The MeatEater

There are plenty of good ways to eat confit turkey thighs, but deep frying might be the best of them all. After hours of slow cooking in fat, the meat becomes incredibly tender and rich, just like duck confit. A quick dip in buttermilk and dredge in seasoned flour and a plunge into hot oil transform the outside into a crisp, craggy crust while the inside stays silky and juicy. Perhaps it's the fact that I’ve cooked the turkey in oil twice, the first time low and slow and the second time hot and fast!

Serve the thighs on their own, pile them onto white bread with pickles and hot sauce, or pair them with mashed potatoes and gravy for the kind of meal that earns silence around the dinner table.

How do fawns survive their first three weeks? It's not easy, but the deer have a strategy and it works out often enough to ensure another generation of whitetails will be on the landscape, waiting for us as fall kicks off.

Connect with Tony Peterson and MeatEater

Tony Peterson on Instagram and Facebook

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop MeatEater Merch

Almost exactly 500 years ago, a shipwrecked Spaniard named Cabeza de Vaca and three companions made the first trans-continental journey in the history of the American West. Then he wrote down his account of eight years in Native America, one of the great First Contact stories of all time.

Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon.

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Check out more MeatEater's American History audio originals "The Long Hunters" and "Mountain Men"

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop MeatEater Merch

Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: How a gang of rogue turkeys beat up a nice old lady; the invention of archery; Oregon voters will get to consider a bill to ban all hunting, fishing, ranching and rodeo-ing; fishing records; possible lead-shot wild game meat donations in New York; fish full of PFAS chemicals; Patagonia sues a drag queen; and more. 

Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network

Steve on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

If finding a deer in the big woods is like finding a needle in a haystack, finding a mature buck is like looking for that needle in an entire hay field. Unlike ag country, the big woods might only boast two bucks per square mile in some areas. Finding big bucks in such places requires a ton of legwork in and out of season. And that starts with summer scouting. It’s a low pressure/high reward activity that can pay off once deer season rolls around. Here’s where you can start.

One of the hardest things about hunting in the big woods is well, they’re big. When you look at a chunk of territory from the road or on a mapping app, it can be hard to know where to start. Edges are a great place.

During the early summer, leaves on hardwood trees are either just starting to bud or green up. That new growth makes it easy to spot transitions to darker evergreens scattered throughout the woods.

Edges are incredibly important in low-deer-density areas like the big woods, as they provide both cover and feed. During the fall, bucks will also use these edges as travel corridors so that they can stay under cover while feeding and/or looking for does.

Pay especially close attention to these timber edges that run through a low saddle or other funnels. You can almost guarantee to find buck sign there.

Once you locate several edges, look for food sources. Look for mast-producing trees, like oak or beech or even wild apple trees. Pay attention to woody browse and shrubs, like young maple and dogwood trees that are only a few feet off the ground, or shrubs like witch hazel and greenbrier and patches of ferns and moss, which deer will utilize once the mast is gone.

During the fall, big woods deer live on a food-to-bed travel pattern. Look for obvious travel routes and deer trails between these food sources and thick cover and start combing around for buck sign.

Though they won’t be as obvious as they are in the fall, both rubs and scrapes from the previous year are still valuable, especially signpost rubs that bucks hit every year. This old sign can give you a great idea of what type of bucks are in the area and how they like to travel. If you find a lot of old scrapes and rubs along rivers and creeks or at high-altitude spots along the peaks of a ridgeline, those bucks will probably utilize those same types of areas again.

Finding deer tracks during the early summer can quickly tell you if there’s a big buck in the area. You can also tell how many different big bucks are around if you know how to identify their tracks. Though there are some exceptions, heavier (more mature) bucks tend to leave dew claw marks in the dirt. You can also look for longer, splayed tracks and investigate them further. Take a photo just in case you come across a similar track in that general area for comparison or to hone in your setup.

Like fingerprints, a buck’s tracks can be distinctive. Some are short, long, or have distinct chips or irregularities in the hoof that give those bucks away. It can take a bit of practice, but once you learn how to pick out all these little anomalies, you’ll be able to spot that particular buck’s track in a pile of others.

Don’t just stop there. Since bucks typically bachelor up during the summer, you should be able to spot others and get a sense of how many bucks are using that area.

It’s never too early to get a jump on deer season. The more intel you gather now, the more options you’ll have when October 1 rolls around, and that’s never a bad thing in the big woods.

Steven Rinella talks with author Craig Fehrman.

Topics discussed: Craig's new book, This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark; York, Ordway, Black Buffalo, Sacajawea, and other key players on the expedition; Sacajawea's sense of humor; diplomacy and discovery; medical care; views of slavery and Lewis and Clark's different views on it; the abundance of species; and more.

Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network

Steve on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

This week, Cal tells the story British fox who hitched a ride across the pond, several clashes over public land management, and a bit of personal news you don't want to miss.

Connect with Cal and MeatEater

To learn more and get involved with any Cal to Action, click here.

Cal on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop Cal's Week in Review Merch

Like a lot of anglers, I got my intro to fishing with a farm-pond bank, a can of earthworms, and a red and white bobber. Reeling in bluegill (aka bream) was enough to get me hooked on fishing. But as a kid, I saw bream fishing as something to graduate from. I thought trading bobbers and bluegill beds for a bass boat and a baitcaster was just the natural progression of things.

But bream aren’t just starter fish. Bluegill, shell crackers, and other sunfish are aggressive little predators. They don’t just cruise around looking for drowning worms or crickets. They’ll chase down minnows, crush insects, and hammer artificial lures with an aggression far outside their weight class. Plus, panfish are particularly fun to catch on ultralight tackle.

You can cover more water with a beetle spin or crappie jig. And an artificial bait lets you hunt for the fish, triggering more reaction bites instead of waiting for the fish to find your hook. It can turn an afternoon of fishing into something active, fast-paced, and downright addictive, no matter what your age.

There’s nothing wrong with fishing live bait under a bobber for bream. It works. A kicking cricket under a float has probably introduced more kids to fishing than any other method on the planet. But artificial baits let you fish differently. A beetle spin or micro-sized soft plastic lets you cover more water faster. You can work the edges of a bed, fan-cast a shaded bank, and cast right into structure without having to stop to rebait a hook.

That matters a lot on slow bite days. In the summer heat, panfish like to tuck into shady spots or head for deeper water. During the spawn, they scatter instead of piling up into colonies that let you pull fish after fish. Sometimes bream will hit a lure for reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. I’ve watched a bedding bluegill ignore a worm drowning under a float, then race three feet to crush a beetle spin.

If there were a Mount Rushmore of bream lures, the beetle spin would 100% be on it. The combination of a soft plastic body and the flash of a spinning blade is hard for even lockjawed panfish to resist.

They’re super cheap, easy to fish, and sunfish absolutely smoke them. All you need to do is cast it out, let it sink a little, and then reel it in just fast enough to keep the blade spinning. There’s nothing complicated here.

Big bluegill will slam a beetle spin like they’ve got something to prove. And with ultralite tackle, even an average fish feels like a monster.

A fuzzy-tailed marabou jig may be considered the quintessential crappie catcher, but bream will bust them, too. These small, simple jigs do a darned impressive impersonation of the bugs, fry, and baitfish that bluegill like to snack on, especially around their beds. Even when they’re sitting still in the water, the feather skirt will pulse and breathe in the current. Add a little rod motion, and they become irresistible.

Marabou jigs come in virtually every color of the rainbow. Honestly, the color choices probably matter more to anglers than panfish. But black, chartreuse, and white seem to be hot colors in most water conditions or even murky Southern ponds and lakes with water that looks an awful lot like sweet tea.

An inline spinner, like a rooster tail, is hard to beat when fish are scattered, and you have to beat the banks to figure out where they are. These lures are just plain honest. If the fish are there, you’ll know it. These simple lures can save you from wasting half a morning soaking bait in dead water. If there’s a fish around, chances are good he’s going to grab it before he even has time to make a decision. It’s all instinct.

Cast it out, let it sink for a second or two, then start reeling steady. There’s no real learning curve with these baits. It’s almost impossible to do wrong. The blade flashes and the body wobbles without needing any special cadence.

The beautiful thing about an inline spinner is that it doesn’t discriminate. I’ve caught plenty of crappie and bass on them, too. Even in bream-filled waters. That’s pretty common with these artificial baits. A predator is a predator, no matter the size.

They might not look like much. Just a one-inch chunk of soft plastic on a jig head. But a miniature paddletail swimbait or curly tail grub will work like a secret weapon, especially in high-pressure water where the bream have seen a lot of hooks and worms. Bluegill don’t seem to realize these are supposed to be bass lures.

A slow retrieve is all you really need after letting it sink to your preferred depth. You can work it just over the top of grass, run it past dock pilings, or let it fall into bedding areas and work it back through. In the heat of summer, I’ll also drop one into deeper pockets where the water stays a little cooler and just creep it back slowly with an occasional twitch of the rod tip.

Long casts matter with bream, especially around shallow spawny beds where they can get extra spooky. Bream-sized lures are hard to cast with a stiff rod strung up with heavy line. So go ahead and downsize from your bass setup.

A hand-size bluegill on bass gear might feel like fighting a damp sock, but once you go lite, that same fish can feel like a fighter.

An ultralite spinning rod paired with light line (think the 2- to 6-pound range) will help you get those micro jigs flying right where you want them. Monofilament or braid is mostly a matter of angler preference; bream don’t seem to care one way or the other. They aren’t generally line shy, which is why fishing them without a bobber makes for a fun day on the water.

With one last trip, Brent's 2026 Turkey Season is over. In this episode, he relates how a statement he made two years ago in New York City has come back around and will more than likely prove him wrong. Then it's an Arkansas wrap up with some sneaky gobblers before ending the season in Pennsylvania for Brent's first hunt in the Keystone State with his friends at Case Knives. We know you'll enjoy this one.

George Lilikakis Turkey Calls on Instagram: @brooklyn_bones

Turkeys for Tomorrow Flock on Instagram: @tft_gothamspurs 

Butterfly Research: www.monarch.org

Thank you to our sponsors, Case Knives and Stor-Mor.

Shop This Country Life Merch

Connect with Brent and MeatEater

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop This Country Life Merch