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President's Island Quota Hunt 2024
- Thread starter cg02175
- Start date
Thanks
After reading that again. I made it confusing. I meant no they do not have a bathroom. It's just a flat spot to park campers.
Thanks
Best 2 1/2 days hunting I ever had. May not be that now but 15 years ago. I can see it now. Lol
Hope it goes that well in October
Do you know if they allow UTV's at President Island? Thanks
They do, and I recommend one. It's a long haul back there to some of those spots otherwise.
Yeah we used to have the VAAP but now it's businesses . There still could be some bow hunting opportunities IMO .
Thanks for info!
I'll probably ask this again when I get a draw, but curious how practical it is to take a ladder stand to PI and raise? Too much trouble, labor? Are there suitable trees for this. I'll hunt out of a climber but prefer ladders. Certainly not gonna use a saddle. Which type of stand do most use at PI?
The year I hunted it I used a ladderstand. A hangon with sticks (or saddle) is probably the best option, but, like you, I prefer ladders. I have one from many years ago that is light and pretty portable. It got me high enough to have an opportunity at a 140 class buck that I had to pass on when I couldn't see the brow tines. They were probably there, but, all I could count were eight, and with my job at the time, I couldn't afford a mistake.
I cashed in my 14 pts this year on another WMA after deciding I didn't want to deal with Memphis. With the changes in the island after the flood and with the greatly increasing crime rate in the area it just wasn't worth the trip to me.
I've successfully used a climber there, you just have to locate climbable trees ahead of time since they're few and far between. I climbed a tree one morning only to realize at daybreak it was dead....
I just got back from hunting the President's Island '24 October bunk hunt. People seem interested in knowing more, so thought I'd provide my perspective from 4 days on the island. My cousin and I applied as a "party" and got drawn with 11 points.
First and foremost, I want to say that everyone we met, hunted around, camped with, and the TWRA officers were fantastic. It was really neat meeting others that had also put in for a decade+ to hunt, and to get to pick the brain of the TWRA guys that are on the island a great deal.
Unfortunately (as of yesterday at 4pm when we pulled out & there were 7 guys left in the woods), none of the ~40 hunters who showed up killed a deer. That part was very surprising to me, and admittedly a little discouraging. Frankly, it's a hard place to hunt, especially in only 3 days, and this year I do not think the full moon every night helped. It was very bright and I believe the deer did a lot of feeding at night, and a lot of bedding during the day.
The 2 things about the island that really stood out to me, even though I'd heard some going in, was (1) it's massive and (2) it's thick....everywhere. People have said 50 hunters on it is too many. I'd respectfully disagree. The place could easily hold 100+. It just goes on and on, and there are so many spots you see and say, dang I'd like look around in there, or sit on that for a day. You simply can't in 3 days. Secondly, it's really thick all over the island, it's hard to find wooded areas that are open enough for long shooting lanes, or really where you can see very far. That means you either sit on a field edge, that is continuous for a mile+, or hunt a really small area in the woods. One of the best places we found, lot of buck sign, was on a small field of johnson grass, but grown too tall to shoot from a ground blind, and surrounded by bushy trees you couldn't get up into, so on the next place.
We checked out ~4 areas on Thurs, hung a stand and set a ground blind and crossed our fingers. We saw a couple 8 pt bucks, a handful of spikes, a good number of does, though I'd say we didn't see as many deer as I expected. Most of the deer we saw were coming out into the soybean fields, and not a minute before the sun dropped over the tree line.
It seemed to be a mix of what people saw, most saw just a few, some saw several on scout day, but not as many after (insert hunting pressure here). I believe 2 hunters missed deer, 1 i know of for sure. He told me he just screwed up his yardage and shot over a 10 pt.
I think it's likely there aren't the number of deer there as there were 15 yrs ago, and I suspect the TWRA controls that number to keep CWD and other disease at bay. I do think there are some really good bucks there. The ones I saw were heavy, with big horns for their age, i.e. big 2.5 yr old 8 pts. And we found some really big rubs, 6-7" trees, etc. So they are probably there. Hope those of you drawn for December have better luck. As for me, I'm going to start over building points, adding a party with myself, my cousin, and my son who is 11 and the hunting bug is growing in him every week. I think if we ever get back we'll be 60, 75, and 25 respectively. But it was unique, fun to be out there, and memories I will cherish.
If anyone has questions, wants to chat, please let me know, I'd be happy to help anyone I can who might be headed there soon.
First and foremost, I want to say that everyone we met, hunted around, camped with, and the TWRA officers were fantastic. It was really neat meeting others that had also put in for a decade+ to hunt, and to get to pick the brain of the TWRA guys that are on the island a great deal.
Unfortunately (as of yesterday at 4pm when we pulled out & there were 7 guys left in the woods), none of the ~40 hunters who showed up killed a deer. That part was very surprising to me, and admittedly a little discouraging. Frankly, it's a hard place to hunt, especially in only 3 days, and this year I do not think the full moon every night helped. It was very bright and I believe the deer did a lot of feeding at night, and a lot of bedding during the day.
The 2 things about the island that really stood out to me, even though I'd heard some going in, was (1) it's massive and (2) it's thick....everywhere. People have said 50 hunters on it is too many. I'd respectfully disagree. The place could easily hold 100+. It just goes on and on, and there are so many spots you see and say, dang I'd like look around in there, or sit on that for a day. You simply can't in 3 days. Secondly, it's really thick all over the island, it's hard to find wooded areas that are open enough for long shooting lanes, or really where you can see very far. That means you either sit on a field edge, that is continuous for a mile+, or hunt a really small area in the woods. One of the best places we found, lot of buck sign, was on a small field of johnson grass, but grown too tall to shoot from a ground blind, and surrounded by bushy trees you couldn't get up into, so on the next place.
We checked out ~4 areas on Thurs, hung a stand and set a ground blind and crossed our fingers. We saw a couple 8 pt bucks, a handful of spikes, a good number of does, though I'd say we didn't see as many deer as I expected. Most of the deer we saw were coming out into the soybean fields, and not a minute before the sun dropped over the tree line.
It seemed to be a mix of what people saw, most saw just a few, some saw several on scout day, but not as many after (insert hunting pressure here). I believe 2 hunters missed deer, 1 i know of for sure. He told me he just screwed up his yardage and shot over a 10 pt.
I think it's likely there aren't the number of deer there as there were 15 yrs ago, and I suspect the TWRA controls that number to keep CWD and other disease at bay. I do think there are some really good bucks there. The ones I saw were heavy, with big horns for their age, i.e. big 2.5 yr old 8 pts. And we found some really big rubs, 6-7" trees, etc. So they are probably there. Hope those of you drawn for December have better luck. As for me, I'm going to start over building points, adding a party with myself, my cousin, and my son who is 11 and the hunting bug is growing in him every week. I think if we ever get back we'll be 60, 75, and 25 respectively. But it was unique, fun to be out there, and memories I will cherish.
If anyone has questions, wants to chat, please let me know, I'd be happy to help anyone I can who might be headed there soon.
swampbadger
Well-Known Member
Hey man, thank you for taking the time to explain your perspective and your hunts! I really appreciate you for doing this.
I have 11 points. I know I would be bitter putting in for all these years and not even coming close to watching some gooderns. I've heard the twra has allowed it to get overly brushy and not planted as many areas as they had in the past.
I can't speak to the past, but we talked to the guy who leases the farm land. They are planting 4,300 of the 6,300 acres. I don't remember seeing much where'd I'd think "why didn't they plant that". There was one field in the back, maybe 30-40 acres, that wasn't planted and looked like a hell of a spot for rut.
