I will be heading to Tide Swamp in a 9 days to hunt some hog. As far as I can tell, this is the best WMA for hog that doesn't require a quota permit.
Few questions.
Can anyone suggest a better WMA that doesn't require a quota permit that is no more than 3hrs in any direction from Gainesville area?
I am open to suggestions.
Also if you have hunted Tide Swamp and are familiar with it are there any key locations?
Normally I would stake the place out, but it's a few hours away and I don't have a day off between now and when I leave. Just general idea is fine. West near the gulf, east near mainland, South. .. etc.
You can hunt Tiger Bay or Lake Monroe. It is Small Game season, so no centerfire rifles.
How is the hunting there and which in your opinion is better?
I couldn't pull up the harvest reports from fwc on them, but that is an area I am much more familiar with as far as traveling through so it would be nice to head that way and closer I think.
Last year we took the long trip to tide swamp based on the high hog harvest numbers. Spent the whole day there dawn to dusk. Searched and hunted many areas.
A few disappointments are that the roads are pretty good so anything remotely near a road is very pressured. A lot of wet good looking areas had very little sign.
The truck hunters that hang the gun out the window as you pass someone, really was starting to worry me. I am told they have handicap permission to hunt like that.
The few times we set up in a swamp away from the road we regularly could hear the loud trucks stop at every swamp along the road, then a short time later 2-3 shots and then short time after the shots hear the truck again. This is a common thing I see/hear in WMA's these days. It didn't used to be so often, but I feel it's the new way some people think will get them a hog. Walk in to a marsh or swamp scare a hog into moving and shot it. I don't see these people dragging anything out. so maybe it learn a different way to hunt.
All in all I am sure there are hogs there, I'd say get far from a road down, by the marshes.
Well I haven't been to Tiger Bay. I tried once but the road to get to eat was under construction and made it a pain to get to. That was over a year ago though. They do have camping right next to the WMA, so there is a plus if you want to hunt the whole weekend. Lake Monroe has three parking areas. I have only been to the second and third spots. The second parking area has a 1.5 mile loop trail. The trail has about every type of Florida wilderness, minus swamp (open field, pine stands, oak/palm thickets). You can hear hogs right off the trail if you get there right at sunup. Squirrels are out as long as it is not cold. You do not have to stay to the trail. The third area has a pine stand at the entrance then gets pretty swampy depending on which way you end up going. The back of the WMA is Lake Monroe.
