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Listen Now! To the Iowa Hunting and Fishing Report

This week’s Iowa Hunting and Fishing Report finds anglers dealing with lingering late-summer heat while hunting season draws closer across the state. Aaron McKinney checks in with bait shops around Iowa for the latest fishing conditions and also spends some time getting the dogs ready for another season in the field.

A special thanks goes to Al Martin Real Estate and Auction for sponsoring this week’s report. The company has an upcoming estate auction in Bloomfield, Iowa, featuring a variety of firearms and outdoor-related items. Outdoorsmen and women looking for shotguns, rifles, handguns and other sporting items will want to check out the upcoming sale: https://almartinauctions.com/september-auctions/?_kx=z8-rbjcsRDFqtgBuODqXLA.RRbGmN#KoettelEstate

Iowa Hunting Fishing Report

Check Out Our Current Issue!

Top Deer Hunting Picks for Your Pack

Top Deer Hunting Picks for Your Pack Being prepared for that first cold morning in the whitetail woods is something we’ve been dreaming about since last season closed. Having the right gear makes a world of difference between planning in the summer and tagging your next buck. Don’t fall behind this fall; here’s what you […]

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shooting corner, .308 win

The .308 Winchester Stands the Test of Time

The .308 Winchester Stands the Test of Time The rise of newer, high-performance cartridges has led some shooters to believe that the 7.62×51mm NATO and its commercial counterpart, the .308 Winchester, are relics of another era. Critics argue that the cartridge’s time has passed. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Because the […]

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A Snowy Pheasant Hunt

Beauty in the Contrast: A Snowy Pheasant Hunt Chasing pheasants in snow is pretty sweet! The scenery’s beauty increases. The iridescent colors of the rooster exploding from the white-dressed cover are breathtaking. The coffee waiting in the truck somehow tastes better, and the post-hunt celebrations and traditions seem to linger and stick a little longer. […]

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Wind, Wits, and a Tree Decoy: Bowhunting Brahma

Wind, Wits, and a Tree Decoy: Bowhunting Brahma The 10 mph northwest wind is perfect. It’s light enough that I can still hear anything approaching through the leaves behind me, but steady enough to carry our scent directly away from the field edge—and the freshly planted rub tree. Yep, you heard me right. I’m hunting […]

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Featured Story

Big Buck Profile: The 2025 Gandy Buck

Ok, this first big buck profile is a little self-serving in that it is of a buck that I personally took this past deer season. While it is likely not the “biggest” big buck that we will profile this year it is definitely one of my most special deer ever.

Turning a Dream into Reality

As has been noted in several articles since 2023, my family and I finally put together the means to purchase our very own piece of Iowa ground. “The 32,” as we call it, has become a passion project to see if we could take an unassuming piece of real estate and harvest a mature deer from there by giving him all he needs in the way of habitat. This year was the first year that the farm would be huntable in the state in which we intended due to construction projects over the past couple of seasons.

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Created By Iowans, For Iowans

The Iowa Sportsman website and magazine are Iowa’s only privately owned media sources catering to hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts here in Iowa. Simply put, we are unlike other Iowa outdoor media sources: All our staff is from Iowa, from our publisher to our writers. We actually follow through on what we advertise; we provide knowledgeable content from people who know the industry or sport discussed.