Articles

Ron Jolly A hunting blind is not always fancy. In fact, many would call it mundane. It is six feet wide, four feet deep, and eight feet tall. The materials used to build it were salvaged from an old tenant house built on the farm in the early 1900s. It sits on the end of a spoil bank leftover from the creation of a run-off pond and spillway. It faces east and overlooks a small, one-acre food plot. In the South, some call it a “shooting house.” Others may call it a “blind,” “box blind” or

Brandon Palaniuk of Hayden, Idaho, to date has earned over $1.3 million in tournament bass fishing in the past nine years. How does he psyches himself up to fish that last hour of a bass tournament? If you're a weekend fisherman, you can apply the same tactic and strategy to the last hour you fish before you go home. When you're tired, and you’ve had a lousy day, how do you fish that very last minute before you crank your big engine and head for the house? When I'm physically and mentally worn

Every year around the end of August into the first of September, hunters become anxious awaiting the upcoming deer season. During this time, hunters tend to all have the same attitude: they are over summer heat and ready for cool weather. When restless feelings arise, there is hope; the fall hunting season is upon them. Deer hunting seasons are beginning to open across the country; all the practice, preparation, and hard work put in through the summer are going to pay off. A couple of years ago

Chris Bush with The Speckled Truth provides tips for fishing for trophy speckled trout. Confidence is key when it comes to fishing for trophy trout. Moon phase, tide and time of year are key indicators of when trout will bite. The new and full moon are when you have the greatest solunar activity and that's when the trout will eat more. Tide correlates to the moon phase. The full and new moons typically have higher tides, but in estuaries where you don't have as much tide range, high solunar

When the mercury starts rising to the mid-90s and touching the 100s, it is easy to want to head to the pool or the beach instead of the lake to fish. However, bass are cold-blooded creatures and the warmer weather will make them feed more than when the water is cold in the winter. But, if you go out fishing unprepared to deal with Mother Nature, you are already destined to fail. I will go over a few tips to keep you cool and more comfortable on the water this summer to enjoy your time on the

Mossy Oak Fishing Team Leader Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won the Major League Fishing (MLF) Championship at Tennessee’s Chickamauga Lake on June 9, 2021. The $100,000 VanDam won increased his career winnings to $6.9 million. We wanted to know not only how VanDam won this MLF Championship, but also what we could learn from how and where he fished that type of lake, as well as the lures and the patterns that will help all of us catch more bass this summer. To learn more about Kevin

Of all the dangers we face in the outdoors, there are few that instill more pure dread and abject fear than the limbless serpents. Fortunately, the odds of encountering one are as slim as the reptiles themselves, and the chances of being bitten are slimmer still. However, it’s always a good idea to hedge your bets by becoming more familiar with snakes, learning how to avoid them and what to do should the unthinkable happen. There are four groups of venomous snakes in the U.S.: rattlesnakes

For avid campers, hikers and outdoor enthusiasts, learning how to identify poisonous snakes is a necessary skill. Knowing their habitats and visual markers can save you from sustaining bites and the nasty consequences of toxic snake venom. Recognizing and avoiding poisonous snakes before they strike is ideal, but sometimes a bite occurs before you have a chance to see the snake. If this happens, it is essential to learn how to tell if your snake bite is poisonous and what to do immediately after

Dana Rogers The “more the better,” or perhaps more aptly we’d like “more with higher quality” when it comes to cover, especially that all-important “edge cover.” That isn’t just for whitetails but many different species. Are you interested in increasing deer populations where you hunt? Deer populations rise and fall, and today, it seems we’re on the downward trend throughout parts of the country. If you’re in an area where the whitetails need a little help, or you simply want to increase the

Establishing a career as an adventure photographer is both exciting and terrifying. On the one hand, it opens up opportunities to explore and capture some of the most beautiful scenery the world has to offer. On the other, it requires you to cut loose from a “regular” occupation with no guarantee of success. However, with the right, business-minded approach, adventure photography is a perfectly viable career that can be fulfilling both personally and financially. While it’s essential to use your