Cletus T.
Senior Member
After much anticipation I finally got to get in the woods for my first Deer Hunt of the season. I was hoping on getting out of the office as soon as the clock struck 5 but I had a late order come in that had to get entered so I wasn’t able to get on the road until 5:30 and the traffic was horrible!!!! I mean stinking horrible. I was hunting at Big Sandy Plantation down in Macon, it’s actually a little bit to the side of Macon in Twiggs Co. but it’s a really special place. The owner of this operation is Mr. Craig Brown and he’s a super nice guy and a little bit off his rocker too which means we think a lot alike so we have become pretty good friends. He opened up his place to us this past Spring to film the pilot for Country Fried Cletus because they have some really good bass fishing down there too, and ever since then we have been best buddies. Big Sandy is a great place to enjoy the outdoors and it’s ran by a solid group of people and you will eat like a king down there and put on anywhere from 7 to 10 pounds over a weekend of hunting and eating…..sorry…..so if you are on a diet or something like that you best just stay away because the eats down there are so good that you just can’t help but stuff your face. So after about 4 hours in terrible traffic I finally arrived at Big Sandy Plantation where a Pork Chop Dinner was waiting on me! So let’s get to the hunting……………………
I found myself sitting about 20 feet high in a ladder stand come Sat. morning and as I got myself adjusted I was excited about seeing the woods come alive and see how the land was going to lay out in front of me. I have never hunted this stand before and I had no clue what I was going to hunting. I mean, I knew on paper what it was. I was sitting on a tree line over looking a dark watered swamp and it looked down right “deery”. To my right was a small cutover that backed up to some think woods and to my left was a huge cutover field full of stumps and piles of twisted timber and brush and dirt hills. It was pretty gnarly in there and then there was a ridge of hardwoods that overlooked this leading down into the swamp. There was a road in between the ridge and the gnarly field that lead around to the other end of the property. So after I got all my toys set in position and the rifle up I remained still and quiet and waited for the light to wake up the woods. I always love seeing the woods come alive in the morning and even though it was pretty chilly on this morning, I was very comfortable sitting high up in the tree. I kept my sights on that swamp because I just knew at any moment ole Mossy Horns would be trying to slip out of the swamp, but I also kept my head on a swivel because you never know where the deer might come out from. Well…..by 8:30 I had not seen the first deer though I did almost get attacked by a killer squirrel that was yelling at me from the bottom of the tree and then made his way up the tree and snuck up behind my left shoulder and just stared at me…….I thought he was going to attack me but I gave him the evil eye and he ran for the hills. I then picked up on some sounds coming back from behind me. Something was crashing through the woods and it was coming in a hurry………………………
I got my rifle pointed in the general direction waiting for whatever this was to pop out onto the road and I saw small trees moving and shaking and whatever this was, it was pretty big and so I sat there hoping that it was going to be a big ole buck…………..and guess what……it was. He popped out of the woods and hit that road and turned it up field and was just a galloping straight up the road. He had a big heavy rack too. He was thick with some big bases and it looked to be at least 8 points but the joker was cutting out and I tried everything in the book to stop him but he never even stopped or looked my way or anything. He was in the zone and he was a getting it. I put the scope up on him and by this time the only shot I had would have been right in his rear end, straight up the shoot but he was a solid 175 – 200 yards away and I didn’t feel comfortable making that shot and I lost sight up him as he trucked on down the road. It all happened so quick and he was in and out of sight in a matter of 10 seconds or so. So I immediately try to call him back with some doe bleats and some grunts and even did some rattling but this ole joker was gone! So I’m sitting there thinking to myself what I could have done differently and second guessing myself as to not taking a shot at him and then I started thinking that something must have been chasing him. He didn’t have his nose down like he was hot on the trail of a sexy doe and he just was galloping away like on a mission so I was really just racking my brain and then I heard some more movement from the same area about 10 minutes later so again I got into shooting position and I was ready to bust something this time. Again, I could see the tops of the trees moving a little and I caught a flash of white moving in the woods so I thought there was about to be some deer in the field but sadly what popped out was not what I was looking for. It was 3 dogs and they were hot on this buck’s trail. There was one little white one and two brown ones. They ran up and down that road until they found the trail and then they keep pushing that deer. I guess I should have shot those dogs as none of them had a collar on, but I just couldn’t do it. I sat there a little bit longer but there was no more action to report of. I climbed down and made my way back to camp.
A huge breakfast was waiting on us back at the Lodge at Big Sandy and I’m talking bacon and sausage and these French toast type of things that you put fried up bananas on. There were pigs and a blanket and hash browns and it was a breakfast fit for a king. Mrs. Holly is the lady back at the lodge that takes care of things like this and Mrs. Holly knows how to lay it down. She’s an unbelievable cook and she’s one of those people that truly enjoys seeing other people enjoy themselves. She does a lot at Big Sandy and making unbelievable meals is just one of the many that makes your experience at Big Sandy downright awesome. We eat and do a little fishing over lunch but the bass weren’t biting. I even put on the lucky Warewolf fishing mask to help the fish to start biting but even that couldn’t get them active. So we heading back to the lodge and got ready for the afternoon hunt. Again we ate a lunch that would knock your socks off…….lobster and shrimp burgers…..and yeah, that might sound a little gross to you but they were awesome! Trust me……very tasty!!! Now to the afternoon hunt……………….
They put me in a box stand overlooking a food plot for the afternoon hunt and I liked how everything looked except for the sun pelting me right in the face. It had gotten pretty warm that afternoon and that sun hitting me made me sweat a little bit. I got into the stand a little after 3 and for 2 hours I saw nothing but at 5 o’clock two does came out and began to feed in the food plot. They were to my right about 120 yards out and they were just feeding and looking around ever so often. I had already told myself that I was going to let them feed for 30 minutes and then if they were still there I was going to try and pop the bigger doe. So I sat there and watched them feed and flick their tails and I did a little videoing of them and then after 30 minutes, it was time to take her down. I was hoping a Buck would have caught wind of her and decided he needed to come out into the open so that I could kill my first true wall hanger…..but…..that never happened. So as I was reaching down to pick up my rifle I spotted another deer through the crack of the box stand. It had came right in underneath me and I could tell right away he was a button buck. I had been told to be on the lookout for a couple button heads that hung out in this area and that if I was going to shoot a doe to make sure she didn’t have nubs on her head. This button head came right into the field with one thing on his young mind…those does. He came in…..they went on alert……he made a move towards them and there went the does straight out of the field and into the woods. I was not happy because I wanted that big doe but it wasn’t meant to be. Mr. Jeff had dropped me off by the stand and he was a hard core hunter who hunted to complete darkness so I knew it would be a little while before he got me but I sat there hoping to see some late evening activity but nothing else happened. Sat. night was my night to fix dinner for everybody down there and my lovely wife Mrs. Jaimelou had already made me a huge pot of Taco Soup to bring down there so I was covered. Mrs. Holly put it on the stove and warmed it up for us as we hunted so all we had to do was make our bowl when we came in from the hunt. You add some sour cream…….some shredded cheese….and a pile of Frito tater-chips and you got yourself one hearty meal. I’m pretty sure everybody there liked it because they were all licking their bowls! I had another exciting hunt but still nobody had killed anything and actually I was about the only one seeing deer, which is rare because I’m usually the one who doesn’t see squat but so far I had some real enjoyable hunts. Now to the final hunt for me…………the Sunday Morning hunt.
Sunday morning found me in another solid box stand at the back end of a food plot on the other side of the big lake down there. I could see forever to my left and then in front of me was the big lake where I watched ducks fly in and out of all morning and then to my right was the upper end of the plot and there was a well used trail right behind me. I was very sleepy on this particular morning and I was really having a hard time keeping my eyes open so I stood up to stretch and I really had to pee…..I mean a straight pain pee and even though I know your not suppose to pee out of your stand, I had no choice but to let it go. It felt wonderful too. So after about 10 minutes of standing up I set back down and within 15 minutes I heard something moving behind me. It sounded like a deer too but we all know how there are other critters out there that play games with your ear holes. I felt like something was staring me right in the back so I kept as still as possible and then little by little I would turn my head over my left shoulder. As I did this I caught movement and when I got turned around I was looking a very nice young 8-pointer. He was looking away from me so I could get turned around easily and I watched him feed a little and then he got behind some trees where I couldn’t see him. I took this opportunity to get my rifle in place and by the time he came out the other side I was square on him. The only problem was……he was too young. The buck rule at Big Sandy is they need to be at least 3.5 year old deer and have at least 4-points on one side. They are trying to let the bucks get to a mature age down there and their management plan is really starting to work out for them as they produce some sure enough studs every year now. As tough as it was to pull off of that deer I knew it was the right thing to do for this place….for this time….for this deer. I had the handy dandy video camera right next to me and I was able to capture this buck on film for a little while and that was pretty cool so I filmed him until he disappeared into the woods. So another 15-20 minutes pass and I made a little bit of a quick move in the stand and I got “semi-busted” by two does that were right behind me. I never saw them and I never heard them but they snuck in on me and as I turned my head they both jumped back, but they didn’t run off. They stomped their feet at me and gave me the head bob up and down….up and down but they didn’t dart off. They knew something wasn’t right though and they just eased off into the woods. I was a little bummed about that and mad at myself but after about another 10 minutes I had three does come in on my right and they walked down to the edge of the lake and had their morning coffee. I also saw them do something that I had never seen a deer do before. They were walking into the lake and eating lily pads. It was crazy and I’ve never heard of deer doing this before but maybe it’s a sweet treat or something to them. So after filming them for a little bit I get the gun up and take aim because I’m going to try and drop the biggest one. I began to hear something coming through the woods behind me and so I hold off on taking the shot because yet again, I’m hoping that it’s Donkey Kong wanting to show his head so I wait….and I wait…..and I wait a little longer but always keeping my eye on the does but nothing ever shows from behind me so it was go time to take down a doe but I had waited too long and by this time I didn’t have a good clean shot presented to me so sadly, there was another opportunity to take a deer that I let slip away from me. I was a little bummed but not too much because it was a pretty exciting hunt to be a part of. It was 9 o’clock by now and I wanted to still hunt for an hour or so and I was going to slow walk it back to the lodge.
So I get out of my stand and start Grandpa walking along the tree line. I probably had only walked about 20 yards when I look up in front of me and I see about 4-5 turkeys and a couple of them have paint brushes hanging from their chest. I wanted to get a little bit closer and put the binoculars on them so I slow stepped it a few more yards and by the time I had got up around the next big pine there were about 15 turkeys all staring down at me. I was as still as a ninja as I found myself slap dab in the middle of one serious game of “stare-off”. It got real serious….real quick! I didn’t move, nor did the turkeys….it was an epic battle of wills. After about 5 minutes they start to take off to the woods but they didn’t take to the air, they showed their 4.2 forty speed and there’s something about seeing turkey’s run that makes me laugh. I’m serious, they crack me up every time and I just busted out laughing…pretty loud. So I keep on my Grandpa walk and after about another 20 yards I am scanning the landscape in front of me and I spot a doe feeding between two trees. I had the binoculars on her and she didn’t have a clue I was in the neighborhood. I put the binoculars down for a second and then I lost her, I mean she just slipped off somewhere. I scanned and scanned and I could not find her. I walk up a little closer and she has crossed the road and is off to the right of me a little behind some small brush. All of the sudden I hear a four wheeler cranked up and heading in my direction and I also watch the doe to see her reaction and she is on alert too. As I now see the 4-wheeler with Caleb driving it towards me I put the gun up because if this doe is big enough I’m going to make her take a dirt nap but the closer she gets the more I can tell that she is a little ole thing so I put the rifle back down and now just watch her run. She’s bouncing right through the field and looking so pretty but then she turns and starts running right at me. I start to get a little on edge because she was coming right at me so I threw my arms out to let her know I was there and when I did she stopped dead in her tracks about 7 yards away from me cocked her head to the side and just stared at me. It was crazy but another cool example of what a great weekend in the woods I had. The hunting was over for me but man I had a blast.
We did squeeze in some fishing on a few of the other ponds and I managed to catch a chunky 2-pound bass out of “Blue Pond” and then we went over to the trophy managed pond and I watched Grayson (another hunter from the weekend) bust two chunkers himself on a purple ole monster worm. It was a nice way to end the weekend. No…..I didn’t kill anything, nor did anybody else but I’ve got to be honest with you….it was one of the more enjoyable hunting weekends I’ve had in a long time. I’ve got to thank Craig Brown who is the owner of Big Sandy Plantation for opening up his place to me once again. He and all the people that are members down there are super nice people who want to see their property enjoyed by all. The hunting is good…..the fishing is good…the food is out of this world but the memories that are made down there is what will last a lifetime. So I’ll leave you with a famous quote that Craig Brown says quite often, “You be good to Big Sandy…….she’ll be good to you” and once again she was very good to me.
Thanks for the read!
Cletus
I found myself sitting about 20 feet high in a ladder stand come Sat. morning and as I got myself adjusted I was excited about seeing the woods come alive and see how the land was going to lay out in front of me. I have never hunted this stand before and I had no clue what I was going to hunting. I mean, I knew on paper what it was. I was sitting on a tree line over looking a dark watered swamp and it looked down right “deery”. To my right was a small cutover that backed up to some think woods and to my left was a huge cutover field full of stumps and piles of twisted timber and brush and dirt hills. It was pretty gnarly in there and then there was a ridge of hardwoods that overlooked this leading down into the swamp. There was a road in between the ridge and the gnarly field that lead around to the other end of the property. So after I got all my toys set in position and the rifle up I remained still and quiet and waited for the light to wake up the woods. I always love seeing the woods come alive in the morning and even though it was pretty chilly on this morning, I was very comfortable sitting high up in the tree. I kept my sights on that swamp because I just knew at any moment ole Mossy Horns would be trying to slip out of the swamp, but I also kept my head on a swivel because you never know where the deer might come out from. Well…..by 8:30 I had not seen the first deer though I did almost get attacked by a killer squirrel that was yelling at me from the bottom of the tree and then made his way up the tree and snuck up behind my left shoulder and just stared at me…….I thought he was going to attack me but I gave him the evil eye and he ran for the hills. I then picked up on some sounds coming back from behind me. Something was crashing through the woods and it was coming in a hurry………………………
I got my rifle pointed in the general direction waiting for whatever this was to pop out onto the road and I saw small trees moving and shaking and whatever this was, it was pretty big and so I sat there hoping that it was going to be a big ole buck…………..and guess what……it was. He popped out of the woods and hit that road and turned it up field and was just a galloping straight up the road. He had a big heavy rack too. He was thick with some big bases and it looked to be at least 8 points but the joker was cutting out and I tried everything in the book to stop him but he never even stopped or looked my way or anything. He was in the zone and he was a getting it. I put the scope up on him and by this time the only shot I had would have been right in his rear end, straight up the shoot but he was a solid 175 – 200 yards away and I didn’t feel comfortable making that shot and I lost sight up him as he trucked on down the road. It all happened so quick and he was in and out of sight in a matter of 10 seconds or so. So I immediately try to call him back with some doe bleats and some grunts and even did some rattling but this ole joker was gone! So I’m sitting there thinking to myself what I could have done differently and second guessing myself as to not taking a shot at him and then I started thinking that something must have been chasing him. He didn’t have his nose down like he was hot on the trail of a sexy doe and he just was galloping away like on a mission so I was really just racking my brain and then I heard some more movement from the same area about 10 minutes later so again I got into shooting position and I was ready to bust something this time. Again, I could see the tops of the trees moving a little and I caught a flash of white moving in the woods so I thought there was about to be some deer in the field but sadly what popped out was not what I was looking for. It was 3 dogs and they were hot on this buck’s trail. There was one little white one and two brown ones. They ran up and down that road until they found the trail and then they keep pushing that deer. I guess I should have shot those dogs as none of them had a collar on, but I just couldn’t do it. I sat there a little bit longer but there was no more action to report of. I climbed down and made my way back to camp.
A huge breakfast was waiting on us back at the Lodge at Big Sandy and I’m talking bacon and sausage and these French toast type of things that you put fried up bananas on. There were pigs and a blanket and hash browns and it was a breakfast fit for a king. Mrs. Holly is the lady back at the lodge that takes care of things like this and Mrs. Holly knows how to lay it down. She’s an unbelievable cook and she’s one of those people that truly enjoys seeing other people enjoy themselves. She does a lot at Big Sandy and making unbelievable meals is just one of the many that makes your experience at Big Sandy downright awesome. We eat and do a little fishing over lunch but the bass weren’t biting. I even put on the lucky Warewolf fishing mask to help the fish to start biting but even that couldn’t get them active. So we heading back to the lodge and got ready for the afternoon hunt. Again we ate a lunch that would knock your socks off…….lobster and shrimp burgers…..and yeah, that might sound a little gross to you but they were awesome! Trust me……very tasty!!! Now to the afternoon hunt……………….
They put me in a box stand overlooking a food plot for the afternoon hunt and I liked how everything looked except for the sun pelting me right in the face. It had gotten pretty warm that afternoon and that sun hitting me made me sweat a little bit. I got into the stand a little after 3 and for 2 hours I saw nothing but at 5 o’clock two does came out and began to feed in the food plot. They were to my right about 120 yards out and they were just feeding and looking around ever so often. I had already told myself that I was going to let them feed for 30 minutes and then if they were still there I was going to try and pop the bigger doe. So I sat there and watched them feed and flick their tails and I did a little videoing of them and then after 30 minutes, it was time to take her down. I was hoping a Buck would have caught wind of her and decided he needed to come out into the open so that I could kill my first true wall hanger…..but…..that never happened. So as I was reaching down to pick up my rifle I spotted another deer through the crack of the box stand. It had came right in underneath me and I could tell right away he was a button buck. I had been told to be on the lookout for a couple button heads that hung out in this area and that if I was going to shoot a doe to make sure she didn’t have nubs on her head. This button head came right into the field with one thing on his young mind…those does. He came in…..they went on alert……he made a move towards them and there went the does straight out of the field and into the woods. I was not happy because I wanted that big doe but it wasn’t meant to be. Mr. Jeff had dropped me off by the stand and he was a hard core hunter who hunted to complete darkness so I knew it would be a little while before he got me but I sat there hoping to see some late evening activity but nothing else happened. Sat. night was my night to fix dinner for everybody down there and my lovely wife Mrs. Jaimelou had already made me a huge pot of Taco Soup to bring down there so I was covered. Mrs. Holly put it on the stove and warmed it up for us as we hunted so all we had to do was make our bowl when we came in from the hunt. You add some sour cream…….some shredded cheese….and a pile of Frito tater-chips and you got yourself one hearty meal. I’m pretty sure everybody there liked it because they were all licking their bowls! I had another exciting hunt but still nobody had killed anything and actually I was about the only one seeing deer, which is rare because I’m usually the one who doesn’t see squat but so far I had some real enjoyable hunts. Now to the final hunt for me…………the Sunday Morning hunt.
Sunday morning found me in another solid box stand at the back end of a food plot on the other side of the big lake down there. I could see forever to my left and then in front of me was the big lake where I watched ducks fly in and out of all morning and then to my right was the upper end of the plot and there was a well used trail right behind me. I was very sleepy on this particular morning and I was really having a hard time keeping my eyes open so I stood up to stretch and I really had to pee…..I mean a straight pain pee and even though I know your not suppose to pee out of your stand, I had no choice but to let it go. It felt wonderful too. So after about 10 minutes of standing up I set back down and within 15 minutes I heard something moving behind me. It sounded like a deer too but we all know how there are other critters out there that play games with your ear holes. I felt like something was staring me right in the back so I kept as still as possible and then little by little I would turn my head over my left shoulder. As I did this I caught movement and when I got turned around I was looking a very nice young 8-pointer. He was looking away from me so I could get turned around easily and I watched him feed a little and then he got behind some trees where I couldn’t see him. I took this opportunity to get my rifle in place and by the time he came out the other side I was square on him. The only problem was……he was too young. The buck rule at Big Sandy is they need to be at least 3.5 year old deer and have at least 4-points on one side. They are trying to let the bucks get to a mature age down there and their management plan is really starting to work out for them as they produce some sure enough studs every year now. As tough as it was to pull off of that deer I knew it was the right thing to do for this place….for this time….for this deer. I had the handy dandy video camera right next to me and I was able to capture this buck on film for a little while and that was pretty cool so I filmed him until he disappeared into the woods. So another 15-20 minutes pass and I made a little bit of a quick move in the stand and I got “semi-busted” by two does that were right behind me. I never saw them and I never heard them but they snuck in on me and as I turned my head they both jumped back, but they didn’t run off. They stomped their feet at me and gave me the head bob up and down….up and down but they didn’t dart off. They knew something wasn’t right though and they just eased off into the woods. I was a little bummed about that and mad at myself but after about another 10 minutes I had three does come in on my right and they walked down to the edge of the lake and had their morning coffee. I also saw them do something that I had never seen a deer do before. They were walking into the lake and eating lily pads. It was crazy and I’ve never heard of deer doing this before but maybe it’s a sweet treat or something to them. So after filming them for a little bit I get the gun up and take aim because I’m going to try and drop the biggest one. I began to hear something coming through the woods behind me and so I hold off on taking the shot because yet again, I’m hoping that it’s Donkey Kong wanting to show his head so I wait….and I wait…..and I wait a little longer but always keeping my eye on the does but nothing ever shows from behind me so it was go time to take down a doe but I had waited too long and by this time I didn’t have a good clean shot presented to me so sadly, there was another opportunity to take a deer that I let slip away from me. I was a little bummed but not too much because it was a pretty exciting hunt to be a part of. It was 9 o’clock by now and I wanted to still hunt for an hour or so and I was going to slow walk it back to the lodge.
So I get out of my stand and start Grandpa walking along the tree line. I probably had only walked about 20 yards when I look up in front of me and I see about 4-5 turkeys and a couple of them have paint brushes hanging from their chest. I wanted to get a little bit closer and put the binoculars on them so I slow stepped it a few more yards and by the time I had got up around the next big pine there were about 15 turkeys all staring down at me. I was as still as a ninja as I found myself slap dab in the middle of one serious game of “stare-off”. It got real serious….real quick! I didn’t move, nor did the turkeys….it was an epic battle of wills. After about 5 minutes they start to take off to the woods but they didn’t take to the air, they showed their 4.2 forty speed and there’s something about seeing turkey’s run that makes me laugh. I’m serious, they crack me up every time and I just busted out laughing…pretty loud. So I keep on my Grandpa walk and after about another 20 yards I am scanning the landscape in front of me and I spot a doe feeding between two trees. I had the binoculars on her and she didn’t have a clue I was in the neighborhood. I put the binoculars down for a second and then I lost her, I mean she just slipped off somewhere. I scanned and scanned and I could not find her. I walk up a little closer and she has crossed the road and is off to the right of me a little behind some small brush. All of the sudden I hear a four wheeler cranked up and heading in my direction and I also watch the doe to see her reaction and she is on alert too. As I now see the 4-wheeler with Caleb driving it towards me I put the gun up because if this doe is big enough I’m going to make her take a dirt nap but the closer she gets the more I can tell that she is a little ole thing so I put the rifle back down and now just watch her run. She’s bouncing right through the field and looking so pretty but then she turns and starts running right at me. I start to get a little on edge because she was coming right at me so I threw my arms out to let her know I was there and when I did she stopped dead in her tracks about 7 yards away from me cocked her head to the side and just stared at me. It was crazy but another cool example of what a great weekend in the woods I had. The hunting was over for me but man I had a blast.
We did squeeze in some fishing on a few of the other ponds and I managed to catch a chunky 2-pound bass out of “Blue Pond” and then we went over to the trophy managed pond and I watched Grayson (another hunter from the weekend) bust two chunkers himself on a purple ole monster worm. It was a nice way to end the weekend. No…..I didn’t kill anything, nor did anybody else but I’ve got to be honest with you….it was one of the more enjoyable hunting weekends I’ve had in a long time. I’ve got to thank Craig Brown who is the owner of Big Sandy Plantation for opening up his place to me once again. He and all the people that are members down there are super nice people who want to see their property enjoyed by all. The hunting is good…..the fishing is good…the food is out of this world but the memories that are made down there is what will last a lifetime. So I’ll leave you with a famous quote that Craig Brown says quite often, “You be good to Big Sandy…….she’ll be good to you” and once again she was very good to me.
Thanks for the read!
Cletus
