As quickly as it arrived, another year has come and gone. They say time flies when you’re having fun, and nowhere has that felt more true than here—working alongside our favorite contributors and doing our best to bring you the most authentic hunting and fishing content on the internet.
Today, we’ll take a moment to look back at some of our favorite reads that stuck out as highlights of 2025 for us. We’ll also share a look ahead to 2026, and how we plan to continue growing the platform in ways that advocate for our shared way of life and the people who give it a voice.
Stand-Outs From This Year
This year, we were fortunate to cross paths with several stand-out contributors from across the country, each bringing their own place, perspective, and voice to the platform.
Vincent Bini walked us through the realities of guide life in Florida’s aquatic backcountry, chasing snook and tarpon in places that are as unforgiving as they are wild. If you enjoyed his work here, be sure to pick up a copy of his book, The Glades Are Trying to Kill Me.
Dana Crandell shared stories of adventure—and occasional misadventure—ranging from northern Wyoming down to the Texas Panhandle, reminding us that good hunting and fishing stories are as much about what goes “wrong” as what goes right.
More recently, Sean Stiny took us along on a kayak waterfowl hunt in California’s Bay Area. We’ll have more from Sean in the coming year, as well as from Jake Murphy, who joined us for an Oregon pheasant hunt earlier this season.
Along the way, we also continued to publish thoughtful gear reviews, practical tips and tricks, and commentary on the physical stuff of hunting and fishing. And yes—apparently you all really love articles about Colt Anaconda holsters.
What’s to Come in 2026
No new year is complete without a few resolutions, and we have several we’re eager to tackle.
Most notably, 2026 marks the launch of our publishing imprint with the release of Matthew Shane Brown’s Fly Fishing in the 21st Century on January 6 (more on this later). We’ve heard the same thing from quite a few of our contributors — hook-and-bullet writers often struggle to get their work into print and in front of a meaningful audience, and we’re setting out to change that in the year ahead. If you’re an author with a completed manuscript and are interested in querying us, we invite you to reach out here.
We also have some excellent chukar hunting content on the docket, which we are excited to reveal and roll out soon.
As part of our broader mission to promote strong writing in the hunting and fishing space, we’ll be expanding our book review coverage in 2026—something we’re particularly excited to bring to the site.
As always, we’ll be attending SHOT Show, where we’ll continue to build out thoughtful gear and equipment coverage designed to help you spend more—and better—time outside.
Finally, we plan to increase our coverage of conservation issues, building on topics we addressed in 2025 such as feral horse and burro management and grizzly delisting efforts. We’ll also be working to spotlight the vital work conservation organizations are doing on behalf of sportsmen and women (and, of course, the wildlife itself)across the country.
Let us know what else you’d like to see by getting in touch with us.
Thanks, And See Ya Next Year
In light of the holidays (and yes, it’s okay to refer to the week between Christmas and New Year’s as “the holidays”), we won’t be running a piece on our usual Tuesday publication date of 12/30.
Consider this our Christmas card to you, the reader. Over the past year, The Upland Soul has grown in ways we couldn’t have imagined, thanks entirely to our talented contributors and the thoughtful readers who seek out and support their work. It probably sounds cliche to say that we’re not just building a publication and platform—we’re building a community—but we couldn’t be more excited to see where the new year takes us. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
All the best,
The Upland Soul
