Field & Stream June - July 2016

IT’S A FUNNY THING about summer. No season ignites a stronger desire to seek spontaneous adventure, and yet there’s an undeniable pleasure in staying close to home—to spend every free minute on your local spring creek or farm pond. A few summers ago, I sought adventure. I traveled to Wyoming and met a fishing buddy who lived out there, and for the next week we trucked hundreds of miles on a mission to catch all four cutthroat species native to the state. We landed Snake River cutts in a hidden stream near the Tetons, then caught hundreds of Yellowstone cutthroats during a salmonfly hatch. (For a while, we had a crowd of park tourists watching us fish; Old Faithful must’ve had an off day.) Next, we checked off Bonneville cutts…

PHOTOGRAPHER: BRIAN GROSSENBACHER LOCATION: GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK Oliver White played a Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout during a 10-mile float from Pacific Creek Landing to Deadman’s Bar, as Carter Andrews manned the oars of their South Fork skiff. The longtime guiding buddies had reunited in Jackson Hole in August. Smoke from wildfires tinged the surroundings with a golden brown tone as they took turns rowing and casting Chubby Chernobyl dries and Double Bunny streamers around logjams, root wads, and long grassy banks for fine-spotted cutts. This native subspecies grows to about 20 inches and has hundreds of small spots all over its body and fins. “That float through the Tetons is one of the prettiest to fish in America,” says White, who lives in the Bahamas but returns to…

HIGH PRAISE “The Reunion Hunt” (Apr. 2016) sums up why I read F&S. It’s one of the few magazines to still honor hunting’s complexities. MJC, via fieldandstream.com STRONG CONNECTION “The Reunion Hunt” by T. Edward Nickens hit home for me. I lost my dad when I was 17. We had hunted together since I was a kid, and after his death, I often cried in the woods while alone on my hunts. When I was 23, my cousin started showing an interest in the outdoors, so I encouraged him into it, and we’ve hunted together ever since. Also, I now have two boys of my own, and we go more often than we should. The story reminded me how lucky I am to have them all in my life. Pennaimaging,…

That afternoon, after I made it to the top of the mountain, I trekked down the south face and poked around for a while, looking for sheds. But then, rather than hike back the way I’d come, I decided to take a shortcut. I was getting good footholds at first, but as I kept on, walking got a lot harder, since the slope was so steep. At one point, I kicked a foot into the ice and thought I had a good hold, but when I put my weight on it, everything just crumbled beneath me. I couldn’t stop myself—I was sliding straight toward these vertical drops near the bottom of this gorge. I tried to grab a bush but couldn’t. After sliding a good ways, though, I finally dug…

1. In March, Travis Cardona, 23, arrowed a 74-pound black buffalo at Missouri’s Duck Creek CA “At a gas station on the drive up, I took a Snapchat of our boat with the caption, ‘I have a feeling.’ So it was surreal when it maxed out our scale.” 2. In February, AJ Klein, 36, netted an 11.10-pound largemouth in Delaware’s Wagamons Pond “It felt like fighting a boulder, but I was too concentrated on reeling it in to enjoy myself until after we got it in the boat. Then I was just in awe.” 3. Last fall, Greg Gasiciel, 43, landed a 9.33-pound smallmouth in Michigan’s Hubbard Lake “I was so cold from being on the water all day, but when the fish hit, it was like getting punched in…

• THE SEASON • FISHING • SPORTSMAN’S NOTEBOOK • ASK PETZAL • THE TOTAL OUTDOORSMAN • SHOTGUNS • HUNTING THE SHELLCRACKER IS wearing his tuxedo. That’s what serious bream fishermen call the vibrant mix of colors the males assume when they’re “on the bed.” This fish is a handful, but I am able to get just enough of my index finger on his belly to apply a little pressure. I brandish the fish toward my wife, Michelle, who’s sitting in the middle of the boat. “Put him in the live well right now!” she says. “I sweartahgod, Will Brantley, if you spray me with another fish I’ll beat your—” “Do it!” my brother, Matt, yells from the back deck. I’m not about to back away from the challenge. A gentle…