Chad Mason

Catch Your Own Bait

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:12:07 -0400

Bypass your local tackle shop for a wide selection of live critters.

catchyourbait_crayfish

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:11:03 -0400

Crayfish

catchyourbait

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:11:03 -0400

Frogs
A live frog will often outproduce all other baits for largemouth bass. Wall-eye anglers should also try using frogs as bait in autumn, near places where marshes join the main lake.

catchyourbait_cricket

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:11:02 -0400

Crickets & Grasshoppers
Easily found throughout summer and autumn, crickets and grasshoppers can be caught in your own backyard.

To attract crickets, sprinkle sugar on a piece of stale bread or a fresh-sliced potato. In the evening, place your bait near a pile of wood or rubble and cover it with newspaper or a tattered cardboard box. Come morning, scoop up the crickets.

catchyourbait_gizzardshad

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:11:01 -0400

catchyourbait_suckers

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:11:01 -0400

catchyourbait_minnow

outdoorlife-editor — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:11:00 -0400

Minnows
Beyond the bait-shop fathead lies a whole world of minnows, including shiners, dace and chub. Larger members of the minnow family, such as creek chub, can be caught on small dry flies or nymphs with a 3-weight fly rod and size 14 Humpy and Woolly Worm patterns. If fishing for your bait seems like way too much work, consider the following two methods, both of which can produce a mess of minnows.

Tricking Trout

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:38 -0400

Spin-fishing for trout is usually a pretty straightforward affair. Hard lures such as spinners and minnow plugs work particularly well in high, stained flows, while live bait or a bubble-and-fly is the weapon of choice for low, clear water.

But what do you do when high water runs clear? High flows render a bubble-and-fly less effective, because surface currents create drag on the weighted fly beneath. And clear water makes trout more selective, presenting a challenge to the hardware angler. Natural baits? Maybe-unless such conditions occur on a stream where they're forbidden.

I encountered all these obstacles simultaneously during a visit to Arkansas's fabled White River. Dam gates stayed open or nearly so, which made wading dangerous and bubble-and-fly angling difficult. Bait-fishing was prohibited where I fished, and trout refused to come near any spinner hardware in the gin-clear water on this bright, sunny day.

White River trout ace Frank Saksa came to my rescue. Saksa has been a fishing guide for 22 years and now works out of Gaston's Resort in Lakeview, Ark. (870-431-5202; gastons.com) Even in tough conditions like the ones I've described, Saksa's clients land impressive numbers of chunky rainbows and browns by using 3-inch plastic worms.

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[BRACKET "1"] WHERE TO FISH: Use a white worm wherever trout feed heavily on minnows, dam-killed shad or cream-colored rock worms (crane fly larvae). Red and natural brown plastic worms work especially well in tailwater streams or spring creeks where terrestrial worms are washed into the water by rains.

[BRACKET "2"] HOW TO FISH: Cast the rig across
and upstream and quickly reel in slack. Maintain a tight line throughout the drift. Hold the rod high enough to keep line off the water, minimizing drag. The small bell sinker or split-shot should tap against the bottom as the rig rolls along. You'll feel a strike as a sharp tug or a rapid series of taps. Set the hook immediately.

[BRACKET "3"] TACKLE: Choose a light rod at least 6 feet long that's sensitive and has a fast action. Two good choices: the GL3 series from G. Loomis (800-456-6647; gloomis.com) and the SCII series by St. Croix (800-826-7042; stcroixrod.com).

[BRACKET "4"] PRESENTATIONS: In larger rivers, it's better to present a worm on a three-way rig (see "B" in inset) from a drift boat. Boat control is paramount. It's best for all anglers to fish from the same side of the boat to help the motorist monitor line angles and adjust the drift. Use the motor in forward gear to slow the boat's drift and match the drift of the rig. When a consistent line angle from rod tip to worm can be maintained, the drift speed is correct.

[BRACKET "5"] STAY IN TOUCH: Match the presentation to the bottom current. Experiment with sinker weights to maintain bottom contact without anchoring the worm in place. Light line minimizes drag and allows a slower drift presentation. Four-pound-test monofilament works best.

[BRACKET "A"] RIGGING UP: The best way to present a plastic worm in small streams is with a simple split-shot rig (see "A" in inset) and a size 8 ringed-eye hook. Rig the worm by running it well up onto the line before bringing out the hook point. This ensures that short-striking fish will still be hooked.

[BRACKET "B"] BEST SIZES: Plastic worms suitable for trout
are 2 to 3 inches long
and come in natural colors. The Angle Worm made by the Creme Lure Company (800-527-8652; creme .zoovy.com) is a good choice.
COLORS: White, red and natural are preferred.

Open-Country Toms

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:38 -0400

We arrived at Stasney's Cook Ranch on a windy morning. I climbed out of the truck to stretch my legs, cramped from the long drive west from Dallas. Our host was a smiling, leathery cowboy festooned in a broad-brimmed hat and Wrangler jeans tucked into knee-high boots. As he greeted my hunting partner, I read his name off the back of his wide belt: Johnny.

While the others chatted, I scanned the vast landscape. I was surprised at how exposed everything was. The rolling hills glowed green with spring grass. Prickly pear and the budding skeletons of mesquite and scrub oak were scattered in every direction. There wasn't a tree taller than a basketball hoop. I could not imagine a turkey inhabiting this barren terrain.

"Is this where we'll be hunting?" I finally asked our host.

"Well...yes," Johnny replied. His smile faltered.

"There's not a tree here big enough for a turkey to roost in," I said.

Johnny's grin sprang back to his face. "I'd love to have a nickel for every Easterner who's said that," he said and led us into the ranch house.

The hunt at Stasney's gave me my first taste of open-country turkey hunting. The first morning, my guide had me set up on a grassy hillside overlooking a green field where toms liked to strut. Feeling exposed, I moved up the hill 20 yards to a clump of brush that offered more cover. As I plopped down, four Rio Grande turkeys flushed from the top of a woody shrub less than 10 feet high. None of the branches were more than 3 inches thick.

You'd never find a turkey roosting in such a small tree back East. Meanwhile, my friend killed a nice tom that had roosted on a telephone pole. Since that hunt, I've enjoyed a number of open-country hunts. Here's what I've learned.

1. Lighten Up on Camo

Most camouflage patterns are too dark to match open terrain. I have giant plastic tubs full of clothing printed with the woodland-patterned camouflage
of Realtree, Mossy Oak and others. They're great for hunting Eastern forests, but you'll stand out like a nudist in church if you wear them among cheatgrass and broken shale. Moreover, snow during turkey season is a real possibility in much of the West.

Try a good Western-style camo that consists largely of light browns and muted greens. In New Mexico's bone-dry Mogollon Mountains, I hunted Merriam's on national forest ground with David King from King's Outdoor World. (kingsoutdoorworld.com)

We wore a pattern called Desert Shadow that is made by David's company. I have photos of us on that trip, and I almost have trouble finding myself in some of the pictures; the turkeys had similar problems. The lighter camo pattern has worked well for me on open-country gobblers from Nebraska to New Mexico.

2. Choke Up

At home in Iowa, I rarely have to take shots on turkeys beyond 35 or 40 yards. There, I like a standard full choke with conventional lead turkey loads. But open country might require you to stretch it a little, as long as you can do so reliably.

On a recent Texas hunt I used Federal's Mag-Shok 3-inch loads, which employ Federal's Heavyweight tungsten-alloy shot and Flitecontrol wads. I shot these through an extra-full turkey tube in my Benelli M1 and broke turkey necks authoritatively from nearly half a city block away. (Incidentally, after extensive pattern testing, I've stopped using 3½-inch ammo. Despite the additional pellets, it doesn't seem to pattern as evenly in my shotgun as 3-inch loads.)

Of course, all of this firepower is of no use if you don't spend time at the range. Long shots make it imperative that your shotgun is centering its patterns on point-of-aim, so the densest part of your pattern arrives at the turkey's neck. If your shotgun has adjustable sights (most modern turkey guns do), you may need to adjust them. Even then, it's probably a good idea not to stretch shots farrther than 45 or 50 yards. Pellets begin losing a lot of energy beyond that distance.

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3. Extend Your Vision

To succeed in open terrain, you need to think at a scale appropriate to the land. In the most open Eastern hardwoods, the distance at which you can spot game is little more than 200 yards; quite often it is much less. Out West, be mindful of the possibilities at greater distances. I've spotted turkeys from more than a mile away in
open country and spooked them from a quarter mile. Consequently, I won't hunt turkeys in open country without a good binocular.

Though optics are rarely considered turkey-hunting tools, pursuing toms in open country can feel like going after sheep or mule deer. In many cases, I keep my calls and decoys in my vest and begin hunting by glassing from a high vantage point. Then I make a move on birds I've spotted.

Choose the best roof-prism glasses you can afford. Two I like, in different price categories, are the Leupold Wind River Cascade 8x42 and the more expensive Kahles 10x42. Good binos let you size up a flock of turkeys from a great distance and decide whether
it includes any longbeards worth pursuing. That can save you a lot of time in the field.

4. Use the Wind

In open country, serious wind often comes with the territory, but don't worry about it here-the wind is your friend in expansive terrain. Unlike Eastern woodlands, where a hunter tends to rely more on hearing a turkey gobble than seeing it, exposed hillsides and prairies allow you to spot turkeys from far away and make a stalk. Wind covers the noise of your approach, so all you need to concern yourself with is using the contours of the terrain to avoid being seen. Stay low as you move, set up beneath a ridge near the gobbler and begin calling.

On a recent Western hunt I killed two large Rio Grande gobblers in a single day-one at 11 a.m., the other at 2 p.m.-by stalking them on open hillsides in the wind. I used natural terrain breaks, brush piles and clumps of cactus to conceal my approach and even crawled on my belly at one point.

Once you put the sneak on a longbeard across an open prairie, or hear his gobble thunder off the rocks of a canyon, the woods back home may begin to feel confining.

Enter The Rut

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:37 -0400

November mornings exhibit a blue aura between the dark of night and the first light of day. The blue calm is deceptive, though, because madness reigns in the deer woods from Halloween to the ides of November-a deer hunter's Mardi Gras. If you're serious about big whitetails, you'll be in the woods as much as possible during these two crazy weeks.

Last November I was 12 feet up a hackberry, pulling my bow up on a rope, when I heard the sound of a large animal moving through grass. My stand overlooked the junction where a timbered ditch met the big woods. On both sides of the ditch, frosted prairie grass reached up toward fading stars, and above the grass was the head of a buck.

He was looking right at me, 30 yards away on my side of the ditch. I counted eight tines. Their whiteness cut through the blue morning and made my heart race. I froze with my bow dangling 6 feet below my boots, and we stared at each other until reds and oranges filled the sky. I was busted.

Two hours later he came loping back, panting and full of fever, chasing a sleek doe. As they passed my stand at 15 yards, I drew my bow and tried to stop them with a grunt.

Not this time. The doe heard my grunt and hit the nitro button. That was the last I saw of Old Ivory last year. But I'll be back this November. Hopefully he will be, too.