Deer Hunting
Small sweet-potato plots work wonders
It’s too late this year to employ one of Bob Watson’s favorite early season buck-hunting strategies, but there’s no doubt you’ll want to put it to work for you next year.[…]
Sidebars
Catfish
Cleaning monster catfish
Cleaning really big catfish — those over 25 pounds — is like butchering a hog. The skin is thick and tough; rib-cage bones are big and defy a sharp knife.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
How to build Derek Logan’s catfishing jugs
It used to be that a catfish jug was just that — a simple jug that could be a used plastic milk or oil container.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
A shared passion for catfishing
Derek Logan told me his wife Rebecca liked to fish. Still, I wasn’t prepared for what I met.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Tippets
When it comes to catching specks on the fly, November is as good as it gets. The ideal conditions are a) a light south wind, b) overcast or foggy and c) a falling tide. If those conditions exist, work poppers along points, shorelines, cuts and the back of deadend canals for quality trout.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Find steel to find tuna
The fall Grand Isle tuna game starts with finding big deep sea, steel-hull shrimp trawlers at work.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Rigging up
When Kim and Blake Fouquier leave the dock, they carry a small arsenal of rods and reels. Their basic tuna rigs include Tiagra 50W Shimano Two-Speed Lever Drag reels mounted on J & M Tackle custom rods.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Chum! It’s what’s for breakfast
Chum, and plenty of it, is a critical part of catching fall tuna ghosting under shrimp boats. Chum can be almost anything fishy, and it doesn’t have to be fresh.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Taking care of the ride
For fishing 50 or 60 miles offshore, the single most important piece of equipment is a fisherman’s boat and motor.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Why October?
Tuna fishing as described here is not a year-round sport. While yellowfin can be caught off of the Louisiana coast all year, October is special. After a couple of cold fronts, the hot-blooded fish come nearer to shore from their usual deep-water haunts.[…]
Hunting
Trophy taxidermy tips
Following these steps can insure that your trophy buck, duck or fish become art in the skillful hands of a taxidermist:[…]
Deer Hunting
Proven tips for trophy bucks
• Watch the weather — when ice and snow are forecast, be in the woods.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Danos’ 3 rules for success
Capt. Chris Danos’ fall fishing tactics are simple.
• “First and foremost, fish the falling tide. In the summer months the tide is generally rising in the morning and falling in the afternoon. That’ll all switch around in the fall and it’ll be falling every morning and rising in the afternoon.[…]
Deer Hunting
Long-range optics perfect for scouting
Part of collecting valuable data to assist hunters with picking an opening day hunting stand is to spend time observing the areas around established stands or spots under consideration for stand placement.[…]
Deer Hunting
Verify trail cam photos before choosing stand
It’s obvious, right?
You capture a nice buck on your trail cam by the sunflower field stand, so you pick that venue for opening day.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Tippets
It’s been a tough year for marsh trout, but if October holds true to form we should see an inundation of the snaggled-tooth species. A weighted Clouser or Shrimp pattern set 30 inches below a VOSI will be the ticket over reefs, and in cuts, canals and bayous.[…]