Five Animal Tracks and How to Identify Them


Five Animal Tracks and How to Identify Them

Even for those who spend a lot of time outdoors in habitat frequented by wildlife, it can be a rare opportunity to actually lay eyes on some of the more elusive species themselves. Some carnivores have fairly large home ranges and occur at low densities, not to mention how well they rely on their senses to avoid humans and stay...


Jigging for Winter Pike - How to Choose Location, Gear, and Lures


Jigging for Winter Pike - How to Choose Location, Gear, and Lures

For me personally, using tip-ups to catch pike through the ice is boring, and no offense to those who fish in this manner, but to me its not really fishing. In my mind as a musky angler, fishing is a constant game of movement to seek out active fish, not waiting for something to swim by for hours. This mindset...


A Brief Primer on Antler Biology - The Annual Antler Growth Cycle and Factors that Matter in Antler Growth


A Brief Primer on Antler Biology - The Annual Antler Growth Cycle and Factors that Matter in Antler Growth

One of the qualities that makes the members of the deer family, Cervidae, so unique to the animal kingdom is their antlers. Cervidae, which includes species from around the world such as caribou, deer, moose and elk, is made up of a wide diversity of hooved animals (ungulates) that grow antlers. Antlers differ from horns in that they are made...


The Minimalist Waterfowler’s Favorite Species: Hunting Wood Ducks


The Minimalist Waterfowler’s Favorite Species: Hunting Wood Ducks

With the exception of parts of the arid Western US, wood ducks are a pretty common species throughout the United States and southern Canada. In many locations throughout all four flyways—especially the Pacific, Mississippi and Atlantic flyways—wood ducks can be found year-round. Their habits of living in a variety of commonly found habitats such as ponds, beaver sloughs and creeks...


How and Why to Use Soft Plastic Bait For Ice Fishing Panfish


How and Why to Use Soft Plastic Bait For Ice Fishing Panfish

Over roughly the past 15 years soft plastics have exploded into the ice fishing world asserting its dominance as bait and becoming the standard for many ice anglers today.    Why Use Soft Plastics? Soft plastics have numerous advantages, even when compared to live bait. Wax worms as many of you know are often the standard live bait in ice...