Fur, Fins & Feathers Forecast
Posted on November 30, 2010 by bob in OffTheBeatenPath
For many sportsmen, December and January are the two best months of the year when you can chase creatures that run, fly and swim, sometimes all in the same day. Here are some good times – and a few good places – for hunting and fishing over the next eight weeks.
Fur: Doe now, buck later
Many hunters in Alabama live for deer season, and why not? The state is blessed to have one of the most abundant whitetail populations in the country. For hunters without access to private land, wildlife management areas and other state and federally-owned property provide hundreds of thousands of acres of public hunting land.
Early December can be one of the best time to harvest does and fill your freezer in anticipation of chasing big bucks during the rut. The woods are still full of acorns, so setting up there the first few weeks of December should be a good bet. As the mast crop thins out, move closer to natural funnels leading to green fields or sit on the green fields themselves. Just prior to and during the rut however, bucks are the name of the game and luckily, WMAs around Central Alabama consistently produce some of the biggest bucks taken on public land in the state.
Fins: Redfish stacking up
I like two things in a fish – good fight and good taste, and redfish provide both. Most folks think summertime when someone mentions fishing, but fall and winter on the Central Gulf Coast can be one of the best times to hook into large schools of reds.
They can consistently be caught in areas of strong current during tidal flow, such as a pass or cut from inshore out to the open sea. In my experience, you can’t go wrong with live bait in these spots. Destin, Pensacola and Orange Beach are some of my favorite areas to fish for reds, and this time of year crowds are smaller and room prices cheaper. An added bonus, if you’re a duck hunter, is to look into hunting opportunities near where you’re fishing as the Central Gulf Coast is a temporary winter home to great numbers of migrating waterfowl.
Feathers: Woodies on Wednesdays, but watch the weather
The wood duck is the bread-and-butter bird for Alabama duck hunters and thankfully, authorities this year kept the limit at three per day per hunter. Wood ducks can be hunted in just about any creek or backwater off a main body of water, particularly if there is suitable roosting habitat at the head of said area. Around cities with public water nearby, competition for duck holes can be fierce on weekends so I like to hunt during the week as much as possible.
Watching the weather for cold fronts is just part of duck hunting, since these fronts push huge flocks of ducks and geese down the flyway. While most of those birds will fly through Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, some will head east through Alabama. A couple of mallards or teal added to a wood duck limit makes for a fine supper.
While WMAs in Mobile County and those around Lake Guntersville see the most duck hunter traffic, suitable public hunting exists at other WMAs in the state. For what I call “king daddy” duck hunting, Bella and I head west to Mississippi or Arkansas at least once a season.
See you in woods or on the water.
Niko Corley is an avid sportsman, spending his free time hunting, fishing and enjoying other outdoor activities. In this column, he covers a range of outdoor recreation activities in central Alabama and beyond.
