Hogs have left the area

jglass

LSB Member
Update: Been 8 weeks and still no hogs not even a picture of one. Getting desperate I went to a Florida Wildlife management area,
bought the $27 permit, took my revolver along. Didn't see any hogs but saw rutting and tracks as evidence. This was only a couple miles from my leased property. The problem with Florida WMA we can't use bait and can't hunt and night and issues with theft.
May have to go with WMA until they return to my lease. I have hunted my lease 25 times in the last 8 weeks. I see deer, possum,
raccoons, coyote but never any hogs. Particularly unusual is the lack of insects. Mosquitoes are normally vicious until and hour passed sundown but so far they are missing in action, what's up with that. I'll swat mosquitoes if I can see hogs from time to time.
Local saw Florida has had to much rain causing changes in wildlife
 

jglass

LSB Member
OK, figured out today why the hogs are not on my lease. I went to a Florida WMA and found plenty of wild hog signs. Walked through my leased property and found it was very wet and many areas flooded. Two weeks ago this area had 14" of rain so my lease is still flooded. Known fact hogs like water but not this much water. Hogs can swim but not sure about the piglets and food sources are also under water. The area is just to wet to attract hogs. Hogs could be afraid the water may rise further like it did two weeks ago.

I'm retooling to hunt the WMA. The area I plan to hunt is much drier than my lease and there is plenty of rutting and tracks. The area is most likely loaded with wild hog and it is only 2 miles from my lease.
 

lonepunman

LSB Active Member
LoneStarBoars Supporter
You are wise to use your downtime to improve your situation instead of throwing money at new toys.
 

diggler1833

LSB Active Member
Yep! I am fortunate enough to have an "island" on the ranch where the creeks make it impassible to hogs after a series of rains for at least a week at a time. Or in this weather's case...It has just about been a month (minus one time where I caught them out with my 6.8).

Makes for an easier time knowing where NOT TO waste my time when I go after them.
 

jglass

LSB Member
My lease is finally drying out. Scouting I found major rutting away from my blind. Thinking I was finally back into hog hunting I put down some bait and came back at dark. Sat out there for 3 hours with my thermo imaging scope and saw absolutely nothing not even a mouse. Checked again today and the corn is untouched except for the soured corn I buried. Some animal dug it up and ate every bit of it but left no tracks. I think the hogs came a few days ago and left again. Unusual because I usually see raccoons and possums at night and deer 50% of the time but nothing the passed 2 nights.

Did buy an electronic game caller by IHunt. Cool caller, works off my cell phone. Plan to use it on the public hunting areas so still buying more toys. Going to a wedding in Orlando so taking off a few days from hog huntin.
 

jglass

LSB Member
After 3 months the hogs have yet to return to my lease. One guy I allow to hunt my lease managed to shoot 2 hogs over the 3 month period of time. He says the hogs just aren't out there. I found an area of hog rooting, put a camera on it, and saw only deer and raccoons. I think a loan boar may wonder through then leave. My guess is the lease was wet and flooded after hurricane
Michael, the water flooded the food opportunities so the hogs left finding food opportunities elsewhere like the Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). A few days ago I setup tree stands in the WMA so will try out there. No bait, no centerfire rifles, no night hunting on WMA so It won't be easy hunting. Checked out some hunting guides and outfitters and they are just to expensive.

Below is the only wild hog I have seen this year. Photo was taken from my car, through my thermo imaging scope, just outside a WMA. I know the hogs are in there

 
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Pootie

Santa Fe, TX
LoneStarBoars Supporter
I finally had a lone boar show up on the camera every now and then a week or so ago and made the connection with him. A couple of boars getting fairly regular lately, and last night for over an hour camera was lighting up my phone with group pics of everything from over 200 # ers to fresh bacon seed. About time to crank up again!
 

Ratdog68

LSB Official Story Teller
LSB TURKEY BUZZARD PRESERVATION SOCIETY
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LoneStarBoars Supporter
I finally had a lone boar show up on the camera every now and then a week or so ago and made the connection with him. A couple of boars getting fairly regular lately, and last night for over an hour camera was lighting up my phone with group pics of everything from over 200 # ers to fresh bacon seed. About time to crank up again!
I been hunting for packages of bacon seed for months! I'd LOVE to grow some of my food. :D
 

jglass

LSB Member
After more than 12 weeks of hog hunting I finally had a shot last night and managed to miss. I had pictures of this hog the last 3 nights, over 200lb. I had a hunch he would show up early in the evening and he did, 7:15 pm. He must have winded me because he was about to exit the area before reaching the bait pile where I would of had a clear shot. Lots of trees and vegetation prevent a clear shot at the beast but I fired anyway and the hog ran off before I could get off another shot. We head back to Illinois 2 weeks from today (Unless we extend our stay in Florida). Not sure if i'll get another shot.

It has been an off year for wild hunting, even the locals can't explain why the wild hogs are out of sight. At first I thought my lease was to wet to attract and hold wild hogs eating acorns elsewhere. Could be someone has been trapping the hogs. There were so many last year could be someone was forced into trapping them.

I went scouting for wild hogs nearly everyday. Walked for miles on foot, rode my 10-speed mountain bike through miles of Wild life Management areas, drove my Ford Focus through places I shouldn't have, talked to lots of people. I lashed tree stands to my 10-speed bike and rolled them 1/2 mile out into the WMA. Worked amazingly well and I had the 10-speed to ride back to the parking lot. I'm becoming well known in the area for hunting wild hogs. People come up to me all the time asking me about my hunting adventures and telling me about theirs. People I have never met before seem to know me.

Below is the video shot through my thermo Imaging scope. Hope it is not my last. It is a YouTube video so it should play:

 

Ratdog68

LSB Official Story Teller
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LoneStarBoars Supporter
That's some tough shooting conditions. Almost as thick as what we have out here on the wet coast of WA State. Your steadfastness will eventually pay off for ya.
 

jglass

LSB Member
More bad news. I had to leave Florida early on March 1, death in the family. Never did get a hog this year. Arrived home and contacted the property lease owner for a hog report. They told me the leased property has been sold. My hog hunting days might be over. Florida has extensive WMA. Some possibilities there but bait and night hunting is prohibited so It will be tough hunting compared to hunting private property.

I have 6 months to find new hunting opportunities.
 

Ratdog68

LSB Official Story Teller
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Condolences on the loss of a family member.
 

Larry

New Member
Our lessor warned us that we weren't killing enough hogs and if our numbers didn't increase he was bringing in a trapper, which he did couple of months ago. I've gotten to know him pretty well. His traps are relatively small, about 3x6 but from the pictures he showed me (he is a licensed professional and works over most of northern Florida) he catches mostly yearlings and younger but he does catch some biggins. We have about 50 members and 5,000 acres in our club and we seem to be seeing a reduction in numbers but are very reluctant to give the credit to the trapper. We also had flooding conditions last year in the area so are kinda leaning that way. On some of the dirt roads leading to our lease we have seen some very large areas torn up and lots of tracks. I believe they are moving and will be back our way soon. The trapper agrees and says he has had a reduction as well.

I've just gotten back into hunting after an illness and have spent most of my time bringing my spots back. Concentrating on one and let the others stay fallow. Also started night hunting using 6.8 AR with Armasight gen III CO. Game cam showed hogs all hours and all sizes. First night I killed a 165 boar and few night later my bud killed a 200. Both at night. Since I filled my feeder however I haven't seen any, zero. Hopefully it's just shell shock, so to speak.
 

Larry

New Member
More bad news. I had to leave Florida early on March 1, death in the family. Never did get a hog this year. Arrived home and contacted the property lease owner for a hog report. They told me the leased property has been sold. My hog hunting days might be over. Florida has extensive WMA. Some possibilities there but bait and night hunting is prohibited so It will be tough hunting compared to hunting private property.

I have 6 months to find new hunting opportunities.

Sorry about your losses.
We are looking for members and since we changed presidents our new president immediately said night hunting was very much allowed and encouraged. PM me if you want the details. Our location is 15 miles east of Jasper Florida and borders Georgia. Really nice bunch of guys...
 

jglass

LSB Member
Back on the lease November 5,2019. Happy to say the hogs are also back and lots of them and they seem to be bigger, 200lb is common and we estimate seeing 300lb hogs. They are everywhere and tearing up everything. People are seeing them almost daily on or along the local roads. Never figured out where they went last year but it was wet and my lease was flooded when it shouldn't of been. Got aquainted with a neighbor so we are working together. We have killed 4 as of December 1, 2019. We came home to Northern Illinois for Christmas then back to Florida before New Years.
 

Chopperdrvr

Deep East Tx
SUS VENATOR CLUB
Glad to hear you are back in business.
 
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