The Massachusetts blue marlin record just got shattered with the massive “grander” caught aboard Castafari.

Just in: “Grander” officially weighed in at 1,260 pounds earlier today on an IGFA-certified scale in Falmouth, Massachusetts—obliterating the previous state record of 873 pounds.

How it started: Capt. Damon Sacco was running a four-person overnight charter at West Atlantis Canyon when slow fishing sent him east. A few miles short of East Atlantis, yellowfin suddenly erupted on the spread. Then Sacco saw a massive dorsal. “Holy sh*t it’s a marlin!”

The fish jumped three times before heading deep. Sacco says half the spool was gone in about 10 seconds. “The reel burned in submission. The fun was over. She’ll spool us in no time.” She didn’t.

On The Water editor Jimmy Fee kept the marlin’s head after the catch until a University of Maine scientist collected it this afternoon. “It’s going to the Pelagic Fisheries Lab to determine its age,” Fee tells F&S.

1,260 pounds. A new Massachusetts record, a potential expanded first hand account from the Captain’s eyes (Sacco mentioned a book) and soon, we may know just how old this giant was...

Story by Capt. Damon Sacco @castafari feat. @marlinmike54 with photography by On The Water via @Onthewatermagazine Editor Jimmy Fee @jamestfee ...

2964 36

Smith & Wesson introduced the Model 500 in 2003, creating the massive X-Frame to handle 500 S&W Magnum. In 2006 came the 500ES Kit, which paired a short-barreled Model 500 with orange grips and survival gear in an unmissable hard shell case.

Nearly two decades later, the idea resurfaced in this Grizzly Emergency Kit from Custom & Collectable Firearms. Built around a 4-inch Model 500, the special edition adds a Boker fixed blade, compass and firestarter inside a Grizzly hard case.

Have one of the original kits or one of the newer CNC kits? Let us know, drop a line below. Photos via Guns.com and Smith & Wesson forum. ...

4416 51

The Forest Service created the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in 2001 under then USFS Chief Mike Dombeck. Dombeck tells Field & Stream that 90 percent of the 1.6 million comments submitted ahead of the rule supported protections for roadless areas.

“We worked hard to make sure that we could maintain the management capabilities that were needed within these areas to deal with things like wildfire, insect outbreak, and disease,” Dombeck says, “while still providing adequate recreation and prior existing rights in these areas.”

The rule has long limited new road construction and industrial development while preserving access for hunting, fishing, and other recreation. Now, the USDA is seeking to repeal the rule entirely. The proposal now enters a 30-day public comment period, with comments due September 21.

Full story by @travishallmedia ...

3220 237

For most, it’s a trip of a lifetime. For Carter Brown, it’s another day at work.

Fishing guide & co-pilot @capt.carterbrown works around Soldotna, where millions of sockeye can return to the Kenai River and Brown’s own footage regularly captures how bears and anglers’ worlds can overlap.

During a recent July run, a sow and her cubs approached Brown’s guest-filled boat. The sow eventually found a salmon carcass and proceeded to feast just feet from the boat giving Brown’s clients a front-row-seat to a bear buffet. He’s seen it enough times to be able to confidently make sure his clients contain themselves; for this instance he said: stay calm, reel in the rods, sit down, be cool, let the bears do their thing.

“I’m super fortunate to work in an area where things like this happen truly every day,” Brown said.

Video by @capt.carterbrown feat. @talonairserviceak. ...

4793 64

Nearly every room holds an expedition relic. Sagamore Hill wasn’t decorated but accumulated. Theodore Roosevelt filled the place with the evidence of a life spent outdoors: the result is less presidential mansion than autobiography.

“Step Inside Sagamore Hill, the Home of Theodore Roosevelt,” is a Field & Stream exclusive story by Matthew Every with photography by Mark Greenberg.

Drop a “TR” comment and we’ll DM you the link to the full story to keep reading. ...

13698 502

Ducks Unlimited’s campaign mobilized a broad coalition of hunters and anglers, from national camouflage and hunting-gear brands to everyday waterfowlers across the country. And, late last week, higher ups at the Department of Interior, which oversees USFWS, took note.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service thanks the more than 200,000 commenters who responded to the request for information on the process for calculating setbacks for the drain tiles around the wetland easements,” the Service said in an August 14 tweet. “Our administration is dedicated to protecting both the wetland easements purchased by the FWS that are necessary to protect our conservation heritage as well as the private landowners’ use of their lands outside the easement boundaries. At this time, no further action is planned as we review the information received.”

The tweet came just days after a large consortium of waterfowl groups including, DU, Delta Waterfowl, California Waterfowl, and South Carolina Waterfowl, issued a joint letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum urging him to maintain the current drain-tile setback rules. Separate letters from bi-partisan groups of elected officials in both the House and Senate also urged Burgum to keep the rules in place.

Field & Stream will continue to cover the issue as more details emerge. Full story by @travishallmedia. ...

13617 169

Every bar has a guy with a big buck story. Jim Jordan’s happened to be true.

It cost Jordan $5 to have this buck mounted. Getting his name back on it took the better part of half a century.
In 1914, 22-year-old Jordan was hunting near Danbury, Wisconsin, when he shot a massive 10-point whitetail along the Yellow River. Jordan knew the buck was special. He just had no way of knowing how special. He handed the rack to a local taxidermist, who agreed to make him a mount for $5. Then the taxidermist moved and the buck disappeared with him. Decades passed, and Jordan went on to run a bar in Hinckley, Minnesota. The giant buck he’d lost was still part of the lore, and Jordan kept telling the story to anyone who’d listen.

Meanwhile, the rack had resurfaced in Minnesota and changed hands for just $2. Eventually, someone put a tape to it: 206 1/8 inches, with only 3 2/8 inches of deductions. There was just one problem: nobody could prove Jordan was the hunter. But all those years of telling the story eventually mattered. People who’d heard it at his bar helped connect an outdoor writer with Jordan, setting off an investigation into the buck’s origins.

In 1978, Boone & Crockett officially recognized Jordan as the hunter and Danbury, Wisconsin, as the location of the kill. The Jordan Buck held the world-record typical whitetail title until 1993. More than a century later, his massive Wisconsin 10-pointer remains one of the greatest typical whitetails ever taken.

Old School Sundays, presented by Yuengling. ...

4928 11

How much gear do you actually need?

Leon Berthold and Lea are the duo behind WildBound. They live out of a self-converted camper van and document their DIY off-grid adventures on their YT channel. For this adventure, they spent a week on a remote Arctic island.

For the first leg of the trip, conventional fishing gear was off limits and they knew they didn’t bring enough food to eat for a week. They made a valiant attempt to build what they needed, found their own bait and started fishing.

Spoiler alert: their homemade rod went into the ocean but they saved the reel and kept fishing by hand. Check out @leonberthold.outdoors | “WildBound” for more. ...

2042 16

The mark of experience? Knowing you don’t always have to go deeper.

Elk aren’t hard to kill; they’re just hard to find. Although elk populations are high, the landscape they live is huge and the terrain is rugged. With the animals spread over millions of acres of wilderness, herds can seem to vanish into thin air. And that’s why, starting in summer, Jace Bauserman spreads cameras all across his part of the West to locate them. Trail cams may have been initially designed for whitetail nuts, but their use has exploded among western bowhunters. And for good reason.

Archery-season bulls are big, noisy, and for a 30ish-day period during the rut, they think with something other than their brain. If you can just find a few good bulls ahead of the season, you’ll have a great chance at tagging one once it opens.

Drop an “EDGE” comment and we’ll DM you the elk summer scouting clinic by @jace_bauserman powered by @moultrieproducts ...

2423 112

And yes, he’s packed a sheep out with that 45L Mystery Ranch Sawtooth before. The bag separates from the frame, with the meat riding between the two and the head on top. His last sheep came out that way over a 35-mile hike.

One caveat: the kill kit, spotter, and binos are riding with his hunting partner.

What are you adding… or leaving at home?

(u/Select-Cash1102) ...

13489 236

Bulldozers have begun clearing land for a new border wall inside Big Bend National Park.

On August 4, bulldozing for the $1.7 billion project began in earnest, despite strong bipartisan opposition from locals. Private contractors are carrying out the project under the authority of Customs and Border Patrol.

The federal government is waiving scores of bedrock environmental laws for the project. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, contractors have already bulldozed key areas of the park as part of a plan to build new border barriers, paved roads, and other types of border wall infrastructure.

The Texas Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers @texas_bha has voiced significant concerns about the projects, citing negative impacts to the area’s hunting and fishing heritage. The group says a physical border wall would block native wildlife from accessing the Rio Grande and impede known movement pathways for black bear, mountain lion, big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, and hundreds of bird species.

Maps seen by Texas BHA Policy Chair Jake Walker show a definite loss of hunting access if the wall goes through, including an entire public hunting section near Lake Amistad and current public hunting areas inside the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

Full story by @travishallmedia with video shot by local journalist @ntlnwmn showing bulldozers clearing land for a new border wall inside Big Bend National Park. ...

4780 527