All good things come to those who wait, but when you’ve been waiting six hours, that gets hard to remember. I’d been out on Capt. Chris Williams’ boat since 8 A.M., bobbing around Florida’s Pensacola Bay in November 2017. We’d seen zero signs of life. As bored as we were, Williams assured me that the switch would flip, and there would be tidal waves of giant bull redfish in every direction. What’s hard to predict is exactly when it will happen, so you go early to avoid a bad case of FOMO.
At 2 P.M. some boats waiting nearby jumped on plane and made a beeline south. We joined the race, and in a few minutes, acres of diving pelicans came into focus. Williams drove right into them and stopped. Barreling at us was a wall of copper and froth. “This is what we’ve been waiting for,” he said.
WORTH THE WEIGHT
This story is from the October - November 2019 edition of Field & Stream.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October - November 2019 edition of Field & Stream.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
LIVING THE DREAM
After the author arrives in Maine’s fabled North Woods with a moose tag in his pocket, an adventure he’s been wanting to take his entire hunting life, reality sets in, and he learns a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for
Get the Drift
How to make an accurate windage call under pressure
First Sit
An icebreaker outing in a pristine spot produces the rut hunt of a lifetime
A Local Haunt
The author finds a sense of place in an overlooked creek, close to home
A Hop and a Pump
Jump-shooting rabbits with classic upland guns is about as good a time as you can have in the outdoors
Welcome TO camp
Is there any place better than a good hunting camp? It has everything: great food, games and pranks, and of course, hunting. Shoot, we don’t even mind going to camp for grueling work days in the summer. Here, our contributors share their favorite stories, traditions, and lessons learned from camps they’ve shared. So come on in and join us. The door’s open.
THE DEERSLAYERS
Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics
THE JOURNEY TO PIKE'S PEAK
Last summer, the author and three friends ventured off the grid to a remote fish camp in Canada. They hoped for great fishing, but what they experienced was truly something else
Stage Directions
When early-season whitetails vanish from open feeding areas, follow this woods-edge ambush plan
Rookie Season
A pup’s first year, from preseason training to fall’s big show
