Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Game & Fish East

With temperatures in the 90s or above in many parts of the country, August seems like a long way from hunting season. Those of us languishing in the heat and humidity of the dog days can barely muster the gumption to hang a trail camera. But if you live or hunt in the West, you know August signals the start of pronghorn season in several states, despite the sweltering heat. The early openers are just more reasons to like this unique, but accessible, big-game animal. A summer vacation built around a hunting trip certainly sounds appealing. With some planning and a little luck in calendars lining up, parents can take kids on a pronghorn hunt before the school year starts. Although a lot of hunters call them speedgoats, pronghorns are…

Truth is, none of us probably has as much time as we’d like to spend in the woods, and as life gets more and more hectic, that time seems to dwindle to even less. I’m certainly right there with everyone else. My hunting time is easy to summarize: weekends and one week of vacation time each year. That’s it. There’s no wiggle room, no variance. What’s odd is I still have the same goals, drive and expectations I had when I was able to spend much more time chasing bucks with a bow. I’m going to hunt at least three states this fall, and I have every intention of filling every buck tag I have available. To do this, I make sure I waste as little time as possible. The…

One of my favorite ways of fishing for summertime bass is battling them in and around matted vegetation. Wrestling a big bass out of heavy cover is equal parts thrilling and exhausting. Whether the bass explodes out of the water and takes a frog lure down beneath the mat, or you must punch your bait down through the mat and put it right in front of the fish’s face, you have some serious angling to do to get bass in the boat when fishing matted vegetation in summer. The primary reason bass live amongst matted vegetation now is it provides them with overhead cover from the hot summer sun. On top of that, it provides them with numerous ambush opportunities to grab a quick meal. It is common to find…

The hint of sunrise brightened the eastern horizon as I helped Rod Bates launch his boat. Fifteen minutes later, Bates and I, along with fellow river veteran Dave Neuman, were anchored along the edge of a deep pool. Hooks were baited with lively sunfish and cast out to the depths, where heavy sinkers kept them pegged in position. Rods were secured in rod holders and our eyes were focused on their tips, eagerly anticipating the first “run” of the morning—when a flathead would crunch down on the bait and swim off with it. We didn’t wait long. Within moments, following a strong hookset and a quick battle, a flathead in the 4-pound range was in the boat. It was a nice start, but just a baby compared to what the…

You’ll be forgiven if the first thing that pops into your head when someone mentions fishing in Massachusetts is a big striped bass being pulled onto a sandy beach or a school of bluefish blitzing bait off the shores of a coastal town. No question, Massachusetts is a saltwater angler’s heaven. But if you shift your attention to the western edge of the Bay State, out past Springfield and the Basketball Hall of Fame, out toward Mount Greylock, the Norman Rockwell Museum and Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, you’ll find a northern pike paradise. It might come as a surprise that western Massachusetts—the Berkshires—is a place where you can tangle with pike that routinely hit the 30-inch mark and occasionally tip the scales over 20 pounds.…

Avid anglers across the country know Lew’s is dedicated to designing and crafting some of the finest rods and reels available. What they may not realize is Lew’s also places unwavering emphasis on supporting American veterans. In 2013, Lew’s launched its American Hero Speed Stick rod series. The series was designed to honor military veterans and maintain the promise to never let them be forgotten. A decade later, the Lew’s American Hero program includes more than just a product line. It embodies a commitment the brand has made to support organizations that help veterans in their return to life after their military service. The American Hero program focuses mostly on those groups that incorporate fishing as part of the transitional process. Through the program, Lew’s has provided equipment to veteran…

Ho-hum. If that’s they way you feel about bass fishing sometimes, how about a new challenge? You already know the knots and the spots, after all. We were two sorry puppies muttering in a canoe, wondering why the trout weren’t leaping into our laps on a sweltering day. Meanwhile, a couple of bass anglers were slaying smallmouths in the nearby bankside cattails where shallow water warmed the bass’metabolisms. We’d hear the occasional remark about our long rods, so we paddled over and offered a wager—our flies versus their lures. They lost. Sometimes, throwing a fly at bass not only warms your heart, it also shames a boatload of trash talkers. I’m not saying it will always pay off (in our case, literally), but when you’re topped out, bored or looking…

The dark form that slid from beneath the clump of over-hanging willows to inspect my fly was impossibly long. For the few moments that I watched it hang in the gentle current, my mind almost wouldn’t let me believe it was a trout. The flow in which I stood wasn’t much wider than the length of my rod, and on top of that, Brooks Hansen and I had spent most of the morning with nary a confirmed sighting of a cutthroat. And yet, when the fish turned in the clear water to go back to its lair beneath the willows, I swore I saw a rose-colored gill plate and big black spots on its tail. “Did you see that!” I gasped. “What was that?” “Huge fish,” said Brooks, just as…

It could be argued that the origin of the modern precision rifle cartridge was in the late 1970s when Dr. Louis Palmisano and Ferris Pindell created a cartridge and named it the 6 mm PPC. It was based on the .220 Russian cartridge. Palmisano and Pindell reduced the body taper of the case, gave it a 30-degree shoulder, and necked it up to 6 mm. It became very popular for benchrest competition, and some have gone so far as to claim it the most accurate centerfire rifle cartridge ever created. About 45 years later, Hornady introduced the 6 mm ARC cartridge. The 6 mm PPC and the 6 mm ARC are dimensionally very similar. The primary difference is that Hornady specified a rifling twist rate of one turn in 7…

It was mid-afternoon by the time the shooter buck I’d been watching finally moved over a ridge, giving me a window to commence a stalk. Fifteen minutes later I was glassing from where I’d seen the buck and its harem disappear, but there was no sign of them. Then, more than a mile away, flashes of white caught my eye. Setting up the spotting scope, I watched smaller bucks chase does in circles through the sage-brush. Moments later, my buck stepped into view. The pronghorn was easy to recognize, and just the sight of it made me gasp. Its body dwarfed those of the inferior bucks in the group, and its black face almost shined. But it was the right horn that jutted 90 degrees to the side of its…

Admit it: You’ve only gotten this far in your outdoor career thanks to good looks, kind mentors and pure dumb luck. When it comes to knots, your aptitude is sadly lacking. Hiding behind a tree as you struggle to anchor a tarp? Piling endless granny knots on an innocent tent stake? Let’s stop the insanity. The following four essential knots will ensure your boat doesn’t drift off, your tent stays put in a gale and your gear doesn’t bounce out of your pickup bed. Learn them and you’ll be the cool uncle instead of the sap relegated to camp dish-washing duty. SHEET BEND You broke the cardinal rule and cut a perfectly good rope into two pieces. In fact, the bed of your truck is full of bits and pieces…

Catching bass on the fly is somewhat easier—and a lot more exciting—when you can see the fish and drop a perfect cast into the strike zone. This is best achieved, of course, with a quality pair of polarized sunglasses, and the shades I’ve been rocking on the water this summer are from a new sunglass maker called Bajio. Based in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., all Bajio sunglasses are assembled in the U.S., and the frames are made from a biodegradable, plant-based material. I’ve been using Bajio’s Toads model (named for a popular flat in Florida’s Mosquito Lagoon) with copper-colored glass lenses ($259; bajiosunglasses.com). When given the choice, I always choose glass over polycarbonate due to its superior scratch resistance. While glass is heavier than poly, I’ve found the Toads to…

Founded in 1971, CVA has become an industry leader in the development of technologically advanced in-line muzzleloaders. Over the last decade, CVA (part of the BPI family, which also includes Bergara, PowerBelt and others) has climbed to the top of the muzzleloader market and is now America’s top-selling muzzleloader brand. Building on its reputation for providing customers with guns and accessories at the best value, in 2019 CVA launched its first centerfire rifle, the Cascade. Earlier this year, CVA introduced the upgraded Cascade XT (X-Treme). CVA notes the XT is designed to be “precision-oriented” with key features to make it a multi-purpose rifle for a variety of hunters. For example, a heavier fluted barrel (No. 5 taper) improves the balance of the rifle and allows multiple shots to be taken…