ISOutdoors | November 2015

ISOutdoors enjoying the outdoors and sharing it with you

November 2015

Autumn Trout

Stretch Your Legs On

Autumn RuffIes

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November 2015

CONTENT Stretch you rlegS on autumn ruffIeS the taIlgate party autumn trout - thInk graSShopperS

COLUMNS

from the Stump bIg game baSS fIShIng

featured outfItter publisher Brock RAY

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ISOutdoors who is fond of swinging a shotgun on fleeing winged targets, odds are that when you are driving stretches of highway, you are wishing you could trek a hollow or two in pursuit of grouse.

While hunting season dates vary from state to state where grouse hunting is available, most states permit grouse hunters in the woods during October, and never later than November. Almost as large as a chicken, various members of the grouse family are found through the Appalachian Mountains region east of the Mississippi River, and throughout the Rocky Mountains and adjacent valleys and plains as well as the northern woods and prairies from Michigan to the Dakotas. Regarded by many sportsmen as the country’s finest native game birds, grouse embody the essence of wildness that live and thrives in a hostile world where few other game birds live.

Eleven species of grouse exist in North American prairies, shrub lands, forests, and tundra. The ruffed grouse is North America’s most widely distributed grouse species. According to wildlife experts, www.isoutdoors.com

ruffed grouse populations generally have declined since 1980 throughout much of the eastern United States where their popularity as a game species is greatest.

At this same time ruffed grouse numbers in the western United States and Canada have increased. Odds are if you are in the mountains anywhere in the country, you are where “ruffies” can be hunted.

The next most popular to hunt of the grouse family, as well as the second most available and widely distributed, are the sharp-tailed grouse, blue grouse and spruce grouse. These birds are widely found throughout most of the areas of the Rocky Mountain’s states, and are found where forest dwelling “ruffies” are common as well in more grassland type habitats.

Although well known, the next groups of grouse are hunted but are not

ISOutdoors nearly as plentiful or widely available as they once were. These are the so-called big grouse of the prairies, the sage grouse, and pinnate grouse (generally known as prairie chickens.) These birds have experienced serious population declines during the last 50 years and for many wing shooters, they are now regarded as once-in-a-lifetime trophies for taxidermists.

Available mostly in Alaska and northern Canada is the least hunted group of grouse, the ptarmigans. During the summer these birds resemble brownish colored spruce grouse, but in winter they turn white.

Unlike most other grouse, ptarmigan are not well known for their tasty attributes. On the other hand, these slow to flush, slow on the wing game birds are quite a relieving tonic after missing a couple darting ruffed grouse that are anything but slow.

The lifestyle of many professional drivers meshes quite well when it comes to working in a little hunting for these birds, even if you live in coastal area or the Deep South where grouse hunting is not available. Grouse are usually quite abundant where they are found, which is in wooded, mountainous areas. If you are a long distance driver, odds are your delivery routes either take you across or www.isoutdoors.com

along mountainous or north woods areas where at least one species of grouse lives.

Much of this roadside and is either part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s national forest system, or U.S. Bureau of Land Management tracts. In either case, these areas are almost always open to public hunting throughout the season for small game such as grouse. As a handful of drivers already know, some of the best ruffed grouse hunting that is otherwise untapped can actually be accessed from rest areas along the interstate system where thoroughfares bisect national forests and other public hunting lands.

Hunting does not get less complicated than when working the woods for grouse.

Ground dwelling birds, grouse like to huddle under laurel or honeysuckle vines, staying there until flushed skyward to evade approaching danger. More often than not you will hear more grouse flush in front of your sight than you actually see.

However, it is not uncommon for these birds to hold tight when approached, and even allow you to pass within a few

ISOutdoors feet before erupting skyward right behind you. Such unanticipated explosions of feathers and sound can almost give you a heart attack.

In a perfect world every time you go grouse hunting there would be with a brace of well-trained English pointers that would tirelessly scour the woods for the scent of hiding grouse. Ah yes, wouldn’t that be the life. I for one would love to try it once. However, until then, I suggest we hunt the way 99 percent of all grouse hunters do so. That is by walking trails and logging roads jump shooting these fly bullets of feathers and fury.

If you have walked around the perimeter of rest areas in remote mountain areas, doubtless you have many times seen trails leading off into the woods. These trails meet with other trails that also are perfect for jump shooting grouse by merely walking along these ways. If you are like me, the very notion of climbing even a steep grade is unappealing. When doing a little rest stop grouse gunning, walk the edge of the ridges parallel to the crest. It is easier and covers just as much terrain with far less investment of energy. Walk out a www.isoutdoors.com

half mile or so, and then drop down the ridge a couple hundred feet to return in the same direction you went.

Any shotgun works well for mountain grouse. Most shots are less than 40 yards at the zigzag flying speedsters. I recommend a semi-automatic 12 gauge with an open choke loaded with number 6 shot. At twenty yards you are throwing a wide deadly spray of pellets that give you about a 4-feet square killing zone. Other than good boots and enough time to hit the woods, that is about all there that you will need.

Grouse hunting is exciting and exhilarating.

The next time you are cutting your rig through the Adirondacks or mountains of northern Georgia, and anywhere from Montana to New Mexico, free your brain from the road with a little grouse side show. It is good for the body and the soul as well.

ISOutdoors Between mid-summer and late autumn, trout rely less on their usual sources of nutrition, such as aquatic insects, than they do at any other time of the year. This is for two reasons. The first is the cyclic availability of aquatic insects. Beginning in early spring, hatches of may, stone, and caddis flies leave streambeds void of large, subadult members of these orders.

The eggs they lay in the streams between March and June replenish the streams, but it is not until late autumn that many of these become significant trout food.

Summer is when land bourn insects, or terrestrials are most available to trout in streams draining the Appalachians in the East, and the Rockies in the West.

Terrestrials become trout prey when jumping into the water, as is often the case with www.isoutdoors.com

a grasshopper, to falling from limbs and other greenery hanging over the water, as is the case with caterpillars and jassids (or, leaf hoppers). Terrestrial insects that can fly, such as bees, Japanese beetles, and locusts, often find their way onto streams. Those occasional late summer and early autumn rains wash a bounty of terrestrial insects into the water.

A late summer/ early autumn study conducted in mountain streams revealed trout relied on terrestrial insects for over 70 percent of their daily intake.

Terrestrial insects provide easily seized, highquality food. Even when dead, these insects always float due to a non-porous body.

They have an over layer of wax which makes them waterproof. That is not to say a trout will not nab a grasshopper you offer

ISOutdoors on a line weighted down with a split-shot sinker.

However, a trout is more accustomed to taking a hopper from the surface than beneath it.

The autumn terrestrial carnival is just as open to bait fishermen as to fly-rodders. One of my most memorable fishing trips occurred in October during the early 1970s, just after reading about “grasshopper wind.� The next afternoon Vic Stewart and I chased down and caught six or seven dozen grasshoppers. It rained that night and the next morning the creeks had just enough color in them to put a smile on a condemned man’s face. After spiking a brownish-colored live hopper onto a hook, I flipped it into a pool the size a hot tub. The morsel barely hit the water when five trout charged toward it.

Grasshoppers are to trout what a ribeye steak is to you or me -- a tasty, substantial mouthful that does not come around frequently enough to pass on. Grasshoppers certainly are not the only major terrestrial insect which stream trout feed on, but in many instances they are of primary conwww.isoutdoors.com

cern to fishermen. When grasshoppers are available in large quantities, and this commonly occurs during late summer and early autumn, trout will zero in on merely the chance one of these ribeye steaks will spangle the surface near where they ly.

Bait fishermen can rarely do better than spiking a plump grasshopper onto a fine wire hook, and tossing it toward the head of a pool. Grasshoppers are not only irresistible to hungry trout, but they can be gathered in all but the most urban locales.

Catching grasshoppers is not for the weak of will. They are fast and agile. When captured they can be difficult to hold onto, and have a nasty habit of spitting a dark substance that will stain your fingers. Years ago I read about dragging a wool blanket through the grass to capture grasshop

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pers. Upon contact with the wool fibers the legs of the grasshopper are supposed to become entangled, etc. We tried this, and caught a few hoppers, plus we picked up enough debris to virtually ruin a perfectly good wool camp blanket.

Afterward, we switched to our old method of plucking grasshoppers from leaves and flower stems. This requires quick hands and determination. Concentrate on doing this early in the morning before the sun hits the hoppers and limbers them up. Another www.isoutdoors.com

method is to pay the kids in your neighborhood a dollar a dozen for catching your hoppers. If that sounds like too much, figure what you would charge to catch them for your best buddy!

Bait shop raised crickets are a pretty good substitute for grasshoppers. They are cheap, easy to get in many places, and trout like them. On the other hand, crickets have weaker bodies than grasshoppers, so they do not stick to your hook as well. The best thing about crickets is you do not have

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ISOutdoors to catch them yourself. Grasshoppers and crickets are fished just as you would night crawler or salmon eggs.

On medium to small streams, I recommend fishing upstream, concentrating on offering these baits at the heads and tails of pools, along the edge where deadfalls and undercut banks occur, and in pocket water.

On larger waters, grasshoppers and crickets can be presented downstream, across water, or upstream.

Using a single split shot enables you to cast farther, but will sink your bait (trout will strike these baits underwater). If you want to surface-fish a hopper or cricket, try putting a small bobber 18 inches above the bait.

Another related terrestrial insect, which late summer and early autumn trout often key in on, is the jassid, or leaf hopper. Related to the grasshopper, but much smaller, jassids are often common in streamside grasses and other greenery. When fishing a stream where you see trout dimpling the surface www.isoutdoors.com

along the extreme edge of the water, odds are these fish are munching down jassids, although occasionally this same activity will occur when wood ants are working near the water.

Trout fishermen who have not discovered the effectiveness of late summer and early autumn terrestrial patterns will be astounded when they try these offerings. Fly catalogs boast many patterns designed to mimic grasshoppers and jassids.

Grasshopper patterns are my personal favorite, with the old reliable Joe’s Hopper being tough to top. Should you find yourself astream without a hopper pattern when you need one, you can push a Muddler Minnow into service. Dressed with floatant, a Muddler Minnow is a pretty good grasshopper imitation.

This is the time to try hoppers and hopper patterns on the country’s many outstanding trout streams.

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In the closing moments of a competitive bass tournament, Don Yeager needed another bass if he was to hold onto first place.

His confidence was high that a certain shallow flat might hold a kicker fish or two. But then he remembered that this small area also contained several large and gnarly logs that threatened to devour his Bill Norman crank bait before the bass did.

Most fishermen would hesitate to throw a crank bait full of razor sharp trebles into similar environments. If the crank bait gets hung up, they might lose their most productive lure. But even worse, a tournament competitor might have to take the boat into the shallows in an attempt to free it – spooking every fish in the vicinity. But Don Yeager never flinched. His confidently hurled his shallow-diver beyond the logs and commenced his retrieve through the crank bait graveyard.

Don Yeager has “Smartlink” crank bait insurance, and it was a fortunate thing he did. On that first retrieve one of his treble hooks and a strong branch got married for life! Nothing was going to separate the two. Reaching down and winding his line several times around his hand, Don pulled slow and steady. Suddenly the buried hook was released, the crank bait became loose, www.isoutdoors.com

and its balsa body floated to the surface.

Unlike other forms of insurance, it was not a written contract or policy that returned Don’s bait, but a small piece of Nickel Titanium metal wire that appeared to magically release the snagged rear hook, freeing the crank bait to be fished again. The Ultimate Smartlink is primary a high-tech replacement for split-rings. Each link size is scientifically designed to release at a specific amount of pressure. A 10 pound link will stretch and release when 10 pounds of pressure is applied. And then, (because Nickel Titanium has “memory”), it will snap back to its original shape, ready to be used again.

The fouled but replaceable treble hook will be sacrificed and will remain behind to rust on the log, while the expensive crank bait is reeled in, reused, and eventually returned to the tackle box at the end of the day.

So… why aren’t all crank bait anglers buying Smartlinks and putting them on their baits? Don runs into this recurring question every time he demonstrates the Smartlink.

His seminars are usually filled with crowds

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of doubting Thomas’ who need to be educated by the not-so-obvious science behind the product. Don usually picks the strongest looking guy in the crowd and offers him a $100 bill if he can make the Ultimate Smartlink system fail. The volunteer is first asked to watch closely as a 10 pound Smartlink is attached to 10 pound line that Don wraps around his hand and pulls, showing how the Nickel Titanium link releases. Then Yeager reattaches the link to the front of a crank bait, (hooks removed for safety) and hands it to the burly volunteer. Don then walks a ways off and again tightens the line, this time with his reel while holding the rod up at a 45 degree angle.

With $100 on the line, the huge participant is challenged to imitate a trophy fish and to pull, yank, and do everything he can to make the Smartlink release the crank bait.

Don has never had to pay up. The link always holds. Why does the link always hold when a fighting a fish? The rod. Because the pressure on the fish is significantly lessoned by the flexing rod, the release “pressure limit” of the Smartlink is never reached. The link does not open and the fish is never lost. The rod is the key to the mystery. An example: An angler can have a 10 pound bass on 10 pound line connected to a crank bait with a 10 pound Smartlink www.isoutdoors.com

but the fish may only feel 3-4 pounds of pressure when the angler is using a properly angled rod.

Obviously the primary advantages of using the Smartlink is 1) preventing the loss of crank baits, and 2) eliminating the need to spook fish when freeing lures. Nowhere are these advantages more important than when competing in tournament situations.

That’s where Don learned “In a tournament, Smartlinks are also a time management tool.” “Just before doing a seminar at D and R Sports, I was talking with Gerald Swindel and Kevin VanDam, who both fish the B.A.S.S. Elite tournament series. I was demonstrating the Smartlinks and while they both were interested in them, Gerald was more so than Kevin. VanDam was in a successful position where he was able to state that ‘losing crank baits’ was not a big issue for him.”

“So I asked him about changing out dull hooks in a tournament. I said, ‘Isn’t it kind of a pain to change out 4/0 or 6/0 hooks on a split ring?’ Kevin said, ‘Well I’ve done

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it forever and I can change them out pretty quick.’ So I said, ‘Hey, I believe you – you’re the best there is – but watch this.’” “So I put two 4/0 hooks on a bait so quick, he couldn’t believe it. It took me only a matter of seconds to do it with the Smartlinks. So then I asked them how long it would take them to fumble with split-rings, pliers, and do the same thing. That’s when Swindel said, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool!’ Basically in a tournament it is a time management tool.”

Don has discovered other unexpected advantages to using Smartlinks. “Terry Baksay (an accomplished Midwest professional fisherman), and I do a lot of smallmouth fishing early on in the season using jerk baits and Zara Spooks. And we like to add to them a larger Smartlink (like a number 12). The neat thing about that is it allows your hooks to hang down a little lower and definitely looser, which stops the hooks from being so bound up.”“Right away we noticed that our hookups almost doubled.

Terry, who has been to several Bassmaster Classics, said ‘Man, I have really noticed how the Smartlinks helps the heavy topwater to have less leverage so the fish can’t throw the bait.’”

Don is well aware of the deep attachment some anglers have for their favorite lures, so he understands their hesitation to gamble with them when trying Smartlinks for www.isoutdoors.com

the first time. His safer alternative is simple “I ask them, ‘Why don’t you try it first on an old bait you don’t care about and watch how you can get that bait back. (And if it doesn’t work for you then you’ve lost nothing.) But if it does work for you and suddenly you can put your old favorites back into action without the fear of losing them… that’s exciting!”

Deep water fishermen can benefit greatly from the use of Smartlinks, especially those who use any kind of weighted rig to get their baits down. On Lake Washington, near Seattle, many bass fishermen use a threeway rig with a 2 to 3 ounce weight attached.

The three-way rig is used to reach the 40-65 foot depths necessary in order to get crank baits down to the fish’s winter haunts. But should the weight get snagged on the bottom, the leader snaps. Or, (and it happens too often), the main line pops and the entire 3-way rig is lost. Whether you are replacing just the leader, or the whole rig, it takes time for cold fingers to tie line and replace the hardware and weight. With a Smartlink attached, the snagged weight gets released, and a new replacement weight is quickly added. Little time is spent getting back in the water, and fewer rigs are lost.

Read the complete article at www.crankbaitcentral.com

ISOutdoors C O L L E C T I B L E S

Pocket Knives;

Perfect Collectibles

by Don Kirk

Dear Sports: Dad gave me a Case knife which he bought 40 years ago. It’s never been carried or sharpened, and has its box (bow shows where). This gift knife has made me interested in collecting pocket knives. How do I get started at this hobby?

Larry O. Peoria, IL Dear Larry: Be forewarned—pocket knife collecting often is a lifelong addiction. The reasons are simple. It’s easy to fall in love with a wellcrafted old pocket knife, and the variety of which have been made over the last 100 years is virtually infinite. Having warned you though, here’s my two-cents worth on the subject.

The choices of knife types are endless, so try to decide what type knife you want to collect. Do you prefer knives with marble, ivory, or carved wood handles? Many collector pocket knives are grouped by maker, type or color. Some collectors like commemorative knives while others prefer www.isoutdoors.com

older knives.

Next, is the question of where you go to find collectible pocket knives. Flea markets are fun places to find pocket knives, but if you are looking something special, I recommend attending a local gun, or better still, pocket knife show. At such gatherings, the selection will dazzle you, plus you will meet other collectors and see what knives are selling for. On any single day of the year Internet auction sites also have thousands of knives up for bid.

Sooner or later you will reach for your wallet to buy a special pocket knife. Most of all, is this a knife you like? Avoid buying knives that do not put a sparkle in your eye. Value and collectability are determined by maker, condition, and scarcity. It is noteworthy if a knife is the work of a well-known maker such as Case or Boker. That can raise the price over a lesser known knife manufacturer. Always examine a knife carefully to ensure it is in good shape. Pull the blades out and see how easily they swing back

into the knife. Is the handle cracked? Do the blades look mismatched or worn? Below are the accepted rules for grading the condition of pocket knives.

If you have sporting collectible question, please send them to me at dkirkemgruppe@ aol.com.

Pristine mint: Knives in this category must be flawless, and must have additional characteristics that set them apart from mint. They could have an unusually good fit for example.

Mint: This would be a knife that has never been carried, never sharpened, never used, and does not have rust problems of any kind. Some collectors will classify a very old knife that has a few rust marks as mint (especially those made prior to WWII). The newer the knife gets from there, the less rust specs it must have to maintain its mint status. In addition, most Case knife collectors are a bit stricter on grading knives. An old Case knife with any rust mark would not be considered mint. Note: A knife that had rust, and was cleaned to look mint would be considered near mint or worse depending on how harshly it was cleaned.

Near Mint: There must be nothing wrong with a near mint knife. It should “walk and talk� and must have most of the original polish visible on the blades. Very light sharpening would be acceptable, but the blades must be full. It can have some light rust spots, but no deep rust pits. Some light carry scratches are permitted on the outside as well.

Excellent: Knives in this condition would include solid, lightly used knives. There may be a bit of blade wear (no more than 10%). Some tarnish and light pitting would be acceptable. Blades should snap well, and the tang mark should be clear.

Very Good: Knives in this category are generally fairly well used knives. There may be blade wear of up to 25%.

The blades should still be sound, but one or more may be slow. The stamping should be readable, but may be faint. The handles may have cracks and wear, but shouldn’t have major chipping. The knife might also have some rust pitting and tarnish.

Good: Knives in good condition must still be useable as a working knife. Blade wear may be between 25-50%. There might be chips in the handle or blade. Blades may be slow with deep pits and rust.

You should still be able to make out the maker of the knife by shield or tang stamp.

Poor: A poor knife is generally only good for parts. The blades might be less than 50%, extra lazy or even broken. Tang marks are generally barely legible, and the handles may be chipped.

Junk: Anything less than poor. These knives would be pretty much worthless. May have a liner, back spring or bolster that would be salvageable for parts, but probably not even that.

Western Challenge

Freelancing M

Mule Deer

by Bob Foulkrod

Some guideyourself hunting trips are very tangible, including a Western hunting trip for mule deer.

Do it yourself hunts are impossible for some specific species, and for some other types of big game, freelancing is a lowpercentage gambit. However, some guideyourself hunting trips are very tangible, including a Western hunting trip for mule deer. Trip planning and camping skills are needed for such do-it-yourself hunting trips. Also, taking a respectable muley

deer buck is no small feat, but one most experienced archers are capable of doing.

Most hunters live east of the native range of the mule deer. Logistical considerations involved in making 1,000 to 2,000 mile trips to muley country are considerable, and travel and license costs are also important factors. Mule deer are most common at mid-elevation ranges – the

hill country -- where they are found from western Texas and the Dakotas, through the Rockies westward to the coast.

Much of the finest hunting for these oversized deer in the United States occurs

harbor bragging-sized mule deer bucks.

Despite an abundance of public hunting land throughout most mule deer country, many hunters choose to challenge these animals on private holdings.

oing after big, old mule deer buc s is rarely easy, but it can be done

if you follo a fe simple rules. on private land, although millions of acres of prime muley hunting are found on public tracts. State game lands and federally-administered Bureau of Land Management and national forest lands all

Getting permission to freelance a hunt for mule deer at many private ranchlands is not as difficult as many Easterners might think. In fact, until a decade ago most landowners granted permission to

trespass to most hunters who took time to ask. However, these days the privilege to hunt and stay on the property carries a fee ranging from $100 to $300. Cost depends on accommodations provided by the landowner and the degree of competition for available hunting.

You should secure a place to hunt for these animals before getting too far along in your trip planning. Ask other archers who have ranch-owner contacts, or contact state DNRs for leads. Muleys are so plentiful and hunting pressure so light on many areas of the West, that start-fromscratch muley trips usually succeed.

A week to ten days is the minimum time you should set aside for serious, do-ityourself hunts for mule deer, and two weeks is recommended. Remember, this is unfamiliar territory that will take time to scout. The more time you allot, the better your chances are for pushing animals to determine where they go when harried.

Once you pick up their pattern and know their favorite escape routes, you can zero in for the ambush.

Mule deer are the closely related Western cousins of the whitetail. Physically, they

differ considerably from whitetail. Muleys have considerably larger ears and weigh more than whitetail. Mule deer antler tines branch out, unlike the whitetail’s antlers, which do not. When mule deer run, they exhibit a comical bouncing gait reminiscent of a youngster hopping around on a pogo stick.

Going after big, old mule deer bucks is rarely easy, but it can be done if you follow a few simple rules. In my opinion, the whitetail is a wary and more alert quarry than the sometimes goofy acting muley, although this is not to say bagging a big mule deer buck is easy. The average arrow shot at a mule deer is 25 to 50 percent longer than for a whitetail. You must be accomplished at judging and shooting at

ranges of 20, 30, 40, 50, and even 60 yards.

A reliable rangefinder is essential.

Plan to spend lots of time glassing through spotting scopes and binoculars. I use a daypack to carry my 10x Swarovski spotting scope and tripod. This optical aid is lightweight and provides the good

ule deer are a uarry ell ithin the abilities of most intermediate archers resolution essential when glassing for hours.

Muleys are often the first big game animal many hunters challenge on the ground.

This usually means stalking within bow range of these animals and avoiding the

urge to “make” things happen. If you are getting in more than two good stalks per day on these animals, you are probably trying too hard to “make” things happen.

Slow the pace of your stalk.

Hunting for muleys starts before dawn, by positioning on ridges overlooking the area where they were last seen. During the early morning these animals like to stay near scrub oaks in valleys and ravines, where they gorge on small acorns in the heavy cover. Late in the morning, they move up the ridges. Trophy bucks are particularly fond of scrub oak tangles, where they blend in well with their surroundings.

Once a desirable buck is spotted, the challenge starts. Glass to determine where it feeds and beds. Map out your primary stalking route, as well as alternative ones. Only when wind conditions are in your favor can you successfully stalk muley bucks. They usually feed until midmorning, then bed down in the shade on hot days or in the sunshine on chilly ones, for an hour or two.

Hunters have options. You can try to stalk and get into position to take a buck while

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it is napping, or get into position to execute an ambush on the buck as it returns to its favorite feeding spot. Always play the wind to your advantage. Keeping track of wind direction in not easy. Using novelty store “smoke bombs� lets you determine if your scent will undo your efforts.

Avoiding being winded is only half of the challenge. Muleys have excellent vision. You must approach carefully to remain undetected.

Use the terrain and available cover such as boulders, deadfalls, brush, tall grass, and gullies to conceal your approach. Many times your stalking efforts can be enhanced by wearing camouflage clothing which matches your hunting environment.

Mule deer are a quarry well within the abilities of most intermediate archers. These animals are plentiful, and finding a place to hunt is seldom difficult. But best of all, you can freelance for muleys.

Old

Miss: A Sleeper No More

The bowhunter success rate has exceeded 75 percent during recent seasons.

by Bob Foulkrod Ten years ago I visited an island called Willow Point, located in the heart of Dixie and surrounded by the Mississippi River. That trip netted me a relatively nice buck, and acquainted me with Tara Wildlife Management¹s plans to combine modern timber management with trophy deer hunting on their private tract. They wanted to make it the South’s, if not the country’s, best hunting spot.

Tara Wildlife Management’s Willow Point area is located 20 miles north of Vicksburg and 70 miles northwest of Jackson, along Eagle Lake. Bowhunters have the option of visiting Willow Point North Island, which consists of 3,800 acres, or Willow Point South Island, which is larger, containing 6,500 acres. Each is a bowhunter’s dream come true - this is one of the country¹s largest, privatelyoperated, archery-hunting-only areas managed for trophy-class bucks.

While many trophy whitetail operations rely on expensive high fences to keep big bucks in and poachers out, managers here get the same results from the mighty Mississippi River, which surrounds the islands. Willow

Point is the brainchild of Maggie Bryant, a conservationist who, along with her family, founded the operation to demonstrate that wildlife habitat and land conservation could be achieved through economic sustainability.

Whitetail Hunting in the South If you believe the Southern states are not capable of producing big-antlered, bigbodied whitetail bucks, this place will change your mind. I learned this the hard way. Not long ago I made my second trip to Willow Point. Rumors of the big whitetail bucks roaming its bottomland hardwoods had reached me. Hailing from the North, specifically northeastern Pennsylvania, I have fallen in love with Deep South whitetail bowhunting.

Southern whitetail bowhunting is always exciting throughout the season, but particularly in mid-autumn, when I made my trip. Deer herd densities here are usually heavier than in other regions, largely due to little or no winter kill and abundant sources of food. Dixie has been known to produce lots of bucks, but to be honest, in the past it has not been known to product many bucks with large antlers of record-book proportions.

I discovered this was no longer true.

The first day I hunted I saw little until just before dark, when a nice eightpoint buck in the mid-’40 Pope & Young class wandered beneath my treestand. I was prepared to take the buck, which was a beauty almost anywhere I bowhunt, but my video cameraman, who knew the property well, insisted I could do better. So I let the animal walk.

The next morning I passed on another buck in the ‘20 P&Y class, and again that afternoon. If nothing

else, I was impressed not only by the number of nice-sized bucks roaming Willow Point, but also by the antler mass these animals sported.

Through the Mist The third day was a shocker for me.

Shortly after dawn, I spotted two bucks that were larger than the ‘40-class animal I had seen the first afternoon in my treestand. However, this did not prepare me for what happened next. Mist blew in from the river, a frequent phenomenon on the island. Almost like a ghost, a massive

buck appeared through the mist, only 30 yards in front of me.

It was one of the largest whitetails I had ever seen. As quickly as the animal appeared, its attention was diverted away from me by the distant tooting of a tugboat pushing a barge up the Mississippi River. Seizing the moment, I drew my bow. An instant later, the thick-beamed buck leaped as my AFC Carbon arrow, tipped with a 125-grain Satellite broadhead, vented its lower rib cage. Fifteen minutes later I found my kill, a magnificent 155 P&Y

class buck. I was astonished.

Developing Big Bucks It is no accident that the Tara Wildlife Management team has developed Willow Point South and North Islands into some of the best trophy buck whitetail hunting in the United States.

In only ten years, these properties have gone from producing the occasional big buck to consistently producing bucks with body weights from 230 to 280 pounds, and that is astounding, no matter where you hunt whitetail.

It is not only body weight that is up, thanks to Tara’s state-of-the-art management that enables bucks to reach maturity. In the two previous seasons, bucks scoring 141 7/8, 137 2/8, 148 6/8, 138 7/8, 160, 127 2/8, 128 4/8, 130, 133 3/8, 139 4/8, 163, 141 1/8, 129 1/8, 137 2/8, and 132 1/8 Pope and Young points have been taken here. That will match virtually any rifle hunting area anywhere and, for a property where all whitetail hunting is restricted to archery, this record is tremendous.

The bowhunter success rate has exceeded 75 percent during recent seasons. Stands are available for avid, adventure-oriented trophy hunters, as well as for novice young hunters, and senior hunters not interested in extremely difficult hunting. The latter often opt for the ground blinds here, and the success rate at these blinds sometimes surpasses that of the treestand-perched bowhunters. Shots range from 10 to 40 yards. These bucks are wary, so make sure your bow is tuned down so you can draw it without struggling.

The facilities at Willow Point South and

North are world-class. The cypress lodges are spacious and rustic, yet comfortable.

The food, which is one of the best parts about booking with any Southern whitetail-hunting lodge, is close to five star. Plentiful Southern-style meals are served.

Willow Point offers two different hunting packages, both of which are economically priced. For more information, contact Tara Wildlife Management and Service; 6791 Eagle Lake Shores Rd.; Vicksburg, MS 39180; Phone 601-279-4261.

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