These six beautiful hunting and fishing spots have captured our hearts and our dreams.
With our beautiful earth such an admirable place to live, we could spend all day arguing over which part of it would be the best to visit.
With that in mind, we wanted to pick out a few obvious choices that our hearts and minds continually return to with hopes to hunt or fish them.
It's never really enough for us to look at some pristine area of our world and simply be happy that it's there. No, we have to see these places with our own eyes, the eyes of an outdoorsman. If it holds wild game, we want to hunt it, and if it has water, we want to fish it.
It seems for sportsmen and women our eyes are always on the prize, and that prize is a dream trip to some of the world's best fishing and hunting destinations. We may have seen it on TV or in a magazine as children, but the bottom line is that we never forgot about it, and have been dreaming about going there for a long time.
Whether your favorite game has fur, fins, or feathers, sometimes it's just not enough to hunt it or catch it. We want the full experience of having a beautiful and pristine backdrop to do it all in.
If you can hunt or fish in any of these places, you won't be disappointed.
1. Patagonia, Argentina
It's not enough that Patagonia can provide truly wild hunts for red stag, but you can also go Axis deer hunting, find Blackbuck, stalk fallow deer, shoot wild boar, and even encounter puma and water buffalo.
Argentina also happens to have some of the best wingshooting in the world, not only for the waterfowl, but for the sheer number of doves, particularly in Cordoba.
And since we're talking about it, this beautiful area of South America also happens to have some amazing sea-run brown trout fishing opportunities. Fly fishing enthusiasts has been traveling to this incredible area for generations and are rarely disappointed, especially since the scenery is out of this world.
2. Anywhere in Alaska
Without a doubt, Alaska can be considered a duel threat for hunters and fishermen looking for not only the best that both has to offer, but an uncanny place to do it.
Alaska has more than a dozen species of big game animals as well as excellent small game and waterfowl hunting opportunities. If you want to hunt bison, caribou, elk, muskox, black bears, Dall sheep, moose, brown and grizzly bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goats, waterfowl, and even wolves, then Alaska is the place for you.
Plus, the abundant amount of public lands helps people easily access these gems of outdoor recreation. The hunting areas and fishing areas in Alaska are like no other.
As with many states, most hunting seasons in Alaska occur between August and October, but bears may be taken in either fall or spring in some locations. Moose, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, "occur in suitable habitat from the Stikine River of Southeast Alaska to the Colville River on the Arctic Slope. They are most abundant in recently burned areas that contain willow and birch shrubs, on timberline plateaus, and along the major rivers of south central and Interior Alaska."
Alaska also has a huge amount of both freshwater and saltwater fishing opportunities, arguably some of the best you'll find in the world.
Alaska is a state without comparison that holds most of the bucket list wild game animals that we all would love to chase in a setting that can't be matched.
3. The Seychelles
April Vokey
The Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. It's home to numerous beaches, beautiful coral reefs and nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as giant Aldabra tortoises. It is also one of the most insane fly fishing areas you could ever want to explore.
An angler can have the experience of their lives walking the flats of the Alphonse Atoll through the pristine blue waters and white sand for fish that may have never seen a hook before.
Fishermen might think passing up opportunities for giant trevally, triggerfish, and other prized species would be foolish, but it just may be the Indo-Pacific permit that can keep a fly fishing fanatic awake at night. Permit have huge eyes that are difficult to fool, especially for a fisherman that has white sand beaches, a warm breeze, and such clear water in front of them.
You won't find fishing like you encounter in The Seychelles anywhere else.
4. Mountains of New Zealand
For anyone who loves fantasy films, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, making it quite familiar as an amazing landscape. On top of that, it provides some of the best hunting and fishing in the southern hemisphere. Did you know that you don't even need a hunting license to harvest animals in New Zealand?
For the hunter that not only loves to chase ruminants, but would love to do it in a mountainous, pristine area, there are seemingly as many different species to hunt here as there are mountains to view. The list is a long one, but here goes: red stag, fallow deer, Rusa deer, Sika deer, Sambar deer, elk, whitetail deer, wild boar, Arapawa sheep, feral goat, chamois, Himalayan tahr, wallabies, and even birds.
Whitetails were introduced to New Zealand in 1905, and in 1908 a total of 18 elk were brought over thanks to one Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th U.S. president! Can you imagine hunting for your favorite deer species with a backdrop like New Zealand can provide?!
5. The Florida Keys
It may seem a bit rudimentary to say, but the Florida Keys are a string of islands stretching about 120 miles off the southern tip of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. It's known as a destination for fishing, boating, and particularly snorkeling and scuba diving.
Names like Islamorada, Key West, Key Largo, and Big Pine Key immediately come to mind as prime American fisheries for veteran South Florida anglers. The rest of us are still stuck dreaming about fishing there, as we have been for a lifetime.
The Florida Keys are as visually spectacular as they are a prime destination for anglers the world over, and they have a history that can't be denied.
Inshore sport fishing in the Keys includes a who's-who list of saltwater angling foes: tarpon, permit, bonefish, mutton snapper, Jack crevalle, goliath grouper, barracuda, and sharks. Something is in season and biting year round in the Keys: dolphin in the spring, tarpon in the summer, grouper in the fall, and kingfish in the winter.
6. The Amazon River
The Amazon River is the largest river on earth, measured by discharge volume, and rivals only the Nile as the world's longest river. That's got to mean that it's full of game fish, right?
According to Britannica, "The Amazon River is located in the northern portion of South America, flowing from west to east. The river system originates in the Andes Mountains of Peru and travels through Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean."
Sure, it sounds silly to say it, but the fact is that the mighty Amazon holds a lot of fish. In fact, it's full of some of the strangest, most aggressive sport fish you could ever sink a hook in to.
If you think largemouth bass fishing or rainbow trout fishing is fun, wait until you drop a line in the Amazon.
The list is a long one and full of names not many of us have ever heard of, but some of the familiar ones are arapaima, arawana, striped catfish, payara, piranha, and one that many southern anglers should know: the peacock bass.
As on can imagine the scenery, jungle landscape, and the rich and never-ending plant and animal species are stunning. Even just the thought of fishing here is the stuff of legend, but to actually do it would be amazing.
Where Will You Go?
There are so many places on our hunting and fishing bucket list that it's difficult to comprehend. Honestly, any place where we can cast a line or set up over some great cover with our favorite firearm is a place that is beautiful and pristine enough for us.
If we could find ourselves in gorgeous places like these and do the same thing, would we? You bet we would!
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NEXT: LIFE EVENTS FOR HUNTERS THAT BETTER NOT HAPPEN IN THE FALL SEASON
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