Earlier this spring, listening to sleet blow against the windows, I absentmindedly doom-scrolled Instagram. But my hit of melancholy was unexpectedly delayed.

I paused on a post showing a wild turkey, a tom in full strut, with a quote by writer Tom Kelly running across the top of the image.

As the words sank in, the familiar, distorted lens of social media cleared:

Turkey hunting is not a game that needs a score or a score keeper and does not require the production of a dead turkey to qualify as a success. Done properly and unscored, it is about as even as anything can be when one of the participants has a loaded shotgun and the other has not.

Upgrade your hunt with the quickest and easiest hands-free bow retrieval system on the market: the Bow Spider.

Last week I wrote about the amazing sense of smell and taste catfish possess. Salmon swimming the open ocean follow the subtle scent trail of the river in which they were born to home in on the exact location of their birth when they mature and make their own spawning run. Catfish possess a sense of smell as much as 100 times greater than salmon.

For stream fisherman in this part of the country, it would seem that smallmouth bass are the only reason for existence. This writer is often guilty of such angling narrow-mindedness. However, while the bronzeback is the undisputed king of the creek, the black and green prince is hiding among the rocks and roots, ready to offer good fishing even when the smallies are sulking.

Some spring bear hunters may consider the furs to be the main takeaway from their harvest, black bear meat especially doesn’t often get the love it deserves. Hi Mountain aims to change that with their bear ham seasoning.

Federal Ammunition has been offering shotshells for 100 years, and to commemorate this milestone event they are offering shells in four different retro packaging designs to be released throughout 2022.

Stay hidden every season with the silent, lightweight and three-dimensional Arcturus Realtree Edge 3D Leaf Suit.

I’m not a trained marine mechanic, but I’ve been a boater all my adult life and have spent more time in less than perfectly maintained boats than ones that are checked and spit-polished by trained technicians on a regular basis. Most of the time, everything works. Some of the time the day starts at a standstill. The motor won’t start.

On May 12, a soldier at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) died of injuries sustained in a bear attack on May 10 while working in a JBER training area. Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant, 30, an infantryman from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment was a dedicated servicemember who lost his life in an untimely tragedy.  

April and May offer some of the best smallmouth bass fishing of the year but it also offers some of the most contrasting fishing conditions of the season.

One day might be perfect, with nice water and great weather, while the next day might bring muddy high water, thunderstorms and sometimes snow. This means that even more than lake anglers, springtime river bass fishermen must stay adaptable to the changing conditions.