Going to Land Between the Lakes WMA....Leaving on Monday AM!

[Gary Logsdon]

I took my first deer with a bow on an LBL bow quota hunt in zone 17 nearly 40 years ago.  In the early 80s I tagged the oldest deer on record ever taken at LBL, a 12 1/2 year old doe north of Hematite Lake.  One of the TVA biologists had her tooth microscopically examined at UK.  Guess she had 12 rings:^)  I tell everyone that I shot the smartest deer in lBL, although my "buddies" at the time argued that she was senile and ready for the happy hunting ground, IOW, she comitted suicide:^) I graduated from Murray State (20 miles west of LBL)and have hunted there annually for decades.  Randy is spot on with his suggestions.  I like to locate small green fields that are isolated from foot traffic.  These are few and far between but can be hotspots.  Most LBL hunters don't venture too far from the roads, which are seemingly everywhere, however there are "dead" zones where deer like to congregate.  If you don't mind climbing, there are areas south of Golden Pond which hold good bucks simply because the terrain is steep.  Find a saddle in one of those areas near good "food trees" and you may be surprised what you see.  I filmed a 6X6 that would score a solid 180+ in zone 8 three years ago. I like to solo hunt in the harder to get into areas.  I buy a backcountry camping permit, throw a pack on, and bivy back off well off the main drag. You can find a lot of solitude there this time of year.

[Gary Logsdon]

One more thing, LBL has some interesting hunting history.  I was visiting with Fred Bear one summer when I mentioned LBL, which he knew before it was renamed under TVA, as "Kentucky Woodlands".  Fred got a wide grin on his face, rose from his workshop chair and said "I want to show you something."  It was a tanned rug of a fallow buck that he shot in the mid-1950s at LBL.  I believe he took the first legal fallow with a bow there.  Anyway, he thought it was funny because he shot that fallow in "Barnes Hollow", the same place where I arrowed my first whitetail 15 or so years later.

[ishoot4thrills]

Great info here guys. I appreciate it!

[JamesV]

I was told by a game official to be very careful with equipment left in your truck while hunting. There was a rash of parked trucks and camps robbed in the area. That was several years back and this was on the Tn side.

[randy grider]

Gary, neat story ! What area is Barnes hollow in?
By south of Golden Pond I assume u r talking about Pryor Hollow?

[kyfiddledave]

Hey ishoot4thrills, LBL is my regular hunting grounds. Like others have already said, this time of the year is tough hunting. BUT as was also said, there are some whoppers still roaming around in there. With all the ice storm damage from a few years ago, there are lots of hiding spots with the fallen treetops and limbs (some areas are worse than others) for them to pass their time in. Lots of acorns this year too which makes it harder to pin them down.
In round numbers I was told that the quota gun hunt that was held just before Thanksgiving accounted for around 200 deer in the Kentucky portion, about 75% of which were bucks. I didn't hear the total for the youth quota gun hunt that was earlier in the season, but the totals usually aren't too high during that one.
Most of my hunting takes place in the north end -area 1. As was also said, there's a wide range of habitat. I am really just getting re-started trad hunting, ground hunting only,  using natural blind materials, and learning to still hunt (I should say- TRYING to learn to still hunt). I feel really blessed to have such an AWESOME hunting area so close to home.
Good Luck!
          Dave.

[First White Falcon]

Beautiful place!! I hunted Turkey there in the 70's and we cought a lot of slab croppy.The Trac drive was a joy at night with all the deer!!

[ishoot4thrills]

I'm with ya on the ground hunting, David. Not saying I won't hunt from my climber down there but I plan on trying to maybe hunt from the ice storm cover. I figure it will be easier to hike back in there farther without a heavy stand on my back, quieter too. I think a lot of hunters pass up good looking spots because of the lack of a good tree to get in. At least one good thing about ground hunting is that you can set up just about anywhere there's some cover or you can sometimes move a little cover where you want it.  

[Gary Logsdon]

Randy, are you trying to locate my hot spot below Golden Pond??:^) Barnes Hollow is in zone 17 and lies East-West between Hematite Lake and the Trace.  They haven't allowed bowhunting in there for several years, only very limited quota youth. My time there was during the days when LBL only allowed quota bow hunts in zone 17.  It was a hot zone for whitetails and huge numbers of fallow deer, which were legal back then. A TVA biologist friend of mine used to hide a key for me so I could drop the cables and drive my high school bowhunting club into the "Trail of These Hills" area.  From there I could easily access Barnes Hollow and show the students a lot of game.  This was in the late 70s and early 80s.  LBL doesn't have the deer it had back then, numbers are way down.  In the late 70s you could drive 10-15 miles along the trace and count see as many as 100 deer along the road. Try that now, no way.

[Mark Baker]

My Dad was born in Golden Pond, and most of my relatives lived between the lakes before they were forced to move out.   A very trying time, I'm told.  There are family cemetary plots there still with grandparents of mine buried there.  I took my wife there on our honeymoon, and she found one of my grandmas old coffee cups in what was the old homesite, now a mature oak forest.  It's been a dream of mine to go down and hunt LBL sometime.   Fun to hear you guys talking about it.  Thanks.

ps...Gary, you huntin' my grandpas land?!!!!

[wapiti792]

One of my fondest memories there was when my college sweatheart and I were scouting out a new place from the river. One of our first dates really. I could take a Johnboat from my place on Blood River and be hunting in 15 minutes...she and I walked a spell, her taking in the sights and me looking for a place to hunt. We came upon an old homestead with a plum orchard with the sweetest plums! I killed a nice fat doe near there a month later, married the girl a few years later, and never forgot that day and that place as one of those sacred to my heart.

That place has mojo...and I often wondered about the folks that got moved from that old homestead. I thanked them for the plum orchard and said a little prayer of thanks for such a wonderful place. That was 18 years ago this past fall, and my wife and I still talk about that day we found the plums  

[bluegrassbowhunter]

With all the memories everyone has of the place,sounds like we need to plan a hunt there next season..Me & my family have been hunting it off & on for 30 years & have several memories of the place myself...not trying to highjack your thread Doug....

[thewal2]

I have a friend that lives in Benton and hunts the LBL all the time...He loves it!  He keeps wanting me to come down and hunt it.  I have no need to pay for out of state hunting since I live in IL but I do see a lot of deer while i fish KY lake.  I have never seen what I thought was a buck, but there are plenty of does moving around...Using the lake to access the LBL is one thing my friend does.  He drives his boat to the area he wants to hunt and leaves the boat on the shore line while he hunts  Plus with a West wind a lot parking on the KY lbl shoreline means you are down wind of where you want to hunt!

[randy grider]

Sorry Gary, wasn't trying to sniff out you're "honeyhole". I've got alot of spots I like to hunt, in Areas 1,2 8,10, and explore for new ones everytime I go. Thats whats fun about LBL, you will never cover it all. I wished I lived 20 minutes from there instead of 3 1/2 hours!

[Two Wolves]

Hey Doug, I am so looking forward to the trip myself. Ky Double Lung calls it "Hallowed Ground". Going to be a great trip (even if you are going! LOL). Great hunting in a great place with great people. Thanks to the freedom given and sustained by the greatest warriors both past and present... The United States Armed Forces! See ya in the woods (but you won't see me for I will be wearing ASAT!)

[ishoot4thrills]

Bill, aka "Two Wolves", "Going to be a great trip (even if you are going! LOL)."     .  

I can't wait. I didn't know you had ASAT too. Gonna have to someday get me some of that stuff......

I hope we get a foot of snow a day or two before we head out!

[Huntschool]

Just a little story:

Years ago I had the pleasure of talking with a gentelman who was a dozer operator during the building of the lakes.  I am sure some of you know the Golden Pond area was (is) well known for it high quality "Home Made Spirits".

Well this guy said each day when they would come to work they would look south and see "small smokes" (still fires).  They would work all day and end up several hundred yards from the smoke (smokes).  When they came back the next day to work.. the "smokes" were now about another days work ahead of them....

Just kinda cool....

[Ky Double Lung]

This should be an awesome trip guys, can't wait to get there! Although my buck tag is used up, I am looking to "double lung" a turkey as well as a big old hammer head doe! I plan on checking out some new areas as well. One spot I haven't been in for 15 years. It was my old honey hole but was logged very hard back in the late 90's. It was a very secluded ridge not easily accessable due to low maintenance road. My cousin and I use to slam them every year there but left it after they logged. The great thing about LBL is ya never know what lurks over the next ridge! Counting down the days and hoping the cool weather holds in there!

[mike riddle]

awesome place to hunt

[Gary Logsdon]

LBL is tough hunting but remains a very special place for a lot us.  Memories of past hunts plus making new ones is what keeps hunters coming back.  Nothing like 100,000+ acres to roam around in! When I first started bowhunting,and rarely saw a deer much less got a shot at one, my buddies and I would stop by a place near the north entrance of LBL where a sportsmans store had a walk-in cooler.  We were always checking in to see if ANYONE had actually killed a deer with a bow and hung it there. I guess we didn't believe that it could actually be done, HA!  The first time we saw a bow shot deer in there we partically did an autopsy on it to prove that an arrow had indeed killed it!