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I can’t explain my love for the .222 Remington Magnum except to say that I’ve always liked some things that are a little bit off the beaten path.  Maybe my first thought of the cartridge was in hunters’ education, around 1980.  Pouring over the glossy Remington product catalogs of the day, complete with ballistics charts and sexy photos of the Remington cartridge lineup could have slipped the sear. Maybe it was later, when I started handloading and my erudite uncle who has loaded for nearly every cartridge available, mentioned it. I really don’t know. What I do know is that after many years of deliberating I finally converted a Remington 700 ADL into a .222 Rem. Mag. about 20 years ago. That began my relationship with a cartridge that I think deserves far more attention than it currently gets—or probably will ever get—but one that certainly deserves a better fate than to be swept into the dustbin of cartridges that “didn’t quite make it.”

.222 Rem. Mag. Origin

As most avid readers of handloading manuals likely know, the .222 Remington Magnum sprang from the same government program in the late 1950s that sought to replace the .30-caliber service cartridges American GIs had relied on for years with a lighter, higher velocity round that allowed for the carry of significantly more ammunition with no significant reduction in lethality at typical combat distances expected to be encountered at the time. Ultimately, this study gave birth to the 5.56mm NATO/.223 Remington, but the cartridge chosen was based on the .222 Remington and produced one submission that ultimately morphed into the .222 Remington Magnum in 1958.

.222 Rem. Mag. vs .223 Rem.

As envisioned by Remington at inception, cartridges in this family would rarely utilize bullets heavier than 55 grains. Yes, 60-grain projectiles were available and could be used, but they were reserved for niche applications for the most part. The odd guy who hunted deer with a .22 caliber, shooters who wanted a little more thump for slightly bigger animals (think European Roe Deer hunters), and perhaps other limited uses that could arise. As such, the cartridge was originally wheeled onto the showroom floor with a 1:14 twist—which in many ways would prove to be its undoing over time.

Juicing Up the Twist Rate

Recognizing this limitation, I had my rifle built with a slightly faster (albeit not fast enough by the standards of today) 1:12 twist Shilen Select Match Grade barrel. This helped allow the rifle become what I had originally imagined—namely be a first-class long-range ground squirrel rig and a capable predator rifle—shooting primarily 50- to 55-grain, plastic tipped bullets.

Reloading the .222 Rem. Mag.

Handloading the .222 Remington Magnum has also been interesting. Even though it enjoyed some time on the benchrest circuit, it developed a reputation for being a bit finicky. Other handloading enthusiasts I know who own .222 Remington Magnums often second this opinion. In my experience, it’s a cartridge that lives at the extremes. Light bullets, such as the 40-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip or 40-grain Sierra Blitzking have shot quite well for me with powders such as AA LT-32, or H-322—at muzzle velocities of 3600 to 3800 FPS. On the heavier end of the bullet spectrum, various 52- to 55-grain bullets have thrived with the likes of Hodgdon’s Varget—a heavy charge of which will reliably drive 52- and 53-grain bullets at almost 3400 fps and break 3300 fps with 55s. Another sleeper of a powder for this round is VV N-135—and certainly don’t overlook the tried-and-true H-4895. Hotter primers seem to help this cartridge—CCI 450s, Remington 7.5s, and Federal 205s have all turned in excellent groups with the right mix of components.

Consulting the Elders

Years ago, I spoke to Jim Carmichel—the former shooting editor of this publication and asked him some very pointed questions about powder charges in this cartridge, as I knew he had experience with it on the competition circuit several decades ago. In his slow Tennessee drawl, Jim told me in no uncertain terms “4198, Pat. Try 4198 with a good 52-grain bullet and I think you’ll be happy.”

Interestingly, a few years ago I sat in Bob Nosler’s office one afternoon and asked him the same question (Bob is also a .222 Rem. Mag. aficionado and knows a thing or two about handloading—as one would expect). “4198, Pat.  Give it a try.”

Lo and behold, last winter I assembled a battery of test loads with several leading 52-grain bullets and H-4198 (temperature insensitive, after all) and was rewarded with group after group in the low .5s to low .6s.  It shows a couple of things: First, the guys who worked with this cartridge 50 years ago figured out a lot of things that are still quite relevant today; second, the .222 Rem. Mag. might be finicky, but finicky in the world of gilt-edged accuracy is still plenty good for almost anything most of us do with a rifle.

.222 Rem. Mag. Is Still Kicking

For those of you who might be interested in this cartridge, take note that it’s not dead—on life support, yes, but not dead.  Nosler still manufactures ammunition utilizing a 50-grain Ballistic Tip. I’ve shot this ammunition and it’s good—quite good in fact. Nosler also manufactures cartridge cases—also of very good quality. The other source I know of for brass is Sako. A couple of years ago I was in Germany and paid a princely sum for 100 of their cases. They are also very consistent and durable but are significantly heavier (and thus require a lighter charge weight to reach pressure) than any of the American cases I have used.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention field performance of this round. From a velocity and accuracy standpoint, the .222 Remington Magnum will do anything that the .223 will do with the same weight of bullet. It cracks the magical 3500 fps barrier with 50-grain bullets and several different propellants (in a 24-inch barrel) and will definitely anchor any prairie dog, jackrabbit, coyote, or woodchuck unfortunate enough to step into its bullet’s path. With the right bullets, it’s also an excellent cartridge for fur hunters, though I would consider it to be a bit heavy for thin-skinned animals like fox or bobcat.

While the .222 Remington Magnum has enjoyed its heyday, reports of its demise are premature. If you have a hankering to try a cartridge that’s different, that’s sure to be a conversation starter, and won’t let you down on the range or in the field—look no further than this capable classic.

That’s just one example in a nearly endless list of state-by-state rules and regulations governing hunting that may make sense to the creators of the laws, but can be mind-scrambling to hunters sorting through them.

The Outdoor Life Podcast: Why Do We Have Such Strange Hunting Laws?

Editor’s note: You can listen to this episode of the Outdoor Life Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever else you get your podcasts. This episode contains explicit language.

“It’s a reflection of the conditions in which you hunt,” Boudreau says, “and it’s up to the personal preference and the philosophy of the state that you’re talking about.”

In a sport that should be fairly black and white—life and death—hunting has a surprising amount of gray area.

“Laws can only go so far to prescribe ethical behavior, and some laws are based in biology and some in ethics… and others are commonly held beliefs that become regulation,” says Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik.

Changing Values

Sometimes the laws change because public opinions and values change. For the past century, it was illegal to chase bears in Montana with dogs. The state legislature changed that law this year.

“In Montana, a person may take game birds, hunt mountain lions and hunt bobcats with the aid of a dog or dogs,” Montana Republican Rep. Paul Fielder told the Helena Independent Record. “This bill simply adds black bears to the list of animals that may be hunted with a dog.”

Hunting black bears with hounds is also legal in Idaho, though not in Wyoming. It’s come up before in Wyoming, Nesvik says, but no one ultimately wanted to change the regulation.

These three states all have strong hunting cultures and healthy bear populations, but they can’t agree on the ethics of hunting bears with dogs. And just wait, it gets weirder: Idaho and Wyoming hunters can shoot black bears over bait, however, that’s illegal in Montana.

Advocates for using hounds to hunt bears in Montana, and those who support using bait for bears in Wyoming, say the practice allows hunters to be more careful with their bear identification before shooting. Those in states where it’s not allowed argue hounds or baiting aren’t fair and also aren’t necessary for animal ID.

Read Next: This Ultra-Runner is Trying to Persistence-Hunt a Pronghorn

Most of the time, regulations and hunters’ ethics depend upon the species. For example, it’s legal and accepted across the country to chase birds with dogs, it’s even considered more ethical because dogs retrieve wounded birds that might otherwise be lost. Studies from the 1930s found that about one in four waterfowl that are shot by hunters are not recovered. However, this line of thinking doesn’t work for big game hunting. Imagine for a moment that you wound a pronghorn and then sent a dog to tackle the animal and hold it until it could be dispatched by the hunter. Few, if any, hunters or nonhunters would find that acceptable.  On the flip side, more states are allowing tracking dogs to help blood trail and recover big game, which is viewed by most in the hunting community as ethical and responsible.

Some laws are more dependent on landscape. Using dogs to chase big game like elk, moose, or deer in many western mountain states is not only illegal but also considered unethical.

Travel to a state with trees so thick they’re almost impassable to humans, like portions of the southeast, and you’ll find it’s legal. Similarly, you can legally bait deer with piles of apples or grain in areas of Michigan and Wisconsin, but don’t even think about it in nearby Illinois or Minnesota.

“Look at the evolution of the loss of trapping in western states,” Boudreau says, mentioning New Mexico’s recent ban. “It evolves over time. As society changes, those values change.”

For Nesvik, hunting regulations depend on what makes sense biologically and scientifically. He also considers what the nonhunting public will tolerate.

“We have laws on the books that have nothing to do with biology,” he says, like requiring shotguns be plugged at three rounds even though most duck limits are six. “Because at the end of the day, it’s important for me as the director of the agency to make sure that hunting remains an acceptable norm. We have to be able to maintain hunting as a management tool.”

Fair Chase vs. Personal Ethics

Move past what is legal or illegal, and hunters begin talking about concepts like fair chase and clean kill. It’s important to understand that those two ideas are similar but not the same.

Aldo Leopold, the legendary conservationist and philosopher, wrote: “A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience rather than by a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.”

But how to determine what is the right thing?

“Trying to put a value on the continuum of fair chase versus a clean kill is pretty difficult,” Boudreau says. “I think those are part of the instinctive nature of people who hunt and their own personal values and how they grew up and who taught them.”

The Boone and Crockett Club, which runs a magazine called Fair Chase, weighed in a few years ago on the baiting issue. Their conclusion?

It depends: “Fair Chase is based on the meaning of ‘fair’ that relates to legitimate, genuine, or appropriate given the circumstances. Where an increased harvest of a particular species needs to occur, or where positive identification of size or sex is a legal requirement, baiting is appropriate given the circumstances and does not violate Fair Chase principles.”

The organization lists six principles of fair chase, from obeying all laws and regulations to respecting local customs to behaving “in a way that will bring no dishonor to either the hunter, the hunted, or the environment.”

Long-range shooting is a good example. Hunter education classes teach us to shoot only as far as we know we are lethal. For Nesvik, that’s 400 yards. For his son, it’s 300 yards. Both men refuse to shoot any longer, though likely most hunters have stories of being tempted to take a shot they knew was farther than they should.

Then there’s very long range. In Wyoming, he says, “most people feel if you shoot an animal at 1,000 yards, whether you kill it dead or not, it’s unethical because you’re using technology to such a level the animal has no chance to see you or flee.”

Other people argue the opposite, maintaining that the animal still dies in a quick and humane way. The debate is also growing among archery hunters.

That’s where fair chase becomes evaluated by each hunter’s values and ethics. Ultimately, Nesvik says: “Everybody has a different view on what should be right.” And with that, you get the quagmire of hunting regulations that we have today.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story included a quote often misattributed to conservationist Aldo Leopold. It has been replaced.

More Outdoor Life Podcasts

In this complete guide, we define the sport of fly fishing and look back on its rich history. We also walk through how to get started as a new fly angler, including the gear and techniques required to start catching fish. You can read straight through the story, or click on the table of contents below to jump around.

1. What Is Fly Fishing?
2. Understanding and Buying Fly Fishing Gear
3. Key Fly Fishing Technqiues
4. Finding a Place to Fish
5. A Brief History of Fly Fishing
6. FAQs

What Is Fly Fishing?

This seemed a logical approach because aquatic insects make up the majority of a trout’s diet. As a practical matter, however, anglers quickly found that it was impossible to throw these minuscule lures with traditional rods and casting techniques, which rely on the weight of a lure or bait to effectively throw it. This necessity gave birth to a whole new approach to casting—one that revolved around the use of a weighted fly line.

Fast forward to the 21^st century, and the sport has far outgrown the European trout and salmon fishing world. Thanks to advances in gear and new techniques, anglers can now catch nearly every fish that swims using a fly rod. (Some folks are even getting into fly fishing for carp these days.) In a sense, the sport of fly fishing has grown so far from its traditional roots that it can sometimes be hard to separate it from conventional fishing.

A trout caught on the fly. Tom Koerner / USFWSIn Alaska trout fishing circles, for example, the old-school yarn flies that imitated salmon eggs have been tossed aside in favor of small plastic beads. And in some dark corners of the steelheading world, anglers are spooling their fly reels with monofilament and using extra weights to get longer, better drifts in deep rivers. Meanwhile, you can run offshore and catch a marlin on a fly rod, but you’ll probably have to rely on teaser lures that are trolled or cast out with a spinning rod if you want to have a chance at hooking one on the fly.

On the other end of the spectrum are the fly fishing purists. These highfalutin anglers refuse to trout fish with anything besides a dry fly (a fly that floats the surface) made of fur and feathers lashed to a hook.

I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. By my own definition, fly fishing is a time-honored technique that relies on casting a fly line (not monofilament) with a fly rod to fool fish with artificial patterns made of natural and/or synthetic materials.

Understanding and Buying Fly Fishing Gear

If you want to get into fly fishing, you’ll need to buy some specialized gear and learn some new techniques. Here’s a run down of the key tools you’ll need:

The Fly Rod

A fly rod is the first piece of equipment you’ll need to purchase. These rods are longer, thinner, and whippier than conventional spinning and casting rods. They tend to be more expensive as well, with some of the best saltwater fly rods and other high-end models costing more than $1,000. But there are plenty of options in the sub-$200 range, including some of the best fly fishing combos for beginners.

The key difference between fly rods and conventional rods is how they function when casting. A conventional rod casts the weight of the lure or bait, and the fishing line comes along for the ride. A fly rod casts the weight of the line, and the fly comes along for the ride. (More on casting techniques below.)

Fly rods come in a variety of different weights and sizes. Brad / Adobe stockFly rods come in various weights, which translates to the thickness of the rod and its ability to throw different sized flies to different sized fish. The typical range is from a 1-weight to a 14-weight. A 1-weight is best for ultralight techniques like fishing a small creek for brook trout, while a 14-weight is made for battling marlin, giant trevally, and other big saltwater species. A 5- or 6-weight rod would fall right in the middle of this range, and these have long been considered the best trout fly rods. These weights also work great for targeting bass and other game fish.

The standard length for a fly rod is nine feet, and most modern rods break down into four pieces for easy transport. Slightly shorter rods (seven to eight feet) are favored by anglers fishing with lighter-weight rods in tight quarters, while 10-footers are sometimes preferred by anglers in boats or on bigger water.

The rods described above would all be classified as single-handed fly rods, which is what most people are familiar with. But there are also double-handed rods, known as spey rods, which are even longer (11 to 14 feet) and designed for fishing wide, fast-flowing rivers. They’re most often used by anglers targeting steelhead and salmon. On the other end of the fly rod spectrum are tenkara rods. Invented in Japan, these long (11 to 15 feet) telescoping rods are the cane poles of the fly-fishing world.

The Fly Reel

Just like a conventional rod-and-reel setup, all fly rods (with the exception of tenkara) should be paired with a fly reel. Modern reels consist of a round spool with a handle that attaches to a reel frame, which features a pair of friction plates that create what’s known as “drag” by regulating the tension or force required to take the line off the spool. Winding on the reel handle takes line in, and the line is pulled off the reel by hand.

When compared to conventional spinning and baitcasting reels, fly reels are more basic with fewer mechanical parts. Functionally, the biggest difference is that conventional reels feature improved gear ratios (such as 6:1 or 7.5:1), which allow the spool to spin multiple times for every crank of the reel handle. A fly reel, on the other hand, has a 1:1 gear ratio, meaning that for each turn of the handle the spool rotates one turn.

The Fly Line

The line used in fly fishing is actually made up of three different components: the fly line, backing, and leader.

The fly line itself is the thick, colored line that helps deliver the fly. These weighted lines are classified like fly rods, with different weighted lines designed to pair with different weighted rods. (A 5-weight fly line, for example, is designed to cast with a 5-weight rod.) They’re also tapered, and the standard these days is known as a “weight-forward” taper. This means the line gradually gets thicker toward the business end, and it makes casting easier.

Aside from the line’s weight and taper, fly lines are classified into two main categories: floating lines and sinking lines. (There are also intermediate and sink-tip lines, which lie somewhere in between.) Floating lines have traditionally been the go-to choice for fly fishing, and for most fishing situations, a weight-forward floating fly line is all you really need. These are made of braided nylon cores coated with PVC, and they’re treated with various substances that keep the line afloat and allow it to “shoot” through the guides.

Floating fly lines designed for single-handed rods are typically around 90 feet in length. They should be cleaned periodically to maintain maximum flotation and slickness.

Since most fly reels can hold upward of 200 yards of line, a thin diameter line known as “backing” is what fills the extra space on the spool. This braided nylon line is typically 20- to 30-pound test, and it’s wound around the spool and connected to the tail end of the fly line. It’s not used in casting and is usually only seen when a big fish pulls a lot of line off the reel.

The “leader” is the clear fishing line that connects the head of the fly line to the fly itself. Most leaders are around six to nine feet in length, and they’re typically made of monofilament or fluorocarbon. These lines are also tapered, but this taper is in reverse compared to a weight-forward fly line: the thicker butt section gradually gets narrower toward the tip. When combined, these tapers help transfer the energy smoothly and efficiently from the caster’s hand to the tip of the leader.

Selecting the thickness of the leader is up to the angler and depends on the fishing situation. Long, thin leaders allow for light presentations but break easily, while short and stout leaders are much stronger but lack finesse. Most anglers will also tie on a short section of tippet to the end of their tapered leader. This clear line is made of the same material as the leader, and it helps preserve the tapered leader so it doesn’t get shorter and shorter as you change your flies.

The Fly

The most interesting part of any fly-fishing setup is the fly itself. Flies are what anglers geek out over the most, in part because the options are as limitless as the water bodies where we throw them. Flies can be as simple or as complex as the imagination allows. The art of fly tying is a pastime in and of itself, and there are people who tie flies religiously but will never fish a day in their lives.

For those of us who like to catch fish, we can divide the almighty fly into three basic categories: dry flies and other top-water patterns, nymphs, and streamers. These can imitate everything under the sun, including eggs, worms, bugs, baitfish, frogs, shrimp, mulberries, and mice.

Dry flies are designed to imitate the adult form of an aquatic insect, such as a caddisfly, mayfly, or stonefly. Other bug types include terrestrial insects (like grasshoppers and ants) and midges (think mosquitos, but smaller). Dry flies are designed for and most often used in trout fishing. Because these flies float on the surface, the angler can usually see the fish eat them. This is part of the draw of dry-fly fishing—as is “matching the hatch,” which requires the angler to pick out a fly that imitates the natural bugs the fish are currently feeding on. This changes depending on when and where you’re fishing.

There are also topwater flies that imitate forage beyond bugs. Examples include poppers, sliders, gurglers, and mice patterns. These are usually fished more actively on the surface, as they’re meant to imitate critters like frogs, wounded baitfish, and swimming rodents. They can be used to target trout, along with bass, pike, and other predatory fish in both freshwater and saltwater.

Nymphs are subsurface flies that imitate the larval forms of aquatic insects. These weighted patterns are usually small, and they’re fished near the bottom of a stream or lake. They’re used mostly for trout fishing, but any fish that eats bugs will eat a well-placed nymph.

Streamers are another type of subsurface fly. They’re bigger than nymphs, as they imitate larger forage like shad, minnows, sculpin, and other baitfish. They can also imitate things like crawfish and leeches. Because they’re supposed to be moving critters, these flies are fished more actively than nymphs or dry flies. This means the angler is imparting action on the fly—much like a conventional fisherman would twitch a jig or work a crankbait. Streamers are incredibly versatile, and they can be used to target nearly any fish that swims in freshwater or saltwater.

Other Important Tools for Fly Fishing

Aside from the basic rod-and-reel setup and the lines and flies themselves, there are a few other important tools that fly anglers use. These essentials include:

• A valid fishing license
• Forceps (also known as hemostats) or pliers for unhooking fish
• Nippers or nail clippers for cutting line
• Different sized tippet and leader material
• Floatant and desiccant if using dry flies
• Small weights (also known as split shot) and strike indicators (a fancy word for bobbers) if using nymphs or streamers
• Fly boxes to keep your flies organized
• A hip pack, backpack, bag, or vest to keep all your essential gear in
• Waders if you’re fishing in cold water. A good pair of breathable chest waders are worth their weight in gold when you’re standing in the water all day. If you’re going to be wading on slick, rocky rivers, invest in a pair of stocking-foot waders along with some quality wading boots. (Boot-foot neoprenes are great for sitting in a cold duck blind, but they’re not so great for rowing or walking up a river.)
• Aquaseal works great for patching waders at home
• Polarized sunglasses will help with sight casting to fish. More importantly, they should be used as eye protection—both from the sun and from the small hooks that are whizzing by your head

Optional tools that come in handy:

• A landing net. This is more important when catching and releasing, as it allows you to land fish quicker and keeps handling to a minimum
• A hook file for keeping hooks sharp. This is more important when targeting large, predatory fish with hard mouths
• Nail knot tool or Ty Rite tool to make tying knots easier
• Stream thermometer

Key Fly Fishing Techniques

The first step toward catching a fish on a fly rod is building your rig. Here are some rigging basics that will help you put all the gear together.

Basic Knot Tying

If you get your reel spooled up with line at a fly shop, you really just need to know three basic knots to go fishing: a loop knot (or nail knot); a double surgeon’s knot (or blood knot), and an improved clinch knot.

The backing connects to the fly line with a nail knot or a loop knot. The same knots are used to connect the fly line to the leader. Most anglers these days prefer loop knots, as they allow you to swap out lines and leaders more easily with a loop-to-loop connection—instead of cutting and retying a nail knot each time.

Cinching down an improved clinch knot. Patrik / Adobe stockThe double surgeon’s and blood knot are used for connecting two different pieces of leader or tippet material. The double surgeon’s is easier to tie, but some anglers prefer the sleeker blood knot because it passes through the rod guides more easily.

The improved clinch knot is used to tie a fly to the end of your leader. It’s easy to tie and it’s the knot I use the most. Some alternatives are the uni knot and the Palomar knot.

Casting Flies

You won’t catch a fish if you can’t get the fly out past your feet. Unfortunately, fly casting doesn’t come easily to most folks, and learning how to cast is one of the biggest deterrents for beginner fly anglers. (It’s even harder to learn if you’ve been fishing with conventional gear for a while.) But don’t let this deter you. If you can wrap your mind around a few basic concepts and put in a little practice, you’ll be fly casting in no time.

The most basic fly cast (and the best one to start with) is known as the overhead cast. It involves two main steps: the back cast and the forward cast.

To begin, hold the rod in your dominant hand and pull some line off the reel with the other hand—around 10 to 20 feet at first. Then, lift up with the rod and cast the line behind you, stopping when the rod is just past vertical and pausing until the loop unfurls in a straight line. When this happens, you’ll feel the weight of the line pulling on the rod as the rod tip bends slightly. This is called “loading” the rod. At this point, you can make a forward cast, which is the exact same motion as the back cast but in the opposite direction. The line forms a loop and unfurls in front of you as your rod stops just past the vertical position. You can then repeat this process, which is known as false casting, until you reach the desired distance and allow your forward cast to straighten out as the line falls to the water.

This basic casting stroke is also sometimes referred to as the “10 and 2” stroke. This has to do with the fly rod’s position when it’s stopped during the back cast and forward cast. If you picture a clock face, with the rod pointing straight up at 12 o’ clock, then the ideal stopping point for a back cast is around 2 o’ clock, and the ideal stopping point for a forward cast is around 10 o’ clock.

Executing a good overhead cast has a lot more to do with timing than strength. You must wait for the line to unfurl and the rod to load during the back and forward casts, and the more line you’re casting, the longer you have to wait. It also requires coordination between the two hands, as the dominant hand casts the rod, while the other hand controls how much line is being used. In time, casters can learn to use their off hand to “haul” on the fly line as it unfurls, which makes the rod load even more and puts more energy into the cast.

Pro tips for executing a good overhead cast:

• With your casting arm, try locking your wrist and keeping your elbow close to your side. Imagine you’re pounding in a nail with a hammer. This helps the rod tip stay on a straight plane, which keeps your loops tight and efficient.
• Make crisp, sudden stops when pausing during the back and forward cast.
• Use a metronome or count in your head to get a feel of how long to wait. (And remember that the more line you cast, the longer you’ll have to wait.)
• Watch your back cast. This will allow you to see the line unfurl as the rod loads, and you’ll lose fewer flies to trees.
• Practice fly casting in an open area on dry land before you try it on the water.

Once you master the basic overhead cast, there are many more casting strokes that can be learned and applied to different fishing scenarios. First and foremost is the roll cast, which eliminates the need for a back cast by using the surface tension of the floating line on the water to load the rod. (This is also the foundation for the style of spey casting that’s used with a two-handed rod.) Other, more advanced casts include the reach cast, pile cast, steeple cast, and the bow-and-arrow cast.

Presenting a Fly

Everything that follows the cast is what’s known as the “presentation.” This includes where the fly goes, how it lands, and how the fly is manipulated by the angler to elicit a strike from a fish.

Every presentation requires the two hands to be in sync: the dominant hand guides the rod, while the off hand controls the line. As soon as the fly hits the water, you want to pass the fly line through the trigger finger of your rod hand. You can then use your off hand to pull the line through the small gap between your trigger finger and the cork rod handle. This is known as “stripping” line.

One of the standard presentations in fly fishing is known as the “dead drift.” This simply means letting the current control the fly as it’s carried along like a hapless bug or a fallen leaf. But it’s easier said than done when current comes into play, as conflicting currents will pull on the fly line and cause the fly to drag through the water, which looks unnatural. The solution is to mend the fly line, which involves adding slack and gently repositioning the line—but not the fly—to counteract drag. This presentation is most often used when fishing for trout with dry flies and/or nymphs, and it’s a balancing act that takes some practice. If you don’t have enough slack in your line, you won’t be able to achieve a drag-free presentation. And if you have too much slack, you won’t be able to come tight and set the hook when a fish eats.

Another way to present a fly is to fish it on a tight line. You can manipulate the fly by pointing your rod tip directly at it and stripping the line. This presentation is called for when fishing with a streamer or a topwater fly like a popper. It’s an effective way to cover a lot of water and find the most aggressive fish. Long, steady strips will impart more of a swimming action, while short, choppy strips will make the fly twitch and dart through the water. With this tight-line presentation, you’re fishing mostly by feel, and you’ll know when a fish grabs ahold of the fly. A bite can feel a lot like a snag, or it can feel like the rod is being jerked right out of your hand.

You can also present a fly by swinging it through a run. This involves casting the fly out like you’re dead drifting, but then allowing the current to pull the fly across the river and through a likely piece of holding water. Or you could euro-nymph, which involves making repeated and methodical dead drifts with extra-long rods and weighted nymphs.

These are just a couple additional examples of how to present a fly. The most common and effective presentations for most fishing scenarios are the first two listed above.

Hooking and Playing Fish

If you’ve made a good cast and presented your fly properly, there’s a good chance you’ll get a bite. The next step is learning how to set the hook. The two main ways to do this are by lifting up quickly with the rod, known as a “trout set,” or by stripping line firmly with the rod tip pointed at the fish, which is known as a “strip set.”

The first method is used when presenting dry flies and nymphs to trout, while the second is used when fishing with streamers and topwater flies for other species. The strip set is more effective in these situations because you can drive the hook home harder without the flex of the rod getting in the way.

When you do finally hook up, it’s time to play the fish and land it. This give-and-take requires you to keep the line tight and the rod bent, while allowing the fish to run when it wants to. If you don’t let the fish run, you risk breaking the line. Smaller fish can be stripped in by hand, but it’s best to use the reel when battling a bigger fish.

Fly anglers have more of a direct connection with the fish and less of a mechanical advantage compared to conventional anglers. They also tend to use lighter lines, both of which make it harder to wear out a strong fish.

Finding a Place to Fly Fish

Now that you have the basic gear and techniques required, it’s time to get out and put them to use. Luckily, we’re blessed in North America to have more fishable water than any one person could fish in a lifetime. Some of us are more blessed than others, but no matter where you live, there’s likely a good place to fly fish nearby.

Fly fishing a remote wilderness river in western Alaska. Dac CollinsThis is also one of the coolest parts about fly fishing: It’s a perfect excuse to explore. Just like hunting and other outdoor pursuits, fly fishing can become a lifelong adventure that will take you to some of the most incredible places on Earth.

Modern-day fly anglers are also fortunate to have so much technology at our disposal. The internet is a bottomless pit of fishing information. Along with modern satellite mapping and GPS apps, forums and other online resources make it easier than ever to find a place to fish.

In general, it’ll be easier to learn how to fly fish in freshwater than in saltwater because there’s much less water to cover and typically less wind; wind makes casting even more difficult. Fly fishing is also more effective in shallower water bodies than in deeper ones. And the one stage where a fly angler is most likely to out-fish a conventional angler is on a trout stream.

Smaller trout streams and bass ponds with stocking programs are good places to learn. And if you can find a farm pond with bluegills or other perch in it, start there. Many fly anglers (this author included) got their start fly fishing for sunnies and other panfish. They’re feisty, eager to eat flies, and easy to land.

As with land ownership, it’s important to know if the water you want to fish is public or private. Water access laws vary drastically from state to state, so do your homework, study a map, and read your local regulations before you choose a spot. If you can get access to private water, you’re likely to find less pressure and more willing fish. Alternatively, if you can find a piece of public water that requires a bit of a hike to get there, you might be rewarded with some epic fishing.

One way to make all of this easier is by finding a mentor to take you out, or by joining a local fly-fishing club or Facebook group. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions and accept the fact that you will get skunked. We’ve all been there.

Another way to shorten the learning curve is by hiring a fly-fishing guide for a day or two. The lessons you’ll learn are well worth the investment, and they’ll put you on a faster track to catching fish.

A Brief History of Fly Fishing

It’s hard to say how long humans have been fly fishing, but the earliest recorded mention of the sport goes back almost 2,000 years. In “On the Nature of Animals,” a text written by Roman author Claudius Aelianus and published around 200 A.D., Aelianus describes Macedonian anglers fishing on the Astraeus River, where “fish with speckled skins” gulp small flies off the water’s surface. To imitate these bugs, he writes, the anglers “fasten crimson red wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles.”

“Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length,” Aelianus continues. “Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.”

There’s also evidence that Native Americans engaged in some type of fly fishing well before North America was colonized. In 1741, naturalist William Bartram wrote about Seminole Indians catching largemouth bass using long sticks and deer-hair flies that were “nearly as large as one’s fist.”

With this history in mind, it’s possible that various elemental forms of fly fishing developed in sequence throughout different parts of the world. However, the first detailed description of the sport that we know today as fly fishing can be found in an obscure 15^th century text written by a noble-born English nun, Dame Julia Barnes.

(Original Caption) Helping her land her trout, Tunkhannock Creek, Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania. Bettmann / Getty ImagesThe work attributed to Barnes, A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle, is now considered the first “how to” fly-fishing book ever written. And while historians have some doubt as to whether Barnes was a real person or simply a pen name, the work’s existence is unquestioned. It also proves that people in England were figuring out how to fly fish for trout sometime before the work was published in 1496.

Fly Fishing’s Formative Years

Roughly 150 years later, an Englishman named Izaak Walton wrote The Compleat Angler, which is now considered the seminal work in fly-fishing literature. It’s one of the most reprinted books in the English language, according to the Smithsonian Institute, and while it’s more of a contemplative work than a how-to book, it contains some gems like this one that are still quoted today: “God never did make a more calm, quiet and innocent recreation than angling.”

It’s the 300-year period from roughly 1600 to 1900 that we can refer to as the sport’s “formative years.” Fishing primarily on the chalk streams of England—which can be likened to the spring creeks we have here at home—anglers invented the basic fly-fishing gear and techniques that would come to define the sport. They started out using hand-made, tapered fly lines made from woven horsehair and gradually transitioned to lines made of silk. Leaders (the clear line that connects the fly line to the fly) were made of catgut, and eventually nylon. Rods were made of bamboo, and flies were simple creations made of string, fur, and feathers tied on a hook.

By the time Europeans were colonizing North America, the sport was well established, and Europeans began importing their favorite wildlife species, such as pheasants and brown trout. (The first brown trout stocking in America took place in 1884 on Michigan’s Baldwin River.)

During these formative years, and really for most of modern-day fly fishing’s roughly 500-year history, it was a sport reserved for nobles and the wealthier landowner class. This status remained when it was introduced here in the United States, where gentlemen sporting suits and ties fished for trout and Atlantic salmon in privately-owned rivers.

Thankfully, the sport’s stuffy, elitist reputation would slowly die (though not disappear altogether) as fly fishing experienced its own renaissance here in the U.S.

From Noblemen to Fishing Bums

Fly fishing’s transition from an elitist pastime to an everyman’s sport didn’t happen overnight, and remnants of tweed, pipe smoke, and snobbery remain deeply woven into the culture. But thanks to a handful of fly-rodding pioneers, who’ve passed the torch onto subsequent generations, fly fishing is now accessible to anyone with spare time and a few hundred bucks to invest in gear.

At the top of this list is a personal hero and former Outdoor Life fishing editor Joe Brooks, who arguably did more to popularize and expand the sport of fly fishing than anyone else during the 20^th century. In addition to penning some of the best how-two books on fly fishing ever written, Brooks was an explorer who pioneered new places to fly fish, such as Argentina and New Zealand. Along with other notable figures like Mel Krieger, Ernest Schweibert, and Joan Wulff (also known as the “First Lady of Fly Fishing”), Brooks made fly fishing for trout accessible to everyday Americans for the first time.

Brooks was also one of the first people to cast a fly in saltwater and catch species like striped bass and bonefish. But it was his mentee, a gap-toothed Floridian named Lefty Kreh, who would bust those doors wide open. Fishing with his childhood friends Chico Fernandez and Flip Pallot, Kreh helped revolutionize the sport by moving far beyond trout fishing. Along with other forward-thinking anglers like Dave Whitlock, Kreh, and the others taught Americans how to catch bass on the fly. They invented new fly patterns, equipment, and techniques, and they pioneered fly fishing for tarpon, snook, redfish, and other saltwater species.

With their help, modern fly-fishing gear evolved by leaps and bounds over the latter half of the 20^th century. Bamboo rods had long ago given way to fiberglass, and these were eventually replaced by graphite (the preferred material that most rod makers still use). Silk fly lines were replaced with the modern fly lines we use today, while monofilament fishing lines made in factories became affordable and commonplace.

Most importantly, thanks to the ingenuity of these legendary anglers, “flies” were no longer just bug imitations. They invented stalwart patterns like Lefty’s deceiver (invented by Kreh) and the Near-nuff crayfish (Whitlock), which work great on bass and other warm water species. Other tiers started using different materials to imitate all sorts of different prey items, and the advent of synthetics like foam, chenille, krystal flash, and rubber legs have only expanded these possibilities.

Read Next: The Best Fly Fishing Books

Meanwhile, as all these new-fangled flies and modern techniques hit the scene, fly fishing’s cultural rebirth was also underway. As more and more Americans took up fly fishing, the sport was seen less and less as a nobleman’s game. And by the time John Gierach coined the term “trout bum” in 1986, this transition was mostly complete. But it would take a Hollywood movie based in Missoula for fly fishing to truly enter the mainstream. With the release of A River Runs Through It, which is based on a 1976 story written by Norman McLean, fly fishing was suddenly, and surprisingly, cool.

Fast forward to 2023 and the multi-billion-dollar industry built around fly fishing has continued to grow. More than 7.8 million Americans went fly fishing in 2020, which represented a 42 percent increase from 2010, according to a 2021 Special Report on Fishing. The downsides of this surge in popularity are more crowds and increased pressure on rivers and other fisheries. The upsides are more work for fishing guides and other people in the industry, a growing number of voices in the conservation realm, and the fact that it’s never been easier to take up fly fishing.

FAQs

Final Thoughts

Fly fishing is not the easiest or the most effective way to catch a fish. The draw of the sport is the challenge and the adventure that lies therein. Embrace these aspects. If you just want to catch a lot of fish quickly, or if you’re in it for the fillets, go buy a spinning rod and live bait. But if you ever get bored, fly fishing will be here waiting for you.

Yet, I didn’t let that stop me from going again. Year after year I persisted, knowing that if I quit it would never happen. Three years later, on my thirteenth birthday, I bagged a giant longbeard. I can’t think of a better birthday present than that, and the culmination of years of effort made it even sweeter.

It can be tough to continue hunting year after year with no success. Many people give up long before they’ve even learned how to hunt, let alone how to be good at hunting. This pursuit isn’t as easy as it might appear. Sure, you can be lucky enough to go out on the first day and fill a tag. However, that’s not the norm and it shouldn’t be the expectation.

I hunted for three years before getting my first turkey, a whole year of countless hunts before shooting my first deer, and I still have never shot a duck or goose despite being on multiple waterfowl hunts. My point? Your patience will define your success when it comes to hunting.

Bowhunting in particular offers extreme challenges. Many variables make it impossible to compare your success with others. This is especially important because social media can create the illusion that many people are successful hunters immediately. When you’re sitting in a treestand every weekend for weeks on end, sticking it out through the bitter elements, it’s easy to consider quitting. After all, Becky on Instagram only hunted three times and filled two buck tags already. This must mean you’re a bad hunter, right?

The time it takes someone to fill a tag usually has nothing to do with skill as a hunter. Not everyone hunts private land, not every hunter has a lot of time to put into scouting, and not every hunter has access to quality hunting areas. On top of that, seasons vary in each state and region. Some hunters only gun hunt, while some strictly bowhunt.

As you learn more about hunting, you might find that you’re more of a casual hunter than a diehard. That just fine, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t cut out for hunting. As Christine Peterson wrote for Outdoor Life: “Casual hunters do more than just create the next generation of hunters. They buy licenses and guns and ammo that feed the excise taxes agencies use to manage wildlife. And they buy those licenses often knowing they won’t likely kill an animal. Maybe they don’t have the skills or the time or both, but they have the interest.”

I know some hunters who have hunted years, even decades before getting an opportunity to take their first deer. Even Fred Bear, legendary bowhunter that he was, hunted for six years before shooting his first deer. Fred tried hunting deer with a bow in 1929 but lost all six of his arrows trying to shoot a snowshoe hare. It took him six seasons to finally kill a deer—a spike buck. That certainly says a lot about his persistence, and how he must have truly loved the hunt.

Read Next: Hunting is About Much More Than the Meat

And that’s why you shouldn’t give up. Sometimes great things take time. Enjoying your time in the treestand or ground blind is never a bad thing, and even if you’re not killing animals every hunt, you can still learn from it. Looking at every hunt as a new opportunity is important. So is maintaining a positive mindset.

Remember why you’re out there. The point is to enjoy the hunt. If you’re having fun and learning, then the hunt should be considered a success. And also know that it only takes one deer, or tom, or bull to make it happen.

What Grizzlies Eat Depends on Where They Live

Avoiding hunger is one of a grizzly bear’s primary concerns. This is especially true as they emerge from their winter dens in the spring and later in the fall when they enter hyperphagia, or the final push to bulk up as much as possible before the winter. Grizzlies are known to eat up to 30 pounds of food per day, which comes from a variety of sources.

Different Regions, Different Diets

“[Their diet] varies a lot by region,” Jonkel tells Outdoor Life. “Even here in Montana, there are different types of habitat. If you compare the Yellowstone ecosystem to the Missoula area, it’s totally different. If you go to the north around Glacier [National Park] and Libby, it’s totally different. Then you go out to the coast in Alaska, and that’s different. There’s a lot of variation out there.”

Seasonal Shifts in Grizzly Bear Diets

All these places that grizzly bears inhabit experience significant climatic changes throughout the year. Of course, every critter in these regions prepares for winter in their own ways. But unlike other species, Jonkel points out, grizzly bears must prepare for multiple months of complete inactivity without any access to food. This means their focus on eating becomes even more intense when heading into winter than, say, an elk’s.

When grizzlies first come out of torpor, or the state of near-hibernation they exist in throughout the winter, Jonkel says, grizzly bears reliably look for winterkill or roadkill to scavenge. Once spring green-up begins, they eat forbs, berries, and nuts. The availability of these different food sources is constantly shifting with the seasons. They also prey on newborn calves, fawns, and the occasional livestock as elk, deer, and domestic animals move through the birthing season. Then, once bears enter hyperphagia in the late summer and fall, gut piles left behind by hunters become a food source of choice. Fall mushrooms, fruits, and late-season plants are also attractive.

Food sources from human activity are available pretty much year-round, but they become especially accessible in the spring, summer, and fall when hiking, camping, and backyard activities are more common.

A Detailed List of What Grizzly Bears Eat

The best way to understand what grizzly bears eat is by breaking their diet into a few different food groups. These include:

• Berries
• Nuts
• Forbs, roots, and mushrooms
• Meat
• Insects
• Human food and attractants

Everything a grizzly bear might eat falls into one of these groups.

Berries

The cliche that bears love berries is absolutely true when it comes to grizzlies. “Once the berries come on, boy, that’s big sugar time,” Jonkel says. He rattles off a list of berries that grizzly bears tend to rely on. They include:

• Bearberries
• Buffaloberries
• Chokecherries
• Cranberries
• Elderberries
• Hawthorn
• Huckleberries
• Mountain ash
• Rosehips
• Serviceberries
• Snowberries

Nuts

Nuts are one of a grizzly bear’s greatest sources of fat and calories, Jonkel says. Whatever bears don’t get from meat, they must get from these small, nutritional powerhouses. They eat a lot of whitebark pine nuts, which are available early in the spring during green-up. Grizzly bears will also raid stores of nuts made by squirrels, gophers, and other rodents, but whitebark pine nuts are the primary ones they seek on their own. (Meanwhile, black bears eat acorns, chestnuts, walnuts, beech nuts, and countless other varieties across their range.)

Forbs, Roots, and Mushrooms

While it’s hard to envision a grizzly bear with a mouth full of salad, they eat a lot of green matter, plant tubers, and mushrooms. That’s especially true during spring green-up when grizzlies emerge from torpor and are low on nutrients, Jonkel says. Their favorite plants and fungi include:

• Balsamroot
• Camas
• Cow parsnip
• Dandelions
• False truffles
• Fireweed
• Glacier lily
• Grasses
• Horsetail
• Morel mushrooms
• Nettles
• Puffball mushrooms
• Quackgrass
• Spring beauty
• Yampa

Meat

Since grizzly bears are technically scavengers, Joonkel says, they don’t eat much meat that they kill themselves—at least, not as much as they find and steal from other predators.

“Bears aren’t very good hunters,” he says. “Sometimes they get lucky. They’ll take advantage of an elk or a deer that was sick or hit by a car or has a broken leg. Once in a while you’ll find a bear that’s a good hunter, but most of the time they’re pretty bad. They scavenge a lot of kills. Lion kills, wolf kills, coyote kills, and hunter kills.”

When they do prey on living animals, usually they kill defenseless calves and fawns, sick animals, or old, malnourished animals. They also love raiding nests for eggs, Jonkel says. Coastal brown bears in Alaska and British Columbia are particularly reliant on fish like salmon and on salmon roe. Grizzlies most commonly eat:

• Beached whales
• Deer fawns
• Elk calves
• Grouse eggs
• Livestock
• Mice
• Moose calves
• Old, sick, or injured prey species
• Salmon
• Salmon roe
• Seals
• Turkey eggs
• Turtle eggs
• Waterfowl eggs

Insects

With all the plant matter they eat, grizzly bears also come across lots of insects, which contribute a surprising amount of protein to their diets. Especially in the chilly morning hours of early spring, Jonkel explains, bugs like grasshoppers are sluggish, making them all the easier to catch and eat. A grizzly’s favorite insects include:

• Ants
• Army cutworm moths
• Grasshoppers
• Ladybugs
• Salamanders
• Wasps
• Worms

Human Food and Attractants

This is a trick category. It’s impossible to list every human food (and inedible items) that a grizzly bear might eat, since they’ve proven themselves capable and willing to eat most anything they find that smells potentially edible. This includes:

• Birdseed
• Compost piles
• Food waste
• Honeybee hives
• Non-food items, like diapers and plastic
• Perishable and non-perishable groceries
• Pet food
• Trash

Top 5 Food Sources for a Grizzly Bear

While both the grizzly bear’s widespread range and the extreme seasonal shifts in those places make it difficult to nail down a concise list of five food sources, Jonkel mentioned five important food categories and how they each serve a grizzly bear’s nutritional needs. They are, in no particular order:

1. Berries, for sugar
2. Carrion, insects, and fish, for protein
3. Grasses, for nutrients
4. Forbs, for nutrients
5. Nuts, for fat

Grizzly Bear Diet FAQ

Final Thoughts on What Grizzly Bears Eat

Contrary to popular belief, grizzly bears are hardly the blood-thirsty, hard-hunting predators they’re often made out to be. While they do encounter lots of humans and initiate their fair share of defensive attacks, their diets are heavily composed of forbs, insects, fruits, mushrooms, and nuts. When they do eat meat, it’s often scavenged from a different predator’s kill site, a hunter-harvested carcass, or a prey animal that’s easy for them to take down—domestic or wild.

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A post shared by Nature Is Metal (@natureismetal)

In the video, a red stag stands over a dead one, repeatedly ramming his antlers into its belly. He winds up with every last ounce of power he has and drives his brow tines forward and up as if trying to roll the carcass over, like a testosterone-crazed forklift. The rival’s tongue dangles from its mouth as it jostles around on the forest floor.

Without any context, it’s hard to tell what happened here. But the date on the original post on Łapiński’s account says it all. These stags are in peak-rut form, all vying for the attention of the hinds in estrus. For some stags, the battle over breeding becomes deadly.

An article written for Swarovski Optik by Polish hunting guide Adam Depka Pradzinski put the Polish red deer population at roughly 270,000. Wolves, lynx, and brown bears are the species’ main predators, and hunters are also active in managing the population. As Pradzinski points out, almost 100,000 deer were harvested in the 2019 to 2020 season.

Putting the footage on Nature is Metal opens it up to all sorts of commentary from the account’s 4.8 million followers. Some joked about how heavy Łapiński was breathing in the footage, one noting that he was breathing harder than the “elk” in the video and another likening him to Tony Soprano.

But proximity to stags, bulls, and bucks during the rut should get your heart rate up. Red stags are extremely aggressive for two-plus months, both leading up to and throughout the rut, the British Deer Society says. Humans, especially those visiting national parks, should keep 50 to 100 yards away from rutting deer and elk. (Hunters with a bow tag are, of course, exempt.)

Like with most posts on Nature is Metal, one pithy comment especially stood out in summing up the footage with a single word: “Overkill.”

Using grant funding from Caltrans’ Division of Research, Innovation, and System Information, CPH wildlife professor Micaela Szykman Gunther and her undergraduate and graduate students are working with the state agencies to develop wildlife radio collars that trigger road signs to light up.

Students will capture and fit Roosevelt elk from the nearby herds with the specialized radio collars. Transmitters on the collars will communicate with a series of 20 antennas fixed on roadside posts, spread 300 feet apart along Highway 101. If an elk comes within 150 feet of one of the receivers, it will signal a lighted road sign to flash. When elk aren’t close to the road, the sign will remain unlit.

“Everyone has seen these signs like ‘deer crossing,’ but you ignore them,” Gunther told SFGate. “If a sign is flashing that there is a hazard and threat on the road, I think that’s going to work.”

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The research team is currently collecting data on elk movements and road crossings, and they currently aim to have the Electronic Detection System in place and operational by the summer of 2024. If it works well, CDFW and Caltrans hope it can be useful for other wildlife species in other parts of the state, too, the CPH press release says.

During the end game, there’s more pressure on the net man than the angler, and when you’re the person responsible for making sure your buddy’s personal-best monster muskie, jumbo catfish, trophy striper, or bull redfish ends up on Instagram, it can be terrifying.

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It doesn’t have to be, though. Netting giant fish is, in many ways, easier than landing smaller ones because they’re less erratic and often tired by the time you reel them in close. Still, mistakes in both your approach and the gear department can happen. Follow these simple rules though, and I promise they won’t.

Make Sure Your Net Isn’t Too Small

My go-to net for large fish is a 32- by 44-inch Beckman with a 4-foot handle and extra-deep bag. That handle, by the way, is extremely sturdy, which is important. And yeah, even though this net has a collapsible handle, it still takes up a lot of room on the boat. It’s also fairly heavy and cumbersome to wield. But I also know that if I’ve got a 40-pound striper coming in, or a 20-pound channel cat, it’ll slide into the bag easily on the first shot, and the net won’t break under the strain of that fish. That’s worth the tradeoffs.

Gather the Bag When Netting a Trophy Fish

A proper net for big fish is going to have a deep bag, which ensures your trophy catch is fully cradled and supported. However, that long bag creates a lot of drag in the water. This can make things particularly challenging when trying to net heavy fish in river or tidal current, and the resistance the bag creates is going to push the net away from the fish and you’ll have to counteract this with pure muscle.

The thing to do when a big fish is on the line is gather up the base of the bag and hold it against the handle. What you’re doing is creating a shallower bag temporarily, which will help the net hoop slice through the water more easily. The instant that fish is through the hoop, release the gathered bag so the fish can fully drop in before bringing it into the boat.

Never Take a Wild Stab

The easiest way to lose a fish of any size when going in for the net shot is to take a wild stab. In netting, nothing should happen fast, and the grab should be cool, calm, and calculated. Fast movements risk bumping the fish or bumping the line, both of which can mean kissing your catch goodbye. That’s not to say erratic behavior or catching a glimpse of a hook that’s about to pop out won’t force you into a cowboy maneuver from time to time, but you want to avoid this whenever possible, and that takes a bit of planning.

For starters, you never want to put a fish in a net tail-first. In other words, don’t ever try to scoop from behind. You want the rod man to do the lion’s share of the work leading the fish’s head to the net. You don’t want to lead the net to the fish. Ideally, you want the hoop in the water and ready to receive the catch. The theory is that a fish close to the boat—just feet from that net—can get spooked by the net hitting the water, thus causing it to freak out and potentially zip farther away and prolong the battle. If the net is already submerged before the fish gets close, however, you greatly reduce the risk of spooking, and often you’ll find that the angler can easily slide the fish right into the bag with little fanfare or drama.

Grab the Hoop—Not the Handle—When Landing

Here’s another scenario I’ve seen too many times to count. Someone else on my boat is netting a big fish for me. They extend it out to capture the target, then as soon as it’s in the bag, they try to lift the net horizontally and swing the fish into the boat. If we’re talking about a catch that weighs 20 pounds or more, this rarely goes well. In fact, I’ve almost lost a handful of nets over the years because my net man doesn’t have the strength to bring the net in this way, gets thrown off balance, and almost drops the whole thing.

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Just before disaster strikes is when you’ll hear me screaming, “Grab the hoop!” It’s simple physics, really, but in the heat of the moment, many people panic. Instead of trying to lift an extended net horizontally, what you want to do is simply pull the net straight back to you until the hoop is within your grasp. A trophy-sized landing net should have a sturdy hoop, which you should grab with both hands at the top like a steering wheel and lift the entire thing straight vertically into the boat.

Friday, July 14: Wolves and beavers occupy many of the same habitats in the North Woods, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the apex predators occasionally hunt and kill the large rodents. But according to researchers there, it’s rare to witness this—and even rarer to catch it on video. Which is why researchers with the Voyageurs Wolf Project were so excited to share the recent footage they captured inside Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park.

“A super-duper, amazingly lucky trail camera capture: we finally caught a wolf hunting a beaver on video!!” they wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “We cannot overstate how rare such observations are.”

Researchers captured the short video clip using a trail camera, which was placed near the top of a beaver dam. This is one of many trail cams they’ve installed throughout the park, and the group regularly shares videos of gray wolves, beavers, black bears, and other native wildlife.

This recently-published clip opens with the wolf running full tilt down the dam after a beaver. Another wolf follows close behind. The beaver doesn’t seem to notice its pursuers until the last second, but that’s all the time it needs to scramble off the dam and get away. The wolf tries biting down on the beaver’s tail but misses it by mere inches.

“In this instance the beaver was able to escape into deep water in a small pond below the dam,” the researchers point out. “But if there wasn’t that pond, the beaver would have been in trouble.”

Speaking to the rarity of the footage they captured, the researchers explained that, to their knowledge, the first recording of a wolf killing a beaver took place on a Quebec logging road in 2015. The Project’s researchers teamed up with the person who filmed that encounter to write a study that was later published in the scientific journal Ecosphere.

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In the years that followed, they actively sought photographs, videos, and other visual documentation of wolves hunting beavers. But besides the occasional trail camera photos that people sent in, which didn’t show much, the researchers haven’t seen any videos of a wolf hunting and killing a beaver since the 2015 incident.

“What is amazing is that wolves regularly hunt and kill beavers across a wide swath of North America, Europe and Asia and yet so few people have ever actually seen this happen,” they write. “In sum, a super common event that is rarely observed.”

Natalie Krebs contributed reporting.

The rut is often talked about as some magical timeframe, where giant bucks are running every ridge top without a care in the world—besides breeding the next doe. The window opens briefly and then shuts abruptly. If you’re hunting on the right day, you’ll certainly kill the buck of your dreams. But if you’re hunting on the wrong day, you’ll never punch your tag.

This is not how hunting the whitetail rut actually works in the real world. Rut activity ebbs and flows. Variables specific to your hunting location (like weather and hunting pressure) play a huge role in deer activity, far beyond the big-picture timing.

But still, for those of us with a tight schedule and limited vacation time, being able to plan your rut hunts is crucial. Fortunately, most research indicates that this is possible. When it comes to the timing of the whitetail rut, many in the scientific community believe that photoperiod (the amount of light over a 24-hour interval) is at the core of everything.

How Rut Timing Works

“It’s a domino effect,” says wildlife biologist Matt Ross of the National Deer Association. “As the photo­period changes, testosterone increases in a buck. There’s a direct line between the deer’s eyeballs and the pineal gland in the brain, and that releases a type of hormone, which tells the testes to produce more testosterone. And it’s the same thing with does—the photo­period drives the timing of her estrus cycle.”

Rod Cumberland, a deer biologist from New Brunswick, reached a similar conclusion through the study of road-killed deer.

“From January until June, when females were carrying fetuses, we would open up the reproductive tract and measure those fetuses,” he says. “That would give us a pretty good estimation of when they would have given birth and when they were bred.” He then looked at this data and compared it to a number of potential rut-triggering factors—such as the moon phase, barometric pressure, and cloud cover—but only one thing matched. “No question,” he says. “It was photoperiod.”

What this means for hunters is that timing the best rut action often­times requires nothing more than a calendar. In most areas of North America, other than the Deep South, a consistent peak of breeding occurs around mid to late November. A Pennsylvania study conducted from 2000 to 2007 confirmed this. Biologists examined more than 6,000 road-killed does and fawns and found an average peak breeding date between November 12 and 18. A similar 2016 Illinois study found peak breeding from November 8 to 11, and Cumberland’s New Brunswick study found a slightly later peak, between November 26 and 29. On the other hand, in Mississippi, studies established an average conception date of January 1, with significant regional differences within the state—which seems to be the norm for many of the Southern states. To nail down this timing for your own area, contact a local wildlife biologist, who likely keeps track of regional fawn drop and conception dates.

Midwest deer hunter Corey Fall has taken advantage of this photo­period consistency by prioritizing the calendar over all else when planning his rut hunts.

“What I’ve found is that the actual peak breeding time around here is between November 13 and 17—somewhere in that ballpark, every year,” says Fall. “About seven days before is when you’re going to see that peak seeking and chasing happening, when those bucks are looking for receptive does.”

Fall plans his schedule to be in the woods during this time frame regardless of temperature, moon phase, or other factors. “For me, I know that every year there will be great rut action sometime between November 4 and 10.”

A perfect example of Fall’s successful planning came in 2015, when he cleared his job commitments and traveled to Iowa for a weeklong rut hunt. Despite daytime temperatures that climbed into the mid-70s, he made it a priority to be in a tree on November 4—and that’s when he killed a 147-inch buck. Fall has replicated that success several times in the last 10 years. He’s taken six mature bucks between 130 and 170 inches during that time frame across Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa. On these hunts, he focuses on typical rut locations such as pinch points between large blocks of timber, terrain funnels, and stands downwind of doe bedding areas. But most important, during those magic few days of the year, he simply puts in his time even if it means all-day sits.

“You’ve got to grind it out,” he says. “Even though it’s tough mentally when you go hours on stand without seeing a deer, it can happen at any minute. Regardless of other factors, those bucks have a strong desire to breed, and those does need to be bred during that week to 10 days, so it’s going to happen. You’ve just got to make yourself be there when it does, and hope it takes place in daylight.”

READ NEXT: 101 Best Deer Hunting Tips For the Rut

Does Moon Phase Play a Role in Rut Activity?

Most biologists and research studies say that moon phase does not play a real role in whitetail rut activity. However many experienced deer hunters do believe that the moon impacts deer behavior. Two of those expert whitetail hunters are Mike Hanback and Mark Drury. Every year, Hanback predicts the best times to hunt the rut based on moon phase. Here’s what he wrote about activity this year (2022) in an earlier Outdoor Life story:

“Drury and I keep honing our theory: Mature bucks move best in daylight hours in and around a full moon in November. We know this flies in the face of what Granddaddy told you: Bucks move all night on the big moon, it’s the worst time to hunt!

But I know we’re onto something. The more I hunt a full moon in early to mid-November across the U.S. and Canada, the more mature bucks I see wandering around glassy-eyed from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Drury agrees, and you’ve seen all the rutting giants he kills on his television shows, some of them on a big moon.

I hate speak ill of what Granddaddy taught you, but data from the NC State moon study backs us up. ‘A common misconception is that deer see better at night because it’s brighter when the moon is full,” said the scientists. “But according to our data they actually move less on average at night during a full moon and more during the middle of the day, and also earlier in the evenings.’” —Alex Robinson

READ NEXT: Why I Hunt the Whitetail Rut by Moon Phase—and You Should Too

How Weather Impacts Rut Activity

Finally, weather plays an important role in how whitetail rut activity.

“I’m constantly watching cold fronts in October and November,” says Joe Elsinger a successful public-land bowhunter from Iowa. “In my opinion, it’s the biggest factor for deer movement outside of hunting pressure.”

For Elsinger, like many of the best hunters across the country, much of his success has been driven by timing his hunts around cold fronts.

“I’m fanatical about being in the right spot at the right time,” says Elsinger. “And cold fronts are one of the best ways to figure that out. The best fronts feature a large temperature drop of 15 degrees or more in daytime highs, followed by a very high pressure system that boosts the barometric pressure up to 30.20 or higher. Another time for peak movement seems to be at the tail end of the cold front, when there is still high pressure but winds switch again to a southerly direction.”

Elsinger used this cold- front focus to kill a mature buck on a late October morning in 2014.

“My setup was on a scrape at the edge of known buck bedding,” he says. “I shot him as he was working the scrape at about sunrise on that foggy morning. I was waiting to hunt that location until I had those conditions to maximize my odds of catching a mature buck on his feet with a spike of pre-rut activity.”

Renowned hunters such as Mark Drury, Bill Winke, and Jeff Sturgis all commonly discuss similar strategies for timing the best hunts leading up to and around that typical rut time frame. And while cold fronts haven’t been found to influence actual breeding dates, many believe they trigger the best movement and daylight rutting activity seen each year. Tony Smith, who hunts small parcels of land in Michigan, has followed the cold-front recommendations of Drury and Sturgis with an impressive level of success.

Because he primarily hunts on an 11-acre piece of land, it’s crucial for Smith to minimize his imprint on the property until optimum conditions for deer movement are present.

“When hunting that pre-rut and early rut, there’s absolutely no question that keying in on those cold fronts is essential,” he says.

“When I see the planets align, the barometer high, the double-digit temperature drop, and conditions calming after a big storm or disturbance passing through, I’ll do whatever I have to do to clear my calendar and hunt, and I go to my best stands.”

In 2014, just such a front was passing through in early November, and Smith and his brother-in-law headed into the property for their first hunt of the year there. Just before dark, a 4 ½-year-old buck walked under his brother-in-law’s stand and offered a 15-yard shot. This was the third time in four years that one of them had killed a 120- to 145-inch buck following a cold front.

One of the best resources around for tracking upcoming cold fronts for yourself is wunder ground.com, which shows detailed graphs mapping out 10 days of upcoming changes in temperature, wind, barometric pressure, and precipitation. For rut hunters looking to pick the right days to take off work and sit all day, this level of detailed weather data is a tremendous tool.