Field & Stream August/September 2018

FOR ME, IT STARTS WHEN THE tag comes in the mail. Or the one day a year when I actually go to the post office, stand in line (and am reminded why I only visit this place once a year), and buy a duck stamp. Or when I purchase my New York license way earlier than is necessary. And from there, the anticipation starts to build. Organizing gear… Reading reports… Watching the weather… Talking with friends, asking if they’ve sorted out their gear and checked the reports and seen the forecast… Then comes the night before, Opening Day Eve. To be honest, that might be my favorite part. Because when I think of past opening days, the memories that come to me first didn’t take place on the…

All due respect to jerky, summer sausage, and gorp, but last fall I was introduced to a superior hunting snack: the peanut butter, bacon, and honey wrap. I have FIELD & STREAM executive VP Greg Gatto to thank for the PB&B&H wrap. It’s long been Gatto’s favorite hunting snack, and he fixed a batch of them at our New York deer camp. As you can imagine, assembly is a cinch: Spread a generous helping of peanut butter onto a large flour tortilla, add a few strips of bacon, top with honey, then fold and wrap in foil. The snack is savory and sweet, and packs a lot of protein. There have been times since last fall when I’ve craved this wrap, but I’ve resisted. Because when I eat this…

Our One Wild Summer issue (June–July 2018) featured 92 tips, trips, and cheap thrills—one for every day of summer. Some of the entries were on the longer side, but for the most part they were short and sweet. So, it’s kind of fitting that most of the reader response we received was equally short…but not necessarily sweet. Regardless, here are some of our favorites. —THE EDITORS SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW? In “Explore New Waters,” contributing editor Mark Modoski listed the 50 hottest fishing spots in the country—one river, lake, or stream for every state. Um, you’ve got to be kidding me: For Arkansas, you guys didn’t say the White River? Keith Hilburn, via Facebook Most of my largest fish have come from the Harris Chain of Lakes (Florida).…

I pack my gear, then toss and turn half the night to the point where I think, Screw this, I’m going now. I get up, get dressed, and head to the stand, where I sit and watch fishing shows until daylight comes. Then it’s tablet off, hunt on. —AL LIBBY I drink with my buddies because the first day of bow season is slow, and the hunting is better in the evenings during the early bow season anyway. —DAVID MCALLISTER For duck season, it’s scouting and talking for hours about where we’re gonna hunt, exactly which way the ducks are gonna come from, and how good we’re gonna do. Last year’s opener didn’t go as planned. —CHANCE DAVIS All of the above. —JEFFREY MURPHY…

• THE SEASON• THE WILD CHEF• THE TOTAL OUTDOORSMAN• SHOTGUNS• RIFLES LOOKING AT THE stretch of Michigan’s Jordan River I was wading, it was tough to believe it was teeming with wild brook trout. The shallow, ultraclear flow wasn’t very wide. It was fully lit by the August sun, and there wasn’t a dark hidey-hole in sight. Here and there, a few branches lay clumped together on the sandy bottom, creating meager eddies and slight depressions. I could see every leaf on the riverbed, but I hadn’t seen—or spooked—a single trout. So when my first cast of a beetle behind a midriver stick was met with the sip of a brookie that seemed to materialize out of the ether, I was shocked. Holding the tiny fish in my hand,…

Wild brook trout will rise to almost any dry fly, but according to Michigan guide Brian Kozminski (truenorthtrout.com), no brookie assortment is complete without some Hippy Stompers. This mash-up dry has a profile that represents everything from a caddis to an emerger to a beetle, and thanks to its foam body, it’ll float all day. Kozminski says a Hippy Stomper in any hue will score wild brookies, but if he could pick only one body combo, it would be black and purple.…