Phinizy Swamp WMA

Any advice on hunting this place for ducks?

Should I take my pirogue or can I wade it?

How about decoys? Should I take some, and if so, how many and what type (species)?

Thanks in advance for any help.

dutchman, I haven't been on it but go by it all the time. I think there is a couple of ponds on it and a lots of flooded timber. You can't drive in. You would be better to park near the sewer plant and wade the flooded timber. You should see a lots of wood duck. Be careful because there was a guy I know hunted it last year and they have never found him.

you can take an atv in the gravel pit road entrance. we used to pull a boat in with my 3_wheeler and take the boat to the other side of one of the big ponds and find a good pocket deep in the flooded timber. no need for decoys, if your in the right spot the woodies will drop in. some of the ditches are real deep and retrieving can be a problem. it's a really fun place to hunt. gotta go deep! bring waders and a change of clothes!

Phinizy Swamp

There are really only two ways into Phinizy Swamp WMA - the one just NE of the Augusta Water Treatment Plant (must park right there and walk/wade into the swamp) and the other one at the end of Gravel Pit Road, with the entrance to GPR near where the large flea markets are. It is a gated entrance and is "locked" most of the year and you must park outside of it (no real parking area) and either walk or ride a bicycle in. They do not allow ATV's in there, but a few people ride the smaller sized ones in under the gate post illegally. It is at least one-half mile in to the nearest pond with swamp on both sides shortly after entering the gate about 1/4 mile in. It is 3/4 to 1 mile in to the main body of ponds. This road is partially paved and graveled and it would be easy to ride a bicycle in with a small trailer/wagon attached to carry your gear in. It is just TOO FAR in to carry all your gear and gun on your back unless you're really into hiking and backpacking a lot.

I'm not sure how far Flowery Branch is from Augusta, but I would recommend coming down and "scouting it out" by bicycle before deciding whether to hunt it or not. I'd start as early as possible in the AM because that is not a place you want to be in after it starts getting dark, especially unarmed. Small game season is open now and you can carry a shotgun or muzzle-loader (until small game season ends), but not a pistol (legally) or a center-fire rifle (except during the special deer season).

Me and a friend decided to try hog hunting there about 3-4 years ago after deer season ended around late Jan or early Feb using muzzle-loaders. We walked in from the gate carrying just our guns and small day packs not knowing anything about the place except what I could glean from a topo map of the area, which wasn't that much help since it is mostly swamp and oxbow ponds. One thing I did notice on the road between the first two ponds we came to was the "drag marks" of a good sized gator that had crossed across the road between the two ponds. As we got back about a mile in we saw three gators in different ponds with the biggest one maybe 10-12 feet long. We ran into a couple of elderly gentlemen fishing for brim etc., but we were almost 2 miles in before we found any hog sign. Since we'd already been there 2-3 hrs and didn't think it practical to hunt and then have to drag a hog all that way back to the truck, we just turned around and walked out. I wouldn't even think about trying to hunt that place without spending a few days SCOUTING IT OUT first and marking on my map where certain roads and places were using my GPS as a reference to plot coordinates with.
It may only be 2-3 miles to a main highway but that is some of the meanest looking swamp I've been in, along with the gators and snakes to keep you company. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES would I recommend trying to hunt Phinizy Swamp WMA without a buddy with me. It's just too easy to get turned around and "lost" once you get off the main roads or trails, especially if its your first time in there. If you run into any type of problem while alone, it might be your last one. That's apparently what happened to the guy that got lost near Christmas 2003.... they eventually found his dog and decoys, but no trace of him. They searched for him for at least 3 months before calling it off. Maybe he's at the bottom of one of the ponds laying in a pile of gator poop.
:speechles :

It is a long haul in to some of the better areas from Gravel Pit Road. My stepdad takes his golf car on a trailer and a jon boat in the back of the truck. He unloads the golf car, hooks the trailer up to it and hauls the boat in on the trailer! If you have a gold car with no top, it will fit under the gate. He even gives some of the game wardens a ride in and out that hunt with him down there, so it is not a problem.

If you are willing to walk a ways, you can find some good spots in there. Just be careful. Most of the guys I have met there are great guys and would be glad to take you in with them and show you some spots - MOST of them. If you see a white GMC truck with UGA stickers hauling the above-mentioned golf car, tell him you know me from Woody's - his name is Carroll - and he'll hook you up if I'm not with him.

unless they have changed things recently you can ride an ATV in, only on the main dirt road beyond the gate. not in the woods or anything like that. everyone does it and the game wardens see everyone doing it and allow it. i,ve been checked about 75% of the time out there. the gators stay dormant during the cold, and believe me they are more scared of you than you are of them. they are very shy and wary. i have swam across deep ditches out there and i don't think twice about it. when i had to explain my wet set of clothes to the game wardens they thought i was insane. just for the record i don't believe that man died in that swamp. too many things about that story don't make sense. duck hunting is wed and sat. only and ends at noon so if you scout in the evening don't shoot at any ducks you might see!!!

Is Gate Still Kept Locked?

Jay,
Do they still keep the gate "locked" all the time or do they open it on the days (Wed & Sat) when they allow duck hunting? It was 3-4 yrs ago the last time I was out there.
:

it's been locked every time i've been out there. i think i may have run into you out there before. did you give away a ringneck that you had killed one time, only to have it returned by the guy, pointing out the band on it's leg? ya'll had a jon boat on a flat trailer pulling it wuth a golf cart.

That Sounds Like Keith Murray...

jay sullivent said:

it's been locked every time i've been out there. i think i may have run into you out there before. did you give away a ringneck that you had killed one time, only to have it returned by the guy, pointing out the band on it's leg? ya'll had a jon boat on a flat trailer pulling it wuth a golf cart.

Click to expand...

Read the last few postings.... that sounds like the golf cart described by Keith Murray in his last couple of postings.

The guy that did that was named Danny and he works at EZGo with my stepdad; if it was a couple of years ago. He uses that same golf car setup.

Also, I have not seen that gate open in about 5-6 years at any time of year.

i was the guy that returned the duck. wouldn't mean a thing to me, band off another man's bird. he said he was gonna mount it, i wonder if he ever did. i had a little honda three wheeler pulling a jon boat.

Jay,

I'll ask him about that and let you know.

sluggunner, phinizy is archery only for deer so i wouldn't take a rifle in there at any time.

jay sullivent said:

sluggunner, phinizy is archery only for deer so i wouldn't take a rifle in there at any time.

Click to expand...

Then it's changed since the last time I went there about 4 yrs ago. Back then I believe they had a short 1 week or so gun season. I know that black powder weapons are permitted for hogs, so don't see why it wouldn't also apply during their open deer season. It may also be that they permitted shotguns w/ slugs back then too.

Phinizy Swamp would be a rough place to hunt without an ATV or golf cart to get back in there with. Dragging a deer out thru the swamps to the road and then the 1-2 miles back to the gate would be a real tough job without one.
:

SG,

Phinizy has been archery only on deer hunts for several years now.

Thanks

Many thanks to all who offered advice, especially Slug Gunner. I needed that level of detail. You guys are great. Thanks again.

gate open

would yall like to see that gate opened from time to time?
If so, there may be a way to get that to happen.
ax me.

Gate Open?

Networker said:

would yall like to see that gate opened from time to time?
If so, there may be a way to get that to happen.
ax me.

Click to expand...

I really don't think they'd open the gate.... I think they're afraid it might turn out like the "Brickyard Ponds" - too much drug activity and bodies being dumped there. That's another place I wouldn't go without my CCW weapon, even though it might be illegal to carry it - I wouldn't go in their "unarmed". If you yelled "HELP!", no one would hear you!

:speechles :

opening the gate would be a bad idea. vehicles could go in then, and there is enough trash in there already. inaccessability is one of the things that makes
phinizy so much fun. you got to be serios about hunting to venture in that swamp.