Skyline WMA

For those that hunt it some and have for awhile whats your opinion on the deer hunting? Has the hunting as far as seeing and killing deer gone down hill in the last 10 yrs. Do you like all the either sex rifle hunts?

I do not hunt it anymore,but I know enough about it to say they do not need to kill so many does over there,archery,and primitive weapons would be plenty.I would love to hunt there but just can't justify spending valuable time there chasing ghosts.

Myself and several friends have hunted it for years. We don't see the numbers or take nearly as many deer as before. I think there is too many either sex rifle hunts. I find myself going less every year.

I'd love to know the number of does that end up button bucks.

I would like to know that as well,I would almost bet on 30%!

I will just come out and say it. The area biologist has managed the place like it was south ALA since he has been here and its sad. Two does a day on every gun hunt up until this year has ruined the place. Archery and pw would be more than enough.

x2

Agreed. Hunted the early ML season and then one gun hunt. Saw one deer last time I was there and I was like "Damn, I saw one. Yesss!" Pulled off and did something else. I'll probably head up for the buck hunts just to see if the buck sign I found in turkey season reappears. I think rifle hunts need to be buck only for a couple years to let the herd recover.

I've almost exclusively hunted little coon and jacobs mtn for the last 6 years. Jacobs mtn has been a slaughter fest for 2 years in a row and the place is suffering from it now. I wish they'd do away with the either sex rifle hunts myself as well. Bow and MZ only for doe harvest and just leave it at 1 deer a day. I compare our biologist to Mark Richt. No one does less with more than he does.

^^^^ You got that right. I think he was upset over leaving Barbour when he got here and just took a careless attitude. I know he put a lot of effort into Barbour but dang man you got handed probably the finest WMA in the state at that time.

This year they have had a gun or mz hunt every weekend so far if I ain't mistaken. There's 2 weekends in Jan they aren't having a hunt. Wish they'd do the no gun weekends early Dec or something and give us all the weekends in Jan. I know some folks probably wouldn't like that but hey, a guy can dream can't he?

Haven't hunted WMA but a few times and seen very few deer. Thought that adding Jacobs Mtn. would present more opportunity, but the only difference I saw was more hunters. All total there is just over 60,000 acres and on any given gun hunt there are 65,000 hunters(exaggeration). But it sure seems like that many.

Last time I hunted there, I went through the thickest, roughest mess you could imagine thinking I could have some privacy. NOT When it got light enough to see, I spotted four other hunters with the closest one about 60 yards away. I left and haven't been back.

When it gets to the point that management land is all I've got to hunt, then it is time for me to quite hunting. I have no desire to get shot by some idiot that doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

Right on. I had a pretty good chat with Bowtarist about Skyline one evening and trust his opinion. I think the early pressure probably diminishes what it could be in January. I may bowhunt the 2 weekends no gun hunts in January. We need some bow weekends in December too.

As you know, I have hunted Skyline all of my life. The last few years, I have gone on a few hunts on various places within my old stomping grounds. The lack of deer and deer sign is downright sickening. Until something changes drastically on the doe killing front and they let the herds recover some....I will never set foot on it again.

I used to kill deer there every year. Now I seldom see any.

need to limit the doe killing at skyline

With Skyline having 60K acres, I think there is a large variety of opinions on how good the hunting is there. I see a lot of hunters parking and only going a short ways into the woods. I think that leads to hunters being frustrated after the sun comes up and seeing other hunters in proximity.

I grew up in Scottsboro until I went off to college in '86. My dad and I hunted some private land on Crow Mountain and over in PRV. We never hunted Skyline WMA, which was smaller back then. Back then it was even tougher to see a deer and it was bucks only. I think I only saw two or three deer before I moved away.

I moved back to AL in 2004 and started hunting again in 2013. But I didn't get serious with it until last year. Last year on three hunts I shot one buck and one doe and saw another buck. This year on two hunts I have seen 6 does and zero bucks. I did take a doe on 12/12. I have seen much more sign this year than last, but I am learning where to look.

I think with Skyline you have to be willing to go a little farther off the dirt road and look for the areas they aren't getting pressured or look for the routes they will take when they are pressured. Unfortunately, that sometimes means you have to get there earlier, go farther and when you score, you have a longer, more difficult task to get the deer out.

To paint Skyline with broad strokes when it is such a vast landscape is wrong in my opinion. I think there is a lot of acreage where you won't see anything but orange. There is a lot that's inaccessible without a very long walk because it is bordered by private land. But there is some good hunting that will require you to walk a good ways and may involve a change in elevation of several hundred feet. For me, I cannot afford a hunting club and don't know anyone with land willing to let me hunt so far. So I absolutely enjoy the resource I have in hunting the WMAs and appreciate that our state has made them available.

Skyline is about the only place I have hunted for 3 years now. All other areas I've hunted (except TVA Guntersville) butt up against Skyline, including the club I joined this year. The last two seasons I was a ridge hunter and had no issue with spending a lot of physical energy getting to hard to reach places. I saw lots of deer and took 3 each season. If I had been a more experienced hunter I could have easily tripled that take.

This year is different. I see very few deer. I have hiked up to within 100 ft of the top of Little Coon ridge 3 or 4 times and I have seen only 5-6 deer all season. My knee is going out so I cannot justify that kind of effort any more this season since I've had no success.

Now, that being said, I've seen a huge amount of deer in that area on trail cameras at night. I don't doubt that the management practices are screwing the area up, in fact I fully agree that this is happening. BUT ... Part of the problem this season, in my opinion, is simply the danged warm weather. The danged lazy deer just ain't moving during the day

Sorry to hear about your knee Rocket. Did you ever do the hike/hunt down toward Walls of Jericho?

Not this year, can't handle the pain going down hill any longer.

I've only hunted Zone A this year. And I haven't seen a huge number of hunters in Zone A.

Anyone willing to give me any general locations on Zone B? Hopefully going this Friday and I'm going to be guessing on where to hunt Zone B.

All the deer in Zone B ran away or are already dead

From what I hear, they didn't run from you, they just moseyed on down the trail.

Rocket, I'll be up in Little Coon this weekend if you and NH want to share a camp fire.

PM to ya ...

The quality of the hunting has really went down in the last 10 years. Does need to be off limits for awhile.

Will be at skyline tomorrow hope to see a few more deer

Rut, will be going soon. Deer should be in seeking phase. Good deer killing time. Population is most likely headed lower.

Read the first few post if this thread and skipped on down . I've never been there but Id bet it's got a good coyote population.

Yep, summa tha finest yote hunting in the southeast!

[quote=RonBuck]Read the first few post if this thread and skipped on down . I've never been there but Id bet it's got a good coyote population. [/quote).

Coyote population is probably going down, I would think they are migrating to the private areas that still have deer. Most of Skylines' deer have died from lead poisoning.

Yeah probably a combination of both , that's what kills me all the bitching complaining, frustration, about deer numbers everywhere, and we have liberal doe harvest , along with the most pesky varnit around taking out probably just as many deer statewide as hunters . Seems like we could promote trapping and hunting of yotes in some way. If there not going to do anything or make any changes the state needs to do more to educate people on wildlife managment . there are way to many uneducated hunters on this subect.

I hold the state 100% responsible for the slaughter of the deer herd. We the hunters (people) have entrusted them with the management of our deer herd, they have failed us miserably. The deer herd will never recover under the current limits, it will decline year by year. If you don't control a few thousand acres you're pretty much out of good hunting opportunities at this time, the state will determine the future of hunting in Alabama and that's a fact. Hopefully, they wake up soon.

Yeah it's a shame that Alabama , Is the U.S.A's known capital of country boy rednecks , and the state is going to allow us rednecks to screw up what we love to do best ., I hope there is an influential politician reading this, and I hope he hits his head agaisnt the wall walking to take a piss this morning .. and really thinks about things .

Sadly I agree totally.... if things don't change soon my days of buying an Alabama hunting license is coming to an end.

How's the hunt going, any reports? According to 2 dogs, the rut should be going good. He says it's showtime. How far is skyline from Boxes Cove? I would assume near Paint Rock Valley. Is my assumption right? Good luck.

I saw 4 bucks on FB that came off Skyline all claimed to be chasing. All yearling bucks.

I have to agree with how Brent compared him to Mark Richt.

Just the land itself used to be maintained. Plots were planted, roads maintained, campground maintained, etc. Not anymore. They dont even bush hog the camp ground. It's a joke.

I used to love to hunt little coon and big coon. I never saw herds of deer, but I saw SOME deer on a consistent basis. The last few years, I've seen ONE buck. I'm done with it for now.

I for one, have never been walked on by another hunter more than a couple times during a few years when we hunted Skyline pretty hard.

All they need is a little throw and mow on all the existing plots and ban the atvs/jeeps

I dropped by backwater outdoors this afternoon, went to the 24 hour cooler in back to check and see how many 'rutting bucks' were in there. There were 3. Two of them looked like yearlings, the other wasn't very impressive. Lots of Skyline and PRV hunters use this processor ... Wondering what's up, last year during rut you couldn't squeeze into that cooler there were so many large bucks in it

I haven't heard a shot all year on Jacobs Mountain. I don't know how much the deer population up there has declined since it went public but it has to be pretty good. I've hunted private ground around that place for years and even on private ground I'm not seeing any deer.I've ran cameras since August and don't have 1/2 the deer in normally do on camera.

Seen 3 mature doe yesterday. No bucks with them. I know a small 8 point and a bigger racked deer were killed. The bigger one wasn't all that impressive either. Heard plenty of shots. Oh and the campground by the firing range is closing after this year.

I heard one shot in 6 hrs today and could hear for a lot of acreage.

Did you see any deer?

I hunted Jacobs mnt. all day today and didn't hear the first shot nor saw the first deer. The deer population on that mountain has nose dived and the ones that are still alive sit as deep as they can in that cutover and don't move until night.

I had 4 does come below me and bed down at 8 and they were still laying there when I left at 12.

Did you see much sign? I know of one that was killed on the north end of the mountain and i heard a couple shots on the 65 side

About to leave Cullman County for zone A. I really want to go to Jacobs Mt. but think I'll stick with the poplar springs tract for the AM. Good Luck to all you guys!

Seeing some but nothing compared to what it was evem last year. I haven't found any big buck sign, can't find any does either and I've hunted all my best spots on private land and public around Jacobs.

Hunted the north end Skyline yesterday morning. I didn't see any deer but heard 3 shots around 8:00. Talked with a couple other hunters on our way out around 11:30 and one had seen 2 does.

I'm between princeton and estillfork and haven't seen a deer on it's feet yet outside of a few does in the bottoms. Scrapes still very active.

I hunted near Little Coon this AM in Hicks Cove. Skyline sounded like a war zone

They are having a 3 day rifle hunt thru tomorrow.

Yes sir, I was mistaken

I'm planning on hunting the area M-W & F-S of this coming week

this morning on the poplar springs tract about 730 had a doe pop out in long road next to thicket then 10 steps behind her nice rack buck bird dogging her. By the time i had made for certain he had at least 4 pts on one side he never offered a good should trotted straight away following doe. Jacobs mt. this afternoon in Hardwood drain no deer did leave at 415 started to rain pretty hard really should have stuck it out last hour stupid mistake saw a really big buck hanging up at the little cabins like shop buildings as you go in good deer huge body. going back in the morning i guess for last time till Turkey. Demopolis or David k. Nelson PW next. I am 3 for 11 seeing deer on public land in bama so far this year hard to deal with after my 27 for 32 sits seeing deer on my Tennessee farm. Oh well really wanna kill deer on public land. I know i am as good of a hunter as some of these lucky guys. of course I could have ground checked that buck this am too?? glad i did it right way though. good luck in the Morning on Skyline.

I heard a good un came off Low Gap today.

Who Dat is?

Holy smokes! A good one did come off of low gap.

They moved pretty good in PRV today, saw several young bucks running crazy, my old man missed a good one and we saw 2 giants on the way in this morning. Figured this week will be awesome...while I'm at work

So Skyline is going to be like Bankhead except for the big deer part. I looked at the log book at the check in station and the one over on Jacobs MT. 15 deer killed less than 80 lbs. Seen 2 guys with bucks that might weigh 100 lbs.Countless small bucks killed. I wonder what was killed and not logged in or shot but OPPS it aint got 4 points on one side and left laying. What's sad about it is, it's probably the same people saying "we ain't seeing anything" The game warden up there needs to get off his aZs and actually do some work. Been up there almost every hunt and have yet to see him.

Why would you state something so asinine?

I had high hopes for this season at Skyline, but I have high hopes for every season. I hunted Skyline 6 times this year for the gun hunt weekends and all but the last was Zone A. I saw 3 does together on the first gun hunt and 3 more together in mid Dec when I was able to shoot one of the does. It might have been the same group of does. After that, nothing. I was getting frustrated and concerned about the numbers at Skyline and still am.

However this past weekend, a buddy from work and I took a chance and braved the snow, low temp and wind to hunt Zone B. We parked almost a mile away from Hwy 79 and then walked off the bluff another mile (that was rough coming back up), so we were well off the beaten path. The wind and temp were killer and it snowed until late morning. We didn't see any deer, but I saw a ton of tracks in the snow, and I mean a ton. The area where I sat had tracks in the snow running literally in every direction. I got up at noon to meet up with my buddy, but headed the long way around to get to him and walked probably a half mile out and then back to him and I continued to see a lot of tracks. So that means in the time since the snow started, deer were in the area and were plentiful. I think this late in the season and with the weather last weekend, the deer had us hunters dialed in and knew where not to be. I think they were up on top and sides of the mountains overnight, but headed down in the morning to the deep bottoms to get away from hunting pressure and the wind. We only heard one shot all day long.

For me and the public land I hunt, I think I saw so few deer because of the hunting pressure, unusually warm weather until Jan, and proximity to main roads as I don't have a truck and/or 4-wheeler to get me deep in the woods. I was encouraged by the number of tracks but discouraged by only seeing deer twice this season. It sure does seem like the numbers at least in Jackson County are down based on what others are saying. I guess I am really uncertain in how I feel about this season and the outlook for the future, at least in Jackson County.

Hey John, just out of curiosity....if you felt that the deer numbers were low in the area you were hunting, why would you shoot a doe? I'm not bashing you for it, i'm just curious.

If he's anything like me he really doesn't have a choice ... Take a doe or be 00 for the season

No offense rocket but you do have a choice. I spend a substantial amount of money every year on leases, planting etc and I have killed 1 doe in the past 7 years one only 3 bucks in that time period.

Sometimes not shooting deer is the best thing for a property, whether that be public land or private land. The whole "I gotta shoot X number of deer per year" mentality is part of the current problems.

I seen the tracks in the snow as well. Also seen human tracks as well. Got an idea, people need to park their azs and hunt and quit walking around.

Just because you can shoot deer don't mean you should everytime. We are sterwards of the land whether it is private or public. Went on a central WMA last year on gun hunt. Had three does come near me and one large momma doe within bow range on a gun hunt. Watched these deer for almost an hour. Doe numbers are down bad there and I had a doe permit could have shot largest with bow if I had it she was so close. When hunting becomes were you got to shoot every deer you see it is time to find another sport. They will give out those either sex permits all day on some WMA's regardless it seems IMO!

There are some rude a88holes on here. If a guy wants to shoot a legal doe and mention it on here, he shouldn't be run down for it.

No offense taken but I respectfully disagree with you. People like me aren't the problem at Skyline. I've averaged 1 doe per season there ... 3 does in 3 years.

I know of folks that camp at Little Coon with trailers outfitted like a processor and take one a day just about every day of the season. Other folks I've known that don't camp there IV known to take 6 to 8 does per season.

I think the problem at Skyline ( at least on the little coon side) would be remedied with a simple tag system ... Allow each hunter a single doe or so per season for a few years and the population would rebound fast. So much land and so much food, it would happen fast

No one really beating anybody up about shooting a doe. Just lead to a great topic in the conversation. Some areas in WMA's need population control on deer others areas need to let a few go. Same for private land. A deer has a certain area to roam shoot all the does you don't have any. Don't take no wildlife bioligist degree either to figure that out just common sense.

First off, how I feel now might not be the same as how I felt early in the season. After seeing so little during the season, I feel differently than I did in early December. Secondly, I doubt that the problem at Skyline and other areas are guys like me who hunt a handful of times during the season and take one doe if they even see anything at all. Yeah, I'm sure it's intermittent weekend hunters like me that's the problem.


I'm 49 years old and have taken 3 deer in Alabama in my lifetime. In those years, I have probably hunted less than 15 of them, so even 3 deer in 15 years of hunting is not that big of a ratio that would lead one to characterize me as "I gotta shoot X number of deer per year". To be honest, for all of the January hunts this season I told my wife I wasn't going just to shoot anything, I was looking for a buck and something bigger if at all possible. I only have a small chest freezer and can really only justify paying for processing for 1-2 deer a year. In actuality, my concerns are about the lack of seeing deer.


I take very seriously encroaching or disturbing other hunters and dislike it when it is done to me. Last Saturday, I knew with a very high degree of certainty that we were the only two hunters in the area because of the remoteness and elevation. The wind was blowing so hard and the temperature was such that there was nothing moving. The deer had obviously moved out of the area to bed and get out of the wind. Plus with the snow on the ground and wet duff underneath from the soaking rain before the snow, it was very quiet walking. It wasn't like I was stomping through the crunching leaves with no concern for my actions. Additionally, I would respectfully suggest you research "stalk hunting" to add to your repertoire of hunting skills and also research grammar and spelling to polish your snarky repartee. /sarcasm

In general, if you fully read my post you will see that I was frustrated about low deer sightings and concerns about herd numbers. However, you will note that I was surprised by the abundance of tracks in the snow proving there are a lot of deer there. It's just I was not seeing them and what factors may have contributed to it.

We thought it was bad 3 years ago.😳 It looks like the powers to be finally realized it and greatly reduced the number of either sex rifle hunts. I’ve spent days scouting between rifle hunts and it’s nothing short of pitiful.

Social media is the problem as well......

BINGO. I think we are getting a lot of new guys from that facebook page that ask the most stupid questions.

When you hunt daylight to dark for 2 days and hear 4 shots it’s not a people problem.There isn’t anything to wipe out anymore.

ive never been on skyline but ive hunted a lot of other public land in the state and its the same all over. the deer left on alot of wmas are in isolated pockets

Way too many doe days not seeing hardly any deer in the valley

The pic in above post is part of the problem misleading folks into thinking there is one of those bucks behind every rock. I met 2 guys that came up from Florida to hunt. The feller asked me what to expect buck wise or deer sightings I told them to count his hunt a success if they saw a deer. Sad!!

I’ve walked miles of white oak flats and the acorns are just laying there rotting. The land we hunt in Tn it looks like every leaf has been turned over looking for one. You can ride any road up there and won’t find a place where more than 2 or 3 deer have crossed. Maybe in 5 years it will partially recover from the doe and button buck slaughter of the last 10 years.same old thing no food plots planted on little coon mtn but I can’t speak for the other side of 79.

And the state keeps telling us we need to recruit more hunters or lose funding. Funding for what ????


I don’t think we have a shortage of hunters but there is definitely a shortage of deer thanks to all the doe and knothead blasters.

Exactly! I think the shortage of hunters is bologna. Yea we might be down but according to the looks of pressure, we have plenty. They are always screaming for money so they can blow it on something else. I bet our greenfield money went over seas. I dont buy that excuse.

And again, social media is the number 1 killer anywhere. Same thing happened to bankhead. Over the years the posting gets more mainstream and the crowds follow. The wma cant handle that amount of people for so long. Its common sense. And most hunters are just like cattle, one goes there then the majority follow. It's happening to g ville lake too. All these places are getting ruined. Now they are just another wornout spot.

This true as the man calls knothead blasters

Nobody’s making y’all hunt up there.

No deer up there..nope..nope..nope..

It's been shot out.

On a positive note, there wasn’t any either sex rifle hunts on B side this year. Does the biologist have the say so to change things or is does a bill have to be sent to Montgomery to be voted on?

I don't believe it, either.
The state always uses license sales as evidence that less people are hunting. Just because someone doesn't buy a license doesn't mean they aren't hunting.

probably dont have anywhere else to go. it bez like dat fo us po folks

I was hunting little coon almost exclusively a few seasons back ... following two seasons of hunting the east side and having no luck. I took a 130 lb doe from coon so you guys can bash me for contributing to the decimation of the population. I saw several bucks there but they were in hard to reach places. Anyhow, I didn't see much deer up there back then (like 3 years back) and I doubt the population has done anything since then but shrink.

I was wanting to organize another Aldeer Little Coon Camp/Hunt next season and have spoke to a few about doing so. We may need to find another place ...

Word I got was that biologist is no longer there. Maybe things will turn around in a year or two.

Sat daylight to dark today with no deer seen and didn’t hear the first shot.

Kinda odd you keep going back. Same results.

hey ridgestalker, did you hunt down in LC or on top off 79?

Thanks for the tips

You know you’ve gotten to we’re the only comments you make anymore are all smartass. I’m use to it with two teenage girls.

Ok

zinger

They have to have the funding so they can hire sharp shooters to kill the deer so they won't get CWD.............