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Southern Swamps

J

jphillips97

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
348
Let's discuss hunting southern swamps.... I hear people say big bucks have wet feet..... I know swamps reduce pressure.... Where I am (panhandle of FL) there are a lot of swamps. Thick brushy swamps and more open Cypress Swamps. You usually have to pass through the brushy stuff to get to the Cypress unless you access using a boat from the river.... When scouting or e-scouting what do you guys look for? E-scouting it is tough to find high spots because our terrain os almost too flat to register on topo maps..... You an look at hydrography maps and get some info.... I have found some peninsulas that stick into the swamp and I am going to explore..... The caress swamps are pretty, but getting in the tree without getting wet is a challenge and gettin an animal out would be tough.... Trails are not always easy to identify either....
 
There are a lot of things you can do. Probably the best thing right off the bat is to scout the transition between swamp and hardwoods (or dry land) if you have that sort of terrain. Look for those points out into the marshes/swamps that are right at the transition. Dan Infalt talks about this tactic lot. Basically, you want to be able to cover the first mast trees just out of the swamp. These are the only ones the buck will likely get too in daylight.
 
There's like 7 different types of swamps here in fla....e scouting look for subtle differences in the color of the trees..follow the hard edges and look for the most beaten down trails leading in. The wet ground is nice cause it shows sign well but also makes old sign still look fresh so it's hard to choose a spot for me sometimes....Ill follow the hard edges until I find the really beat down trail coming out that also intersects with a really beat down trail paralleling the swamp. Where young pine (10-20 footer) thickets met up to the swamp edge and small palmetto flats out in the tupelo style swamp are normally good areas to investigate. In the open bottoms find the clumps of thick stuff that jut out into the swamp bottom or other thick stuff they can hide in while still being out in the open.

As far as setting up while standing in water u can make as easy or as complicated as u want....a gun normally has a sling on it anyway so just shoulder it or secure to ur backpack/fanny/vest or whatever u use....u could bring an extra bow arm and attach to the tree at the ground and hang ur weapon and then fish it back onto the arm while u up in the tree. U could detach ur quiver and just set ur bow down in the water. If u rappel down add an extra friction hitch and lower ur rope and look down and see where the hitch needs to be, pull it back up and adjust the hitch, attach weapon, and lower back down. Fashion a temporary sling out of some rope/cord u already carrying... Lots of different ways.

What I do is this....at the base of the tree I open up my chest storage on my vest and pull out the little paracord tether with tiny prusik made of masons line and teeny biner and girth hitch to the tree and hang my weapon....them I remove my vest and clip it into the biner on the little tether while removing the weapon. Position vest against the tree so it hangs with the back facing me and attach the bow to the vest then climb as normal paying extra close attention. I don't like climbing with a weapon but I do when need be. I've made temp slings in the past but they can start swaying too easily for me.

if the swamp is too thick/wet/nasty for u to attempt to enter or if there isn't a tree to climb within 200yds....that's where the deers are....hahahaha
 
Here is what I am looking at. Everything north of the yellow line is wet. The gray areas near the river are cypress and the real green areas just north of the line are thick. The orange pin is in an open peninsula sticking out into the swamp. Thinking about staying there. For scale the entire photo is about 2/3 mile wide and maybe 1.25 miles vertical.
21061179-7B92-4063-AB59-E259CA523757.jpeg
 
The big oxbow with all the green trees.....on the south side where u are I'd try to be in the next hard edges north of the 1 u have highlighted if u were able to get to it.
 
Weldabeast said:
The big oxbow with all the green trees.....on the south side where u are I'd try to be in the next hard edges north of the 1 u have highlighted if u were able to get to it.
Click to expand...

Got you... I have some oxbows like that tagged a few miles from here that I can hunt and want to hang some cameras.....

There are two parallel hard edges... One right under the yellow line and the one I think you see just north of it.... Seems we are thinking similarly...
 
Here are some oxbows I can hunt... South of the river.... Really like the one to the west
Screenshot 2023-03-15 at 5.43.01 PM.png
 
jphillips97 said:
Here is what I am looking at. Everything north of the yellow line is wet. The gray areas near the river are cypress and the real green areas just north of the line are thick. The orange pin is in an open peninsula sticking out into the swamp. Thinking about staying there. For scale the entire photo is about 2/3 mile wide and maybe 1.25 miles vertical.
View attachment 82769
Click to expand...
I would for sure put eyes on the spot to the NW of your pin where the cypress transition meets that ditch or drainage. And also the head to the little lake just SW of the horseshoe bend in the river.
 
jphillips97 said:
Here is what I am looking at. Everything north of the yellow line is wet. The gray areas near the river are cypress and the real green areas just north of the line are thick. The orange pin is in an open peninsula sticking out into the swamp. Thinking about staying there. For scale the entire photo is about 2/3 mile wide and maybe 1.25 miles vertical.
View attachment 82769
Click to expand...
B58CF192-383D-4930-AB58-6EC4A3FED02A.jpeg
 
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