Posts by Brad Bailey
Fox Squirrels
When it comes to squirrel hunting, fox squirrels are trophy-class. For most sportsmen, just seeing a fox squirrel is an event, in part because the uncommon squirrels are large and often flashy. Fox squirrels come in a variety of color phases that include fox-orange, jet-black, and several variations that are primarily gray or are a…
Read More2005 Pope & Young Special: Year Of The Suburban Buck
When is comes to Pope & Young-class bucks, Georgia’s 2004-05 hunting season was the year of the metro-Atlanta buck. Of 26 officially scored bucks to date, 13, or 50 percent of the statewide total, were killed in nine metro-Atlanta counties. The trend toward suburban bucks is not new, but a continuation of a trend. On…
Read MoreConservation Law Enforcement Corner September 2005
On Nov. 28, 2004 DNR Law Enforcement Cpl. Bill Bunch was working a night-hunting complaint in Stephens County. “I had been working a night-hunting complaint in one end of the county and sat there until about 11 p.m.,” said Bill. “I had received a call that a field on the other end of the county off…
Read MoreFall Fiction: The Haunted Hunt At Asbury Manor Part 2
On the Saturday afternoon of the opening day of archery season, Tyler Wood was fifteen feet up in a tree on the Ogeechee River side of the hayfield below Asbury Manor. Tylerʼs lock-on was chained to the side of a massive sweetgum thirty feet inside the treeline. From his vantage he could watch a heavily…
Read MoreVolunteers Adopt Food Plot At Dawson Forest WMA
There is a new food plot on Dawson Forest WMA, coming up lush and green after all the summer rain. The high-quality plot was planted not by WRD personnel, however, but by volunteers. In late June, volunteers trailered in their own equipment to plant WRD’s seed and fertilizer. “I had three volunteers with tractors,” said…
Read MoreConservation Law Enforcement Corner August 2005
On Jan. 30, 2005, the last day of the 2004-05 duck season, DNR Conservation Ranger First Class Mike Binion was on patrol in Grady County. At about 7:30 a.m. he heard the sound of shotguns being fired in the distance. He homed in on the location of the shooting, and contacted DNR Law Enforcement Sgt.…
Read MoreFall Fiction: The Haunted Hunt At Asbury Manor Part 1
The old buckʼs head snapped to attention, ears and eyes scanning, searching for something that had alarmed it. For an hour the buck had grazed in a hayfield in the middle of night undisturbed. To the buckʼs left, a mile over the treeline, a single-cell summer thunderstorm raged beyond the Ocmulgee River. The thunderhead, black…
Read MoreMountain Lake Perch, Ohio Style
Fisherman Paul Turman lives in Hoschton. He is a transplant to Georgia from Ohio, where he grew up catching walleye and yellow perch from Lake Erie. When he moved to Georgia, he went to school on the perch (and walleye) in Georgia’s mountain lakes, and he has been catching them for 30 years. You may…
Read MoreSummer Linesides At Clarks Hill
“Get the net!” said Sarah Willard, who was hanging onto her rod as a hybrid bass flashed and pulled next to the boat. Sarah’s dad, Clarks Hill linesides guide Dave Willard, stepped to the gunnel with the net, scooped, and netted a silvery, 3-lb. hybrid. Dave unhooked the fish, and was holding the fish in…
Read MoreFalling Hunters: 4 Hunt Accidents Chronicled
Falling out of a tree stand is the most common way for a deer hunter to be seriously injured. Last season 15 hunters pitched out of trees to the ground and were injured. The number represents nearly 33 percent of all hunting incidents. The 15 tree-stand falls included one fatality in which a 61-year-old man…
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