Iowa Public Land guidance

[J. Holden]

My son and I are planning a whitetail hunt to Iowa for the fall of 2020.  Right now I'm looking at NE Iowa public land just across the border from Illinois.  Specifically the NE corner of Iowa.  I understand that the public land probably gets a lot of attention.  That's alright.  We just want to come out there and experience whitetail hunting in another state that we haven't seen yet.

I've been looking at the dnr website and your hunting atlas is great!  I've been looking at the Yellow River State Forest as well as the Big Mill Creek area.  I'm just curious if any members here have some opinions of those areas and maybe some advice regarding other areas to look at.

I'm also wondering if there's any sort of trespass fee program that can be accessed for a private land situation. Thanks in advance!

-Jeremy

[pavan]

When I lived in the NE corner, the game warden told me to a stay away from the small unit south of the Paint Creek unit.  I would look a bit west at the Upper Iowa public public lands.  The state land near Lansing is good as well, watch your step in the dark there are some severe drop offs in that one.

[BAK]

Another is the Sny Magil sector east of Garnivillo/south of Pikes Peak State Park.  And the park has a campground as well.  The down side is the quantity of land is very limited and usually has a lot of hunters.  As always if you make the effort you can get beyond most of them.  I hunted there as a kid before the state came in and took it.

[pavan]

https://programs.iowadnr.gov/maps/m/huntingatlas/index.html

[stik&string]

I lived, and worked, in the Northeast corner of the state for a number of years. You are right public land gets hit hard. But if you are willing to put some miles in, most of the hunters drop off after a mile or so from the parking spots.

That being said, I had great luck talking to the farmers in the area and gained access to some farms to take care of "nuisance" deer. Might be worth your while to do i few.knock and talks to some farmers.

[Zwickey-Fever]

Hold on!! You mean to tell me there's "WHITETAILS IN IOWA"?? No way!! LOL!!
PM sent my friend!! Best of luck!

[pavan]

When I lived there in the NE, it was almost lonely on public land compared to the NW corner of the state.   There were two guys that thought they owned Cardinal Marsh and threatened to destroy my car or me if they ever caught me on their 1200 archer parcel of public land again.  That was a major mistake on their part.  The land owner immediately east of the Painted Creek area invited me to hunt on his land.  He had a big buck and lots and lots of rose thorn, I did not get the biggest one.

[Zwickey-Fever]

Stephens state forest is just around the corner from me. Very low hunting pressure during bow season. I have taken a nice buck there. It spans across 3-4 counties I believe. I have never had any issues or confrontations there. I did like the look on the guys faces when they seen me with a recurve, they asked if my bow was still legal to hunt with?. I said, I don't truly know but they can go ask the 10 pointer that I just dragged out to the road that they just drove by. Their jaws dropped. LOL. At least they helped me load my buck up.

[BAK]

Also, if you want to do some research as far as who owns what, this site has it all in Iowa.

https://beacon.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=227&LayerID=3115&PageTypeID=1&PageID=1694

[J. Holden]

Thanks for all the direction gentlemen.  You've certainly helped.

-Jeremy