Hi guys and gals, I'm new here and wish to find a good boar and/or turkey WMA in Central Florida. I have not hunted with bow in 15 years and when I did, it was in North Carolina. I've since gotten back into bow and went the route of traditional (50# longbow) and am so glad I did! Any advice as to a great area to still hunt in Central Florida on WMA would be much appreciated. Also, any advice on broad heads?
Thank you,
Adam
1st question: Where in Florida are you?
2nd " : How far you willing to drive?
There are plenty of WMA's which have hogs and Turkey. But which ones you will be able to hunt depend on whether they are quota hunts or non quota.
Need to know where you are and how far your willing to go.
If you ate sharing that bawana stuff you have my number... And I am willing to travel! :saywhat:
Bawana - I live in Orlando and I'm willing to travel how far it takes, lol! Probably prefer to stay within an hour or two. I saw 3 Lakes WMA and it appears to be pretty good as I didn't sign up for limited quota and they only do that the first 2 days of the season. It's down in St. Cloud.
Gregg - I'm down with company anytime! I'm always open to some tutoring to anyone who knows more than me.
I usually travel about 2 hours to hunt. I don't enjoy that part of it, but that's what it takes.
I'm up for company any time.
Hey UrbanArcher, Fellow Olando guy here. I'd love to find some good WMA's to get some Turkey or Hog too. I've heard that they are tougher to hunt on WMA as they are much more weary of people and usually come out when it's dark, but if anyone knows of a good one around I'd like to know.
It would be a haul but Green swamp is worth looking at. Upper Hillsborough as well. Green Swamp has a lot of pressure but there are always places that get overlooked.
I killed a lot of hogs, deer and turkey out of Green Swamp (East) the open all season section. West is "special hunt", when I lived in Orlando. It's about 40 miles.
There's a lot of pressure there, but you can get away from it if you know how.
Hunted Upper Hillsborough also and killed hogs in there. Richloam boarders Greenswamp and has lots of hogs, have killed hogs in there also..but it's big time dog hunting during deer season.
IM me if you decide to hunt any of these areas and I'll tell you how to get to some of the good spots.
BigBuck, I got some information on Three Lakes WMA down in St. Cloud. It's pretty popular, but someone told me during archery season it's not packed like gun season. It's pretty big too, about 68000 acres I think.
Swamp and Hoyt, thanks for the info, I'll definitely look into Green Swamp and Hillsborough. Hoyt, I'll let you know when I get ready to go, probably around mid Oct...I wanna get in before the end of archery season, but after the special quota times as I didn't apply for any. Plus, I know Three lakes only has 2 days of quota and after that it's open.
Adam,
I've got a Quota permit for Herky Huffman/Bull Creek. Just a few miles East of Three Lakes only smaller. Generally good population of Hogs and last year a large amount of deer, hopefully again this year. Permit is for Sept. 15 & 16, a lot of areas to still hunt or stand hunt. Haven't decided if I'm going to use the permit yet or not.
Would you be interested in opening weekend there using my guest permit if I decide to go?
Bull Creek is on South side of SR192 just east of Holopaw on the way to Melbourne.
If interested send me a PM.
Only 28,000 acres but they only issue 300 permits for the weekend, and majority usually don't show up.
What about Zone D hunting? Any ideas for good spots up there? I would like to get out also during archery season when it's a little cooler and archery season in Zone D (Northwest area of state) is open til mid November I believe.
I've hunted a few of the WMA's up there..Joe Budd and Apalachee were my favorite.
Joe Budd is really unique in that it has such diverserse terrian for Florida and is also loaded with deer, hogs and turkeys. They have or at least had when I hunted it food plots also.
The terrian goes from typical Fl. palmetto and pine flats to rolling hill hardwoods with step drainages that slope down into lakeshore.
Apalachee is special because it has a lot of farm crops in it that are leased out to farmers with a provision to leave some for the wildlife. It is loaded with game also and located close to Ga. boarder and Lake Seminole.
You have to go to Joe Budd the day before the hunt to put in for a draw..everybody got picked the times I hunted it.
Thanks Hoyt! Does Apalachee have daily quotas or is just special draw like Joe Budd?
I've been out to 3 Lakes a couple times this season and there are alot of hogs and deer out there. I saw 6 doe this morning and I talked with a biologist out there who pointed out some sweet hog areas that you have to walk into. It's FLOODED though, so don't go getting water in your engine like I did today... that's going to be expensive..
Get out there guys, only a week left of archery!
For NW FL near Tallahassee check out: Aucilla (very large and nice variety of habitat- hardwoods, palmetto/pines, swamp, riverine, slough. all kinds of game (one of my favs). Talquin- beautiful near Lake Talquin, some gorgeous woods, St. Marks- near the sea, interesting, Ochlockonee (my personal fav, small only couple thous. acres but only 10 min from my house haha) hardwood/riverine, and of course there's the Appalachicola Nat.'l Forest which is GINORMOUS, bring a compass! LOL.