Posts by Daryl Kirby
Bassmaster Classic Coming to Hartwell This Month
The rock stars of the professional bass fishing world are coming to Lake Hartwell as the reservoir plays host to the 2015 Bassmaster Classic Feb. 20-22. No Georgians qualified for this year’s event, but top pros like Aaron Martens and Skeet Reese will be fishing. Last year’s winner, Randy Howell, of Springville, Ala., returns with…
Read MoreThe 8-Point DOE!
It’s not every day you kill a nice 8-point buck. So where’s killing an 8-point doe rank? We’re going to put it No. 1 among deer-hunting oddities we’ve seen this deer season. On Dec. 26, Tommy Clack, of Snellville, was hunting a 200-acre tract in Clarke County. “I was really hoping to kill a doe,”…
Read MoreTop Counties For Trophy Bucks 2015
Wonder how your county stacks up against the state’s best for producing big bucks? In Georgia, there’s a system that answers that question. Worth County is No. 1 for the third year in a row, and few counties in the state even come close to Worth’s ability to yield big bucks the past 10 years.…
Read More“Big Brow” Dooly County 18-Point Buck
One of the most impressive bucks killed in Georgia this season was an 18-point Dooly County deer that has total inches galore and brow tines that don’t quit. The buck, appropriately named “Big Brow,” was a family effort. It was shot by Scott Kirbo, of Atlanta, on Nov. 8. “My dad, uncle and I have…
Read MoreWonder Week For Wilkins Brothers
Two brothers kill giant bucks two days apart on different properties. What are the odds? Anybody who hunts deer in Georgia knows the odds against it are astronomical. This isn’t Illinois or Kansas, where giant bucks are killable because of the narrow ribbons of habitat and small woodlots between farms. This is Georgia, where the…
Read MoreDucks Numbers At All-Time Highs
The later the better, that’s how some duck hunters view the often painful wait for birds to show up in Georgia. This year might be one of those rare seasons when waiting will mean missing out on some good duck hunting. Greg Balcom, a WRD senior wildlife biologist and our state waterfowl biologist, is expecting…
Read MoreWin Big With GON’s Truck-Buck Contest
Every season we hear some sad stories from longtime GON subscribers who forgot to renew their memberships… “First time in 10 years I let my subscription run out…” You know what happened next. They killed the biggest buck of their lives, and that dream of taking part in the Truck-Buck contest, the pageantry of the…
Read More3-Time State Duck-Calling Champ Crowned
Clint Shipman won his third—and likely final—Georgia state duck-calling championship by topping a tough field of nine of the state’s elite competition duck callers. The event was held July 27 during GON’s Outdoor Blast at the Gwinnett Center. After a third state title, there is an unwritten but widely followed rule that duck callers don’t…
Read MoreTruck-Buck Contest Is Back! Win a Truck!
GON just gave away another 4×4 Chevy pickup truck to a deer hunter. It’s become a Georgia hunting tradition—the Truck-Buck contest with weekly winners all through deer season and a grand-prize Shoot-Out the next summer… and somebody driving home from the Shoot-Out in a new truck. Or, as was the case last year, riding home…
Read More10-Year Deer Management Plan Revealed
The draft plan for managing Georgia’s deer herd for the next 10 years, “Georgia’s Deer Management Plan 2015-2024, was released Aug. 1. How does the plan address deer populations, bag limits, season dates, baiting, coyotes and other issues key to sportsmen? What’s a Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP), and how will it function and be…
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