June/July 2019

Field & Stream

Field & Stream Magazine is the Foremost Magazine for American Sportsmen

Field & Stream2 min read
Cutt Loose
CUTTHROATS REMIND ME of summer. It could be their dreamsicle slash marks, which have always struck me as the perfect summer color. It could be the connection to hoppers—my favorite summer pattern and, coincidentally, the one that’s tricked more cutth
Field & Stream4 min read
Jump In
FROM THE BANK, I pulled the knot tight on my dropper fly and looked out over the river, which sent a quick shiver of fear knifing through my excitement, like the feeling you have before you get on a carnival ride. The river was up, hurtling foam over
Field & Stream4 min read
The Fine Print
CLAPOTIS. THAT IS THE word I’ve been trying to scrape off the tip of my tongue for an hour, and it comes back to me as I cast a Purple Haze dry fly along a rock-walled stretch of Montana’s Spotted Bear River. The wall gives out where a boulder squats
Field & Stream2 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Panfish Risotto
This is the perfect recipe for when the summertime fishing yields a mixed stringer, maybe some panfish and a small bass. Sure, you could freeze them, but you could also fold their fresh-aught flavor into this risotto: a medley of Arborio rice, tomato
Field & Stream5 min read
Can’t-resist Classics
THERE ARE CERTAIN used shotguns that I’ll pounce on like a bass hitting a topwater lure. Just twitch that walnut-and-blued form in front of me, low price tag dangling from the trigger guard, and I’ll blow up with my wallet wide open. It’s pure reflex
Field & Stream2 min read
Q & A
Q: What’s the ideal barrel length for a varmint rifle in 5.56/.223? Most of the bolt actions I’ve seen are 26 inches, while ARs are as short as 18. —SIMON BERG, PORTLAND, ORE. A: For a varmint rifle, I think 24 inches is just about ideal. Remember, y
Field & Stream5 min read
Social Distortion
I WAS A FACEBOOK holdout. It existed when I was in college (class of ’05), though barely, and despite my pals being glued to it, I had no interest. I didn’t throw myself into the black hole of social media until 2009, a leap practically forced on eve
Field & Stream1 min read
The Encyclopedia Of Summer
PICK A LETTER. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHICH ONE. You’re holding the ultimate reference book to summer awesomeness. It’s written by the finest experts in their field, because if anyone knows how to skirt deadlines, skip work, or call in sick when the fish
Field & Stream5 min read
Aloha From Axis Island
BEFORE GOING TO HAWAII, THE IDEA OF DEER hunting there struck me as akin to pineapple on pizza—an odd combination that contradicts the natural order of things. Proper pizza is topped with meat, not fruit (and, no, tomatoes don’t count), and deer are
Field & Stream2 min read
Catch A Mess Of Crawfish
Any decent smallmouth angler knows that crayfish—aka crawdads or mud bugs—are one of the best live baits going. But it’s not just smallies that enjoy dining on ’dads. Channel cats are suckers for a pincerless crayfish fished under a slip bobber. Got
Field & Stream2 min read
Belly-Boat Your Way to Midnight Behemoths
FISHING FROM A FLOAT TUBE UNDER THE summer stars puts you on the water when the fish are most active and your competition is tucked safely in the sack. But float smart. Stick to waters that are closed to boat traffic, or familiar waters where you kno
Field & Stream2 min read
Teach an Older Dog New Tricks
Most training tips involve younger dogs, and I’ll be honest: I’ve missed the chance to teach my five-year-old Lab, Minnie, to sit on a whistle at 100 yards. But older dogs can still improve, and summer is a great time to think about the past hunting
Field & Stream2 min read
Explode Some Targets
EVERY AMERICAN LIKES A NICE HARMLESS explosion at this time of year, and there’s no reason to wait for the Fourth. Fun as fireworks are, you don’t get to shoot at them. Firebird Targets (firebirdtargets.com), on the other hand, are nonbinary pyrotech
Field & Stream9 min read
The Frog Kings
WELL PAST MIDNIGHT, Tim Reed and Rodney Smith paddle down a skinny stretch of water in northern New York, to a spot where the high-cut riverbank transitions to flood plain. As Smith makes one last quiet push, gliding the yard-sale canoe toward a tang
Field & Stream1 min read
Cast Glass To Trout
THE LOW-WATER TROUT FISHING OF LATE summer demands that you turn back the clock. Not that you have to fish in bell-bottoms, but the upsides to casting a fiberglass fly rod have been lost in the graphite-rod arms race to faster, lighter, stronger stic
Field & Stream2 min read
Smoke Doves Over Hemp
A couple of Septembers ago, I posted a photo to the FIELD & STREAM Facebook page of a few mourning doves I’d shot, some empty shotshells, and a stalk of industrial hemp, with the caption HIGH FLYERS. I was lambasted by an army of cannabis experts who
Field & Stream1 min read
Hellbender: Get Close to a Wicked Critter
Say you crossed a muskrat with a spring lizard and an eel. The creature you’d create is actually called a hellbender, aka snot otter, and it is real—a fully aquatic salamander with a wide mouth, wrinkled body, tiny beady eyes, and a tail that looks l
Field & Stream2 min readAgriculture
Bowhunt After-Hours Hogs
SUMMER DAYS BURN HOT IN FLORIDA, South Texas, and other piggy places. And there are only so many fish you can reel in before you’re ready to shoot something. Might as well find a good farm, nestle in among the cow pies, and sweat it out until a hog t
Field & Stream2 min read
Land Giants In A Kayak
Kevin Hughes is a Miami-based kayak guide for South Florida Uncharted. He knows his way around fresh water, but his real specialty is chasing big, bad saltwater species inshore and offshore. Hughes has battled 70-pound sailfish, 50-pound king mackere
Field & Stream2 min read
Run A Lever Gun Like A Cowboy
LEVER GUNS ARE FOR SHOOTERS WHO don’t tolerate shenanigans. Chicken-eating coyotes, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, sagebrush jackrabbits, and sly heavy-horned bucks are all are fair game for a shooter with a lever action. But if you’re going to tote
Field & Stream1 min read
Hunt Off A Mountain Bike To Get An Edge
I SPENT A WEEK LAST FALL chasing blacktail deer in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. My hunting grounds weren’t far from Portland’s throngs of man buns, so there were plenty of other people cruising around for deer. But I was able to leave them well behind
Field & Stream2 min readNature
New Zealand’s Wild West of Waterfowling
I swung just past the bird’s head, pulled the trigger, and immediately thought, Oh crap. Not because I had missed, but because the swan I’d just knocked out of the sky was now sailing toward our blind. A mallard dropping onto your head is a hazard. F
Field & Stream7 min read
Life Of The Party Boat
SOMETIMES, THE HARDEST PART OF BEING A PARTY boat captain has nothing to do with catching fish. Sure, every skipper wants his clients to go home with a limit of fish or a wall hanger. But a handful of times per season, achieving those goals is oversh
Field & Stream2 min read
Take The Kids On A Backyard Quest
GOOD NEWS, PARENTS! AFTER THE WEEK AT the beach, the summer-camp stint, the two-a-day baseball tryouts, the lake weekends, and the visits with cousins and Gramps, there are only 10,463 more days of summer left to fill with fun activities for your lar
Field & Stream6 min read
Rig The Gamefish
THE DRIVE TO MODIFY BAITS AND RIGS IS STRONG for many anglers, which comes as no surprise. Anything we can do to achieve some kind of edge on the water or present something with better than out-of-the-box performance is worth a shot, even if it only
Field & Stream3 min read
Catch A Shark In The Surf
WHEN NEARSHORE WATER temperatures reach their summertime peaks, species such as striped bass, big bluefish, and red drum leave the surf until the fall. What many surf anglers don’t realize, however, is that the same sweltering temperatures that drive
Field & Stream2 min read
Catch a Trash Fish Slam
When you land a sucker or a sheepshead, it’s customary to say, “Aw, damn, it’s just a trash fish,” while secretly enjoying the fight. Truth is, trash fish, or rough fish, often save the day when more civilized species like bass and trout won’t cooper
Field & Stream1 min read
The Magic of Ultraviolet Lures
Nothing beats the magic hours of summer. If only those periods of low light at sunup and sundown could last all day. Unfortunately, those perfect feeding windows don’t stick around long, which is why it pays to maximize your success while you have th
Field & Stream6 min read
Welcome To The Whitetail Jungle
FROM THE TREESTAND, THE WHOLE WORLD LOOKED underwater. The tops of alyce clover and deer vetch seemed to float atop a pane of sheet water covering the 3-acre food plot. Behind me, a wall of jungle vines enveloped the flooded canal. Out in front, on t
Field & Stream2 min read
Eat the Freshest Yellowfin Ever
Tuna fishing, no matter where you’re doing it, takes effort. In the Northeast, it means long runs offshore. On the West Coast, you often spend a week on a long-range boat. In the Gulf, success may involve bartering beers with shrimp boats for bags of
Field & Stream2 min read
Ignore The X-ray
YOU MIGHT THINK OF FRIED BLUEGILLS AND sticky s’mores fingers when you think of the dog days, but for a long stretch, my family’s summer memories were laced with the smell of alcohol prep pads and Betadine. Summer seems to inspire recklessness and br
Field & Stream4 min read
Who’s Calling The Shots?
I HAVE COME SKEET shooting to escape worrying about my daughter, who is 2,000 miles away and—because she is 19 and because she is my daughter—trying to kill me. Emma insists she’s an adult. But an adult who thinks caramel macchiatos are a food group,
Field & Stream8 min read
2019 Hunting Gear Guide
The band is back together. After a several-year hiatus, Federal has teamed up with bullet-makers Nosler and Barnes to reintroduce loads with Accu bond and TSX projectiles. I hunted with the Federal 180-grain Barnes TSX in .30/06 last fall, and it del

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