have become known as red-dots are not new. Zero-magnification sights that present an illuminated red dot as an aiming point have been around for almost 50 years. However, they did not become common on hunting rifles until the turn of the 21st century. As more hunters started using AR-style rifles, particularly for feral hogs, the red-dot sight became an attractive option. About the same time, high-quality red-dots became reliable and affordable enough for that purpose. What many hunters do not understand is that there are several kinds of sights generally called red-dots. There are prismatic sights, reflex sights and holographic sights. All provide an illuminated red (or other color) dot for the shooter to use as an aiming point;…

I attended college in one of New York’s more rural counties. Just off campus was a vast network of seasonal and fire roads that allowed me to easily log 100 miles without touching pavement. Scouting turkeys one April morning, I was crawling up a steep, ice-covered hill when the frozen crust gave way and my old Jeep was instantly buried to the frame in mud. It took every trick I knew to extricate the vehicle from the hole that swallowed it. Hunters and anglers spend a lot of time past the bounds of blacktop, chasing blue lines or pushing deep onto public land in search of their next trophy. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid getting stuck or damaging your vehicle on these adventures. TRAIL TIPS For…

I posed this question to Capt. Mike Frenette as he leaned over the side of his boat to rinse fish slime off his hands in the warm, turbid Gulf waters southwest of Venice, La. It was our second day of fishing—my first with Frenette—and in the short time we’d been on the water, he’d already brought three big bull redfish to the boat. Meanwhile, I had yet to hook one, and I simply wanted to know if the fish gods were displeased with my offering. We were both throwing a 3/4-ounce Strike King Red Eyed Shad. Mine had a little bit of color, while Frenette’s was mostly silver. He said that the slight difference shouldn’t matter, but he offered to swap lures anyway, and I went ahead and took him…

Since the ban on lead shot for waterfowl hunting back in 1991, at least 30 states have enacted further restrictions on lead ammo on some level. Not all relate to turkey hunting, but some do. Here in the East, a number of states are considering requiring non-toxic loads for turkey hunting; at least a half-dozen posted bulletins last year encouraging and strongly recommending hunters give non-toxic alternatives a try. Ban or no ban, it makes little difference. Turkey hunters are quickly discovering the ballistic and terminal performance of some non-toxic shot materials match or surpass that of lead and are making the switch. That’s good news for the environment, but bad news for turkeys. Here’s a look at three lead alternatives you might consider this season. STEEL Steel shot weighs…

My 4-inch tube jig, dressed over a 1/4-ounce insert-style jig-head, had barely landed along the sun-drenched bank when I felt a sharp tick. Following the reactive hookset, my medium-action spinning rod doubled over. In water that barely scratched the 40-degree mark, the fish put up a strong but admittedly lethargic battle. A few minutes later, a 44-inch musky was safely in the bag of the Stowmaster net I keep on board for just such an incidental musky encounter when the primary targets are walleyes and smallmouths. That experience took place nearly two decades ago. In the time since, I’ve come to learn that such events aren’t necessarily incidental. In rivers that harbor muskies, it’s common to catch them during late winter and early spring, right along with big smallmouth bass…

When last season ended you probably hung up your vest and called it good. Don’t wait too long to take that vest down and make sure everything is present and in good working order. CALLS: Depending on how and where you stored them, your diaphragm calls might be dried out, stuck together, moldy or just plain worn out. Soak them in a diluted solution of mouthwash and water, then carefully tease the layers apart with a toothpick. Test them and replace the ones that don’t sound as sweet as they did last spring. And don’t forget to sand your slate and chalk your box. SHOTSHELLS: Make sure you have enough of your favorite loads to both pattern and hunt with. Check the bases for rust and throw out those empty…

March trout fishing in Virginia is a little like the girl with a curl in the Longfellow poem. “When she was good, she was very good indeed, but when she was bad she was horrid.” For example, last March my son and I went fishing for native brookies in the Jefferson National Forest and the weather gods clobbered us with high, stained water and icy rain. However, I’ve experienced sublime days in March on put-and-take trout streams like Potts and Jennings creeks, where I’ve caught my six-trout limit in an hour or so. But with trout seasons in most of the rest of the region not open until April, you gladly take the bad with the good in the Old Dominion since the season is open year-round there (though a…

For general hunting applications, the primary weakness of red-dot sights is their lack of magnification. A solution to this issue is the magnifier, an optical device that mounts behind the red-dot sight. It magnifies the image you see through the sight. Depending on the model, a typical magnifier may offer anywhere from 3X to 6X magnification. You might be thinking, If I’m going to get a magnifier for my red-dot sight, why don’t I just get a variable-power riflescope? That’s a good question. The Aimpoint 6XMag-1 magnifier weighs about 8 ounces and costs about $1,200. Add that to a $900 Aimpoint Micro H-2 red-dot sight that weighs 3 ounces, and the setup is heavier than a Leupold VX-3i 1.5-5x20mm riflescope that costs about $1,500 less. Of course, there are less…

Here in the frozen North, early spring smallmouth fishing is often a feast-or-famine affair. With the ice just off the lake, the water temperature is still plenty frigid, and the air temp often matches. Finding fish can be maddeningly difficult, but once you find them…well, those can be days of legend. The trick, of course, is finding them. Unlike largemouths, which seem to head shallow as soon as the ice leaves the lake, smallmouths are a deep-water fish for much of the open-water season. Sure, you can find a few fish shallow throughout the season, but for the most part they hang deep. Think back to where you caught the last fish of this past season. Odds are they were in deeper water and relating to some sort of structure.…

1. NEW RIVER: The New River provides both Virginia and West Virginia anglers with top-quality options for muskies, including trophy-class fish. Well known for its whitewater sections, expect to find March muskies in the placid pools. The New’s flow is interrupted by dams in both states. 2. ELK RIVER: The Elk River, below West Virginia’s Sutton Dam to its merger with the Kanawha River, features a stream-bred musky population with individuals reaching the 45- to 50-inch mark. A medium-sized river, the Elk is appropriate for both smaller boats and shore anglers. 3. MONONGEHELA RIVER: Flowing north from West Virginia into Pennsylvania, the industrial look of the “Mon” can be deceptive. It holds a good musky population, particularly in West Virginia and just across the Pennsy border. Most fish are taken…

As we stood on the dock, my young son Charlie clumsily made a cast, the fly landing in a pile with the line and leader next to some lily pads. No sooner had the fly disappeared from view and the rod bent over under the weight of a good bluegill. I don’t know who was prouder when he lifted it out of the water, Charlie or me. While trout and other gamefish species require technical fly presentations, panfish are far more forgiving. They can be found just about everywhere: farm ponds, lakes, municipal duck ponds, streams and everywhere in between. Because they’re so aggressive and prolific, they offer ample opportunity to dial in your casting and work on your hook sets after the long winter. Get out of the house…

My dad, like so many other fathers born of a generation that long predates smart-phones, the Internet and even color television, is the toughest guy that his son will ever know. I’ve seen him shrug off countless injuries that I was sure would fell lesser men, and never truly feared for his physical safety over the years, even as time has had its way. So you can imagine my surprise a few years back, when I watched a goose, of all things, nearly knock him unconscious. It was a cold, foggy day of hunting in our home state of Delaware when a dozen or so birds dropped from the sky and gave us a close enough pass. Dad called the shot, everyone in the blind raised our guns, and the…

Whether you’re headed to the whitetail woods or the fishing hole, odds are pretty good that you’ve got a bunch of stuff to take with you. Guns, treestands, canoes and fishing rods all take up space, and can max out a vehicle’s capacity in short order. Adding the correct cargo management system to your vehicle makes taking it all with you easier and minimizes the chance of damaging your valuable equipment. And, perhaps more importantly, it will make loading up faster so you can spend less time packing and more time hunting or fishing. CANOES AND KAYAKS A trip to any river, pond or smallish lake will reveal the popularity of canoes and kayaks. But because of their size, getting these watercraft to your favorite fishing spot can be difficult.…