Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Scouted Portland this weekend

Spent most of Saturday and about 3 hours Sunday checking out unit 7. Pretty close to 7 miles of walking. Huge areas of recently thinned pines that join hardwood fingers that looked like good transition zones. One spot looked like it was plowed to plant but I’m not sure if that is going to be a plot or not. Marked some trees for potential climbing spots and a couple of trees on field edges that may work for a ladder for Janet. It’s so dry and I saw zero water other than one area of standing water at a road crossing. I did not see a single white oak tree that had nuts and only a few water oaks. Doesn’t look like it was a bumper acorn crop in that area this year. Fresh deer sign was hard to come by but on my walks I found plenty of old rubs and once everything dies down, the sight lines should be much better.

Met a couple of guys scouting for next weekend for bucks only bow. Nice guys. One was Art Powers who is a tracker. Said he knows CNC. His buddy Scott is also a tracker and will be hunting the same weekend in January when we are there so that’s a good connection. Our own Khitzeman came over to 7 and showed me a spot where he had seen some deer on his hunt last year so a shout out “thank you!” to him!

I jumped several deer in my area and saw several more crossing the road. Saw 2 bucks yesterday morning on the highway. 1 nice 6 point on hwy 41 and I glimpsed a freaking stud about to cross co. road 4 around Minter. He wheeled and went back in the woods but he was one that was a no doubt shooter.

Anyway, it was a productive weekend and I hope I have enough intel to put Janet on a good one come January!

Sounds like you got em' on the run. Good luck.

My white oaks are all bare this year as well. Don’t overlook those water oaks.

Art is a good dude.......I think he was the first fellow tracker to call me when I started.

I was scouting cedar creek this past weekend, seems like the post oaks were dropping pretty good over there, if you can find some they may be a good option for anyone hunting the first month or two of the season.

I scouted 18 and didn’t see much acorn sign at all either. Found a bunch of white oaks but no acorns on them. Even the water oaks had very few acorns. What I did see was hog sign everywhere. I mean everywhere. A lot of dry creek beds. A lot of fields that had not been bush hogged in a few years. They had pine sapling head high in them. I understand if the state doesn’t have the money to plant all the original food plots, but they should at least bush hog them so you can hunt them as crossings. The one food plot that is getting planted in my section is basically a road/strip in the pines coming out of an old food plot that is 450 yds x 75 yds. They could have bush hogged the big field and you could watch both at the same time. But the old plot has 7’ tall dog fennel in it so there’s no way you could see a deer in it. I guess I am expecting too much out of a public land hunt but I was really disappointed in that area.

We did stop by Roland Cooper and look at the facilities there and it’s nice.

The state is definitely not the greatest but I would talk to the biologist in charge first. They could be managing those fields as early successional habitat which provides food and cover for deer/turkey. A bushhog serves little purpose for a wildlife manager.

Yeah I could see that being the case in the big field. But the other 3 spots are just wide spots in the road that are less than 2 acre. I don’t think they would be that much of a benefit. Especially since they butt up to 250 acres of river bottom that had been clear cut and has grown up into a river swamp thicket. I’d hate to pull a deer out of there. Slap full of cane and gum trees with an oak sprinkled in every now and then.

But if that’s the reason they didn’t bush hog them, you have to give them an A for effort. At least they are trying to manage it.

The hogs have absolutely taken over that place. I know they are impossible to manage on that big of a tract but jeez.

The hogs are definitely thick down there. I talked to a landowner in the area that told me he trapped over 1000 the first year they got cellular traps. And to the best of my knowledge the state does not do any trapping at Portland. Trapping takes some effort but is the only real way to control the population until they approve some sort of poison.

I was told by one of the workers that they do trap in the off season. I know they trap a bunch of coons too.

I scouted 16 for about 3 hours Sunday morning. Not many white oaks at all down there. Only found 7 total. One tree had a few acorns on it, the others were bare. Plenty of acorns on the ground, just very few of the preferred varieties. Gonna be tough to find anything heavily concentrated, for the bow hunts. I did find a couple of good pinches though. I imagine I’ll be hunting those, instead of food.

That's good to hear. But they would surely need multiple traps running year-round to cover a place that size. But something is better than nothing

On one of the satellite maps I looked at I saw a trap on the north end of the tract. Not sure what year the picture was from though.

From what I was told, Cedar Creek and Portland used the same skinning shed. I don’t know if you sign out there or not tho.

Check your PMs Atoler

7 miles, did you scout everyone else's unit as well? Dang.

You do. I found an arrowhead right out in front the first day hunting cedar creek and killed a nice buck that afternoon a couple of years ago lol

Probably don't want to have any corn on the ground for trapping during hunting season.

I know Art well. He's a great guy to know if you need a dog. His are very good and Art doesn't give up easily.
Most in our area, I hunt just up river from Portland, have plots prepared but are waiting for rain or the forecast of it to plant. I imagine they are too.
I was down last weekend and saw three nice bucks, one very nice, in the yard at the cabin about an hour before dark tearing up Water Oak acorns, so you're probably right about the White Oaks.

Nah. It was 6.8 actually! Just walking those pines and around in those hardwoods. I tried to cover as much ground as possible. I did stumble on a firebreak Sunday that I walked the entire length and that was the bulk of my walking that day.