American traditions are great, and our outdoor traditions, including hunting, fishing, and everything else done outside, can be traced back long before the American Revolution. Indeed, hunting and fishing fed many of the first Europeans to arrive in the New World, as it had been feeding the people who were already here.
A bunch of great periodicals have grown up around these traditions, and one of the oldest of these is one a lot of people have never heard of – and it’s 100 years old this year.
When I was a kid growing up in Allamakee County, Iowa, in the ‘70s, I spent a lot of my time fishing, hunting, running a trapline in the winter, and just generally mooching around in the wooded hills and valleys. It was a great place to be a kid, a great place to grow up, and a great place to be outdoors.
I also liked reading about hunting, fishing, and so on. In those days, websites were on paper, and we called them “magazines.” I kept a stack of old outdoor magazines around, and if I ran into a particular problem – a big trout in a certain pool in the stream that I couldn’t entice with my collection of lures, an old boar raccoon that always saw through my trap sets, and so on, I referred to that stack of magazines for advice. I generally found what I was looking for, and had hours of happy reading in the meantime.
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Today’s outdoor magazines all seem to look alike these days. Some of these mags I had subscribed to since the early ‘70s, but have dropped in the last few years for a number of reasons. Some of them went “woke,” some just went fancy. Case in point: I dumped Sports Afield after they went all-in for “assault weapon” bans. I lost interest in Outdoor Life after they became "Craig Boddington Takes Yet Another Expensive Guided Exotic Animals Hunt to Advertise Guns and Gear I’m Not Interested In Buying." Add to that the fact that most of these slick, shiny rags are more advertisement than content; even the content is selling something.
But there’s still one good outdoor journal for the regular guys among us still on the market. And it’s 100 years old this year. It’s not fancy, it’s not shiny, and it’s not loaded with expensive gear and exotic guided excursions. It’s an outdoor magazine for regular outdoor folks.
I’m referring to a little magazine (available in digital format too) named Fur-Fish-Game. I can’t say much more to describe them than they do themselves:
Since 1925, FUR-FISH-GAME has been highly acclaimed as the magazine for practical outdoorsmen. We cover a wider variety of outdoor pursuits than any other magazine. And we are the only national outdoor magazine that still publishes a new issue each and every month of the year. All because we know that when you truly love the great outdoors, there is no such thing as an off-season.
Bear in mind that I’m not advertising for Fur-Fish-Game. Well, I sort of am, but I’m not receiving anything in return other than the satisfaction of spreading the word about a publication I enjoy a great deal.
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A big part of what I enjoy about them is that they aren’t aiming for the high-dollar, guided hunt market. They provide good info on hunting, fishing, and, yes, trapping for regular folks. The current (August) issue includes tips on hunting with beagles, pack horses, smallmouth bass tips, and squirrel hunting. Regular stories for regular folks, lots of good information, and what ads they do run are ads for quality outdoor clothing and equipment – no Viagra or hair-restoration ads.
Plus, honestly, it’s the only outdoor magazine that still runs any articles about trapping. I don’t run a trapline anymore, but I still have my string. Trapping’s more popular in Alaska than in a lot of other places, but nationwide it’s something of a dying art; it’s nice to see some of that knowledge maintained and passed on.
I discovered Fur-Fish-Game around 1976. It’s hard to remember details at this distance in time, as any of you who, like me, have some gray hair, can attest. In those days, I was still pretty satisfied with the big, shiny national magazines, but they were already starting to go overly commercial. What I do remember was being down in Waterloo, and mooching around in an old magazine store, when I came across that plain-paper, simple, down-to-earth periodical. I picked one up, flipped through, and realized one thing: This was a magazine written for me, for people like me, regular people who are looking to catch a few trout, shoot a couple of pheasants, and make some money in the winter on the trapline. I’ve been reading it ever since.
If you’re an outdoor guy, check them out. They’re the only outdoor magazine worth paying for these days.
