The MeatEater

It sometimes feels like being a successful fly angler comes down to having “the right stuff.” From waders and boots to lines and reels to the endless multitude of gadgets, gizmos, and fly patterns, every angler has an opinion about the fly fishing equipment that’s “absolutely necessary” to catch fish. Without a doubt, the greatest point of contention comes down to how many fly rods you actually need.

Most fly anglers treat fly rods like golf clubs. They believe there’s a specific rod size, power, and flex designed for every fish species, and if you want to be successful—you need them all. I’m as guilty of this as anyone, and a pile of rod tubes in my garage will attest to this.

Truthfully, I know I only really need three of them. Sure, you might be slightly under- or over-gunned in different situations, but you can catch almost any fish species out there with just a 4-weight, 6-weight, and 8-weight fly rod.

When it comes to traditional trout fishing, the 4-weight is the perfect tool. These mid-flex rods were designed for making long, graceful casts and drifting small dry flies over rising fish. They’re also the perfect rod for drifting small nymphs through the deep holes and meandering pools of small creeks and will even work for swinging soft hackles and traditional streamers through faster riffles and runs. But the 4-weight isn’t just for trout.

As lighter and more springy than the traditional 5-weight, a 4-weight is perfect for catching a multitude of small- to medium-sized species. They’re a great rod for chasing panfish, perch, and even smallmouth. In fact, the yielding action of a 4-weight is ideal for both delicate presentations and casting small terrestrials and even poppers on the surface. The 4-weight’s sensitive rod tip is perfect for winter fishing in colder water when fish are sluggish and strikes are subtle.

The downsides of the 4-weight are few. The rod may feel a bit stiff if you fish a lot of small streams or pursue a lot of small fish like brook trout, but it works fine. But, for windy days or larger fish, you’ll need a bit more backbone.

I’ve always considered the 6-weight to be an underutilized and underappreciated rod. They’re a bit beefier than your standard 5-weight, and they provide more heft for casting bigger flies or stiff winds. Yet, you can still use a 6-weight to work dry flies for rising trout with the best of them. But what I like most about the 6-weight is that you can use it to catch pretty much any fish in freshwater.

A 6-weight rod can cast big creature dry flies on big rivers, flip weighted streamers beneath boat docks for bass and pickerel, and are perfect for fishing medium-sized streamers for anything from trout to walleye.

The stiffer tip-flex action on a 6-weight makes it perfect for nymphing with multi-fly setups and split shot in deeper water. You can even fish with long leaders and big flies in still water. It’s also an ideal rod for topwater bass fishing, mousing for big night-hunting trout, and makes a great carp rod since it has enough dexterity to deliver flies with pinpoint accuracy.

The only real problem that comes from using a 6-weight rod is its lack of subtly. The hard, punching action of a 6-weight doesn’t make it a great rod to take on a spring creek or for fishing in low-clear water when fish are spooky. And, while it does have a lot of power and backbone, it doesn’t quite give you the leverage you need to land those truly big fish, which is why you need at least one more rod for your collection.

The 8-weight is a power rod, plain and simple. With more backbone than a honey badger staring down a lion, the 8-weight is great for punching big flies through blasting winds, ripping heavy streamers through weeds, brush, and sticks, and of course, big, hard-fighting fish.

I’ve used my 8-weight, my personal favorite, for targeting a multitude of species and have always found it more than capable. The stiffer, faster action of the rod makes it great for chucking monster streamers for big, meat-eating trout and for making long casts on big lakes and rivers when you’re hunting pike, muskie, or even striped bass. It’s also an ideal rod for swinging streamers or nymphing in heavy current when you’re searching for salmon and steelhead, and it can even take on most of the more popular saltwater species like bonefish, snook, permit, and redfish.

The only downsides to an 8-weight is its inability to cast small dry flies and its lack of accuracy. The stiff, two-by-four-like action of an 8-weight means that any sort of delicate, precise casting goes out the window. However, if you’re looking to slap down a big fly for a big fish, an 8-weight always provides.

There are, of course, other fly rod options that can better suit more specific needs and conditions. If you only like small streams and small trout, a 2-weight or a 3-weight may be your best option. If you’re a big water angler who loves big tarpon or monster muskie, a 10-weight or an 11-weight may be more in your wheelhouse.

However, part of the fun of only using three rods is that it forces you to improvise and adapt your presentations to manage new situations and fish species. Like a golfer trying to par a course with just a driver, an iron, and a putter, only using three fly rods gives you a chance to improve your skills on the fly, which in the end will help shape you into a better fly angler.

Every time you scout, are you actually making the property harder to hunt? In this episode, Adam Keith, Aaron Warbritton, Bill Winke, and Jeff Sturgis break down one of the biggest dilemmas in whitetail hunting: how do you learn enough about a property to kill a mature buck without educating him in the process? We talk about when scouting pressure actually matters, how close you should get to bedding, scouting during the season vs. before it, reading fresh sign, access routes, trail cameras, and when the information you gain is worth the risk of intrusion. Sometimes the biggest mistake isn't scouting too much - it's scouting at the wrong time, in the wrong place, or without a plan for what you're trying to learn. If you've ever walked out of the woods after scouting and thought, "Did I just screw this spot up?" this episode is for you.

Presented by Moultrie

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Steven Rinella and the MeatEater Crew discuss: Trey McKinney, Angler of the Year; Lake Ontario (not Lake America); changes to suppressor regulations; a Montana oil worker wins $200k in a cooking show - with an elk dish; human-bear conflicts; a 6 year old finds an ancient bison; and more!

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In this series, we look at the classic, discontinued, or longstanding guns that hunters still use in the field today (hence the name). Whether they’re out of production or not, you can still find them at gun shops and hunting camps all across the states.

When most think of a pump shotgun, they picture a Remington 870. With over 13 million made, this is no mystery. An 870 was the first shotgun I ever shot and is still the gun I take duck hunting every year. When automatics start acting up, and low-quality pump actions stop working, the 870 keeps going.

Reliability isn’t the only reason why so many hunters keep reaching for an 870, even though most buy them from a used gun rack today. The Remington 870 strikes the perfect balance between affordability and quality. Remington did the work to figure out how to make a relatively cheap shotgun that people actually wanted to take hunting. My oldest 870 is from the 1960s, and it shows with most of its bluing gone. But it still works, season after season, and it’s still a joy to shoot.

If I were advising a new hunter on what shotgun they should buy, I’d suggest a used Remington 870. But they are just as appreciated in experienced hands for their smooth action and versatility.

Most shooters claim that nothing fits them like an 870 because Remington made them to fit just about everybody. The comb on an 870 is narrow, and there is just the right amount of drop in the stock to be forgiving to a variety of statures. This, unfailing reliability, and an affordable price let the 870 dominate the pump shotgun market for half of the 20th century.

When the 870 was released in 1950, it sold for around $70. That was nearly 18% cheaper than the leading pump gun of the time, the Winchester Model 12. Soon, 870s could be found everywhere, from duck blinds to grouse covers to treestands in shotgun-only deer hunting states. The gun also made its way into police armories and homes for self-defense.

Before the 870, and before World War II, Remington had the Model 31. If you’ve ever handled a 31, you’ve handled one of the greatest pump shotguns of all time. Its single action bar and hand-fitted parts gave it the nickname “the ball-bearing repeater.” To call the action smooth would be an understatement. It’s more like butter sliding off of a fresh pancake. But smooth comes at a price, and the Model 31 was too expensive to turn a profit.

The war showed Remington they could make guns more affordably, so they scrapped the Model 31 and built a new pump gun almost from the ground up. They borrowed the receiver from the Remington Model 11-48 automatic, and with it, they designed a family of firearms. Using the same receiver and a few other parts, Remington could make pump shotguns, semi-automatics, and rifles. The first of the family would be the 870, which debuted in 1950.

Remington released the guns in two grades, and hunters immediately started buying. The new gun was more reliable than the Model 31, with two action bars attaching the forend to the bolt instead of just one. It wasn’t necessarily as smooth cycling as its predecessor, but it was still a fine piece of machinery. And at a substantially lower cost than the competition, it flew off the shelves. The 870 would eventually be made in 12, 16, 20, 28, and .410 gauges with 2¾- up to 3½-inch chambers.

The Remington Arms Company did not prove to be as durable as the 870. It finally went bankrupt in 2020 and was sold to a group that renamed the company RemArms. RemArms still makes new Model 870s, and I’ve heard they are quality guns, though many say it’s hard to find them on gun store shelves. Under Remington, the 870 eventually fell victim to its own efficient means of production.

Other companies saw the success of a mass-produced shotgun with few hand-fitted parts and followed in Remington’s footsteps. Soon it was a race to the bottom for purchase price, and the 870 faced challenges with imported shotguns and ever-cheaper American pump guns. To compete, they began sacrificing quality in terms of fit and finish.

The Express model was released in 1987 as a bid to drop the price of a new 870. It lacked the polished blue finish and came with lower-quality wood. At first, Express quality was on par with the older Model 870s, but in the 2000s things started slipping with unpolished chambers and other small issues. This was bad news for Remington’s reputation, but hunters could still find quality 870s among the millions of used versions on the market.

If you’re like me and still carry a Remington 870 in the field, you probably want to keep doing it for a long time. Model 870s are easy to take apart and service, with just two pins holding in the trigger group and a barrel that can be removed by simply unscrewing the magazine cap. I do this regularly during duck season to blast any moisture out of the gun with Rem Oil and swab out the barrel after shooting. If your gun has a removable choke, remove it after shooting and apply antiseize choke tube grease.

The best thing about many 870s is the ability to swap barrels without hand fitting. You can find a variety of used Remington 870 barrels online (for everything from slug barrels to home defense). Just make note of what chamber length your receiver was built for before running 3- or 3½-inch shells, and avoid using longer shells in guns with 2¾-inch receivers. To figure this out, the serial number is your best clue. For the 12 gauge, serial numbers that end with the letter “V” indicate the receiver was made for 2¾-inch shells. Numbers that end with “M” are for 3-inch barrels, and the suffix “A” was put on 3½-inch guns.

The best era for used Remington 870s is the early 1990s. The guns were built well, and their barrels have removable chokes, which give them a more modern feel. Rem870.com has a date-lookup guide where you can cross-reference the serial number to find the year of production.

You can also pick up an older Wingmaster and pair it with a modern barrel if you want the ability to swap chokes—though you’ll likely only be able to run 2¾-inch shells—which is exactly the 870 I hunt with. It gives me the quality of the Wingmaster parts and receiver, and I load 2¾-inch bismuth loads for waterfowl that perform better than 3-inch steel. Whichever Remington 870 you choose, it will probably still be in the field for generations to come.

Photos by Matthew Every

This week on the show I'm joined by President of The Wilderness Society and former Director of the Bureau of Land Management Tracy Stone-Manning for a performance review of the most attention-grabbing public land issues of the last 12 months and a look into the future for our shared landscapes.

Thanks to our sponsor, Conservation First Bank.

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Host Clay Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker are joined by Dr. Adam McCall and Dr. Jason Lofton in the Bear Grease Studio to continue the discussion on men’s health and tips on what it takes to maximize your longevity.

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Question: I live in Michigan's lower peninsula and recently purchased a property in the upper peninsula. I love hunting up there but have had a hard time patterning deer.

I’ve always looked for food and bedding and then found their paths in between. However, where I am in the UP, there are no significant mast crops or ag. The deer primarily feed on browse in the cedar swamps and maple stands that exist in this area. Therefore, everything around them is a potential food source and they don’t have to travel to get a meal.

My question is, with the absence of a destination food source, what is the best way to pattern deer?

Answer:

You might think that the deer have food everywhere in the big woods and that they don’t need to travel, but that thought isn’t going to set you up for success. Even in the absence of ag and mast, there are food sources that come and go at certain points of the season. The deer feeding in those maple stands will key on that food source when the leaves are really dropping. Cold mornings with stiff wind will bring those deer to that food source.

The lack of mast crops can actually be an advantage, too. In northern Wisconsin, where I spend much of my fall, I’m always looking for oak trees. A single tree can be a difference maker, and you can bet that the bucks know when that tree is dropping.

They generally won’t bed right in those food sources, either. Which means they have to go from one spot to another. The main problem I tend to encounter in the big woods isn’t that they don’t travel, it’s that the low deer density makes pinning down travel really difficult.

Winter scouting to find rublines has been a huge advantage for me when hunting deer in vast swaths of timber. Where bucks walk consistently, they leave sign. That sign is there for me to see in March and shows up throughout the season. Even if I can’t pin deer down on a soft edge, or a swamp edge, or some maple stand, I can use rubs to see where bucks are likely to travel. Those rublines tell me how they get around low areas, how they leave their ridgetop beds, and generally, how they navigate that mono-habitat.

Now, owning land up there in the north country gives you a unique opportunity to learn how they use terrain. I leave trail cameras out year round on my property in Wisconsin, which teaches me a lot. Camera intel shows me that the best funnels might have a couple of deer pass through them during any given week. That ramps up some during the rut, but it’s never like it is in higher deer density regions.

That does give me confidence to wait them out, and I think that’s maybe the hardest part of this whole thing. All whitetail hunting requires patience to be successful, but it’s a different thing entirely in the big woods. We are conditioned to want to make something happen when the deer activity is slow, but you can blind call all season long in some of those areas and never get a positive response.

The game is won by doing your best to predict some deer movement, and then putting in a lot of time to prove whether you’re right or not. That’s the biggest test I face each season in all of my hunting. You have to scout enough, run cameras if you can, and then observe as much as possible while you’re hunting. It takes a big buy-in with effort, but it’s also just the best way to encounter bucks where there just aren’t very many of them, and they have a lot of habitat with which to work.

Over enough seasons, you will start to flatten that learning curve and begin to figure out that they actually do give you a chance to pattern them (somewhat) and that they do have preferred food sources at certain points of the season.

It’s a lot of work, but when it all comes together, it’s as rewarding as anything you can do with a bow in your hands.

Good luck this fall!

Have a whitetail related question? Send it to [email protected] and check back weekly to see if we cover it.

Matching broadheads to arrows, quieting down your bow, and establishing effective range are all pre-season necessities. This week, Tony explains his process for all three.

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