More Freshwater

An Overview of the Gila Mountains

Online Editors — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:26:31 -0400

Situated in far southern New Mexico, the Gilas boast some of the most remote backcountry fish and game habitat in the Lower 48. More importantly, this range of rugged mountains is home to one of the nation’s most rare salmonids, the native Gila trout.

Once on the verge of extinction, TU and other conservation groups, in cooperation with state and federal agencies, have worked to restore these beautiful native fish to their home waters.

Additionally, the area provides outstanding opportunity for anglers pursuing a host of game fish in the middle and lower reaches of the Gila River. Fortunate anglers can catch smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rainbow trout, brown trout and even catfish in the warmer, lower reaches of the river.

Hunters, too, have reason to visit the Gilas—huge elk and deer populations grace this country, as does a prime population of wild turkeys. On the Gilas dryer and lower slopes, quail are common and provide excellent sport for the upland bird hunter.

The mountains, too, shelter some of the region’s priceless cultural artifacts, including remote cliff dwellings from an ancient Native American civilization that to this day puzzles modern archaeologists.

Unfortunately, the area is being impacted by excessive and illegal off-road vehicle use. Pioneered trails are bisecting big game habitat and contributing silt and sediment to the Gila’s trout streams.

Cross-country travel is creating a spider web of improperly maintained trails that wash out during storms and rut deeply, permanently scarring otherwise habitable land for game and fish.

Properly maintaining legal trails is important to the Best Wild Places project—there are no efforts to close legal routes. But illegal and unofficial routs that impact habitat—and hunting and fishing opportunity—must be closed and reclaimed.

It will fall to sportsmen and ORV users themselves to police bad actors and protect this place forever.

What’s in the Gilas?
Fishing assets: Native Gila trout, smallmouth bass, brown trout, rainbow trout, brook trout, largemouth bass, catfish, suckers and various warmwater species in lower reaches of the Gila River drainage.
Hunting assets: Elk, deer, turkey, quail, varmints.
Other: Remains of ancient Native American civilizations, ample camping and touring opportunities, hiking, geocaching, cycling, etc.

Threats: Increased presence of illegally “pioneered” off-road trails that impact habitat and hunting and fishing opportunity.

BREAKING NEWS: Recent Signups Keep CRP Acreage Near Cap

Online Editors — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:01:04 -0400

by Bob Marshall

Fish, wildlife and sportsmen got good news Friday when Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, announced recent and future sign-ups of 5.65 million acres in the Conservation Reserve Program, keeping that keystone conservation program close to its current authorized cap of 32 million acres.

But in an interview with Field & Stream, Vilsack also urged sportsmen to keep the momentum going by urging their congressmen - particularly House members - not to swing the budget axe on conservation funding in the new Farm Bill currently under consideration.

"(Sportsmen) should take some confidence or relief in the numbers we're announcing today, because it shows this administration is committed to CRP and to the outdoors recreational opportunities CRP creates and enhances," Vilsack said.

"(But) they ought to be engaged in encouraging members, especially in the House, not to reduce our commitment to conservation in the future - mainly because it works."

The Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers who enroll in the program to not plant marginal acres, is widely considered the most effective federal conservation program ever. The resulting grasslands not only provide essential upland nesting cover for waterfowl as well as numerous terrestrial species, but it also helps reduce soil erosion and improves water and air quality. It has also been a popular economic boost to the agricultural community, pouring $1.8 billion dollars into farmers' pockets annually.

But the program has come under stress in recent years. First commodity prices soared, drawing some farmers back to planting that non-tilled land. The USDA said it expected to see up to 6 million acres pulled out of CRP this year as contracts expired.

Sportsmen were still reeling from the impacts of that shock when some in congress targeted conservation spending as a way to trim federal spending.

Working with conservation groups, the administration found a way to fund an additional 1.75 million acres in two sign-ups set for this summer. The first will be targeted at highly erodible acres, the second at sensitive grasslands, wetlands, and wildlife habitat.

"When you add what we've just enrolled with the 1.75 million we'll get this summer, that will give us 5.65 million, pretty darn close to the 6 million we're losing, and right at 29.2 million - not far from what the cap is right now," Vilsack said.

He also urged sportsmen to tout the broader economic and environmental benefits of the CRP when pushing congressmen to preserve funding.

"In 2011 we were able to calculate the reduced nitrogen (because of CRP acres) going into streams (from farm fertilizers) by 623 million pounds, and reduced phosphorous by 124 million pounds," he said.

"When you look at carbon sequestration, we calculated that CRP is equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road.

"So, this program doesn't just help wildlife, and outdoor recreation, and the farming community, it also has a very significant positive impact on the environment."

Fly Fishing Gear That Works: SmithFly Products

Online Editors — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:58:40 -0400

by Kirk Deeter

You know what we don't see nearly enough of in fly fishing these days? Products that actually work better than advertised. We're promised everything from rods that will seemingly cast themselves to waders that wear like footie pajamas, and rarely does the performance really, truly live up to the billing.

SmithFly, an Ohio-based manufacturer of modular fishing gear, on the other hand, over-delivers. From waist packs and vests to boat bags, the best way to describe this stuff is to say it's born of a "tactical" influence: Super rugged and extremely functional. At first glance, they're perhaps not what the "fashionista" angler has in mind.

The concept is pretty simple: Using modular components, you can latch on and build out a vest or bag to your exact specifications, rather than the configuration a product designer assumes you want. That's a huge bonus for the ever-quirky, finicky gearhead types like myself. And the construction (made in USA) is really tough. For example, the boat bag isn't advertised as waterproof, but the other night Romano waited out a 45-minute downpour and everything inside stayed dry.

Here's more of what he had to say:

"I have the Boat Bag and absolutely love that it has one large compartment with a zippered pouch inside. I've been attaching the 2x pouch on the outside and simply slinging this over my back on my stand up paddle board on the bass pond. I've got everything I need in there — soft plastics in the zippered pocket, hard baits in a box, and multiple fly boxes. The terminal tackle and everything else goes in the 2X pouch. I can stuff the kitchen sink in it if I want to, or put very little in it. I had a rain jacket, two beers, water bottle, four fly boxes, a hard bait box, soft plastics, etc., in it the other night and it was very comfortable. I've also had it out with one fly box, tippet and hemos and it felt fine."

You kind of need to see this stuff to get a true understanding of how it works. I expect as more anglers get wind of SmithFly and more fly shops pick up this brand, that will be easier to do.

Food Fight Friday: Turkish Seafood Edition

Online Editors — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:17:50 -0400

by David Draper

Fried Anchovies and Sea Bass vs. Fried Mussels

You, and all my friends, are going to be sick of hearing this, but did I mention that I recently spent a couple of weeks in Turkey? This trip is going to make up my main conversational fodder for the rest of the summer, with much of it focusing on what I ate — some of which was good and some of which was not the best decision. Of the former, the seafood stands out as highlights of the trip. I’ll say this, Turkish people know their fish, which isn’t a surprise considering that waterways like the Bosphorus Strait define their country. Here are a couple of dishes I encountered.

Fried Anchovies and Sea Bass
One of my favorite afternoon diversions in Istanbul was to find a comfortable chair at one of the cafes under the Galata Bridge, order a beer, and watch the fishermen perched above me reel up sabiki rigs filled with anchovies. It didn’t take long to figure out which angler had the hot hole or when the bite was on. These little fish are a Turk favorite, and many restaurants fry them and serve them whole. Unfortunately for me, this order, along with the seabass fillets were meant for another table. I bet they were delicious.

Fried Mussels
However, these fried mussels were for me. I originally ordered just a bowl of fish soup and coban salata, or a Shepherd’s Salad of diced cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and parsley. (I ate a bowl of coban salata at nearly every meal — even those I cooked myself.) When the waiter suggested mussels, I couldn’t resist. And I’m glad I didn’t. Like the anchovies, mussels are a staple on Turkish tables. These were plucked fresh from the Sea of Marmara and deep-fried. You can also find stuffed mussels sold by street vendors all along the Golden Horn. They’re worth trying, though eating warm shellfish from a kid on a corner takes no small measure of courage.

World Record Fish: 221 Catches Submitted to The IGFA

Sarah Smith — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:48:56 -0400

The International Game Fish Association is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to game fish conservation and research. Created in 1939, the IGFA maintains world records for both freshwater and saltwater game fishes. Records are divided by line class, tippet class and all-tackle categories. The IGFA introduced a new all-tackle length category in 2011, keeping separate records for length. Entries in this category must be measured on an official IGFA Measuring device — all fish must also be released alive and unharmed.

To qualify for weight records, a fish must weigh a minimum of one pound. With the exception of all-tackle records, anglers must submit their claim to the IGFA within 60 days of the date of catch for fish caught in U.S. continental waters. Applications for fish caught in other bodies of water must be received within three months of the date of catch.

In order for a fish to qualify for an IGFA record, it must be weighed on a certified scale. Anglers must also submit a completed IGFA form, mandatory length of line and terminal tackle used to catch the fish, plus photographs. For more information, visit the IGFA website.

Rumble in the Jungle: Catching Huge Arapaimas on the Fly in Guyana

Online Editors — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:48:01 -0400

Field & Stream editor-at-large and FlyTalk blogger Kirk Deeter recently took part in an expedition sponsored by Costa del Mar sunglasses to fish in Guyana, where he became one of the first fly fishermen ever to land an elusive wild arapaima—the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish species.

Click here to learn more about arapaima fishing opportunities in Guyana and the film "Jungle Fish."

Scientists Develop Robot Fish to Improve Pollution Monitoring

Online Editors — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:55:19 -0400

--Chad Love

Landing one of these babies is pretty much a catch-and-release-only proposition. I hear they're not good eating and extremely difficult to fillet. Not to mention the fact that they thrive in some pretty nasty water...

From this story on therepublic.com:
Robot "fish" developed by European scientists to improve pollution monitoring moved from the lab to the sea in a test at the northern Spanish port of Gijon on Tuesday. The developers hope the new technology, which reduces the time it takes to detect a pollutant from weeks to seconds, will sell to port authorities, water companies, aquariums and anyone with an interest in monitoring water quality...The fish, which are 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and currently cost 20,000 pounds ($31,600) each, are designed to swim like real fish and are fitted with sensors to pick up pollutants leaking from ships or undersea pipelines. They swim independently, co-ordinate with each other, and transmit their readings back to a shore station up to a kilometer away.

So, if they can make robot fish to do this, why can't they make one that chases down and takes a lure, then fights like whatever gamefish has been programmed into its brain? Say you've never caught a bluefin tuna and probably won't ever get the chance, because they're doomed -- instead, you could charter a trip to "catch" robot bluefin.

Who knows, maybe in a few years we might not even need real fish in the oceans anymore, what with their annoying and expensive requirements for clean water and a suitable environment. Now we can repeal all our water quality and anti-pollution laws and start cranking out loads of these suckers, 'cause they'll live anywhere...

The CatchFeed: 50 Top Photos from Catchbook, Field & Stream's New Social Fishing App

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:43:40 -0400

These 50 photos are our editors' picks for the best shots posted so far by users of our new Catchbook app!

About Catchbook Fishing Reports
Catchbook is a free social fishing app we built for the iPhone to help you share photos of your fish while recording the spots where you caught them. Check out more great fish photos from around the country (and start posting your own catches) by downloading the app from iTunes! Visit fieldandstream.com/catchbook for details on how the app works, and why it'll help you catch more fish.

Catchbook Photo Contest
We're giving away a Columbia PFG Blood and Guts™ Ball Cap, for the best photo posted each week (as chosen by our editors) from now until then end of July. At the end of each month we'll pick our favorite overall shot and run it in the magazine! Each monthly winner will also receive a Columbia Airgill Chill™ Long Sleeve (men) or Ultimate Chill™ Long Sleeve (women). Click here to learn how you can enter this contest. Click here for the official rules.

The Total Outdoorsman: Hunt Better, Fish Smarter, Master the Wild

Sarah Smith — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:09:26 -0400

by T. Edward Nickens

A little bit here and a little bit there. You keep your eyes open. That’s how you learn. You pick up a new knot from a new fishing buddy, or try a decoy trick you saw in a magazine. You make mistakes. And if you’re lucky, like I was, there will be a mentor along the way. An unselfish someone who cares enough about you that he wants you to know everything he’s ever learned.

That’s the good thing about hunting and fishing and camping: You can never know it all, and you’re never as good as you could be.

Over the years, I’ve learned from the best—mentors, buddies, guides, story subjects, and some of the most dedicated outdoor-skills competitors this world has ever seen. Put them together, and they’ve got a half dozen different ways to shoot a double or cast a fly rod. Here’s the best of what I’ve learned from them, and on my own, in 35 years of hunting and fishing. And this is what all sportsmen should do with such knowledge: Pass it on.

HUNTING
Good Dog

The best trick I ever taught my dog was to sit and stay for practically forever. A quiet, rock-solid sitter will be quickly forgiven for other minor trespasses.

A Predator’s Pace
My earliest hunting memory was of a squirrel hunt in the snow. We found where a fox was trailing a rabbit, and I saw how the fox placed its hind foot almost on top of the front track to make a single line of tracks and preserve energy. That’s called perfect stepping, and I’ll never forget how the trail ended perfectly in a scuffle of dirt and leaves and blood-speckled snow.

My Do-It-All Winch
A come-along can haul your ATV up a steep hill, free a stuck truck, winch a boat to a trailer when the trailer winch fails, help straighten a smashed gunwale, and get a deer out of the creek gully. Mine is stashed behind the truck seats, so I always have it.

Fear the Chigger

Translate a Quack
When I asked a world-champion duck caller what he said into his call, he simply turned the call around and blew a routine with the call backward. I could hear every grunt and tone change. Beautiful.

Know Your Guns
It’s important to know guns, period. You never know when a buddy is going to hand you his shotgun while he tightens his bootlaces. Know how to check the safety and chamber on every conceivable action—bolt, semiauto, pump, double gun, double-action handgun, six-shooter, whatever.

Practice the Long Shot
On an archery antelope hunt, I missed twice at long range. I finally took a nice goat at 37 yards, but I’ve learned to practice shooting my bow at long ranges. At 50 yards and better, little technique snafus show up. Fixing them tightens groups even at shorter ranges.

The Elk of Your Dreams
Elk antlers in velvet can grow an inch a day, which makes sleep impossible throughout the summer if you have drawn a Montana elk tag.

Get Sneaky
When jump-shooting ducks, how many times have you closed the last 20 yards at a glacial pace only to find that the ducks were swimming just out of range? That’s because they heard you when you were 40 yards from the pond edge. When you’re sneaking on ducks—or squirrels or turkeys—stalk them from the truck. Start getting quiet and sneaky long before you think you need to.

Eat it Now
Don’t save wild game for later, for someone else, or for something special. Grill a chunk of tenderloin or fry a slice of deer heart right now, while everything is still earthy and your face still smarts from the briers and the sound of the gun is ringing in your ears.

Be Your Own Rangefinder
Know the length of your normal stride. It’s fun to test your range-estimation skills, and my stride comes out to 39 inches, from heel to tip of toe. I know that every 10 strides equals approximately 32.5 feet, so I call that 11 yards.

Don’t Fart in Your Waders
That gas is lighter than air—and it can only go up.

Share your Bounty
Share your kill. I take a wild-game appetizer to every party and label it proudly. (O.K., the big bowl of “Rudolph chili” at a church Christmas dinner might have been over the top.) But I give game away to anyone curious about the taste of a duck. I’m a one-man public relations team for eating wild meat.

The Semiauto Sin
Boy, did I screw this one up. I turned my son loose on a semiautomatic .22 rifle way too early. Nearly ruined him for a single-shot bolt action, which is the best tool for learning rifle-shooting mechanics.

The Forgivable Sin
No, I can’t move the gun slowly when the deer is kinda sorta looking my way.

Whistle While You Hunt
It worked for me once, so I know that running whitetail bucks will stop at a loud whistle often enough to make it worth whistling every time.

It’s the Little Things
Once I spread a bunch of bird-feeder thistle seed in front of a two-man deer stand. My young daughter couldn’t believe all the birds she saw a couple of mornings later. And she couldn’t wait to go hunting with me again.

Make the First Shot Count
Keith Gleason taught me how to hunt. He was a Marine sharpshooter just back from Vietnam. I was 13 years old and knew next to nothing, but when we hunted groundhogs with his heavy-barreled .22/250, we traded shots, one for one. I sometimes whined—to myself—that it wasn’t fair to be held to the same standards as a sniper. But I learned early to make every shot count. I have a feeling that was Keith’s plan all along.

Let Kids Have Their Fun
Other parents might disagree with me, but I’ve learned to let my young son blow the duck call whenever he wants, stretch whenever he feels like it, and play Angry Birds in the deer stand whenever he’s bored. I want him to think that hunting with his dad is the best thing ever. The other stuff can come later.

Listen to This
I buy a bunch of cheap foam earplugs the first day of the season, every year, and stash a pair in every place imaginable—shell bags, daypacks, coat pockets, wader pockets, my binoculars case. I once hunted ducks with a guy who held a foam earplug in his mouth like a cigar stub, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. The older I get, the smarter that seems.

Wake Up Earlier
Much as I love to hunt, I hate getting up. But I’ve learned to get up 15 minutes earlier, and stay in the woods 15 minutes longer. The missed winks are more than made up for by not having to rush to get settled in before shooting light. And that last quarter hour is equal to 900 seconds—900 extra chances for something amazing to happen.

Just Fold Already
Don’t bluff a Cajun in camp poker. Even if he’s only 8 years old.

Take No Hunt for Granted
My most memorable hunting partner was George Bolender, a quadriplegic bowhunter who hunted from a wheelchair outfitted with a bow holder his buddies jury-rigged from an electric screwdriver. He released arrows by puffing into a tube. He got no more than one shot a day. “Don’t ever forget that it’s a privilege,” he told me.

FISHING
Hammer a Bream Bed
There’s no finer way to usher in spring than with a floating foam spider tethered to a sinking ant. Start with formal attire: Tie on a black foam spider with white legs. Using an improved clinch knot, tie 4-pound tippet to the hook bend on the spider; it should be just long enough to reach the bottom of the bedding area. Add the sinking ant, and you’re in business. It’s a deadly tactic with spinning tackle, too. Just add a casting bubble a few feet up from the spider.

Family Matters
This was a hard lesson to learn: I can’t mix fishing with family vacations. Other people have no trouble with this, but it’s all or nothing, one or the other, for me.

Build a Predator Rig
Gather your tired, your lipless, your scarred and rusty Rapalas, the wretched refuse of your ancient tackle box. And make of them an awesome predator rig. Remove the hooks from a plug. Tie it to your line, and tie a short stout dropper between the trailing eye and a big in-line spinner or spoon, such as a Dardevle. (If fishing for toothy predators like muskies, use wire.) Now you have a rig that looks like one fish chasing another fish, which can trigger a bite like nobody’s business.

See the Spots
It is easy to be bedazzled by all the colors, but it’s pretty simple: Brown trout are light with dark spots. Brook trout are dark with light spots.

Trash Your Yard
Any angler worth his mealworms knows that old logs, scraps of plywood, and pieces of ripped-up utility trailer tarp do not constitute untidy yard debris. These are natural bait habitats and will produce at a moment’s notice a free bounty of earthworms, crickets, and beetle grubs.

Fish in the Dark
Growing up, I was a good boy who gave his mama little trouble mostly because I developed a love of the Jitterbug instead of the 12-pack. And I don’t mean the swing dance. My idea of a hot Friday night was, literally, a hot Friday night, ushered in with an Ugly Stik rod, a Mitchell 300 spinning reel, and a gurgling Jitterbug.

The same tactics still produce: Standing 10 feet back from the water, I’d make a few searching casts along a shallow shoreline. Next I’d ease into the water just fished, and fire long casts parallel to the cover, working every inch of the banks. I used black Jitterbugs that showed up against starlit skies, retrieved them slow and steady, and didn’t set the hook till I felt a solid smack.

Nothing teaches discipline as well as learning to keep that Jitterbug in the water after a slashing miss, giving a midnight bass a second crack.

Don’t Hog the Bow

Excuse Me, Mr. Perfect
No, I should not have leaned my favorite trout rod against the open truck door.

Know Your Blades
I used to think a spinnerbait was a spinnerbait, until I read an interview with bass legend Hank Parker that parsed the different varieties. Colorado blades produce lots of vibration for muddy waters and lots of lift for shallow shorelines. Willow blades are better for cold water or clearer water where sunlight can penetrate and flash off the thin metal.

And Parker is a huge fan of tandem blades, especially in heavy cover. If the first blade bumps a rock or treetop, the second one keeps spinning to attract fish and also prevents the lure from toppling to its side and snagging.

Protect Your Catch
Avoid running rapids with a stringer full of fish hanging off the canoe. Trust me on this one.

Pick Your Paddlers Wisely
If you are going to flip a fully loaded canoe in an Alaskan rapid hundreds of miles from civilization, paddle with a bulldog-shaped former hockey player from the Dakota plains who does not know any better than to grab a swamped boat and swim it through the trees. Again, trust me on this one.

C’mon, Respect the Truck
I know they are your favorite fishing snack, but please do not open your jar of pickled eggs in my pickup while we are driving down logging roads.

Hold Firmly
Develop a taste for beer in cans covered in fish slime.

Raise Expert Swimmers
Ours is a water-loving family. Powerboats and canoes, freshwater and salt, moving water and calm. Our kids have been taught to swim by coaches and experts, because accidents happen, and we want our kids to not just float but be able to swim their way out of trouble.

Fish Are Everywhere
Isotope analysis of songbird feathers reveals nutrients derived from salmon flesh. Works like this: Bears eat salmon. Bears poop. Berry-rich shrubs grow lush with poop fertilizer. Songbirds eat berries. Everything is connected.

Dig Out a Stuck Boat
If you push a grounded boat backward, the transom will dig in. How do you escape? If you are an American outdoor writer, you might wait for another boat to tow you to freedom. If you are an Athabascan native who hauls everything from whitefish to moose down northern Alberta rivers, you dig a trench beside the boat, parallel to the boat’s keel. Then you rock and push and shove the boat sideways into those extra few inches of water. Now you can back out, or extend the trench to deeper water. And you try not to smirk at the outdoor writer riding shotgun.

Tie My Fly
Boy, was I a whiny, impatient beginning fly-tier. In the depths of my petulance I whipped up a one-material fly that could only be described as unartful. I lashed lead dumbbell eyes to a hook, built up a garish thread snout, and wrapped the whole kit-and-kaboodle with pearl Krystal Flash chenille. Offensive? A cheap trick? Yes and yes. But it is hot snot on fish. In various sizes, with or without a gaudy Flashabou tail, it has caught shad, stripers, bluegills, crappies, bass, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and false albacore. It is known by at least three people as the Nickens Know-Nothing. I couldn’t be prouder.

Eat More Pike
I love the taste of northern pike. Sure, the bones are a pain, but here’s a work-around. Chunk fillets into 1-inch cubes, which makes the bones easier to pick out. Boil for three minutes and drain. Dredge through melted garlic butter. Some call it poor man’s lobster. I call it a snack fit for a king.

Fix Any Flat
I’ve used a Springfield Quick-Change Trailer Jack to change tires on everything from a utility trailer to a small johnboat trailer to a double-axle saltwater boat trailer. It’s the size of a Frisbee, and you can stow it anywhere, so I take it everywhere. One of my best $40 investments, it also makes greasing bearings go easier.

Keep Fishing
I have never caught a fish with my line out of the water.

Fish the Bass Breeze
I watched reservoir-challenged Total Outdoorsman Challenge competitors learn this lesson the hard way: On a windy day at Table Rock Lake, the inexperienced big-water anglers hightailed it to calm waters or anchored up in the lee of protected points. Bad move. A stiff breeze pushes the entire food chain downwind, from phytoplankton to fingerling fish. Predators stack up along rock riprap, underwater ledges, and other structures to ambush disoriented bait. Calm-water competitors suffered low scores.

Shine a Light for Walleyes
Walleyes, like deer and cats, have an extra light-gathering structure inside the eyeball called the tapetum lucidum, which reflects brilliant pinpoints of light. You can shine a strong light in shallow waters to find walleyes, which you should do as often as possible just because it’s cool.

Bring Home Supper
When my kids were little, the first thing they said upon catching a fish was “Can we keep it, Daddy?” To which I nearly always answered, “Yes-siree-bob.” As long as it was legal, it was headed for hot iron. I’ve battered and fried many a 3-inch-long fish finger, and the smiles on my kids’ faces have helped keep them going back for more.

Save That for Breakfast
Don’t throw away leftover fillets from a camp fish fry. Store fish, boiled potatoes, and other goodies in a zip-seal bag and place it in a cool creek, weighed down with a rock, overnight. For a quick breakfast, heat a tortilla in a fry pan, then reheat the leftovers.

Just One More Cast…
My biggest bass ever was a 10-plus-pound beast that sucked in a small white Woolly Bugger 15 feet from the boathouse. I was fishing for crappies with a 4-weight fly rod. You never know.

CAMPING
Sleep Under the Stars
Growing up we slept under the stars—without a tent or tarp—to prove how tough we were, but now I sleep in the Big Scary Open because I get a huge kick out of nodding off to shooting stars and waking to the first rays of the sun. And it’s super cool to sleep with frost sheathing your sleeping bag. If you’re squeamish about dozing off without the protection of a nylon cocoon, try it my way: Spread out a space blanket, followed by a sleeping pad. Having a couple of feet of ground cloth between you and the bare ground is a mental comfort, yes, and it also means you can spread your arms and thrash around a bit without actually wallowing in the dirt. I wear a fleece cap to hold in extra body heat and keep a flashlight tucked in a boot near my head so I can find it quickly. If it makes you feel better, the other boot can hold a knife, pepper spray, or ninja stars.

Two By Two
The old-timers are right: You need two handfuls of tinder and enough kindling to fill your hat twice.

Trip-Proof Your Tent
In 30 minutes you can replace all of your old tent guylines with reflective cord, and never again trip over them while stumbling around during a middle-of-the-night pee—during which you stub your right big toe so badly that the nail splits and the toe swells and you can’t wear wading boots for two days. Listen to me.

The Snore Solution
Forget the earplugs. Pack your own solo tent.

Cut On a Clean Surface
I always bring a couple of flexible cutting boards on camping trips. They weigh next to nothing, stuff anywhere, and make slicing, dicing, and cleaning fish easier. share the case load Bringing beer should never be the responsibility of a single individual.

Home Turf
A piece of indoor-outdoor carpeting makes a fine front porch for any tent. It keeps the dirt out and doubles as a changing-room floor if you have a large tent vestibule.

Carry It All
I thought I knew how to pack a canoe for portaging—then I took up with a few Canadian friends. Made me look like some dipstick pioneer peddler hawking fry pans in the backcountry. I’ve since dialed up my act, eh? Now when my friends and I take a trip, we start with a couple of monstrous portage packs, such as the indomitable Boundary Pack (cascadedesigns.com). Loaded like a standard backpack, it still has room for tackle bags, daypacks, maps, and all the other crap that winds up strewn from bow to stern.

Unless we plan to use our paddles as makeshift hiking staffs, we lash them, along with fishing rods, to the underside of the canoe seats. Next, it’s Canadian clean-and-jerk time: One paddler shimmies into the lightest portage pack and single-mans the canoe on his shoulders. The other paddler doubles up—wearing the heaviest pack on his back and carrying a lighter one in front by threading his arms through the shoulder harness in reverse. To be honest, with such a load I sometimes peter out halfway down the trail. But there’s a substantial psychic reward in humping the bulk of the gear in one giant effort.

Get Yourself a Barrel
My favorite piece of camping gear is a canoe barrel. These barrels are waterproof. They will swallow a stove, pots, and food for a week. They make a nifty camp seat. Best as I can tell, they are mostly available in Canada and the Boundary Waters region of Minnesota, which is like Canada. Google “canoe barrel” and convert CAD to USD.

Get More Firewood

When the Party’s Over
Nobody likes the drive home after a fun camping trip. Use the time wisely by planning the next trip. Right now. Have the outline of another adventure sketched out by the time your tires hit the driveway. Nothing makes the bitter pill of unpacking gear go down easier than the promise of another great trip to come.

From the May 2012 issue of Field & Stream magazine.