Heartland Region

Deer of the Year

Hunter takes rare weekday off, gets a 15-point

January 24, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

In mid-December, Burton Swoope of Belden had a gut feeling and a few days off remaining. He put those two together and drove south toward his deer camp near Columbus for a day he won’t soon forget.

“I knew the rut was on and I just decided to use a vacation day and hunt this particular Wednesday,” said Swoope, the plant manager of a concrete plant in Pontotoc.

The result: a 15-point buck that green-scored a gross of 167 5/8 and a net of 153 6/8. It is a thick and long but not particularly wide mainframe 11-point with four sticker points.

It is a brute, and the result of two decades of management on family property in the Golden Triangle area of the historically productive deer region known as the Black Belt Prairie.

“I killed him on family land outside of Columbus, where we’ve been under some type of management program for about 20 years,” Swoope said. “We started back in the early 90’s just trying to shoot 8-pointers or better. Now we try to only take fairly mature bucks, regardless of points, and a few does. It’s paid off with some really nice bucks over the years but as far as I know he’ll be the highest scoring ever killed on our land.” […]

Bass Fishing

Recent catch proves bass record within reach

January 15, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

When he caught a 17.34-pound bass Jan. 4 at Davis Lake, Jeff Foster did more than simply post the second-largest largemouth ever reported in Mississippi. He showed conclusively that Anthony Denny’s state record of 18.15 pounds is vulnerable.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that whatsoever,” said Ron Garavelli, the chief of fisheries for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “That fish right there could have — no, make that would have — broken the record had it been caught a couple of months later when it was full of eggs.

“We’re only talking about .8 of a pound difference between 17.34 and 18.15, so yeah, fully loaded with eggs it would have been the record.” […]

Content

Cold Case — Tips for fishing for cold-water crappie

January 1, 2013 David Hawkins

January is a time of new beginnings. A few souls actually make resolutions with the intention of keeping them, but for most the first month of a new year only marks the passing of the holiday season and time to return to the grind.

For crappie anglers across the state, however, January marks a time when crappie start to stir in the waters of the reservoirs of the Magnolia State.

Here are some tips for fishing for cold-water crappie.
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