Florida Shooters Network

Hi. I drew Green Swamp WMA for early december general gun hunting (deer/pigs). I’ve never hunted there, had always before hunted NE Florida. Can anyone please provide general suggestions/tips for the area (practical experience, beyond what’s in the WMA brochure online)? It’s also called Green Swamp East.

Which area is best/easiest to reach and hunt? Where is it really swampy, or not? How big and deep is the river there, the Withlacoochee, is it even approachable (or is it too swampy leading to the river edge to even reach)? Any roads too rough or typically too wet for my little car or family van to travel, etc? Plenty of roadside parking for hunters? Mostly pines and palmettos, or where are decent hardwoods?

I’m not asking for your favorite hunting spot, just basic info in the area so I don’t waste my time fighting conditions and circumstances I could have avoided.

It’s been 3 years since I’ve hunted, since I moved to central Florida, and I just have to get out there and try, and thus is what I drew for closest to Orlando, alas.

I plan to get over there before the hunt and try to drive the main roads and find approachable hunting areas (still hunting and climber stand), but it would be great to know more first.

Thanks for any help/advice/suggestions,and feel free to email directly if you’d prefer.

JBubba57@aol.com

It's been about 20 years since I hunted the Green Swamp East - I have spent most of my woods time in that area in the GS West tract and in Richloam. We used to hunt regularly from the south gate off of Rock Ridge Road in the southeast portion of the WMA - managed to take a hog and a young buck out of there. You could drive all the way to the river and cross it on the wooden bridge when the bridge was in good repair - I have no idea of the status now. The Florida Trail runs through the WMA and parallels the river for a ways. When the river is not in flood stage it is easy to walk along much of the river bottom area.

It's a good mix of pine/palmetto/hardwood. The river is normally only about 10-20 yards wide in most places during normal river levels, but can flood a huge area when the river is up. Parking along the dirt roads in the WMA is no problem - you just stop wherever you want to get out and walk.

Check these links for good maps:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/fnst/maps-publications

http://ftashop.floridatrail.org/individ ... venture-s/

https://store.usgs.gov/map-locator

http://myfwc.com/media/4437017/GreenSwamp-Map.pdf

Thanks much. I went there Friday and looked it over. The bridge is in great condition. The road from the main road to the river was closed, due to flooding/mud, though. Saw a lot of hog sign, nothing of deer, though. Most places, it's a long walk from the road to the wooded cover for hunting, walking through palmettos and scrubs and fields. The Florida Trail gets a lot of day use, and so it's best not to hunt in the Southeast, they say, because of that frequent disruption on the area (noise, smell, etc.). Bowhunters have taken 4 hogs and 1 deer so far, I think I saw. Nice big buck, though.

It's what I drew, so I'll try it. Every hunt is successful, even if I don't see anything, because it's getting out into the outdoors that's the fun, sitting still and becoming another tree, and letting it all unfold and happen around me.

My Dad taught me young that "it ain't the getting, it's the going".