Mark Strand, Author at Outdoor News

Examining the two faces of fall turkey hunting

Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin / Mark Strand

When other hunters are fixated on whitetails or waterfowl, there is plenty of room in the autumn woods for anybody who wants to experience what might be the ultimate turkey hunting rush.
If you believe that a turkey is a turkey and they all kind of look the same and act the same, you will struggle with fall turkey hunting. Here’s why: you are chasing everything from young-of-the-year birds still living with their mommies, all the way to adult gobblers that don’t have any hormones messing with their ability to avoid danger.

Examining the two faces of fall turkey hunting Read More »

Are jake decoys all they’re cracked up to be? Let’s talk about it

Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Iowa, Minnesota, National Hunting / Mark Strand

Let’s talk about that full-strut jake decoy you lug around the turkey woods.
When it works… holy hannah the video footage you get of gobblers spoiling for a fight! They come in at a trot with beards flying and the dust-up starts. You want to talk about a 20-pound bird throwing its weight around and what that looks like? You have all day to raise your gun or draw your bow and make the shot. It works. Sometimes.

Are jake decoys all they’re cracked up to be? Let’s talk about it Read More »

Mastering turkey hunting’s game of ‘let’s find each other’

You call and a gobble rings out. Quite a ways out, maybe 200 yards.
If you sit down right there and keep calling, there is a chance that tom will come all the way to you. But there is a much greater chance that you’ll still be sitting there when the sun goes down, all by yourself. This season, consider trying my favorite turkey-hunting game, called “let’s find each other.”

Mastering turkey hunting’s game of ‘let’s find each other’ Read More »

Mentoring new turkey hunters: It’s their hunt, not yours

Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Iowa, Minnesota, National Hunting / Mark Strand

When taking a beginner on his or her first turkey hunt, you must fully focus on the new hunter.
It’s a bonus day in the woods for you, but you’re there to provide a quality experience and show the new person what hunters do and how we do it.

Mentoring new turkey hunters: It’s their hunt, not yours Read More »

Wild turkey hunting’s great debate: How much calling is too much calling?

How much to call and how loud to call is a question many turkey hunters face. It’s one of the most hotly-debated topics in the sport.
If you want to get a red-faced dose of powerful opinion, simply advocate for one extreme or the other and watch what happens.

Wild turkey hunting’s great debate: How much calling is too much calling? Read More »

The art of sitting still may be the most important skill in turkey hunting

Featured, Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin / Mark Strand

Over the years, I have made every mistake in the book while pursuing wild turkeys, plus I invented several that nobody knew about.
Now that I’m an expert on all the ways you can scare turkeys away, it’s fun to listen as hunters imagine all the possible causes when a hot gobbler suddenly goes silent or presses itself into a pancake barely six inches high and slithers away.

The art of sitting still may be the most important skill in turkey hunting Read More »

DIY tips for turning a tiny travel boat into a fishing machine

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, Minnesota, National Fishing / Mark Strand

It all started when my wife, Jill, and I bought a travel trailer a few years ago. We used it to successfully get the heck out of Minnesota in the dead of winter.
A month in Myrtle Beach. A few runs to Florida. Spring, summer, and fall found us camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior and other nearby spots. It turns out that most places have bodies of water begging to be fished.

DIY tips for turning a tiny travel boat into a fishing machine Read More »

Focus on these important details to trigger a tom

According to my turkey-hunting mentor, Ray Eye, skilled hunters in the Missouri Ozarks have forever wished there was no such thing as a spring season. Why? Because they think it’s not fair to hunt gobblers when it’s so easy to trick them.

Focus on these important details to trigger a tom Read More »

Here’s how to plan a turkey hunt on western tribal lands in the U.S.

To a great extent, my hunting life has revolved around planning a spring turkey season that keeps me in the woods from late March through Memorial Day. To do that requires creativity and lots of road time.
One of my favorite turkey road trips is a meandering loop west from my home base in Minnesota, hunting a combination of American Indian reservation lands and at least one of what they call Prairie Units in South Dakota.

Here’s how to plan a turkey hunt on western tribal lands in the U.S. Read More »

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Mark Strand

Examining the two faces of fall turkey hunting

Are jake decoys all they’re cracked up to be? Let’s talk about it

Mastering turkey hunting’s game of ‘let’s find each other’

Mentoring new turkey hunters: It’s their hunt, not yours

Wild turkey hunting’s great debate: How much calling is too much calling?

The art of sitting still may be the most important skill in turkey hunting

DIY tips for turning a tiny travel boat into a fishing machine

Focus on these important details to trigger a tom

Here’s how to plan a turkey hunt on western tribal lands in the U.S.

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