Hunter: Cody Yoder
Points: 11 (6L, 5R)
County: Dooly
Season: 2019-2020
Hunt Story
I was drawn for the first quota hunt at Flint River WMA this year. I have hunted there a few times with a bow and for ducks but never did any serious scouting. After many miles of scouting, I chose several places that looked promising and placed one stand. On the morning of the 31st I discovered that multiple people had gone in and put their stands in close proximity to my stand. Due to this I chose to move spots. That morning I didn't see anything. That evening I went into an area that I had previously bowhunted just as a serious storm was finishing and the temps were dropping. I saw one small 8-point that I watched for over an hour in his bed. I decided not to shoot him as he was barely legal. The next morning I went to a different area of tall pines and only saw one small 4-point go back to his bed at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m. I got down and packed my gear up. I hiked about a mile back to a secluded food plot, scouting along the way. While deciding on whether or not to hunt it, I saw a small buck come out on the plot and feed for 5 minutes. I decided not to hike the 3/4 mile back to the truck and just to tough it out in the tree all day. I climbed the tree at noon and stayed in until 5 p.m. I saw a large doe come out onto the plot and proceed to come directly to me. I shot her at 30 yards in the head and she went down immediately. I debated getting down and dragging her off but decided against it. At 6 p.m. several more doe came out and started feeding. At 6:45 I heard several deer chasing in the woods to my left. I heard grunting and caught several glimpses but couldn't see how big they were. At just before 7, a spike came out on the food plot and saw the doe standing on the far end. As I was watching him walk across to check them out I caught movement at the far end of the plot on the lane. I raised my binoculars and saw the extremely long tines and thought "shooter." As I brought my gun up I had no idea he was that big. I shot and he went down in the plot. I did not know how big he was until I walked up to him. I realized then he was a special buck and by far my biggest ever. He ended up scoring 146 even. His main beams were 23 and 22 in long with 13-inch G2s. Thanks for letting me tell my story of the best buck I ever saw and it was on public land as well.
