Clybel WMA Deer & Doves

Deer hunting success rates are high at Clybel WMA. Hunters kill some nice bucks, too. In this article is a sampling of bucks taken on the middle Georgia WMA.

You hunters know what it’s like Cadillacing along secluded dirt roads and fields. Despite the July heat waves even now shimmering across dew-glistening corn and clover, it’s but a matter of time before a whitetail pops up.

And off to the right, moseying through a clearcut, there she is, sidling along without a care in the world. Except maybe that young buck traipsing lackadaisically in her footsteps. He’s a scrawny 4-pointer, four or five years away yet from filling that empty spot on your wall. They know we’re here, but apparently couldn’t possibly care less, never breaking stride. Places to go, things to do, and can’t be detoured by the same gray pickup they’ve seen nearly every day of their lives. The one with the Georgia Department Of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division logo on the doors.

What is it about these creatures that never fails to elicit a smile—or a gasp—upon first glimpse? I glance over at Andy Mays, who has braked in order to allow the pair to cross the trail 25 yards in front of us.

He’s smiling, too.

We’ll do a lot of smiling over the course of the day. It seems to be a common theme among DNR personnel I’ve worked with for a stack of decades. The late Leon Kirkland was director when the name was Georgia Game & Fish Division. The photo of him that pops up in my mind’s eye is Leon—smiling—chasing beagles chasing rabbits. Former Director Noel Holcomb would grin even while gutting deer with a butcher knife back in the day as a wildlife tech! Terry Kile? Always…

And I can even give you the Why: because theirs is not just A job. It’s THE job.

Andy Mays is area manager of Clybel Wildlife Management Area, near Mansfield. Let him explain.

Clybel WMA Area Manager Andy Mays puts a lot of time into preparing the dove fields. Right: Pictured here is corn and wheat that is about to be mowed and prepped for this season’s quota dove hunts.

“I grew up working closely with my dad and granddad in building, a little truck farming on the side, hunting and fishing and looking after our place, so I guess it’s always been in my blood. Clybel is sort of an extension of that. There’s no other place like it. It has it all.”

Add to the upbringing dual bachelors of science in wildlife and forestry from UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and you come up with the right guy in the right spot.

So you’ll know a little about where this spot is, Mansfield lies between Monticello and Social Circle, providing easy access from the Atlanta, Athens and Macon areas. The Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center lies within the WMA and is operated by the state’s Wildlife Conservation Section. The property is also home to Marben Public Fishing Area (PFA).

Mays is in Game Management. As happens often, word came via the grapevine about this WMA. Seems the guy—Mays—who came onboard in September of 2012, has helped make this something of a showplace for Georgia outdoorsmen. I wanted to see for myself, but I had my reasons for not doing so. I have a little more to say about Charlie and his Center, but you’ll need to go to the Back Page to find it. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s go look around Clybel.

All 6,700 acres of it, including 300 recently added, takes a big staff to maintain, right? Yep. Andy Mays and David Osborn!

Oh, there’s help to be found on the really large projects—controlled burning, for instance—but it comes from other DNR personnel, as well as volunteer groups, stepping in to give a hand when needed. There’s likely but a tiny percentage of Georgians who realize the massive amount of behind-the-scenes toil that goes into making a WMA or PFA the best it can be. Maybe we can provide an appreciation of that…

“We bounce around to help each other as much as we can, but historically the other position here has been high turnover,” Mays remarked. “It takes about a year for someone to come in and learn the ropes, then get comfortable running equipment and keeping to the management schedule. Unfortunately, that’s about when the job comes open again. David’s got it down and is really good at what he does.”

That this is THE job for Andy Mays becomes apparent quickly as he explains the process of field preparations for Clybel’s dove shoots—for which it is very well known, by the way. Forget, for a moment, that the welcoming center sign has arrows pointing to the following: Visitor Center, Conference Center, Astronomy Field, Multi-Use Trail, Fishing Lakes, Ranges, Campground, Brooke Ager Area…

Too, don’t consider administrative duties or what happens when equipment breaks down. Just before seeing the deer, I met David for the first time, stranded beside a fractured tractor. Let’s focus on ONE dove field, picking up some of the thought process that goes into providing the best possible experience Georgians who enjoy missing birds.

“This is one of four fields that we have now,” Andy is saying, “and we used to have six. They average around 120 acres each. I dropped two small ones because they were in low-lying areas and the birds always came over high. Too, I felt like they were splitting the flights, drawing birds away from the better areas. We plant corn, brown-top millet and wheat. We used to plant sunflowers, but there are so many deer here, and they just love to take the tops right off them before they even get a chance to head out.”

We’re talking the second week of July—which means that things are about to bust wide open!

“The dove fields are super-intensive to manage, and with the manpower limitations, we have to stay on the hop. The third week of July, we’ll begin manipulating the crops early to start drawing birds. That includes mowing and burning, leaving seed on the ground to get them coming in. And these dove fields are only a small portion of what we do. We also have to manage the other wildlife year-round.”

Drawing a spot on these fields is done through the quota system; with its location and quality, Clybel would simply be overrun otherwise.

“Hunters can go online and put in for the quota hunt, and 200 will be drawn for opening day,” Mays says. “There will be three fields averaging roughly 120 acres each, and not all those 200 hunters drawn will show up. We’re so close to Atlanta and other big towns that we could have hundreds of folks here at any time, but we do need a certain amount of hunters to provide a quality hunting experience.”

The quota-hunt application process begins at www.gooutdoorsgeorgia.com. As you can see by the photos, there are some stud bucks roaming the place, too. Clybel offers two different quota deer hunts that have been very successful over the years.

“There are some really good deer here,” said Andy. “One of the good things about what we planted this year is that it is fairly low maintenance. Despite the dry growing season and as much as deer browse on young plants, we still had everything come up pretty good. We planted wheat and three different types of clover: crimson, arrowleaf and medium red. Clover doesn’t get much growth in the fall, but the wheat takes off. Then the clover blows up in the spring. The reason for three types is that they come on at different times. As the growth of one slows, another emerges. We’re getting 10 to 12 months of feeding just with the clover.

“We planted one corn field last year and just left part of it hanging. The deer left it for a while, but now they’re starting to come back to the cobs still on the stalks. We really made the corn last year, and it’s still feeding deer, turkeys, doves and other small game.”

Clybel also benefits from the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), and it’s not just the turkeys.

“NWTF has a fund that they provide every year, and we submit projects that they help with,” Mays said. “They came in last year and sprayed a lot of vegetation that we needed to clear. We’re big on bird-rearing habitat and connectivity so that the poults can move from one area to another. You look around at some of the knee-high stuff and think it’s just weeds; but a closer look will show you that it’s open underneath, providing cover from predators as the birds move around when they’re most vulnerable. It works just as well for fawns, quail, rabbits and other small game.”

All of which roam here pretty much at will. Clybel’s open dove fields give way to stands of old-growth and planted pines, acres of oak, hardwood bottoms and, as Andy says, “It’s all here.”

That it’s maintained—intensively—in such pristine condition is very largely due to a guy who would much rather sit behind the steering wheel of a tractor than a computer screen. For Andy Mays, it’s THE job.