The MeatEater

On a recent ride to the grocery store, I pointed out a flock of geese to my daughters. My five-year-old piped up and told me she wanted to shoot one of them with her bow. I didn’t point out the legal or logistical barriers to her endeavor, but I did feel a huge sense of pride welling up. I knew it was a sign that maybe I was doing something right.

If you have a family or little ones, you know how challenging it can be to balance life and hunting. Joining the two naturally makes sense. While there’s a fine line between cultivating an interest in hunting and making it a chore no one wants to do, you can gradually introduce your kids to it by letting them tag along with you. Besides, if you’re trying to score some brownie points for the fall, giving your spouse or significant other a little me-time can help you do just that.

Even if you just want to introduce them to scouting, here are a few ways to summer scout with your kids that don’t involve running them through a mini bootcamp.

When he was still alive, my grandfather would load me and my cousins into his Toyota pickup, and we’d ride through his hunting club. He did this year-round but especially during the summer. Sometimes we’d stop to check blackberry patches in recent cut-overs or look for ripe persimmons or summer grapes dropping into the gravel roads. My grandfather had plenty of stories tied to these spots. As he drove, he’d point across a cut-over to where he’d once killed a turkey or an SMZ where he shot a buck and ran his truck into the ditch after loading it up.

He rarely made these rides about hunting, even though I know he used them as little scouting trips. They were a great way to include me and my cousins, and those rides, along with my grandfather’s stories, made us look forward to hunting season.

Even if you don’t leave the truck, riding gives you an easy way to get the kids out of the house and show them something new. You can monitor spots from the road, glass, or even try door knocking. Either way, it doesn’t take a ton of effort.

I recently made the mistakes of dragging my two daughters with me to hang a trail cam during the hottest part of the day. Normally, this little trip wouldn’t be an issue for them, but it was a long, hot walk (way to go, Dad). It wasn’t long before the tears started and I was swatting mosquitos while haphazardly putting their hair into buns. Luckily, there’s a way to include your kids on a trail cam mission without collective and instant regret.

As long as you take them early in the morning or late in the evening, setting a trail camera with your kids is a great way to include them in scouting. Depending on their age, make sure the walk or hike doesn’t feel like the journey to Mordor. Otherwise, there won’t be a repeat trip. If it feels like fun to them, they’re more likely to want to do it again or even help you during your set up process.

Don’t only include them in the work process either. My girls love seeing photos and videos of deer or other critters, and it’s a way to show them that the “work” we did to hang those cameras actually paid off.

In my home office, I have a pair of binoculars that lives on my desk. Every time my girls come visit me throughout the day, it’s the first thing they reach for before heading to the window. Why? Because glassing is cool whether you’re 5 or 35.

Glassing from the road can be an effective way to summer scout without putting pressure on deer. It’s also an easy one for kids, because they get to ride in the A/C and you don’t have to worry about hosing them down with bug spray. Plus, you can bring snacks. If there’s one thing that will keep kids interested, it’s snacks.

You can also teach them how to glass. It’s not the same glassing that’s required to spot the ear twitch of a bedded deer, just the casual viewing of a few deer feeding in a field. It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to glass where you plan on hunting. There’s valuable intel in just observing deer, even if you can’t hunt them. Besides, your kids won’t know the difference either.

If you’re hoping to get your kids into hunting, scouting trips can be a great intro. Just remember to keep it simple. The goal is to help them enjoy the outdoors, not resent them.

Ask a half dozen hunters what makes the perfect UTV setup, and you’ll get six different answers. None of them are wrong.

The UTV that hauled me around the Idaho mountains chasing bugling bull elk looked a lot different than the rig I use to hunt the soggy river bottoms back home in eastern North Carolina.

Out west, a hunting rig needs to handle long climbs and steep terrain. At home, it’s more about mud, thick brush, and hauling deer. If it’s duck season, it might also end up loaded with decoys and an impatient retriever.

And that’s the thing about building a better hunting rig. The best upgrades are the ones that make your hunt better, and that means different things to different hunters. Here are a few ways to think about upgrading your rig as well as some relevant product picks selected by MeatEater’s greatest gear junkie, Matt Miller.

Every hunter knows how hunting gear seems to magically multiply. On opening day, you head into the woods with nothing but a rifle and some binos. By the end of the first week, you find yourself surrounded by rain gear, game bags, calls, extra gloves, snacks, and a handful of other odds and ends that somehow seem essential.

But smart storage options do more than just let you carry more stuff. Cargo boxes, gear racks, and gun cases can also help keep your important gear from sliding around, taking a beating, or getting buried under a pile of jackets. And when everything has its place, it’s easier to get your hands on what you need when you need it.

When you’re dreaming of tricking out a hunting UTV, recovery gear isn’t typically the kind of thing you get excited about. It isn’t fun or glamorous. Winches and traction boards rarely turn heads at basecamp or the skinning shed.

But you’ll be glad you have them if you ever find yourself staring at a UTV that just won’t budge. Recovery straps, a winch, traction boards, a shovel, and a basic tool kit are the kind of gear you hope stays packed away. Until the day you need it. Then it’s worth every penny.

A muddy trail, a steep climb, or a bad line over unfamiliar ground can quickly turn a normal hunt into a long walk back to the truck if you don’t have the right recovery gear.

Having windows and a windshield may not seem like essential hunting gear until you're trying to get back to the trailhead in sideways rain. That’s when those nice-to-have accessories suddenly feel essential.

Doors, heated grips, seat heaters, and windshield wipers won’t make your UTV more capable, but they can keep a ride from being miserable. When bad weather rolls in, a little extra comfort can be the deciding factor in being in the field and letting the forecast decide when you hunt.

All the horsepower in the world won’t do you any good if your tires can’t get traction. The right tires are the foundation of any hunting rig because they are what connect you to the ground you’re trying to cover.

Hunters need to choose their tires based on the terrain they hunt. A southern hunter driving through flooded timber needs very different tires than one climbing rocky, mountain trails out West. Mud tires will help you claw across a sloppy river bottom, but they will be practically useless when you’re trying to cover long distances over mixed terrain. In that case, an all-terrain tire will serve you better.

Tire size matters, but bigger isn’t always better. Fat tires can give you more ground clearance, which is handy when you’re crawling over boulders and deadfall. But big tires also add weight, which can strain your machine. You don’t need to build the biggest rig you can. That’s when an all-terrain tire becomes your new best friend.

Hunters understand that legal shooting light is only part of the hunting equation. The real work often happens after the sun goes down.

Breaking down an animal, packing up camp, or driving a trail that was a heckuva lot easier to navigate in daylight can be a lot easier (and safer) with the right lighting. A light bar or auxiliary lights are the kind of upgrades that quickly earn their keep when you’re trying to get things done in the dark. Rear-facing work lights are also handy when you’re digging for decoys before sunrise or hauling meat back to camp after sunset.

Most hunters don’t care if their UTV is super fancy. They just want it to get them in and out of the field and haul game after a successful trip. But there are some small upgrades that can make a huge difference when you’re miles from the nearest blacktop. They can even make a difference on a quick trip to the back forty.

A phone holder keeps your hunting app visible instead of buried in your pocket. A GPS mount keeps maps up where you can see them. Cup holders keep your coffee from spilling when you’re bumping over rough trails. And extra charging ports let you keep your batteries topped off while you’re running cameras, checking maps, or searching for cell service after days away from civilization.

The best hunting UTV isn’t the one with the most accessories bolted to it. It’s the one built to fit the way you hunt. For some, that’s climbing steep mountain trails chasing bulls. For others, it’s crawling through southern mud. The right setup looks different for every hunter, but no matter how you hunt, it will help keep you in the field doing what you love.

This week on the show Mark's joined by Darrin Durham, an avid deer hunter and program manager for Moultrie Mobile, to explore the fast evolving integration of AI into trailcams and how hunters can best take advantage of this technology.

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Before Ryan Watson, Bryan Hagerich, and Tyler Wenrich faced the possibility of 12 years in a Turks and Caicos prison, another American had already lived their nightmare.

In 2023, Michael Grim forgot a loaded pistol magazine in his vacation backpack. He never intended to bring ammunition into the country, but after a bewildering court process, he became the first American tourist sentenced to His Majesty’s Prison on Grand Turk.

In Chapter 2 of Blood Trails: Paradise Prison, Michael reveals what happened after the prison gates closed behind him. Alone in a foreign country, he enters a world of suffocating heat, solitary confinement, violent threats, extortion attempts, strange alliances, and rules that seem to change without warning.

As Ryan, Bryan, and Tyler await their own uncertain fates, Michael’s experience offers a terrifying glimpse of what may be waiting for them—and a warning that surviving Grand Turk prison will require more than keeping their heads down.

How does an ordinary vacationer adapt when an honest mistake lands him among convicted killers? And what happens when the people who he thought would protect him decide he’s on his own?

Want more Blood Trails? Check out the Case File.

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The MeatEater Crew discuss: Steve’s News Flash from the Arctic; Open Fields case in Pennsylvania; pen-raised pheasants in Montana; wolf corrections; pooping in bags; wolf corrections; possible changes to wetlands; and more!

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Ten yards down the beach, two kids build a sandcastle while their mom watches through sunglasses from a stretched-out beach towel. Some teenagers shove each other as they walk past me and head down the beach, and a couple of guys toss football near the dunes.

And I’m knee-deep in the Atlantic, two ribbons of squid threaded onto my hooks. I’ve been here since sunup, waiting for my rod tip to twitch, and my cooler already holds some evidence that I picked a good spot. It’s easy to stand on the beach and stare out across the water and think somewhere out there are fish. That somewhere is often a lot closer than the average beachgoer may think.

That’s what I love about surf fishing. You don’t need a boat cutting across the horizon or thousands of dollars in electronics to find fish. All it takes is a simple setup, a stretch of beach, some patience, and the ability to read the water in front of you.

You can catch fish from just about any stretch of beach. I’ve pulled flounder from crowded public beaches and pompano from stretches of sand so isolated and quiet I felt like I was the only human for miles. But some beaches are just better than others when it comes to catching fish.

While there are countless fish swimming the ocean, they aren’t evenly distributed along the coastline. Fish that hang out close to the beach follow food, current, and structure. The best surf anglers know how to spot where those things converge before they ever make a cast.

Look for places where the waves break differently. A gap between breaking waves could be evidence of a cut between sandbars. Cuts create current and push baitfish through predictable lanes. Similarly, patches of ocean that look darker than the surrounding water can be signs of deeper sloughs, where fish can move and feed without fighting the surf. These places naturally concentrate fish, and you don’t need to be an oceanographer to spot them.

Open beaches aren’t the only places fish like to congregate. Piers, jetties, and rocky structure also attract baitfish and the predators that chase them. If you have access to them, these can be great spots to drop a line.

Good surf fishing can require minimal gear, and you can catch plenty of fish with a simple setup. A medium-heavy spinning rod in the 9- to 11-foot range coupled with a 4000- to 6000-size saltwater-capable spinning reel is a good place to start. Spinning reels are easy to cast, forgiving for the novice, and plenty capable of handling many common East Coast species, from spot and croaker to red drum and pompano. If you want to target larger fish (think cobia and bull reds), you’ll need heavier tackle.

Load the reel with 20- to 30-pound braid and pair it with a 20- to 40-pound monofilament leader. A fishfinder rig is one of the most versatile setups, especially for beginners. It uses a sliding sinker above the leader. The design allows a fish to pick up the bait without instantly feeling the weight of the sinker, giving you more time to set the hook. You can find them pre-made in most coastal bait shops. Just add a sinker and some bait and you’re ready to go.

Another popular setup is the double drop rig, which uses two hooks suspended above a sinker. These effective rigs work well for smaller bottom feeders like spot and croaker.

Sinker selection is important when you’re fishing the surf. Round and teardrop sinkers may work fine in your local lake, but they roll around in breaking waves. Pointed pyramid weights or Hatteras-style storm sinkers work best on sandy ocean floors. Their shape digs into the sand and helps keep your rig from getting tossed around in the waves.

Some anglers choose to skip the fresh bait altogether. Artificial lures like bucktails, spoons, and soft plastics let you actively cover more water fast. They can work especially well for flounder, speckled trout, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, and red drum. However, artificial baits come with a steeper learning curve than soaking natural bait.

Like your setup, your bait choice can be simple, too. These options have proven to catch a variety of East Coast species in my experience.

Squid is a surf-angling standby. It’s inexpensive, stays on the hook well, and is appetizing to everything from palm-sized spot to larger predators. Shrimp is another reliable option that attracts flounder, speckled trout, and smaller bottom feeders. Sand fleas (mole crabs) are a favorite of surf-riding pompano. Large chunks of cutbait from menhaden and mullet work well for larger bluefish, red drum, cobia, and striped bass.

When in doubt, drop into any local bait shop before you hit the beach. The locals there are usually happy to share what’s working and what isn’t.

You can catch fish in the surf any time of day, but there are certain times that just naturally produce more bites. Like whitetails, most fish like the edges of daylight. The first few hours after sunrise and the last few hours before sunset often have a better bite because cooler temps and lower light can push feeding fish closer to shore. But, the tide is even more important than the time.

I’ve caught plenty of fish at noon with a strong, moving tide, and I’ve walked away with an empty cooler after fishing a gorgeous sunset. A moving tide is more productive than a slack tide in most situations. As the tide rises and falls, it moves baitfish, shrimp, crabs, and other food through the surf. During a slack tide, when the movement briefly stops at high and low tide, the bite tends to slow down if not stop altogether.

A moving tide also makes those cuts and sloughs you spotted earlier become even more important. That moving water creates a conveyor belt of feeding opportunity, moving the buffet around. Predators know how to sidle up to it and take advantage.

You should also watch the water for signs of feeding fish. Diving birds and skittering baitfish are signs that something is feeding beneath the waves. When it happens, don’t wait to cast into it. The action may move down the beach with the bait.

Steve takes on America's most hated fish with a recipe out of Auguste Escoffier's 1903 Le Guide Culinaire. Carpe à la bière calls for poaching a whole carp in light beer with onions, celery, and diced gingerbread, then saucing it with the fish's own roe. Steve and Randall work through it in the MeatEater kitchen and put it in front of the crew to see if carp can be made not just edible, but good. Presented by Tecovas

In this final chapter of our Civil War series, we once again hear from historians J.D. Huitt, Dr. Brooks Blevins, and Dr. Louis Gallo to trace the final eighteen months of the conflict—from Gettysburg and Vicksburg to Grant's relentless Overland Campaign and Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

Along the way, host Clay Newcomb examines how Ulysses S. Grant transformed modern warfare through his philosophy of total war, why Abraham Lincoln came to trust him above every other Union general, and how Grant's quiet humility shaped one of the most remarkable victories in American history. We also explore the humanity displayed at Appomattox, the myths surrounding the surrender, and why historians still debate the reasons the Confederacy ultimately failed.

Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas.

If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [email protected]

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Spencer Neuharth hosts MeatEater Trivia with Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, Randall Williams, Seth Morris, Alex Plachta, and Bobby Classon.

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A shocking attempt to outlaw all forms of hunting, fishing, and trapping, as well as animal husbandry, breeding practices, rodeos, and more, in Oregon has failed. IP28, or the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, was a proposed ballot measure put forward by animal-rights extremists seeking to make a statement.

In January, David Michelson, the main backer of the measure, told the Willamette Weekly that his effort was similar to the women’s suffrage movement and that while he was under no illusions that it would pass, he hoped it would “help people think differently” about what constitutes animal cruelty. IP28 was Michelson’s third iteration of the effort; all of his attempts have so far failed to reach the ballot.

Unsurprisingly, IP28 sparked fierce opposition, not just from outdoorsmen, but a broad coalition of interests. Marie Neumiller, Western States Manager for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, said that the threat of the proposal was galvanizing and created some positive outcomes.

“It's given us an opportunity to tell the story of the North American Model of Conservation [and] to make sure that people truly understand what hunting, fishing, and trapping really are,” she told MeatEater. “It also gave us an opportunity to collaborate with other groups that are tangential to but not necessarily in the sporting community. Ranching communities, fine culinary arts places, and others realized the impacts these rules would have had, not only on their industries, but on Oregonians’ choices and preferences all around.”

The extreme measure was also roundly condemned by the state’s politicians, including Democratic Governor Tina Kotek, who said that “criminalizing activities like hunting and fishing would be wrong for Oregon."

While the proposal was shocking, Neumiller mentioned that conversations around it in the state were often encouraging. “During a coalition meeting with the Farm Bureau we had a group speak up and the individual speaking was actually vegan. But she said that her and her group were fighting IP28 because while they don’t consume meat, they supported the rights of people involved in animal agriculture and the sporting community to pursue their passions and meat preferences,” Neumiller said.

Ultimately, what killed the proposal was simply that its backers failed to gather the minimum number of verified signatures to make the ballot; while they submitted 142,000 signatures, only 104,262 were validated by the Secretary of State's office, failing to reach the threshold of 117,173 valid signatures.

According to Neumiller, one of the likely reasons so many invalid signatures had to do with a longer-than-usual signature collection effort, which increases the risk of duplicates and people moving out of the state.

Though the proposal’s flop is cause for celebration and relief, Neumiller says that both broad and more targeted anti-hunting efforts around the country, particularly “small hits” such as Colorado’s recent decision to severely restrict trapping, still pose serious threats.

“David Michelson’s goal was a long-term goal. He wanted to bring this conversation forward more frequently and change the way we look at wildlife and livestock so that eventually this kind of proposal would not be considered extreme,” she said. “It’s important for us to keep up the same level of motivation we've had leading into this ballot petition and keep singing the praises of sportsmen and women to make sure the general public understands what conservation is.”