One of my favorite WMAs is in the heart of the Atchafalaya Basin. Small game hunting while scouting late season in February I was optimistic about the buck sign I saw. Next weekend is rifle season bucks only so I decided to spend Saturday adding a few squirrels to the freeze and harass the pigs while scouting for the weekend.
Unfortunately deer sign and squirrel movement was almost nonexistent. Out of all the miles covered only saw one squirrel and no deer. Didn’t pass up the chance to take the squirrel home. Although I did have some interesting encounters with a few other critters. When close to the edge of a cypress swamp I bumped a group of turkeys and continued to bump them when I was crossing the swamp. Never spent much time around them, but for some reason don’t get excited about hunting them. Seeing a giant bird fly through the top of cypress treeing and smacking limbs with its wings was pretty cool though. With the group broken up and spread out they would cluck and yelp to each other.
I slowly made my way through the swamp while listening to them and found a coon feeding on a raised piece of ground between two cypress trees. He was the first meat in the game bag. While cleaning the coon the turkeys were really doing some cutting up. Made my way to the other side of the swamp and picked up the squirrel. Hour later I found the first good pig sigh and continued walking the general direction I wanted to go while following pig trails for another .5 mile.
Pigs often like to root places on the edge of water. That can be rivers and sloughs or small depressions in the woods that contain a couple inches of water. There’s numerous depressions in these woods. I kept thinking how there’s tons of rootings but none are fresh since they all have clear water. Finally found something to get excited about when I found a muddy rooting. Continued walking and within 100yds I caught a glimpse of black 10yds in front of me. All I could see was his butt and tail, but from the movement I could tell he was still rooting and didn’t know I was there. As close as I was I didn’t want to take anymore steps. Unfortunately at this time it was starting to warm up and the wind was squirreling. I begged and begged in my head for him to step out from behind the tree before he smelled me. All of a sudden you would have thought I had run up and kicked him. He smelled me and it was over. I walked a little ways and decided to sit down and take a decent rest. My legs were tired and stalking was getting sloppy so I sat and rest for 30 minutes and cleaned the squirrel.
Started walking the way I had came in route to check another area farther north. The wind was greatly in my favor. Got to the same spot where I was winded and this time there was a group of sows and shoats working over the area. I watched them long enough waiting for a clear head shot with the .17hmr that I could tell at least 2 sows were still nursing or had just finished. I made extra sure to identify a mature sow and dropped her at 70yds. Pigs went in all directions. Some of the little ones ran near me but I missed.
Cut her up, put the meat in the pack, and checked the last area before going back to the boat. Bet black ovis never expected a coonass to fill an elk size game bag with a coon, squirrel, and a pig. No deer sign worth hunting, but covered a lot of miles and had a good day in the swamp.
Unfortunately deer sign and squirrel movement was almost nonexistent. Out of all the miles covered only saw one squirrel and no deer. Didn’t pass up the chance to take the squirrel home. Although I did have some interesting encounters with a few other critters. When close to the edge of a cypress swamp I bumped a group of turkeys and continued to bump them when I was crossing the swamp. Never spent much time around them, but for some reason don’t get excited about hunting them. Seeing a giant bird fly through the top of cypress treeing and smacking limbs with its wings was pretty cool though. With the group broken up and spread out they would cluck and yelp to each other.
I slowly made my way through the swamp while listening to them and found a coon feeding on a raised piece of ground between two cypress trees. He was the first meat in the game bag. While cleaning the coon the turkeys were really doing some cutting up. Made my way to the other side of the swamp and picked up the squirrel. Hour later I found the first good pig sigh and continued walking the general direction I wanted to go while following pig trails for another .5 mile.
Pigs often like to root places on the edge of water. That can be rivers and sloughs or small depressions in the woods that contain a couple inches of water. There’s numerous depressions in these woods. I kept thinking how there’s tons of rootings but none are fresh since they all have clear water. Finally found something to get excited about when I found a muddy rooting. Continued walking and within 100yds I caught a glimpse of black 10yds in front of me. All I could see was his butt and tail, but from the movement I could tell he was still rooting and didn’t know I was there. As close as I was I didn’t want to take anymore steps. Unfortunately at this time it was starting to warm up and the wind was squirreling. I begged and begged in my head for him to step out from behind the tree before he smelled me. All of a sudden you would have thought I had run up and kicked him. He smelled me and it was over. I walked a little ways and decided to sit down and take a decent rest. My legs were tired and stalking was getting sloppy so I sat and rest for 30 minutes and cleaned the squirrel.
Started walking the way I had came in route to check another area farther north. The wind was greatly in my favor. Got to the same spot where I was winded and this time there was a group of sows and shoats working over the area. I watched them long enough waiting for a clear head shot with the .17hmr that I could tell at least 2 sows were still nursing or had just finished. I made extra sure to identify a mature sow and dropped her at 70yds. Pigs went in all directions. Some of the little ones ran near me but I missed.
Cut her up, put the meat in the pack, and checked the last area before going back to the boat. Bet black ovis never expected a coonass to fill an elk size game bag with a coon, squirrel, and a pig. No deer sign worth hunting, but covered a lot of miles and had a good day in the swamp.
