GON Outdoors

Meet GON turkey hunting freelance writer Donald Devereux Jarrett as he talks about his latest turkey-hunting article, When Turkey Calling, Sometimes Less Is More.

From Overcalling to a game of Cat-and-Mouse, sometimes just learning to shut up and be patient is what'll kill that Georgia longbeard. 

What in the heck is that man thinking? Why do these things seem to only happen to him? If you're a regular reader, heck if you've ever read Life On The Back Page these questions may have escaped your lips. On this episode of the GON Outdoors podcast we visit with outdoor writer Daryl Gay with the hope of finding some answers to these questions. Join us for an entertaining look into Daryl's adventures with Jake The Hermit and his Life On The Back Page.    

Hunting season is over. Bucks begin to shed their antlers. Now what? On this episode we talk with Bruce Swearingen from 4S Wildlife about feeding programs, mineral sites and how hunters can establish programs that will enhance the deer herd on their property. 

A head-turner of a buck was taken from Oconee National Forest on Saturday, Nov. 2 by Tony Jones, of Locust Grove. Although an estimated gross score isn’t known, arguably the most impressive feature of the Jasper County buck is its 22-inch inside spread.

“I really appreciate everyone from GON for helping me get this recognized. This is definitely the best buck for me so far,” said Tony.

Tony, who has hunted ONF for 10 years, said a hunting area near a powerline was where he wanted to hunt that morning, but somebody had already beat him there. Being a good public-land hunter, Tony had plenty of other places to try.

“I knew there were a bunch of scrapes in the area (I ended up hunting) from being in there a couple of weeks earlier,” said Tony.

Tony hunts from a ground blind, and it was after daylight when he arrived in an area of hardwoods surrounded by bedding thickets. He got his blind set up and had just gotten settled into his chair when he heard a deer walking.

“I take a look out the blind window, and I see the deer walking down the hill from the pine thicket,” said Tony. “I got a good look at him with the binoculars, and I saw one side of his rack, so I knew it was a buck. I grabbed my rifle, and I put the scope on him, and he’s facing me at this time, so I see how wide he is. I immediately get on his shoulder, squeezed the trigger and down he went.

“It took me more time to walk in than to sit there and take the deer.”

Tony was hunting with a Savage .308 that was recently given to him by his father-in-law.

“He wants to pass the gun down to my son, who is only 2 years old now,” said Tony. “My father-in-law actually requested that I take the gun hunting and kill a deer with it, and I was able to do that. It was a pretty special deal to take that caliber of deer with the rifle that was given to me.”

Scott Hodges, a taxidermist who lives in Byron, Ga., has long been a friend of GON and the people who work here. Editor Daryl Kirby catches up with Scott just before the primitive-weapons deer season and youth week to talk about Scott's background in the outdoors, his relationships with GON, and how the 2019 hunting seasons are going.

Show Links: Just days after this podcast was recorded, Scott's son Ross did end up killing a buck. See his pictures and hunt story here.   

Southern Reflections Taxidermy

Dylan Kirkley, of Covington, has killed a deer that would make any midwestern hunter proud. His Newton County 17-pointer, only the second buck he’s ever killed, grossed 183 inches.

“This is the second year we had him on camera,” said Dylan. “He showed back up in July (2019), and then he just disappeared for like two months. We didn’t know what happened. I believe it was the week before dove season when he showed back up.”

Dylan and his buddies bowhunt, and one of his friends did see the deer one time in bow season.

“We went bowhunting for him a few times,” said Dylan. “It was one of those things where you go and you get down out of the stand, and 20 or 30 minutes later he was on the camera, and it would be dark. He was messing with us pretty much.

“A friend of mine saw him early one morning. It was too dark to do anything with him, but he could tell what it was,” said Dylan. “We saw him two times out of the stand in rifle season and couldn’t get a decent shot on him, and we didn’t want to take a chance on it, so we just waited him out.”

On the afternoon of Oct. 27, Dylan was in a tower stand with his buddy Josh Skaggs, of Covington, and they were overlooking an old, grown-up bean field. Around 6:30 a group of does showed up in the field.

“He tapped me on the leg and said, ‘I see some horns coming out of that bottom down there,'” said Dylan. “I got my glasses on him and looked, and it was him. I really didn’t know what to do. It was a long shot, so we waited and waited until he came up and bumped those does, and once they ran off, he just milled around eating some acorns out there on the edge of the field. He was quartering away from us, and I said we’re just not going to do it right now. We waited a few more seconds, and he turned broadside and gave us a good opportunity, and I took it.”

Dylan was shooting a 6.5mm Creedmor, a caliber that has been growing in popularity in recent years.

“We get within 100 yards of him, and his horns are sticking up out of the grass. We knew we had something pretty special there. He got bigger the closer we got,” said Dylan.

Dylan’s 183-inch deer will not be in Truck-Buck, but he will be having it officially scored after the required 60 days of Boone & Crockett drying time expires. It’s still unclear if the buck will score better as a typical or non-typical.

Georgia waterfowl biologist Greg Balkcom talks about the prospects for the 2019-2020 duck season. Details and info on the mallard and pintail limits that were cut in half this season, plus a look at a WMA opening up to quota waterfowl hunts for the first time.

Scott Williams, of Cochran, knows how to catch Lake Oconee crappie. Him and his dad Billy compete not only in Crappie Masters tournaments but in Crappie USA events, tournaments that send them regularly as far away as Texas. They’ve both won Georgia Slab Masters and the Peach State Crappie classics, some Crappie USA tournaments on Clarks Hill, and Billy won some of those bigger national events on Lake Oconee years ago.

In addition, they are two-time Crappie Master Florida state champions, winners of an Alabama Crappie Master state championship and Crappie Masters anglers of the year.

Scott says October is a great month to vertical jig timber and shoot docks on Lake Oconee.

“I believe anybody right now can go to that timber—whether it be in Sugar Creek or in Richland Creek or up the Oconee River, wherever there is standing timber in that deeper water—and if you know anything at all about fishing, you’re going to catch some fish,” said Scott. “The fish are there.”

Scott said to look for timber that is in 18 plus feet of water. Timber as deep as 40 feet is no problem, but expect most of your crappie to be suspended about 10 to 12 feet from the surface. 

Scott uses four different pieces of electronics to help him locate and stay on crappie: 2D sonor, Humminbird Side Imaging, Humminbird 360 Imaging and the Garmin Panoptix LiveScope. Each piece of equipment serves its own purpose.

Scott said October is a great time to shoot docks for crappie that are feeding up for winter.

“You don’t need a depthfinder, just start fishing docks,” said Scott.

In October, look for docks that are in 12 to 18 feet of water. While fishing with the author, Scott just happened to run across a dock in 17 feet of water, and it was easy to catch a dozen crappie from it. Yes, it can be that simple!

“I like a 5 1 /2- to 6-foot H&H rod,” said Scott. “It’s specifically designed to shoot docks. It’s got a fast tip with a good backbone.

“I like a light jig, a 1/32- or 1/24-oz. I can keep that jig in the strike zone longer before the jig goes below the fish. Color really doesn’t matter. I like red and yellow under a dock, but it’s a confidence bait for me. I know guys like white/yellow.”

Knowing he was in the right place, Jason starting hunting the area as soon as bow season opened. He was seeing lots of deer, but Flame continued to elude him. Then things changed when Flame made his first appearance on camera during daylight hours.

“I was excited to get in the stand on Monday, Oct. 15,” Jason said.

Shortly after daylight, Jason said a spike and a doe came in to feed on corn.

“The spike was nosing her and bumping her around real good, and then a young 8-point came in and ran him off,” said Jason. “After a while, the 8-point started looking back and acting real nervous."

Then antlers appeared through the saplings, and Jason said he knew immediately it was Flame.

“The second I saw him, I about had a heart attack. I just hoped I would get a shot,” said Jason. “Flame continued to come closer, when suddenly the younger 8-point busted me. Knowing I didn’t have long, I quickly drew, aimed and let it rip.”

Jason smacked an oak tree with his first shot. Amazingly he was able to get a second shot on the new county bow record. Listen to Jason tell his amazing story.

GON subscriber Tommy Lathem recently did a little more cleaning up at the hunting camp than he had anticipated after he took a shovel and a shotgun and killed 50 rattlesnakes within just 10 feet of his clubhouse.

Tommy, of Jasper, was not the first to arrive on Saturday, Aug. 31 at his 1,200-acre Upson County hunting camp situated on the banks of the Flint River outside of Thomaston. Others had already arrived to begin cleaning up in preparation for deer season.  

“I asked one of the guys on my way down there that if he had a chance, he could start moving a lumber pile, and we’d cut it up for firewood. Just as soon as I pulled up in camp, he came around the corner white as a sheet,” said Tommy. “I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘snakes in the wood pile. I bet there’s 50.’ I said there’s no way there’s 50 snakes in that woodpile.”

Tommy grabbed a 20 gauge shotgun and began to investigate. They moved one board and immediately saw a wad of five or six, 10- to 12-inch rattlesnakes, which he shot.

“Every time you would move a board, there would be a baby snake or two,” said Tommy.

Board by board, they began to take down the wood pile, which sat on top of a pallet and was only about 2 feet high. Tommy kept his shotgun handy but was able to kill most of the young snakes with a shovel.

“We just kept finding them,” said Tommy. “They didn’t really scatter, every once in a while one of them would try to get away. I had a feeling there had to be a big snake in there somewhere.

“It was 15 minutes before I heard one rattle. The big ones were in that pallet on the ground, and the little ones were intertwined in the wood. 

“We got most of the wood off, and one of the big ones stuck its head out. I shot its head off. A few minutes later here came another one out. It ended up being three adults.”

The entire ordeal lasted about a half hour. 

“When it was all said and done, we put them on that board, and there were three adults and 40 babies, but I shot a couple groups of the babies that just blew them away. I’d say there was probably 50,” said Tommy.

This wasn’t Tommy’s first rodeo with a rattler in camp.

“A few years ago, we were sitting around grilling and a guy went to the bathroom,” said Tommy. “He came back out, and he said, ‘Nobody move. Nobody move.’ There was one within 5 feet of guy with his back to it sitting in a chair. It was coiled up, and I took this same gun and killed it.”

A few weeks ago while bush hogging, Tommy said he killed a 6-foot rattlesnake with 14 or 15 rattles. Members of his club kill a few timber rattlesnakes every summer but nothing like what they experienced on Aug. 31. Tommy said he’s thankful that he was down that weekend and was able to take care of a potential dangerous situation in the future.

“If we hadn’t seen them, there would have been 50 rattlesnakes around our camp. I am relieved, but a lot of my members are scared. I told them we’ve killed all the snakes,” said Tommy.