Hills Region

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Crappie hotspot: Bay Springs Lake

April 1, 2012 Phillip Gentry

Bay Springs Lake, also known as the Jamie L. Whitten Lock and Dam, is the northernmost lake on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Located off Highway 4 near the town of Dennis in Mississippi’s Hill Region, the 6,700 acres of water and 133 miles of shoreline that make up Bay Springs provide crappie anglers with loads of slab crappie that are often overlooked by anglers on their way to bigger lakes.

Our guide this month is the owner/operator of Honey Hole Guide Service, Charlie Kent. Born and raised in Baldwyn, Kent has been fishing the crappie-infested waters of Bay Springs since the lake was created by the Corps of Engineers in 1979. […]

Deer of the Year

Flora high-schooler kills two Madison County trophy bucks

January 31, 2012 Michael O. Giles

Clara Grace Bozeman has been deer hunting with her dad Harvey for a few years now, and she harvested her first buck at the young age of 10.

“Clara Grace told me she wanted to go hunting and use her own gun as well,” Harvey Bozeman said. “So I bought her a 7mm-08 Browning A-Bolt, and we went hunting the next year and she killed her first deer with it. And she’s never missed since!”

She continued that streak with two huge bucks killed during the Christmas holiday while hunting on the Madison County family farm. […]

Deer of the Year

Public-land dog-hunt ends with 150-class buck

January 24, 2012 Alan Clemons

All Johnnie Dupont could see of the big buck slipping along the ridge was the front shoulders and rear end.

But after seeing a few deer easing through the woods ahead of the hounds released for a Dec. 27 dog drive in the Homochitto National Forest, Dupont kept his eyes on this one that had stopped to look and listen. […]

Deer of the Year

Hunter kills 180-class buck on small tract in middle of Black Prairie WMA

December 27, 2011 Alan Clemons

Neil Waggoner and his family live on 40 acres he grew up loving, a familiar tract of gently rolling hills and a 10-acre lake surrounded by the Black Prairie Wildlife Management Area in Lowndes County.

For the last few weeks, Waggoner had been using his three tracking dogs to help other hunters. He also missed an 8-point buck that rattled him.

“Buck fever or I looked up or something, I guess,” Waggoner said.

A few days later on Dec. 18, amid an orange sunset casting enough light to make a set of antlers glow, Waggoner knew the big buck in the edge of the field was a good one. […]

Deer of the Year

Morgan Brake NWR produces 180-inch record-book buck

December 12, 2011 Rob Hays

For two years, Andy Lloyd hunted the big buck that his brother Jeff had seen at Morgan Brake National Wildlife Refuge in Holmes County — a small-bodied deer with antlers lacking mass but possessing great length.

“Jeff was ranting about this buck he’d seen, a very tall and very wide rack that he said would go about 160 inches then,” Lloyd said. “I remember he told me, ‘If anyone ever kills that buck, don’t worry, we’ll hear about it.’”

Now, everybody is hearing — and talking — about the big 180-class buck, which Andy Lloyd punched a hole in during an afternoon hunt on Dec. 7 during the NWR’s annual muzzleloader hunt. […]

Bass Fishing

Winter bass

December 1, 2011 Hal Schramm

If you like to catch big bass, appreciate solitude on the lake, and know how to dress for cold weather, good bass fishing awaits you in Mississippi’s waters. December signals the end of fall fishing and the start of winter fishing throughout the northern two-thirds of the Magnolia State. And there are bass to be caught. […]