Anderson shot big 11-pointer on Dec. 31
For Robert Anderson, the easiest part of his hunt on the Dewey Wills Wildlife Management Area was the hour drive from his home in Moreauville. The actual hunt was pretty much a workout.
“I like to hunt public areas, and Dewey Wills is one of my favorite spots,” said Anderson, 35. “In fact, I hunted the area three times this season and killed a big doe opening day.”
On Dec. 31, Anderson talked his dad into making another trip to Dewey Wills, which meant his dad would have to forego hunting his lease near Pineville.
“Dad and I left early that morning and launched my boat in a bayou that would take us to the area I wanted to hunt,” Anderson said. “On earlier hunts, I had found some good buck sign in a couple of places, and put dad on one spot while I took the other.”
Dewey Wills is a large area consisting of some 64,000 acres in three parishes, Catahoula, LaSalle and Rapides. The area has a lot of water interlaced with a number of bayous, sloughs and lakes, and is subject to overflow every year.
All that water would eventually come into play on the exciting and exhausting day the Anderson duo chose to hunt on a Catahoula Parish portion of the WMA.
“We took a long boat ride up the bayou, got to the area we wanted to hunt before daylight with plans to hunt all day. I sat dad up in his lock-on some 250 yards from me, while I got up in my climbing stand,” he said. “Around 9:30, I could hear something walking in the water too far from me or him, so I texted dad and we decided to relocate our stands.”
Selecting a spot where his dad could see better, Anderson got him set up in the new location, while he selected a tree for his climber that would give him a better view of several sloughs in the area. Getting situated, the pair endured a heavy downpour that lasted until around 11 a.m.
“After the rain finally stopped, we got settled in again to finish our all-day hunt. Along about 2 p.m., I saw a doe, and it was another two hours before any other action took place,” he said.
Around 4 p.m., Anderson heard something thrashing about near his stand, and was able to make out a buck working over a bush.
“There were two deer in the area where the noise was coming from. I couldn’t tell anything about one of the deer, but I saw the other one was a good buck. I kept my eye on him, and when he stepped into an opening as he was crossing a little creek at 85 yards, I got on him with my Remington automatic .30-06, touched the trigger and watched him make his way across the little slough and pile up no more than 10 yards from where I shot him,” Anderson said.
His dad met him, and the two high-fived while counting points — but soon realized the serious work was about to begin. Dragging the deer to a slough, Anderson and his dad had to float the 250-pound buck all the way back to the boat.
“I shot the deer at 4 and we didn’t make it back to my truck until 7 p.m.,” he said. “My dad is 60 years old, and not only was he worn out — I was, too.”
The buck had 11 points, with an inside spread of 16 inches. Main beams were 24-plus-inches plus with heavy mass. The public lands trophy was estimated to be 6 ½ years old, and the rack green-scored 157 7/8 inches of bone.