Mississippi provides its public-land hunters with some great opportunities across the entire state
Deer
Canemount WMA
“Canemount is No. 1 for good, quality bucks,” said biologist Josh Moree of MDWFP. “Hunters killed several nice bucks here last year, but nothing exceptional.”
Deer hunting on this WMA is by limited draw only; it covers about 3,500 acres n the Loess Bluffs of Claiborne County near the Mississippi River. The hills are very fertile, with a lot of mast producing hardwoods. Canemount also has a long history of trophy deer management and a private and public property.
“That’s paying off for public-land hunters now, and I have seen the results firsthand and experienced success there as well,” Moree said.
An added bonus to hunting at Canemount is that a lot of hogs live among the steep ravines, hills and hollows for hunters who prefer pork chops and hog sausage.
Copiah County
“Copiah County WMA is always good, and its just a short drive south of Jackson, so it gets a lot of deer-hunting pressure,” Moree said. “But hunters have a good chance to harvest a decent deer there if you scout and spend some time there.”
“Sandy Creek down in the Homochitto National Forest has been known to produce good quality bucks as well,” Moree said. “The soil in this WMA is good for this region for growing bucks, and you get a pretty good deer as a result.”
Increased doe-harvest opportunities are available now on several area WMAs.
“During the last two years, the WMAs on our forest service lands only had doe-harvest opportunities in youth gun and during the early archery season,” Moree said. “This year, we will have either-sex hunting during the December primitive weapon season too at Sandy Creek, Caston Creek, Bienville, Tallahala and Caney Creek.
Three WMAs offer deer hunting with dogs, as well as still-hunting, according to Moree: Bienville, Tallahala, and Caney Creek. Combined these three WMAs encompass over 82,000 acres of prime south-Central public hunting lands.
Small Game
Sandy Creek/Tallaha WMAs
“I’d say Sandy Creek is our top squirrel hunting area, with Tallahala close behind,” Moree said. “Sandy Creek has mostly upland hardwoods and some bottomland hardwoods with lots of good habitat for squirrels.
Sandy Creek covers 19,125 acres in Adams and Franklin Counties near Natchez, including larger areas of hardwood bottoms and plenty of squirrel habitat.
“Tallahala is comprised of 27,442 acres and has some big hardwood bottoms with good squirrel habitat as well,” Moree said. “There’s plenty of squirrel dog hunters in this area and they have a lot of room to move around and hunt.”
Quail
Marion County/Copiah County WMAs
Marion County WMA and Copiah County WMA are very popular quail hunting areas, and they have a decent population of wild quail, also,” Moree said. “Woodcocks also provide another opportunity at wing shooting as an added bonus to the quail hunting.”
Waterfowl
Pearl River WMA
“Pearl River is about the only area we have in the region that has good waterfowl opportunities on it,” Moree said. “This is a youth-only waterfowl hunt, by permit only. We have several managed waterfowl impoundments in the area that offer excellent harvest opportunities. There are about 1,000 acres of flooded hardwoods, sloughs and moist-soil impoundments for youth only.”
There are limited wood duck opportunities along creeks, sloughs and beaver ponds on most of the other WMAS where you find water and feed.
Check out the other regions below:
Northwest Region
Delta Region
East Central Region
Northeast Region
Southeast Region
North Delta
