Damned If You Doe, Damned If You Don’t

If we didn’t kill a doe, our wives would be pissed. If we did kill a doe, our wives would be pissed. So goes marriage. And so it was on December 27th, 2017. At the most basic level, my pal Furter and I were on a mission that night to fill the freezer with a late-season doe or two. Being the self-proclaimed manly-men of our homesteads, we were expected to, at least every once in awhile, bring home the proverbial bacon. But up to that point we’d...

Is Hunting Too White?

Whether you see a hunter sitting in a treestand, crouching in a duck blind or bugling bulls on a mountainside, you can predict something with 91% certainty: You’re looking at a white guy of European stock. You can also bet the guy has rural or small-town roots, and that he and his buddies are more passionate about hunting than any other demographic group sociologists can identify by race or ethnic heritage. In fact, researchers at universities...

Are You Casting Too Far?

Every new angler wants to be able to cast an entire fly line or launch a lure all the way across the lake. But that drive for technical prowess often leads people to miss the fish at their feet. Fish of all species are often found hugging the banks of lakes and rivers, hiding or hunting in shoreline structure and under riparian vegetation. Pike, bass, salmon, trout—there’s hardly a freshwater fish I’ve encountered that consistently requires long...