Field & Stream May 2017

ANY OUTDOORSMAN WHO’S had a memorable hunt on public land understands how, over time, the land evolves from being the setting of that hunt’s story into a main character. One of those places for me is Hunt Area 52, near Saratoga, Wyo., where I once enjoyed a D.I.Y. pronghorn hunt with a buddy. Years later, so much of that landscape has stuck with me. I remember the quaking aspens that bordered our campsite. I remember stalking through draws choked with sagebrush. I remember the coolness of the flat boulder where I rested prone, peering through the scope, and the country’s silence after the rifle blast. Most of all, I remember how we had that place entirely to ourselves. It was as if we owned the land. Which, of course, we…

Artist Rich Metzger carved the trophy bass featured on our cover and in the largemouth package, “10!” (p. 30). CK: So how long did this fish take? RM: I’d say between 70 and 80 hours for this fish. CK: What was the most difficult part? RM: Deciding what I wanted to incorporate. Since I wasn’t trying to imitate one specific fish, I found myself looking at lots of photos, thinking, I like the tail on that one, the head from this one, the body on this one… CK: What kind of wood did you use? RM: Basswood, of course. CK: What’s the most interesting fish mount you’ve ever carved? RM: I recently completed a northern snakehead.* CK: What’s the best spot for a fish trophy? RM: Well, if you have…

1 At your congressman’s next town hall meeting, ask him about public lands and film his answer with your phone. “Post the video on social media and tag the congressman’s name,” Tawney says. “It’s one way to keep him accountable.” 2 Invite your congressman to a meeting at your conservation chapter, so he can learn why these lands are so important. “Even better,” Tawney says, “invite him to a wild-game barbecue, so he can enjoy wild game from public lands.” 3 “This thing about how we all own 640 million acres,” Tawney says, “a lot of people don’t have any idea about that. Outdoorsmen are great storytellers, and spreading the word about public lands within our own ranks is vitally important.”…

Montana’s remote Bob Marshall Wilderness is one of the few places in the world where you can target the threatened bull trout, and this float was on photographer Tim Romano’s bucket list for several years before it came together in July 2016 (the season opens in late May). His party of four took horses over the Continental Divide to make a nine-day, 43-mile float on the South Fork of the Flathead River. After “gluttonous” fishing for cutthroats on a tributary, Romano says, they hit the main stem and caught and released 26 bull trout in total. There were grueling portages around massive logjams, but the big-shouldered bulls up to 37 inches made it worthwhile. “We’d caught so many big fish by this point that we were just taking it all…

n February, Nick Dulleck, 33, caught and released an 11- pound 4-ounce spotted bass. It is awaiting certification as the International Game Fish Association all- tackle world record. On my birthday weekend, my friend Adam and I took a trip to New Bullards Bar Reservoir in northern California. We knew this lake held some monster spotted bass, so we were on the hunt for a real trophy. We started fishing around 9 A.M., and about an hour later, the fish hit my football jig with a twin trailer. I could tell it was big. It ran a few times and peeled what it could, but I was using heavy braided line and kept it pretty controlled. When the fish finally came out of the mud, I caught a glimpse of…

BUDGET-BREAKING BOWS, THE COYOTE OVERLOAD, SKUNK-BRAINED FISHING TIPS, AND A GATOR CHOMPS A DUCK HUNTER COMPOUND INTERESTS I enjoyed all of the Fire Issue, but Will Brantley’s “The Bow Bubble” (Hunting) was unprecedented. I’m a big-time archery guy, but I had no idea the $1,000- plus price tags of many compound bows were affecting local bow shops, and driving some out of business, as Brantley reports. Thanks for teaching me something new with every issue. Jeff Kacena, Valparaiso, Ind. “The Bow Bubble” touched on important issues facing bowhunters, especially the high cost of flagship bows. Within one year, those bows are “outdated,” so you can’t sell them for anywhere near what you paid. I love archery, but the high prices and low returns have forced me to return to guns…