Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

An early-morning summer monster. (Brian Grossenbacher/)

One of the best things about northern pike is that they’re willing players practically 365 days a year. Drop a shiner through the ice and it’ll get nailed. Work a spinnerbait around a rocky point in fall and it’ll get crushed. It’s the summer months that can be the most challenging for the pike hunter. Hitting loads of little “hammer handles” isn’t difficult, but those aren’t what you want. You want a giant that breaks 40 inches. In spring, it’s not uncommon for those big girls to be posted up shallow all day, but that’s not often the case in summer. To score that goliath now, you need to understand how high-caliber northerns behave in summer. Whether you want to catch it on a big, meaty fly or a sexy custom glide bait, these tips will help you take a beast in heat.

Temperature Gauge

Northern pike survive and feed in a wide range of water temperatures, though they prefer 60 to 65 degrees. If you live in Canada or the northern half of the U.S., your local pike waters might maintain those temperatures throughout the summer. If that’s the case, finding big pike becomes less of the challenge. In much of their range, however, assume the heat of the summer will bring the surface temperature well above that optimal comfort zone. Little fish may still hold shallow all day, but the trophies are going to seek more pleasant temperatures, and that means they’ll go deep. In summer, a quality fish finder can be a very useful tool, not so much to mark fish, but to locate deep weed lines. Whether pike are deep or shallow, they stay with the salad. The ideal scenario is to find a weed line growing up a slope or ledge, starting in approximately 15 to 20 feet of water and continuing up to the bank. This gives larger pike a place to hang by day, lounging in the cooler water at the base of the slope, and also quick access to the shallows that host all the bluegills, shad, suckers, and smaller pike the jumbos eat.

Beef Up

Once a pike reaches that magical 40-inch mark, it doesn’t really behave like a pike anymore. In many regards, it’s now a muskie, and it will feed differently from the ravenous little guys. A big pike’s metabolism is slower than that of a 15- to 20-inch fish, so while you may have a favorite jerkbait, spinnerbait, or streamer for racking up numbers of pike, ask yourself: Is this the right offering to tempt that one giant? Much like a muskie, a trophy pike might eat once every few days, especially in the summer, when it’s less inclined to move around. With that in mind, it pays to ramp up lure and fly sizes. A big pike is more likely to hammer a big meal in one shot and retreat to its comfort zone than spend a feeding session trying to catch a handful of smaller forage items. Jumping lure and fly sizes also helps reduce the number of little pike you’ll catch.

Asian lady beetles are lighter in color and more orange than ladybugs. (Ryan Hodnett (wikimedia commons)/)

When the news hit the internet, you could almost hear the collective: “awwwwwww, how sweet.” An 80x80-mile swarm of ladybugs, so vast that it showed up on National Weather Service radar, was about to hit the coast of Southern California. Thing is, there are more than 450 kinds of ladybugs in North America, and some aren’t quite as cute as those in children’s stories. Take the Asian lady beetle, for example (speculation is that the SoCal swarm consisted of Asian beetles). Whereas Ladybugs are non-biting, aphid-eating beneficial insects, lady beetles are invasives that bite, are foul-smelling when smashed, and enter your hunting camp and homes by the hundreds every fall. And so it is with the following list of bad bugs. Unlike ticks and mosquitoes, the ones listed here aren’t likely to make you sick or kill you. They are, however, the ones that make our outdoor lives the most miserable.

9. Stink Bugs

A brown marmorated stink bug. (dusan964/depositphotos.com/)

Depending on the species, stink bugs might be green, brown, or gray. Like Asian beetles, stink bugs reek when squished. The worst of the worst on the stink bug roster is the brown marmorated variety which was accidentally introduced in the U.S. in the late ’90s. According to the USDA, brown marmorated stink bugs have been found in 44 states and four Canadian provinces. They cause millions of dollars in crop damage and are masters at invading every nook and cranny of hunting camps, recreational vehicles, and campers as they seek winter refuge.

Eradication tactics abound from chemical traps to DIY homebrews, but many of those afflicted prefer to keep the nuclear option on the table.

8. Black Flies

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Lever-action rifles can be fast, accurate, and tons of fun to shoot—if you know how to handle one properly. These video tips will help you tap into your inner cowboy and learn how to run a lever-gun like Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, or Annie Oakley.

Keep your hunting dog safe by identifying and avoiding the following plants. (Alex Robinson/)

Man’s best friend has incredible instincts. We often rely on our dog’s sharp senses and ancient impulses during outdoor pursuits (including everything from bird hunting, to blood trailing deer, to search-and-rescue missions). But any bird hunter with a Labrador retriever can tell you that dogs also have a tendency to eat just about anything. Sometimes the wild plants and nuts they eat can make them sick. These are the 10 wild plants you should make sure your pup does not chow down.

1. Milkweed

This weed is a vital host plant and food for Monarch butterflies, but it’s not so friendly or beneficial to dogs. (Wikipedia/)

Scientific name: Asclepias syriaca

Where found: Common milkweed is one of a hundred milkweed species found in North America and this one has the widest distribution. Found from Oregon to the East Coast, common milkweed often grows in fallow farm fields and sunny roadsides.

How to identify the plant: Milkweed has oval opposite leaves and large teardrop-shaped seed pods. The plant grows up to 4 or 5 feet tall. If you break off a leaf, thick white sap will ooze from the wound.

Welcome to Disney. (ImageBroker/Alamy/)

Destination fishing trips can be hard to pull off when you have a family. Skipping town with the guys for even a few days is usually hung up by T‑ball games, soccer practice, and, of course, approval from your spouse. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck fishing where you live. Headed to a theme park this summer with the whole clan in tow? If you can manage to sneak away from the long lines and $20 soft pretzels for just one day, many of the major ­destination parks have some incredible fishing opportunities close by. Here are our top picks for roller coasters and rod bending. Build in one day to leave your family at the pool and you’re golden.

1. Largemouths: Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida

This is the most popular theme park in the country, so chances are you’re going to wind up there at some point. Everyone knows the Sunshine State is a mecca for largemouth bass, and monster fish abound. Along with several other bodies of water, famed Lake Toho is minutes from Disney, and there’s no shortage of guides for hire. If you pack a travel rod and prefer the DIY approach, Florida is littered with tiny ponds and canals. All of them hold fish—yes, even the one that will probably be right in front of your hotel. You’ll catch largemouths galore and possibly hit some of Florida’s exotic species.

2. Blue Catfish: Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Virginia

A big blue cat. (Keith Sutton/)

Busch Gardens is an easy drive from some heavily populated Eastern cities, which means it can be a zoo in the summer. If you’re stuck there and dying for a little space, a world-class blue cat fishery on the James River isn’t very far. Blues are active virtually year-round, and they feed extra hard in summer. The best part is that you’re almost guaranteed to catch fish, and most often a bunch of them. Cats over 20 pounds come frequently, and you have a legitimate shot at a 60-plus-pounder. Hunter Tucker (hawg hunterfishing.com) is a James expert and will get you on the bite.

Test-panel member Danny Hinton at full draw. (Hollis Bennett/)

On the one hand, Danny Hin­ton is a stoic guy with an engineering background. On the other, he’s a die-hard bowhunter and the former owner-operator of an archery pro shop. He has, in other words, the perfect blend of technical and practical knowledge for our bow test, and he’s been a test-panel member for years. So I didn’t take it lightly when he declared the 2019 field of compound bows to be the best he’s ever seen. And I did agree with him.

Still, not everyone here gets a trophy. It’s our job to find the very best equipment, and at the end of our most grueling assessment yet, we did just that. Here’s the scoop.

Bowtech Realm SR6 • 349.1 fps • $1,199 (Hollis Bennett/)

Speed	Accuracy & Forgiveness	Draw Cycle	Noise	Vibration	Handling	Fit & Finish	Value
Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Fair	Very Good	Excellent	Excellent	Very Good

This bow ranked best in nearly every category, easily winning this year’s test. For several years, a signature Bowtech feature has allowed the shooter to change the feel of the draw cycle to suit his or her shooting style. Older models used a disk with three possible settings, but newer models, including the Realm SR6, use a module system that lets you choose either the Comfort or the Performance setting. This is much more user-friendly. We tested the SR6 on both settings but scored it on the Performance setting. Even with that more demanding draw cycle, the bow was one of the smoothest shooters in the test, and it was also the test’s speed champion, at 349.1 fps. Part of that is due to the strategically placed weights in the Overdrive Binary cam system (the feature is easy to see; the weights look like pairs of brass buttons on both cams).

The Realm SR6 was also the accuracy winner, with our four panel shooters averaging 1.07-inch groups. Objective testing showed that it had little vibration, earning it third place in that cate­gory. At 86 percent efficiency, it was the most efficient bow in the test. Its only stumble was in the noise test, where it finished in the middle of the pack. The Realm SR6 handled well and looks good too.

MATHEWS Vertix • 337 fps • $1,099 (Hollis Bennett/)

Speed	Accuracy & Forgiveness	Draw Cycle	Noise	Vibration	Handling	Fit & Finish	Value
Good	Very Good	Very Good	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Very Good

It’ll be no surprise to fans of the Triax and Halon series that the Vertix was the quietest and most vibration-free bow of the test. It uses the Crosscentric cam, but it has an updated Switchweight system that allows you to change peak draw weight and length by swapping a module. The Vertix also has a dovetail mount on the riser to accommodate QAD’s new UltraRest MXT—a system that could send Berger bolts the way of the single cam.

Senior editor Natalie Krebs with the Barnett HyperGhost 425. (Hollis Bennett/)

Our rankings of vertical compound bows hinge on fine details because there’s little difference between them. But in the crossbow world, there are dramatic improvements in performance and handling each year, and the difference between the winning crossbow and last place is substantial. In a way, it’s unfair to compare them. Then again, there is no industry standard among crossbows as there is with a compound bow’s IBO specs. The rule of crossbow-making seems to be “He who innovates the most, wins.”

There’s a thriving market for high-end crossbows too, and that’s why our test rewards top-end performance. But we factor in value as well, because we know many buyers just want a reliable crossbow to take hunting, and they won’t spend four truck payments to get it. Fortunately, this year’s field has crossbows to suit both tastes—and some great stuff in between.

Ravin R26 • 406 fps • $2,050 (Hollis Bennett/)

Speed & KE	Accuracy & Forgiveness	Cocking Effort	Trigger	Safety	Handling	Fit & Finish	Value
Good	Very Good	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Fair

Remember those chintzy crossbow pistols used in ’90s vampire and spy movies? Yeah, they can’t hold a candle to the R26—even though the newest crossbow from Ravin isn’t much larger. Incorporating the best of the Ravin design—level cams that rotate 360 degrees and an easy draw mechanism—into a bull-pup platform makes for the most compact hunting crossbow ever devised. It’s just 26 inches overall, 6.5 pounds, and 5.75 inches axle to axle when cocked. Yet the R26 is still packed full of performance, clocking in at 406 fps with a 404-grain arrow.

We were able to obtain better groups with a few other crossbows, but the R26 was still in the top tier, with a 1.5-inch average at 40 yards. It had an excellent trigger that broke at 2.1 pounds. It would seem the R26 would be a shoo-in for the best-handling bow, and for pure convenience and handiness in a tree­stand, ground blind, or the turkey woods, it is. But when it came to actually shooting it, we found the dimensions to be a little cramped.

It’s a sign of the archery-­gear times to say that a price tag of more than two grand helped this crossbow’s value score, but the R26 costs $500 less than the TenPoint Nitro XRT—which ultimately, albeit narrowly, gave it the win.

The Loligo squid, better known as calamari. (Matthew Every/)

Squid were coming over the rail like live hand grenades into a foxhole, and it was all we could do to get them in a bucket before they exploded with ink all over the boat. The fisherman to my right took a blast to the face, and so did the deckhand, Mike, next to him. On the other side, another angler pulled in a double-header, and we got the first squid off just before the second one blew up. She dodged the shot like Neo in The Matrix, and ink hit the wall behind her with an audible splat.

Left and right, the squid were piling up, and the deck was getting covered in black ink. Mike walked up and down the boat, untangling lines, re-tying lures, and helping anyone who needed it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Captain Greg Dubrule and C.J., another deckhand, recording a Facebook Live video.

“It’s Saturday night, and we’re live!” Dubrule shouted arms spread, looking into the camera. “We’re on the heap, and we’ve got a boatload of people and a boatload of squid. We’re right on top of them, people, they are chewing the anchor line off the boat!”

If they don't ink in the water first, squid are like ticking time bombs on the boat. It doesn't take long before they explode with ink everywhere. (Matthew Every/)

Party All Night

This is a pretty typical Saturday night for Captain Dubrule and his crew during the height of the short-lived squid season. Three hours from New York City, in southeastern Connecticut, they run all-night fishing trips out of Niantic, on the number one voted party boat in the area, The Black Hawk.

Perhaps you’ve seen one of those How to Reload pamphlets with a cover that shows Dad, Mom, Gramps, and the kids standing around a spotless bench, grinning from ear to ear with an enthusiasm usually associated with winning the Mega Millions jackpot. I can tell you one thing for sure—they weren’t reloading for a precision rifle competition. When you sign up for a tactical field match, you can count on a lot of trigger pulling. For most two-day matches, it’s suggested you have 200 rounds, and that doesn’t include what you burn up in practice before the first stage.

The high round counts, the challenging targets, and the real-world shooting positions are what make these competitions fun.

But once the sport gets its hooks into you—whether you shoot the Precision Rifle Series, the National Rifle League, or any of the dozens of independent matches around the country—chances are you’re going to want to reload.

And that’s where the fun ends. Trying to make quality ammo in bulk is a grinding chore. In order to preserve some semblance of a family life and to maintain my sanity, I’ve worked out a system for making precision ammunition in a fraction of the time it used to take me.

Full disclosure: The bits and pieces here are based on input from Wade Stuteville, Jimmie Todd, Chris Gittings, John Whidden, and Gary Kieft, who are all top-tier shooters and reloaders.

TOP STORY

House Republicans Introduce Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act

U.S. House Republicans may have lost their numerical advantage in November, but they are not sitting on the sidelines while Congressional Democrats roll out their dog-and-pony gun control agenda with a parade of increasingly extreme gun-control legislation.

On May 1, Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., introduced a bill which supporters say would update antiquated provisions of the Gun Control Act that “reflect a bygone era of criminal record-keeping and remove arbitrary impediments for law-abiding gun buyers and sellers.”

Joining Scalise in filing HR 2246, the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act, were Reps. Ralph Abraham, R-La., Andy Barr, R-Ky., Clay Higgins, R-La., Mike Johnson, R-La., Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., and David Schweikert, R-Ariz.

The .300 Win. Mag. (right) has a much larger powder capacity than the .308 Win. (left), but each is superior to the other in different ways. (Ron Spomer/)

Comparing the short-action .308 Winchester to the long-action, belted .300 Winchester Magnum will raise howls of “apples and oranges” from some readers. But we’re not tasting fruit here. We’re trying to understand how two different cartridges propel the same diameter bullets of the same weight in order to engage targets or game animals. Both can be used for each scenario, so let’s compare!

Despite their size differences, both the little .308 Winchester and the big .300 Winchester Magnum shoot bullets .308 inches in diameter. This is the all-American bore size—.30 caliber —made famous by the .30-30 Winchester of 1894 followed by the even more famous .30-06 of 1906, the .300 Savage of 1920, and the .300 Weatherby Magnum of—surprise—1944. Yes, the larger, faster, more powerful Weatherby Magnum beat the .300 Winchester to the magnum punch by a solid 19 years. But, the full magnum-length Weatherby was proprietary and expensive while the Winchester was engineered to fit affordable, standard-length-action rifles common in the U.S. Winchester allowed any and all ammo makers to load their new .300 magnum, too. The result was an immediate success as American hunters scrambled to own and hunt with one of these new, powerful, manly rifles. (Hey, it was 1963. John Wayne was in his prime, and neither the Beatles nor the hippies had even shown up yet.)

The author felled this Colorado bull elk with three 300 Win. Mag., 180-gr. Nosler Accubonds. The first shot on the shoulder would have done the trick, but sage advice with elk is to keep shooting until your bull is down and stays down. (Ron Spomer/)

The .30-06 Springfield is central to this comparison because it not only falls between the .308 and .300 Win. Mag. in power, but is essentially the parent of the .308 Win. While some historians insist Winchester engineers worked from the .300 Savage to make the .308, a careful measurement of rim, head, and body diameters shows a clear connection to the .30-06. Arthur Savage probably used the .30-06 when developing his .300 anyway.

Because of the common dimensions of the .308 Win. and .30-06, many refer to the .308 as the .30-06 Short or, more derisively, the “.30-Not-Six.” Such teasing raises a legitimate question: Why would Winchester build a new hunting cartridge that was weaker than the already widely used and respected .30-06? Doesn’t cartridge development push toward higher performance?

Don’t let the .308 Winchester’s small size fool you. The controlled expansion of a 165- to 180-grain bullet is more than potent enough for moose. (Ron Spomer/)

Well, yes. But performance is not always about velocity and power. The .308’s performance advantage is efficiency. Because its overall length is a half inch shorter than the .30-06, it can be run through shorter, lighter, faster-cycling actions. Additionally, more cartridges can be carried by an individual, a truck, or a plane. You see, Winchester created the .308 in an effort to have it adopted as the new U.S. military cartridge. They succeeded, but only in 1954, two years after they’d released it as a civilian hunting round. NATO also adopted the .308 Winchester, calling it the 7.62x51mm NATO. It was chambered in the new M14 U.S. Service Rifle in 1957 and saw duty in Korea and Vietnam, with soldiers undoubtedly appreciating its lighter recoil.

TOP STORY

NRA Annual Meeting: Amid Palace Intrigue, The President Vows To Be Second Amendment 'Champion'

The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) 76-member board convenes Monday in Indianapolis, a day after the 148th four-day NRA Annual Meeting concluded Sunday amid palace intrigue within the organization’s leadership, yet still resonating from Friday’s fiery guns-rights speech by President Donald Trump.

NRA officials announced Saturday that Oliver North had stepped down as the organization’s president with a resignation letter that said there is “a clear crisis” in NRA leadership.

A rift inside NRA leadership over allegations of financial misconduct pit NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre against North in a very public feud.

We’re crouched below the plywood walls of the pontoon blind and can see three scoters gliding into shooting range. Someone whispers, “Take ‘em,” and we drop two with a quick volley. High-fives make their rounds, and the game is on.

For the first few flights, we remain silent, still, and hidden as shooters on the ends call the shots, but it doesn't take long before we become as emboldened as the ducks, which begin dive bombing our spread. Sea ducks are about as tough as the arctic winters they evolved to endure, and you, and the guy next to you, often have to give them every shot in the gun to put them down.

The pontoon boat blind complete with plywood walls and brush. (Cosmo Genova/)

“With these ducks, you have to really make sure they're dead, or they will dive underwater and pop back up out of range,” says Sierra Langbell, one of the hunters in the crew.

Our boat blind was packed with a handful of photographers and media folk for the last leg of Beretta’s torture tour for their new A400 Xtreme Plus shotgun. The plan was to hunt sea ducks on Tilghman Island, Maryland and to explore the rich waterfowling culture of the Chesapeake Bay.

The hunters put these Beretta A400 Xtreme Plus shotguns to the test. (Cosmo Genova/)

The shooting formed a cacophony, with the guns barking together—at times sounding as if we had only fired a single shot. At one point, I looked over to see Aaron Hitchins of the production company, Rockhouse Motion, yelling like William Wallace at the head of a charge, “Take it to the plug!” while frantically stuffing more shells down the tube as music bumped from his phone.

I wasn't sure what to do with a pile of sea ducks I brought home from a hunting trip to Maryland, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with cheese and bacon. Sliced thin, the breasts can be stuffed, rolled, and wrapped into tidy little bacon bombs that are an awesome game night treat that can be fancied up for date night too. These bacon bombs stand on their own paired with your favorite dipping sauce, or as the headpiece of a more composed meal. Here, we used spinach and an herbed Chevre cheese, but this simple and versatile preparation can be done with other game meats and stuffings as well: caramelized onions and cheddar cheese, mushrooms and Swiss, the possibilities are endless. Ideally, you want the breasts cooked to a nice medium rare, but it's not the end of the world if you go a little over.

Ingredients

Sea duck breasts

Cheese

Spinach

After an epic sea duck hunt on the Chesapeake Bay this winter, I ended up with a surplus of meat to work through. Conventional wisdom has not been kind to the modest sea duck, and I found exceedingly little literature on how to make them table-worthy. After spending some time in the kitchen, I can confidently say that the naysayers are sadly mistaken and missing out on some truly good eats. While a rare, pan seared breast is a great treat in and of itself, I wanted to make something that was tasty and accessible. Beef Bourguignon, or beef Burgundy, is a French classic, and the venison-like breast meat of the sea ducks complimented the Bourguignon nicely. This hearty wine-based stew is the perfect meal for when the mercury drops, and the same recipe works well for a variety of dark game meats.

Ingredients

6-8 sea duck breasts, cubed

3-4 strips of bacon, cubed

1-2 carrots, rough cut

The Snake River near Twin Falls Idaho. (ItsWolfeh, via Wikimedia Commons/)

Growing up in Idaho, every service station and sporting goods store had a bulletin board featuring photos of local anglers grinning over enormous steelhead and salmon caught in Idaho's mighty rivers. All my life, those fish have spiraled toward extinction, and recent runs have been dismal. However, two Idaho leaders are breathing new life into efforts to save both those fish and the world-class sport fishery they represent.

At a recent conference in Boise, Republican Congressman Mike Simpson of Idaho raised the idea of removing four federal dams on the Snake River, saying bold actions may be needed to reverse the decades-long decline of steelhead and salmon in the Columbia River Basin.

"We need to stop thinking about what currently exists and ask ourselves, 'What do we want the Northwest to look like in 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years?'" Simpson tells a crowd at the Andrus Center this week.

The statement is striking because it is the first time that high-level Idaho leaders have said what fish biologists and advocates have been saying for years: Perhaps the last chance to stave off extinction of these treasured fish runs is to let the lower Snake River run free.

“When it comes to salmon and steelhead…I support breaching the status quo,” says Idaho Gov. Brad Little, also a Republican, hinting at his potential support of this idea.

The Independence uses a Hogue grip, which can be swapped with any A2-compatible grip. (Bill Buckley/)

When the Remington XP-100 was introduced in 1963, the reaction to the single-shot bolt-action handgun was not tepid. Most people considered the ungainly mutt—with its dogleg bolt handle, vented rib, and shark-fin front sight—an affront to civilized sensibilities. Traditionalists wanted nothing to do with it.

But in the spirit of the adage “handsome is as handsome does,” some handgunners fell under the XP-100’s spell when they realized how accurately it shot and from how far they were able to hit small game, varmints, and steel silhouette targets. Over the years, sentiments toward the odd handgun softened, and it developed a devoted cult of followers. The XP-100 can rightly be credited with significantly advancing the sport of handgun hunting.

Yet that was a generation ago. Remington stopped production on the XP-100 in 1998. How would the shooting public react to such a handgun today?

Well, we’re about to find out because Nosler has just launched the Model 48 Independence, a production version of the M48 NCH (Nosler Custom Handgun) it rolled out last year.

Like the XP-100, the Independence is a bolt-action handgun with the grip situated amidships, close to the balance point. This makes for better handling, because the firearm can be maneuvered more deftly than those with designs where the grip is positioned behind the bolt handle.

Late in the spring, every year, we get a chance to do what we should do more often—recognize our mothers for all they’ve done, all they do, and all they will do. But sometimes it's hard to find a gift that fits the occasion. If you’re looking for a unique Mother’s Day gift with an outdoor theme, or simply want to break away from gifting the traditional bouquet of flowers, here’s a short list of fishing- and hunting-related gifts that are sure to bring out smile. Get mom something nice and let her know how much she’s appreciated.

YETI Camino Carryall 35 All-purpose Bag (YETI/)

There’s something to be said for simplicity. If there’s a way to get gear from point A to B in an easy-to-use tote, any mom will be all for it. That’s what you get with the new Yeti Camino. Made from the same thick-skin shell as their soft-sided coolers, this bag is puncture and abrasion resistant. The mouth is huge which makes getting gear in and out of the bag a cinch, and the molded waterproof bottom keeps the contents upright and dry. If there’s not enough room inside for all she needs to carry, there are fabric loops on the outside to attach anything with a carabiner. This is simply a great bag for carrying any and all items that don’t have a home—a towel, Rambler of margaritas, sunscreen, and Bluetooth speaker for an afternoon on the beach, for example.

Patagonia Nano Puff Insulated Jacket (Patagonia/)

Spring weather can be fickle—sometimes it feels like winter isn't quite over, or summer is coming on a little early. But if mom has a lightweight jacket that insulates without making her overheat, she's prepared for nearly anything. Patagonia's Nano Puff Jacket fits that bill perfectly. It's a thin, light (10 ounces), comfortable outer layer that uses the company's PrimaLoft Gold Eco insulation for a good warmth-to-weight ratio. The outer layer is a recycled ripstop fabric that's treated with Patagonia's proprietary Durable Water Repellent (DWR) finish, which can repel light rain. There's a drawcord hem, two zippered pockets, internal chest pocket, and zipper garage to prevent chin chaffing when it's all the way up.

Maui Jim Canna Sunglasses (Maui Jim/)

In most cases, sunglasses are one of those items you typically have to try before you buy. However, there are a few select designs that compliment nearly every face they adorn. The Canna frames from Maui Jim happen to be one of those styles. The acetate frames have a classic cat eye look and feel that was popular in the 1950s and '60s, and the super-thin lenses are polarized glass (not polycarbonate) with a UV protective coating. Available in five different frame and lens color combinations, and in prescription strengths, the glasses come with a hard storage case and lens cloth.

ALPS Outdoorz Huntress Hunting Pack (ALPS Outdoorz/)

More and more outdoor companies are understanding the need to design products with women in mind, and not simply downsize an existing model and say it's for ladies. Case in point is the Huntress Hunting Pack. ALPS says it started from scratch and designed the contoured shoulder straps, waist belt, and frame to accommodate a woman's figure. The pack is also vented to prevent back sweat, features a drop-down weapon pocket for a bow or rifle, it's large enough (2,200 cubic inches) to carry lots of gear, and there's space and ports for hydration bladders. It weighs just 2 ¾ pounds empty and includes a blaze orange rain cover.

For a chance to get in range of white seabass, divers must don camo wetsuits, forgo noisy scuba gear, and swim as slowly and silently as possible. (Mike Raabe/)

Story by Mike Raabe, as told to Natalie Krebs

You're not a true spearfisherman in California until you've speared a white sea­bass. And after you've done that, you're still not legit until you've killed a fish that tips 70 pounds.

These are the accepted, if unofficial, rules of SoCal’s spearfishing bums, a relatively small but hardcore group of sportsmen and -women who hunt the elusive fish year-round. WSB show up in the strongest numbers from March to June, when they start slipping into the kelp beds along the coast to spawn. Spawning peaks during the new moon, when you hunt the fish by listening for them.

“Bass” is a misnomer, as this species actually belongs to the croaker family. Some WSB calls sound like a frog and a cat trying to mate, but the croaking of a spawning male is akin to a boat misfire—you feel it in your chest. Croaks usually mean you’re closing in, but most of the reverberations my buddies and I heard during this year’s spawn led to nothing. This was the slowest season in the 11 years I’ve been going, and we fought hard for the two bass pictured on these pages.

White seabass hunters are free divers, which means we rely on our lung capacity. This is because scuba equipment is loud. It scares fish and turns you into an alien in the underwater environment. But free diving lets you become a part of the ocean. You’re able to observe, hiding in silence or interacting with animals naturally. And that’s important, because these chrome-colored fish are called gray ghosts for a reason. They may be the largest prey in the kelp, but they’re also the most challenging to find. So there’s a certain frustration—not to mention danger—in free diving for them. But that’s half the fun.

This cove in Baja looks like a washing machine on the surface, but underneath, the sea is calm. Even so, only experienced divers should fish here. (Mike Raabe/)
Visual concealment—usually achieved with a camouflage pattern and by sticking to shadowy kelp for cover—is just one thing spearfishermen have to keep in mind when chasing white seabass. Because the fish can both hear noise and feel vibrations, divers must take care not to, say, bump their speargun on the bottom while listening for croaks. Even bubble control when exhaling is key—and don’t even think about ­farting in your wetsuit. (Mike Raabe/)
Salema fish are a good indicator that WSB are in the neighborhood. It’s wise to swim carefully when they’re near so you don’t spook them or the seabass. (Mike Raabe/)
After nearly two months of hard hunting the new moons and chasing disembodied croaks, I watched diver Chris Okamoto shoot this 55-pound white seabass from just 10 feet away. (Mike Raabe/)
One quick incision near the gills to bleed the fish will keep the meat fresh and untainted. Another thrust to the brain will dispatch it quickly. (Mike Raabe/)
More sevengill sharks seem to appear in our hunting grounds each year. I don’t worry about them, as they’re indifferent to us—but not to the fish we spear. (Mike Raabe/)
Boating allows us to hit multiple spots in one day, although anchoring offshore in turbulent waters can sometimes get dicey. (Mike Raabe/)
Diver Ryan Moore—­followed by the family dog, Luna, who will sit on the rocks with Moore’s wife while he fishes—carefully descends to the coast by way of a steep strip of public land. Some residents of the nearby multimillion-dollar homes are attempting to shut down access to prevent spearfishermen like us from frequenting the spot. (Mike Raabe/)
WSB can be found from 5 to 70 feet deep. Here, the sun reflects off Okamoto’s mask as he makes one last lung-­busting push to the surface with his WSB. (Mike Raabe/)
Hunting WSB can require up to 100 dives in a single day. Most spearfishermen max out at two minutes when swimming, or as many as five minutes when still. (Mike Raabe/)
Stealth is mandatory, and so is positive species identification. I was initially certain this fish was a WSB but soon realized it was a protected black seabass. (Mike Raabe/)
Sharks may not bother us, but they’ll make quick work of unclaimed fish. Scott Blumer recovered his WSB minutes after shooting it, but sevengills got there first. (Mike Raabe/)
Packing fish may require fewer trips than with an elk, but it can be just as grueling. Here, Moore takes a shift hauling Blumer’s 56-pounder up a cliff. (Mike Raabe/)
Just as hunters save elk ivories, spearfishermen pry the two otolith stones from the inner ears of WSB. This collection is annotated with the weight of each fish. (Mike Raabe/)

Utah’s Henry Mountain bison herd is one of the only wild herds left in the Lower 48. Buffalo in that unit roam across some of the most rugged territory on earth.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

The hunting is hard, and drawing a permit is even harder. Drawing happens only once in a hunter’s lifetime—and that’s if you’re lucky.

In 2018 my buddy Dan drew a tag. He, his 73-year-old father Jeff, and I loaded a pack string of horses and disappeared into the backcountry.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }