24 April As a hunting association, we don't promote the fishing or sell discounted memberships as quality is our goal. Association farm ponds, irrigation lakes and strip pits provide fishing opportunity that will rival the best.
Thanks Andrew, from what we hear you always catch good bass.
The Path We Are On"...Last September, 2.3 million acres came out of CRP...This fall...another 1.1 million acres of CRP contracts will expire...Next year...USDA's Farm Service Agency reports more than 4.5 million acres is to be released in September 2009..." Missouri Ruralist, Back to Crops?, Jerilyn Johnson, April 23, 2008.
Any experienced central mid-west deer hunter recognizes that CRP is not just a bird hunter concern. Turkey hunters long ago recognized spring nesting use of tall grass by hens.
Side NoteLandowners using the logic that increased crop land costs justifies increasing hunting lease costs are finding hunters are not buying it. We have heard that from hunters turning down their prior held private land hunting lease looking for alternatives and leases we turned down months ago are coming back to us at lower offering prices.
23 April The Hard Way"...Still trying for that 2nd [location deleted] tom with bow. Included picture of my first [location deleted] tom on opening weekend of archery."
Thank you Steve. You leave little excuse for the rest of us! 22 April Last Fall's HuntHaving been a past member of a couple of “hunting clubs” in my home state of West Virginia, I was skeptical about the quality of the hunting experience I’d have with the Mid America Hunting Association. My previous experiences had taught me to expect a minority of the members to have claimed access to most of the good hunting locations, with new members left to settle for the “crumbs”.
In reality, what I experienced on my [location deleted] bow hunt during the first week of November this past fall far exceeded my expectations! During seven days of bow hunting, I saw no other hunters in the woods, and I could find no sign that anyone had hunted on any of the leases before me! I saw deer from stand each day that I hunted. Moreover, I had shot opportunities at Pope and Young bucks on three out of seven days.
Suffice to say, I don’t get that kind of hunting back in West Virginia.
I made the “mistake” of shooting a fairly nice buck (at least by my previous standards) on the second day of the hunt. He had 11 scoreable points and measured 130” and 3/4th inches; his live weight was well over 200 lbs. (that means that he weighed roughly twice as much as your average eastern buck). Of course, that relegated me to hunting doe for the rest of the week. Predictably, I had a buck that would have measured somewhere between 145 and 150 walk by me at 10 yards on the next day’s hunt. Later in the week on Friday, another buck of approximately the same size waltzed past at around 15 yards! Next year, I’ll definitely hold out longer in hopes of a nicer buck!
I hunted the first day of rifle season, but didn’t see any shooters. I did see two coyotes (one very large) and two small eight point bucks. Towards the end of the day I spotted a large doe and decided to take her back home with me.
In addition to the quality of the hunting, the beauty of the farmland that I hunted impressed me. In the past, I’ve always hunted either in the Appalachians or the Rockies. While I still love mountains, the Mid West has a wide-open, remote quality that I came to appreciate. The sunrises and sunsets were beautiful, and I almost always heard coyotes howling in the distance in the evening on my way back from stand.
On top of the picturesque landscape, the people I encountered were exceedingly friendly. For example, one farmer interrupted his soybean harvest to help me work on my broken-down truck. The association members that I met were friendly and helpful as well; they seemed to be high quality sportsmen.
Finally, I’d like to thank Jerry, John Nee and son, and most of all John Wentzel for assisting me as a first year member. Thanks, John W., for the land recommendation for [location deleted]. I’m excited about scouting [location deleted] and bow hunting there this fall!
Sincerely,
Clint
p.s. I’ve attached a photo of the rack off my [location deleted] buck. He’s not great on spread or tine length, but he has decent mass.
Thank you for sharing some of the fine points of success and near success.
LandPart of the yearly work at leasing land is changing land use. In this case one of the best pheasant grass fields in this unit that also had occasional prairie chickens and a strong turkey population of hens using it for nesting is lost to farming. The newly reinforced older fence and new in total back fence of freshly cut stout osage posts and five strand barbwire means that cattle will be moved in.
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