Louisiana’s outdoor scene certainly wasn’t lacking in newsworthy stories throughout the past year. It seemed like a month didn’t go by without something of great interest to hunters and fishermen taking place — some good news, some bad news and some just plain interesting.
So we researched the archives of LouisianaSportsman.com and came up with the 5 best-read stories of the year. Big bucks were definitely the hottest topic on our site.
1. Maness downs trophy buck from his back yard
By Glynn Harris
On the morning of Nov. 6, Chris Maness from Athens propped his Remington 25-06 on the fence in his back yard and dropped a buck at 200 yards that may vie for a record for Claiborne Parish.
Maness is employed by the glass plant located just east of Simsboro. He hunts on family land where he lives and it has a history of bucks that roam this part of Claiborne Parish.
“I pretty well know these bucks around here,” Maness said. “In 2018, I shot the daddy and the brother of the deer I got on Nov. 6. The main beams on all three had the same bladed configuration. European mounts of these two hang on the wall at my house.”
While most hunters keep up with deer movement on the property they hunt by way of trail cameras, Maness does not use them on his property.
“On places where cameras are kept out, hunters often see lots of deer on camera, deer that never show up during daylight hours,” he said. “I spend my time maintaining food plots, scouting, looking for trails, rubs and scrapes to figure out where the deer are hanging out.”
Read the full story here.
2. Benton hunter drops giant buck in Bossier Parish
By Glynn Harris
On the morning of Nov. 13, Jordan Parker shot a 181 inch buck in Bossier Parish. Had this happened over in the delta where rich soils and more abundant nutrition is there for the taking, it would not be as surprising. However, Area 2 has no such reputation, proving that with the rut kicking in over most of Area 2 by mid-November, it can happen anywhere.
Jordan Parker, 23, who works with his father in the lawn maintenance business, lives in Benton and hunts on his grandfather’s 2500 acre property five miles from his home. He has been a serious deer hunter all his life, actually taking his first deer when he was 5 years old. Something happened on Sept. 27 that locked him in on a buck he would be zeroed in on this season.
“I had trail cameras out on my grandfather’s place and when I checked my camera on Sept. 27 I found the image of a huge buck, one I had never seen,” Parker said. “That’s when I made up my mind I was going to do what it took to get him; he was huge.”
Read the full story here.
3. Faulty bullet almost cost Comer chance at big buck
By Glynn Harris
Lee Comer, 57, a supervisor of a heavy equipment company, found himself in a situation that could easily have ended in heartbreak and disappointment. A huge buck, impressive enough to garner the name “Illinois” in honor of big bucks produced by that state, stood 40 yards from Comer offering a perfect broadside shot on the morning of Nov. 13.
Squeezing the trigger on his Remington .270, he heard a sickening sound.
Click…
The firing pin hit the bullet just right but for some reason, it did not fire. The bullet was a dud that in almost every case would have sent a mature buck hightailing away.
“At the ‘click’, the buck turned and looked directly at me but I didn’t move a muscle,” Comer said. “I carefully eased the action open, gently slipped the faulty bullet out, let it fall on my jacket so as not to make a noise, reached in my pocket for another round and quietly slipped into the action and slid the bolt forward. All the while, this big buck was just standing there looking at me at 40 yards.”
He was finally able to squeeze off a shot, the buck jumped straight up and took off through the woods.
Read the full story here.
4. Like father like son, big bucks fall 36 years apart
By Glynn Harris
I had the privilege of writing a story 36 years ago of an impressive buck taken by the late Tommy Simmons of Ruston. On Nov. 13, 1986 Simmons was hunting in northern Lincoln Parish when a buster of a buck stepped out and he dropped the 12-point. I still recall the emotion Simmons shared with me as he told his story. Although this was before antler score and measurements were in vogue, his buck was likely in the 160 inch class.
Tommy’s son, Joe, took up where his dad left off. After an extended illness, Tommy passed away in 2020. Joe encountered another big Lincoln Parish buck this season and was successful in bringing the big 13-point trophy to the ground on Nov. 27.
Read the full story here.
5. Baker angler hauls in Toledo Bend lunker bass
By Dan Kibler
Paul Norwood figured the jig was up – if you understand he was fishing with a crankbait, not a jig when he hooked an enormous bass at Toledo Bend on the afternoon of March 2.
“The odds of me getting her in the boat were unreal,” Norwood said. “When we got her in the boat, she had one hook left – in the back of her head.”
“She” was an 11.65-pound largemouth that Norwood, from Baker, La,. hooked at about 1 o’clock after a morning spent catching smaller fish.
In the boat with fishing buddy Henry Boudreaux of Baton Rouge, Norwood had a Bandit 200 crankbait – baby bass color – tied on 12-pound test line when he cast up close to an underwater stump in the Slaughter Creek area, fishing in water that was about 60 degrees.
Read the full story here.
