January 2018

Anglers in the Carolinas battle a mixture of conditions throughout the year, from freezing winter temperatures to sweltering-hot summer dog days. While most states experience a steady seasonal climate, the Carolinas often experience  the yo-yo effect, where cool and warm days routinely bookmark each other during the winter. 

A large, dark shadow was visible in a bathtub-sized pool. The pool downstream from where I stood had produced several average-sized rainbow trout for quick release. The shadow was in a tiny pool upstream in the middle of a turbulent riffle.

The last leg of the North Carolina’s duck season is here, promising what is likely the heaviest month of duck activity. Although many birds have already been schooled by barking shotguns, a savvy hunter can still bring them down, and there’s no better place to fill a limit with a variety of ducks than the Pamlico Sound and the southern Outer Banks.

Most South Carolina waterfowl hunters cut their teeth chasing wood ducks in century-old cypress sloughs or maybe a gaggle of greenheads in acres of flooded grain, but available duck-hunting opportunities are now in high demand.

A lot of people ask me, “Why would anybody hunt crows?” I usually answer. “It’s fun.” Hunting crows is a great way to polish your wing-shooting skills for duck or dove season, and it is pure fun. 

Some North Carolina hunters believe a mature whitetail buck is the most difficult game animal to hunt. Others think a wild turkey gobbler is a tougher challenge.

Fishing during the winter months can be tough, but following some expert tips will help you catch plenty of groceries during cold weather.

January may be cold in terms of weather and water temperatures, but many crappie fishermen expect to catch quality and quantity of crappies this month.

January begins show season around the Southeast, whether it be boat shows, tackle shows or outdoor trade shows. I have worked a lot of these shows in the past, and quite often, I go to ones I’m not working, because I’m ready to fill in holes in my tackle box, and a show is an easy place to do that.

Slightly more than a year ago, I heard rumblings that Matt McPherson and his engineers at Mission Crossbows were working on a revolutionary design that would set the bar higher for the entire industry.

I believe you’ll enjoy this month’s recipe. It’s my version of something I remember enjoying most of my life.

For the past four months, hunters have taken thousands of photos and sat for hundreds of hours in deer stands in hoping to take a trophy deer to peg on the wall.

January is traditionally known as a time to make resolutions or goals for the next 12 months. So now is a great time to set your fishing goals for 2021.

Die-hard fly fishers, some of them, are scornful of bait fishers, portraying them as low-brow fish killers who consume every trout they catch. Bait fishers, some of them, are equally scornful of fly fishers, considering them elitists who catch fish not to eat but to release.

When guide Bob Winters stowed his gear after a day of fishing on Lake Moultrie, I caught myself wandering around his old Glassmaster boat, checking out the ancient flasher sonar unit. I recognized it because I’d used one myself long ago.

The striped bass has a long, colorful history, both as a commercial and recreational resource. From the booming commercial fishery in the Northeast in the late 1800s, stripers were transported across the country from New England’s coastal waters to the waters off California, the idea being reproduction of the burgeoning commercial fishery.