Atchafalaya Delta WMA ‘hogzilla’ ends season on high note

Stalking hogs makes blogger wish for longer hunting season

This past season was definitely one of the most exciting for me. I was blessed to take two does, two bucks and three hogs during the bow season at the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area. The biggest buck was a 7-pointer, and I also took my biggest hog ever — a monster boar that probably approached 300 pounds. I say “probably” because he broke all of our equipment when hoisting the beast up to clean and weigh him, so we did not get an official weight on him, and cleaning him was chore, too.

Now we have set up with steel cable and much bigger pulleys, so we are ready for the next “Hogzilla.”

On the down side, I  missed a nice 10-pointer earlier in the season that would have ranked in my top five bucks and I arrowed two very nice  hogs that ran off into the marsh and I did not  recover them.

We hunted most of the peripheral islands of the Delta, as well as Big Island.

As great as this season was, it got even more exciting right at the end of the regular season, going into the special gun season for hogs.

Click here to check out my story of what happened when I arrowed the huge hog previously mentioned.

That event led us to an area where the hogs were accumulated, and we used that experience to hunt and stalk them for the next six weeks. Using the wind to our advantage, we gained confidence in being able to stalk within 20 to 30 yards.

The hogs would move to another island, and we would pursue them there. The strategy alone was worth the hunt. Many times we saw 15 or more hogs in a day. It was amazing and extremely exciting for us.

My buddy, Randy, bought himself a Marlin .22 mag rifle, put a scope on it and became a hog assassin with it. He zeroed in on five hogs during the course of the gun season and brought every one of those hogs home.

I wish I could say my accuracy was as good as his, when I also bought the same gun — but let’s just say that during the off season I will definitely be at the shooting range with Randy learning more of what my new rifle is capable of.

In past seasons, when the end of hunting approached, I was pretty much ready for it because I hunt so hard and so often. This year was so different: I hated to see the season end because we having so much fun stalking and seeing hogs and/or deer on every trip.

I am already having withdrawals, and can’t wait for October 1st to arrive so we can so it again.

We feel that we have learned an immense amount about hogs and stalking, and had just gotten to know more areas of the Delta intimately. The knowledge we have gained should also help us with deer next season.

Our strategy sessions were very enjoyable, as we plotted our hunts based on where the hogs might be and based our plan of attack on the tides and weather.

I hope you guys enjoyed our tales of the outdoors, and I do look forward to bringing you guys some new stories from the coming season.

But for now,  it is time to go catch some fish.

Be safe and God bless!