Late summer is the best time to target trophy smallmouth bass with big bugs on the surface
IT WAS A FAMILY vacation to the Wisconsin Northwoods, and while I hoped to steal some time to fish, I’d packed only a barebones gear kit. So when I spotted a pair of big smallmouths patrolling a rock hump—I was poking around in the rowboat that came with the cottage—I had to mark the spot the way my dad had taught me: triangulation. A white boathouse, a lightning scarred pine, and the wreckage of a duck blind gave me landmarks to reckon by when the lake glassed off that evening.
I rowed out after supper, a swell of anticipation rising in my chest with each pull of the oars. The lake, as I’d hoped, had gone mirror-smooth. I anchored with the sun at my back, knotted a chartreuse Dahlberg Diver to my leader, and began slinging casts. A loon yodeled nearby, raising the hair on the back of my neck.
Day-Glo deer hair and rod pointed straight at it, I worked the fly in short glugs, pausing to let the ripples settle before twitching it again, the bug submerging briefly then bobbing to the surface when— Ker-pow!
Or maybe it was Ka-boom!
Denne historien er fra August 2016-utgaven av Field & Stream.
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Denne historien er fra August 2016-utgaven av Field & Stream.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
LIVING THE DREAM
After the author arrives in Maine’s fabled North Woods with a moose tag in his pocket, an adventure he’s been wanting to take his entire hunting life, reality sets in, and he learns a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for
Get the Drift
How to make an accurate windage call under pressure
First Sit
An icebreaker outing in a pristine spot produces the rut hunt of a lifetime
A Local Haunt
The author finds a sense of place in an overlooked creek, close to home
A Hop and a Pump
Jump-shooting rabbits with classic upland guns is about as good a time as you can have in the outdoors
Welcome TO camp
Is there any place better than a good hunting camp? It has everything: great food, games and pranks, and of course, hunting. Shoot, we don’t even mind going to camp for grueling work days in the summer. Here, our contributors share their favorite stories, traditions, and lessons learned from camps they’ve shared. So come on in and join us. The door’s open.
THE DEERSLAYERS
Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics
THE JOURNEY TO PIKE'S PEAK
Last summer, the author and three friends ventured off the grid to a remote fish camp in Canada. They hoped for great fishing, but what they experienced was truly something else
Stage Directions
When early-season whitetails vanish from open feeding areas, follow this woods-edge ambush plan
Rookie Season
A pup’s first year, from preseason training to fall’s big show
