FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Florida is making a strong statement to the USthat it is serious in being a leader in creating a leading 21st century game management plan (whitetails, specifically) and my experience has been when a state makes a statement like this, they DEMAND RESPECT.

I helpedto build the current curriculum at Florida State University entitled "Whitetail Studies" andthat demonstratesthe committment. You see, when state universities enter the game, economies are changed. So if the university system embraces what we are doing in terms of whitetail herd management and growth, imagine what that says to the rest of the US, the northeast in particular.

Top of the line management programs arecreated through innovation, early stage fundamental planning,and strong government support, all of which is taking place in Florida. It is not by accident that pro-hunting Legislators have been elected for several cycles now. Our deer hunting community has united and will not quit.

The northeast, meanwhile, is in shambles. Whitetailed deer leaving in the darkness of night in hopes of a better life in North Florida. Deer looking for nutrition and instead beiing forced to sift through mounds of cigarette butts and aluminum foil, hoping to get a nibble at something.

Guys, let's be honest. The entire Southeast, but Florida in particular, is poised to change deer hunting as we know it. The results will be staggering and Yankees will not be pleased. REALITY.

i hope all of you have a super week - it is hot down here in the deep South!

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Sounds as effective as "Pickett's Charge.". with the same results.[:-]

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

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as always right on the money, reminds me of a john rocker saying:

What I will attempt to do now is cut through the mind-numbing, irrelevant fluff the media loves to fill their airtime and articles with and give you the simple facts that I know and believe to be true, as I have lived them and can explain them much better than some pen jockey who has never spoken to me personally and lives 3000 miles away. Here are the facts using the simplest terms with the most convenient definitions:

priceless, your not gonna find that kind of info in "field and stream" keep up the good work TDWW;)
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RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

The fact that you have never used your keen insights about whitetail management for personal gain attest to the fact that you, TDWW, demand respect!

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I dont like the idea at all. Florida will never have the right genetics and/or nutrition (especially in south florida) to grow bucks comparable to the other states. Where you will see a real problem arise is when this is tried to be enacted state-wide on private lands- it could work on WMAs though.Both myclubs have a 'no spike' rule, but that is about as much management as you will see in doghunting clubs. I dont want the state telling me what i am allowed to harvest onMY private land or my hunting club

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

HMMMMM, FSU...whitetail studies.... very interesting.

Go Gators.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Whats with the dramatically photoshopped image?

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

The south has never recovered from the fact their their own incompetency led to the murder of stonewall Jackson insuring the lose in the big war and their inability to come to grips with the inadequacy of their deer herd.
Respect.............as requested...........earning potential will be valuated.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

i wish this would worki wouldnt saythat florida dont have some good deer around somewhere i have seen some nice deer in florida ,im not saying they have deer like illinois or texas but they have some decent deer and i think they should have some antler restrictions on deer more than just not killing spikes and i agree there is way too much trash in the woods i wish people would clean up after themselves

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I'm laughing so dang hard right now. You have my respect TDWW! I would love to meet this guy sometime.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Thats halarious garbage right there! :D

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

If I wanted to hunt deer the size of dogs I'd start shooting fawns...:D
Respect denied with a yummy taco on the side.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Hey dog come hunting with me this fall ,from Pa to illinios to montana and you will never hunt in florida again.I was down there 2 years ago in bow season .I hope you never have to spend another one of your hunting seasons in such a dissmal place.If not good luck to you ,maybe you will get a 100''er one of these years.






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RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Florida can grow them big, my dad killed buck in the 130s lastyear and has 5 on the wall over 100. A guy i use to work with has two bucks on the wall, one scored 127 and the other scored 129 that came from florida public land. Don't get south florida confused with north florida,NORTH florida can grow somegood bucks with management. The problem is it isn't consistent, and some of us Floridians dont want 'trophy managment' anyway

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I'm just at the point where a 130" buck will not make me happy.I understand those are really good bucks where you hunt but that is my point. I see many bucks every year that go over 150",hunt the mid west and you will do anything to get back there every fall.


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RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

yep, hunt the midwest, youll never look back. it would be neat to hunt florida though IMO

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

TD you look different somehow. Where did the long flowing golden locks and bronzed tan go?:D

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I would like to go just for the experience, but that's it. If i can't runa buckwith a pack of hounds through a thick swamp I would go crazy. Doghunters like me don't hunt for the antler size, just for the experience and memories. Antler sizedon't mean too much to me anymore, although i know i am in the minority when i state that on this forum. The thrill of the hunt is what always gets me up in the mornings bright and early! Just to have another chase with my dogs or watch a child harvest their first deer- that is what deer hunting is all about to me....

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I have hunted Illinois, Arkansas and Florida.I obviously dislike hunting in Floridahands down over the other two states. The heat, humidityand bugs will tear you up. Yes, Florida is a huge state and it's terrain and conditionsvary from North to South. I hunt central florida and there are some decent deer but not the number and body mass of bucks as in themidwest, midsouth states. I will tell you this and I have heard pro hunters say this at hunting shows, thatharvesting adeer in the the swamps of Florida is not an easy thing to do.Florida does nto havea great abundance of grain fields to set up on. It take a lot of blood, sweat and tears sometimesbut if you want to hunt, that's what you got to do.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Our deer here pale in comparison to the deer in the midwest in only one way...size. If you really want a challenge try to take down Bambi during gun season in the middle of a WMA. Those deer are smart as hell from the begining. Our deer are also the size of a large dog and amped up higher that a teenager that drank 10 energy drinks. I have yet to see one just amble on down the trail like in the shows from the midwest. Our deer walk 2 feet stop, look, listen, sniff, and go through all kinds of contortions even when they do not know you are there.I have been practicing drawing on some deer while I hunt pigs and if I manage to get a draw on 1 out of 6 I am pretty happy.

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RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I think this is great news! It's not too often that hunters are recognized at a university level. I know a lot of dedicated hard work went into making this happen and I applaud you and their efforts. I hope the rest of the US can take Florida's lead on this.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

stop pickin on the south[:'(]:)

ps- no one cares about stonewall, its all bout General RobertE Lee:)

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

ur saying that now;)just try shooting ur bow down here, it takes me a whole day to shoot 100 arrows, cause there is so much sweat in my eyes i cant see. and bow season down is during the hottest time of the year;)

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Yep, saw a whole herd of em' running down I-95 through Atlanta in the HOV lanes with Tallahassee or bust tatoos on their buttsjust this past week.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I think I just need to stop clicking on these kind ofposts

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I went to the FSU website and looked for the Whitetail Management information and didn't find anything, must be a newcourse or something........

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Comming from a state that can't count votes properly and then screws up their democratic primary? I'm confident this whitetail project will result in deer the size of rabbits:D

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

st louis is hell, it can be freezing one day, then above a hundred the next, so i know what youre talking about;)

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

^ True.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

ur funny NOT:Dactually our deer's mass is small, but alot of their racks are pretty big. like one of the new state lands that i am going to hunt this year, they guys at the check station were showing me some of the deer taken the previous season, and man thye were pretty big. the biggest ones weighed like around150, so not too too bad.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Yeah that first post was a joke but you PA guys dont have sh-- for deer eithe. I have 10 clients coming from PA and a 130 is big for your state. Also what in the hell does the civil war have to do with this post. Fl deer are a joke and i hope they get it all worked out. Im tired of the FL people coming to AL shooting my 120 inch deer, which i bet 90% would piss on themselves if they shot one. Hell most dont let it get past 90 inches. Makes me furious, but a lot of you PA people are the same damn way. My PA clients are all afraid that they wont know what a 140, is so i have to go sit in the stand with them, if that goes to show anything about PA hunting

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

AND WHAT FLORIDA DOESNT HAVE IN DEER THEY DAMN SURE MAKE UP FOR IT IN WOMEN, and Noone from the north can compete against that.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I can't speak for my fellow Floridians, but i harvest plenty of deer in Florida and see more overpopulation problems than anything else in north florida. Heck, I saw a small buck and 3 does 50-60 yds from the interstate this morning close to a subdivision. What we dont have in size, we make up for in population in north florida. I like to pull the trigger and thin the herd anyway....:D

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Bryan, do you hunt on or near the Foley tract outside Perry?

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

On the Foley tract south of hwy 98, between hampton springs road to the econfina river. About 60-70,000 acres called Camp Misery hunting club.

All the Foley tract has been split up into 4 major hunting clubs, our club is the smallest acreage and most of the others are 90,000-130,000

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

ummm, i believe the vote confusion came from all of the yankee's who retire and move down here. the only counties to have the voting "issues" were the counties with the highest retirement populations.

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

Looks like an alcoholic to me. thats real FSU:D

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

I have hunted the midwest state, including my annual bow trip to Nebraska. Florida will never have the size, nor population of the midwest, but Florida Fish and Wildlife ar starting to take the necessary steps to make hunting in Florida better. To this day, we have been legally able to harvest 2 bucks a day all season long on private land and take the limits allowed on our WMA's. Our mininum buck requirements has been 1 antler 5" in length. Even our biggest bucks taken in the books have seldomly been more than 4 yrs. old. We are a very diverse state, with a extremly different terrain from the Everglades to the hills in the panhandle. FWC has recognized that we can not manage the North like the South, or Central FL like either. I grew up in Homestead, hunting the Everglades and now reside in Sebring(Central Florida). Comparing our deer to the midwest is firstly noncomparable. The midwest is mostly open ag fields and rolling terrain, with parcels of woods. Where as Florida is much more populated, and having a much more diverse terrain from south to north. The Everglades, Cypress Swamp, Palmetto and Pine heads, and grass prairies, usually covered in water. Central Florida, with thick Cypress heads, massive pine and palmetto heads, thick hardwood hammocks, Orange Groves, and Cattle Ranches. The North changes in to much steeper hills with large Pine Plantation, Thick hardwood draws and crrek bottoms, and some open terrain like ranches or ag fields. These are considerably different that the midwest. But they do carry a lot of deer. Because of the past management in # of bucks allowed, the # hunter per acres of land, and the minimum antler size, our deer do not get to grow to their potential and spend much of the time dodging man. They have become smart, much not moving until after dark, when it is also alot cooler.
This year FWC has started the emplintation of a new managment plan that will change over the next 10 years. They have put antler restrictions of 3 points on one side atleast 1" in length on many of the WMA's, they are changing quotas drawn in the first phase to non-transferrable so that people can't draw permits for every member in the family for a WMA and hunt on their permits. Keep in mind, some WMA's only allow 20, 10, and 5 permits per hunt and 2 or 3 hunts..... Over the upcoming years, it is their goal to manage each region differently, comparable to "units" up in the midwest, but probably just 3 or 4 units. Then establish an annual buck harvest statewide, WMA and private combined. Not 2 bucks a day, every day. Trust me, it can be done, I've killed 10 in 6 days in the glades. But they are not quality..... They will also come up with a more stringent antler restriction instead of 1 antler 5" in length.
Ifor when FWC gets these changes made, Florida will start producing much better bucks on a common bases. It will not be an immediate change, but over time we will start seeing more bucks and they will also lilve to reach their potential reach 5-7 yrs old. An example would be the World record velvet buck taken in Green Swamp. That tract of land was not hunted for many years prior to becoming a WMA, and since there have been many good bucks taken there. That buck was 4 1/2 yrs old!!!!
Florida will never have the reputation of the midwest, but it can produce some quallity and at a higher quantity if they get the management right. BUT, THEY WILL HAVE TO BE ABLE TO ENFORCE THE PLAN FOR IT TO WORK, SOMETHING THAT THEY STILL CAN NOT DO EVEN NOW!!!!!!!

RE: FLORIDA MAKES A STATEMENT
 

This is a Florida public land buck..land has been hunted for years, but strictly managed....not bad at all....just imagine if it were in a W.M.A. that had the new Management plan...more would look like him...I really believe that they are taking steps in the right direction....