Tips & Features
The Outdoor Steward: Properly transplanting bareroot trees and shrubs this spring and beyond
I planted my first bareroot shrub in 2003. Since then, I have planted thousands of bareroot tree and shrub seedlings and transplants. My track record has been pretty good, and most failures could be blamed
Steve Sarley: Pick your spring spot – and know your fish
Lately, I’ve written about some things to help you catch some fish now that the weather is telling us that the open-water season has arrived in Illinois. I am receiving e-mails thanking me for the
If you hunt turkeys in April, you might want to start scouting now
The whitetail world is full of strategies that revolve around patterning bucks. The turkey world is different. Most folks head out with a loose plan on where they’ll hunt, and then they let the birds
Steve Heiting: A ‘no-frills’ turkey vest that has stood the test of time
The shotgun scope filled with gobblers. Four of them had charged from the woods to confront the jake decoy. Now they were swatting it with their wings. When one bird separated from the pack, the
Jeremiah Haas: Fantastic spring fishing on Illinois waters of the Mississippi is almost here
April is nearly here and unofficially spring is taking place on the river. While this year has seemingly been a year of early warm weather in Illinois, Mother Nature tends to know the calendar and
Patrick Durkin: Trappers lend a hand when dogs wander off
Fur trappers can seem uneasy and vulnerable, even though they’re the most skilled, regulated and well-rounded outdoors-folks you’ll find in our marshes, woodlands, and muddy shallows.
They often don’t share their best stories, fearing
Ryan Rothstein: No time like the present to prep deer stands
I can tell the past few years have given me some rough off-seasons, because I’ve felt like a recently beheaded chicken scrambling all over the place trying to fit in as much work as humanly
Steve Piatt: Nightmares of spring a prelude to turkey hunting season
They are all the same, from one year to the next, well ahead of the opening of the spring gobbler season, and I’m not sure what triggers their timing.
On river systems: Control your boat, catch fish
Anglers are taking advantage of the early spring-like weather, with many of them now fishing the variety of fish available in river systems in the Midwest. Some anglers tend to be wary of fishing river
