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This Florida-Based hunting lodge has a lot to offer and might be the perfect “staycation” for great hunting, food, and fun.
Author: Dustin Catrett
Dustin Catrett
Dustin spent his childhood exploring the bass-rich orange grove ponds that once blanketed the Central Florida landscape. At 16, he headed east to hone his skills on redfish and sea trout in the famous Mosquito Lagoon. After high school, he attended college at night while working as an Environmental Specialist with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. He graduated with a B.S. Degree in Environmental Science and now works as a Senior Environmental Engineer in the Electric Utility industry. Dustin’s works have been published in numerous well known Outdoor publications throughout Florida, Georgia, Texas, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Day 1 Peering into the scope, the buck’s large silhouette is easily recognizable from the does under the dim fog of early morning. With the turret set to two, all that’s left is to wait for daybreak to verify if the deer is indeed the short tined ten-point we’ve been after. Management bucks as in the case of this corn hog, are typically mature breeding age deer with genetically inferior antlers that ranch managers don’t want passing down their genetics through the deer herd, instead offering budget hunts for bucks not deemed trophies. Clearly the boss of this feeder, it…
woCorey Knowlton had already landed four bass weighing over ten pounds by the third morning of his trip to the La Perla Ranch when he cast a 12” Berkley Power worm into the tea-stained pond teeming with bluegill. Lifting his rod he felt the all too familiar thump and quickly set the hook. Seconds later a monster-sized bass thrashes to the surface too heavy for its entire body to become airborne. After a tense tug of war he eventually wrestles it to shore where Lake Owner Dr. Gary Schwarz is waiting. “Eleven and a half pounds!” shouts Schwarz, after the…
From The Land Down Under From beneath the matted grass an explosion of water engulfs Kim’s Poppin Toad just seconds after it touches down. “That’s a stud!” says husband Byron, as her rod bows to the wake of water streaking away from shore. After several tarpon-esque jumps and a few drag squeals she manages to land the powerful slate-colored fish resembling a cross between a tripletail and snook. Welcome to barramundi fishing! “That’s about an eight-pound barramundi,” says Byron, as she proudly holds it up for a photo. A unique gamefish like none I’ve ever encountered in Florida, the ferocious…
Cast & Blast at Champion Ranch Under the cover of darkness, my guide Keith and I slowly crept along a moonlit path under the silhouette of a large oak tree. “Hold up,” he whispered, reaching into his vest for a call. Hoo-hoo-hoooooo boomed the kazoo-like owl hoot chopping the morning calm. Seconds pass as we strain our ears for anything audible, but only the faint twittering of a few waking songbirds reply. “Let’s keep going,” he said, as we continued on the trail of what I hoped would become my first Rio Grande gobbler. Eventually we arrive at a clearing…