Around here, I recommend people start now. Usually everyone knows in advance whenhunters are going to let a lease go, and by January there will be a lot of other hunters competing for that lease as well. Usually by February or March, most of the open leases have already been taken especially good leases with the good landowners.

A good place to start would be to pick the area you want to hunt, and hit the cafes and coffee shops where all the locals go (the ones with all the pickups out front). There may or may notbe signs on the bulliten boards, but there will nearly always be someone there that knows someone you could contact.