Hunting in South Florida??

[RTARMS]

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows of anywhere to go hunting in South Florida.....and when I say "South" I'm talking Lee County...alot of people say south then they wanna talk about Okeechobee, That's NOT south. Anyways, I've been searching for hunting grounds and all I can find is WMA's...and from what I understand there's a quota drawing around here that you have to be selected from just to be able to get a license to hunt in one at all. Also I don't consider shooting an animal in a fenced in area hunting at all! If anyone is from around this area (Lee, Charlotte, Collier, etc. counties), I would love to hear from you if you have any ideas about hunting grounds....also I should probably tell you I'm wanting to hunt boar and possibly deer(that is if I can find any that are bigger than a dog! lol.

I apologize in advance if there is already a thread about this but I couldn't find any around my area...like I said, the one's that say "south" are talking about areas that are about 3.5 hours north of me.

 

[hardluk1]

Grew up in collier county. Hunted all over florida when younger. One of the reasons why i left was all the restritions on where, when and how you can do,,,,anything. May want to find a florida hunting site-forum or (hunt lease) forum. There are buch of sites to help with info on lease's. There are several areas a bit north and west of you but you know the poop you have to go through. Just gona have to deal with wma quota's in most places any more. AS true public land ain't so public anymore. Killed a pile of hogs back then off aleco road and the east side of I-75 , up by the old north port GAC devoloped lands but no one lived there then. About all lands down south are very controled now.Times have changed. Good luck

 

[FLAvalanche]

I live in Charlotte County and outside of the WMA's you will be hard pressed to find any place to hunt. It took me 8 years to find a small plot of private land that I can hunt.

You can pretty much forget about anyone letting you hunt on their land. I recommend talking to the orange grove owners and see if any of them will let you hunt their groves. Most are tired of the hogs damaging everything and the deer eating the oranges. They're about the only ones half willing to let you hunt.

Other than that extend your friend network and find someone with land.

 

[03Shadowbob]

Won't find many deer larger than a Lab around these parts.
Next to impossible to find anywhere other than a WMA to hunt unless you know farm owners like FLAvalanche stated. Even then, it is tough to get them to let you.

 

[dprice3844444]

okeechobeeoutfitters.com,bite the bullet,give them a shout

google hog hunting in south florida

http://miami.craigslist.org/search/spo?query=hog&srchType=A&minAsk=&maxAsk=

 

[hardluk1]

03shadowbob I have not hunted down there since i moved to NC, that would 14 years . BUT i killed some very nice deers in pine/hard wood borders. And still today a buddy in naples has a section of land they he is still killing 140 lb deer on. Not northern big but not the size of labs. Most all of the devils garden area has some darn nice deer on it and with way to many pigs. Just most all private with farmers like Collier owning most of it. You got to get out of the wet water swamps. Still 250 lb to 400 lb hogs killed and they are still more abundent than a few years ago. Just harder to get to.

 

[Blue Line]

no season on wild pigs in the WMA. Whats that one just over the Lee line in Charlotte county, just off 75 where the gun range is? Thats wide open. Give FWC in Fort Myers a call, they can send you the right direction. Hogs are a nusinace for most landowners and they would probably welcome you.

 

[hardluk1]

Blue line, You talk'n about the one with the fishing lakes in it to? I been gone to darn long. Had some faar luck there hunting . In so many of those wma you just have to have a killer 4x4 or better a buggy to get around safely.

 

[Blue Line]

Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management

 

[03Shadowbob]

Hardluk,
West coast area seems to produce better deer than southeast coast. All the deer I have seen taken out of Corbett WMA have been smaller than my 120lb lab.

 

[hardluk1]

Central and west side does have better habitat for sure. With so darn much closed off to everone or very limited access bet there are some better deer out there . 120lb labs still a darn big lab hehehe

 

[FLAvalanche]

That's Babcock/Webb which is probably THE WORST place to go hog hunting. About the only WMA that's decent in this area is the Myaka WMA up of River Road in North Port. But it's a limited season.

Webb is even worse for deer. The largest buck taken this year was 116 lbs. And that was before it was gutted...

The best for deer is probably going to be Piccayune Strand down in Naples.

 

[hardluk1]

Well some years back it was ok but had good fishing there. Only bear island had a good amount of hogs then but was vey had to get around with out a buggy. Do you still see hogs along the interstate along the north port area? So much has grown up or just closed to the public. Piccayune Stand??? That was just called the south blocks. Good ole GAC development. I grew up running around there hunting when young and collecting rattlers. Even a good amount of bear in those blocks. There use to be some real good numbers of hogs and deer along the western edge just south of I-75 there. The blocks them selves were pretty well hunted out by the cubins some years back. We use to access those pigs off c-951 next to I-75. Think that part is closed now.

RTarms get ahold of the fish and game officers in the area you wish to hunt and they can help with telling you where deer and pigs are plentiful and access on open land. Atleast they use to be helpfull.