Days GON By September 2011

Each month we turn back the clock to see what was being reported in the pages of GON, both 20 and 10 years ago. Here’s what was happening.

20 Years Ago: September 1991

• 24 Record-Book Bow Bucks: When the September 1991 issue was printed, the 1990 bow season was a record-setter in the number of Pope & Young class bucks. When this issue ran 20 years ago, we reported that 24 bucks had been added to GON’s Georgia’s Best Bow Bucks rankings. The next-best season was in 1989, when seven P&Y deer were added.

Georgia’s current record for number of P&Y bucks in one season is 2007, when 70 archers added their names to the record book.

Twenty years ago, it was reported that 44 of Georgia’s 159 counties had at least one P&Y buck. Today, 133 counties have at least one P&Y entry.

All total, there had been 71 total Georgia bucks that had qualified for the list 20 years ago. Today, that number has grown to 782. To see this year’s Georgia’s Best Bow Bucks rankings, turn to page 32.

• Diamondback Rattler Strikes: Friday, Aug. 16, 1991 began as a normal day for 17-year-old John Rawlins, of McRae.

It was a typical summer day in Telfair County, hot and muggy. John’s father had been cutting the grass at a tract of land they own, and John, an avid deer hunter, decided to do a little preseason scouting.

John had plenty of encounters with rattlesnakes while exploring through the woods and fields near his south Georgia home, and sensing that the snakes would be out, he put on a pair of Rattlers brand snake-proof chaps. His father had given him the chaps for his birthday, but John had rarely worn them because they were hot and noisy.

Something made John put the chaps on that day.

It was about 3 p.m. when the high-school student stepped over a fence into some waist-high grass and briars.

“I was looking for a snake,” John recalled. “I was looking, but I still didn’t see anything.”

John took about five steps when he realized he’d made a serious mistake. That fifth step landed right on the mid-section of the biggest diamondback rattlesnake John had ever seen.

The snake, reacting with lightning speed, turned and struck John about halfway up his left calf.

“It scared me so bad I fell back into a clump of briars,” said John.

John almost fainted. He regained his composure only to see the rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike again, a mere 5 feet from where he lay in the briars and tall grass.

John pulled his 9mm pistol and fired seven or eight rounds at the giant rattler.

“I was shaking so bad, I was missing,” he said.

Luckily, three of the shots found their mark, and John got out of there as fast as he could.

The chaps had stopped the snake’s bite, and John’s quick reaction with his pistol prevented another hit by the snake.

10 Years Ago: September 2001

• Giant Bass from Middle Georgia: GON printed its exclusive Georgia’s Biggest Bass list, which lists all the Georgia bass caught by anglers that have been officially weighed at 14 pounds and heavier. On the list were 34 entries, three of which came from Sam Taylor, of Thomaston.

“I catch most of my biggest fish primarily in January and February,” said Sam. “Just about anybody can catch them off a bed — although they’re tougher to catch off a bed in clear water — but I catch a lot of the fish prespawn, when the water temperature is just starting to get to that 62- to 67-degree range.

“I catch most of these big bass on soft plastic baits, although some of them I catch on crankbaits during that prespawn stage.”

Today, there are 52 bass on Georgia’s Biggest Bass list.

• Dalton Utilities Offers Public Hunting: Northwest Georgia hunters were looking forward to the opportunity to hunt on land where treated wastewater was being sprayed — an operation similar to the Clayton County Water Authority land. The Murray County land is owned by Dalton Utilities, which uses a spray-irrigation system to pump wastewater from the Dalton water-treatment plant onto forest lands.

During its initial year, the area opened with four quota hunts on 6,000 acres, and Georgia DNR assisted by managing the hunts and holding the quota drawing. The area still hosts quota hunts.

For information on how to apply this year, go to <www.dutil.com/resi dential/cons_lashunts.php>.

• QDMA Works Against Poachers: The Atlanta Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) met at the Cobb Civic Center on Aug. 21, 2001, and one order of business was to supply another “Dirty Harry” deer decoy to WRD.

Cpl. Gary Simmons went home to southeast Georgia with a remote-controlled, poacher-catching, full-body mount of a buck that was to be used in Ware, Pierce, Atkinson and Charlton counties.