Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2024-25 i Game & Fish East

I love to hear stories of hunters taking big late-season bucks. They provide inspiration while I do my own late-season hunting, which is typically less than productive in terms of tags filled. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun; the post-Christmas deer season in my home state of Pennsylvania is one of my favorite times to chase whitetails. Thing is, those same whitetails have been chased by other hunters almost non-stop for two and a half months by the time the late season rolls around, and the odds of getting the drop on any deer—let alone a good buck—are perhaps the lowest of the season. It can happen, however, and I’ve had a couple chances over the years to take nice deer in early January that almost resulted in success. Maybe that’s…

I would love to write a piece about just how good late-season hunting can be, particularly when you get the type of weather patterns that drive bucks to feed well before sunset and fill ag fields to the brim with white-tails. When that takes place, the waning days of the season can certainly be some of the very best of the year. But, alas, I can’t do it. Why? Because I simply don’t have a whole lot of experience with that situation to relay. In fact, quite the opposite has shown to be true. Where I live and hunt, the late stages of deer season can be mighty tough indeed. This is, of course, due to significant and steady hunting pressure that’s been in place and building since early October.…

I was 10 years old when dad and I paddled our way through the pre-dawn darkness to the far end of a nearby pond. My father sat in the back, guiding us through weeds and floating debris. I was in the front and aware of everything—the sound of the water dripping from our paddles, the smell of the muddy water. Suddenly, the stillness was shattered a loud thwap. A monstrous ball of fur, not happy about our presence, slapped its tail on the surface and swam away. My father reassured me it was only a beaver. Arriving at a small island in the middle of dead trees dotting the water and reaching up to the sky, we made ourselves busy hiding the canoe, then put out the decoys that would…

Longtime deer and turkey hunting buddies Tony Williams, 57, a retired engineer, and Mark Wenke, 72, a retired forester, decided a few years ago to get back to their trapping roots. Both Cuba, N.Y., natives worked traplines in their teens and 20s to pick up a few extra bucks. Nowadays, they’re more focused on post-deer season winter recreation and predator control to help the area’s turkey population, which has been under the gun in recent years. The pair run an 80-mile trapline in western New York, and according to state regulations, they must check their 50-plus traps daily. Unlike in the romanticized days of trapping’s past, when outdoorsmen would strap on their snowshoes and trudge out into the woods, modern-day trapping is more of a pickup truck-based venture involving burning…

Publicly accessible boat ramps abound in both Maryland and Virginia. For a thorough listing of Virginia access points, visit dwr.virginia.gov/boating/access. For Maryland, see dnr.maryland.gov/Boating/Pages/water-access/boatramps.aspx. 1 Windmill Point Landing in White Stone, Va., at the mouth of the Rappahannock River (lancova.com) 2 Gwynn’s Island Boat Ram, Mathews, Va. (visitmathews.com) 3 Gloucester Beach Park Boat Ramp, Gloucester Point, Va., provides access to the York River, Mobjack Bay and western side of lower Chesapeake Bay. (gloucesterva.gov) 4 Deal Island WMA boat ramp (Big Sound Creek), Somerset County, Md. (dnr.marlyand.gov) 5 Fox Hill Boat Ramp, Hampton, Va., has two double-wide ramps and a high-volume lot adjacent to Wallace’s Bait and Tackle. (mrc.virginia.gov) 6 Ellis Bay Wildlife Management Area ramp on Muddy Hole Creek, Tyaskin, Md. (dnr.maryland.gov) 7 Ragged Point Marina Boat Ramp, Cambridge, Md.…

Unless you have access to private aircraft, there is no fast and easy way to get to Cibolo Creek Ranch outside of Marfa, Texas. If you don’t live within driving distance of this isolated corner of the Lone Star State, your best bet is to fly to El Paso, rent a vehicle, drive east on I-10 to Van Horn, head south on Highway 90 to Marfa, then pick up Highway 67 south to the entrance to the ranch. All told, the drive from the airport will take about 4 hours. If you arrive at the turnoff to the ranch after dark, it is advisable to turn on your high beams for the 4 1/2-mile drive to the 1800s-era fort that has been transformed into a magnificent hunting lodge. This is…

It’s not only about the trophy fish that you catch, it’s about the experience and the environment.” That’s how Upstate New York guide Ryan Lorensen (locked with lorenson.com) describes winter steel-heading, chasing rainbow trout that swim up rivers that empty into Lake Ontario. These fish begin leaving the lake in October and November, spawn in March and April and drop back into the lake as spring begins. They are renowned for their fighting prowess and acrobatic ability and can grow to 20 pounds. Frigid temperatures and snowstorms don’t stop Eastern anglers from chasing them. SALMON RIVER The Salmon River that runs through Pulaski is the most famous and heavily pressured steelhead fishery on Lake Ontario. Although these rainbows spawn in a host of streams, creeks and rivers throughout the…

When we factor in the cost of going thermal, some of us go ahead and add in the price of a new rifle, too. Although it doesn’t take a lot of effort to remove and remount a couple optics when switching from a traditional riflescope to a thermal unit and back again, most of us would rather leave them alone so that we don’t have to zero them again. An efficient alternative comes in the form of the Burris Thermal Clip-on, or BTC, which clips onto the existing op-tic’s objective bell and can be removed in seconds without substantially altering point of impact. The BTC35 is now in its third generation and boasts more features than ever before. When it’s off the rifle, a rubber eye cup is included to…

Whitetail hunters appreciate good optics that are reliable, durable and offer clear views from dawn to dusk. Many also have limited budgets that preclude them from making a significant investment to acquire such capabilities. Rather, they tend to look for quality options that meet both their hunting needs and their financial requirements. Bushnell’s new R-Series optics perfectly fit this niche. The series currently consists of the R3 and R5 product lines, which include binoculars, riflescopes and laser rangefinders. All are purposefully designed to meet the demands of whitetail hunters while also remaining highly affordable. The R3 line is intended to offer the performance and features that whitetail aficionados need, while the R5 line is a step up, providing enhanced optical performance, upgraded materials, and advanced features and capabilities. For starters,…

Manufacturers build rifles by combining three primary components: the action, the barrel and the stock. These pieces must work together for the rifle to function and deliver accurate fire. They should also provide a comfortable and effective shooter interface. The chassis rifle is a modern take on combining these parts, and instead of a one-piece stock, most chassis rifles have a two- or three-piece configuration. The chassis holds the action and provides the solid base for the attachment of the fore-end and buttstock. A STURDY FOUNDATION Having a separate part of the stock hold the action allows manufacturers to use a very strong material—usually aluminum or magnesium—in its construction. This robust chassis will support the action and not allow it to shift between shots. Sometimes, the metal chassis is also…

Before my eye caught the brownish mass drifting irregularly through the thick tree line 200 yards away, I’d been seriously considering filling my doe tag. It was the first afternoon of Illinois’ second firearm season, and from my stand tucked inside a small woodlot, I could see five of them milling around in a harvested cornfield to my right. Earlier that morning, I’d stumbled my way through leftover snow to hunt a stand down in a timbered bottom, but I’d come up empty, seeing only one doe. That first sit’s minimal activity and the anticipation of bringing home meat had me contemplating shooting a doe. The large, russet-colored apparition in the trees changed that in an instant. With the does now forgotten, I watched what appeared to be a big-bodied…

Tucked away in a remote corner of West Texas, Cibolo Creek Ranch (cibolocreek ranch.com) effortlessly marries modern luxury and 19th-century history. The ranch’s buildings were originally erected as forts that served as the headquarters of ranch settler Milton Faver’s cattle operation, as well as strongholds against local bandits and Native American raiders. Much of the history of the place has been preserved, and museums on the premises are dedicated to artifacts and works of art from the region. Comfortable, well-appointed guest rooms offer respite after a long day of hunting, and the flavorful southwestern and Mexican food, prepared on-site by chef Metzli Rodriguez and her team, is exceptional. In addition to Carmen Mountain whitetails, Cibolo Creek is home to mule deer, elk, aoudad and numerous exotic species, including axis deer,…

Each year, numerous articles are published outlining the best places to hunt trophy bucks. And despite dedicating a large part of my time over the last 30 years to promoting the outstanding trophy bucks that come from the Northeast, I am still not surprised to see the New England states toward the bottom of those lists. [Editor’s Note: He’s not wrong. Check out our ranking of America’s top whitetail states at gameandfishmag.com.] It’s hard to argue the facts presented in these articles. The numbers don’t lie. In terms of Booneand-Crockett-caliber deer, most other states in the U.S. outside the Northeast produce a much higher number of trophy bucks. No New England state can even crack the top 40 for B&C buck entries. You might think that the average Northeastern deer…

The wind howled as the sky spit in the eye of any hunter chancing to look aloft. Much is made about waterfowl hunting in extreme weather, but fortunately for Chip Heaps and his buddies, the after-noon hunt last year at Quaker Neck, a finger of land just below Chestertown on Maryland’s storied Eastern Shore, was staged from a blind that didn’t require a boat. The blind sat at the edge of an impoundment, and the field in front of it was decked out in silhouette goose decoys. “The wind was blowing right in our face, so we had to turn around and try to take the birds out the back and when they were coming over the blind,” says Heaps. “We did kill several out front over the decoys, too,…

We blasted away from the marina and roared through Costa Rica’s Golfo Dulce toward our offshore target about 15 miles into the Pacific. Tame seas met us near Matapalo Rock just off Osa Peninsula’s point. Nevertheless, the crew and I held on tightly to any nearby fly-bridge support structure, grab rail or seat arm as Capt. Manuel Rodriguez opened up the four screaming outboards powering the boat. We were after big Pacific sailfish. It took us about 20 minutes aboard the 39-foot Front Runner to reach the captain’s favored fishing grounds. The crew quickly set out an enticing spread of ballyhoo rigs, giant lures and squid teasers in the cobalt waters behind the craft. Within 15 minutes, we had a sail-fish knock down one long-rigger bait before deciding to swim…

TShane was 16 when he began to discover he had other interests than just hunting and fishing. One Friday evening his father caught up with him before Shane left to watch the high-school basket-ball game. Shane wasn’t going so much for the game as for a certain young lady whom he knew would be there. “If you plan to go duck hunting in the morning,” his father said, “you need to be back at a decent hour. I need help loading the boat in the morning, and I don’t want you to be dog-tired and worthless.” “Dad,” said Shane, with embarrassment in his voice, “would you be upset if I sat this one out? You know I really want to go, but Charlie and I are supposed to meet up…