Okatibbee Wildlife Management Area is located in the hilly, east-central region of the state approximately 10 miles northwest of Meridian near Collinsville. It is adjacent to Okatibbee Lake and offers sportsmen a double hunt/fish opportunity for October trips to the lake.
The land comprising the WMA was purchased in the early 1960s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct Okatibbee Lake for the purposes of flood control, water quality control, water supply, and recreation.
The lake was formed by the impoundment of Okatibbee Creek, which is the headwater stream of the Pascagoula River Basin. Construction of the 3,800-acre lake was completed in 1968.
Since 1969, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks has managed 6,883 acres surrounding the lake as a WMA, and the Corps has managed 1,352 acres of the project lands for operational and recreational purposes. In 1990, the WMA lands were designated for wildlife mitigation purposes to compensate for wildlife losses resulting from the construction and continuing operation of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Mississippi and Alabama.
The WMA has a mix of several different wildlife habitats. The valley surrounding the lake is forested with mature bottomland hardwoods with adjacent uplands being composed of a mix of mature pine and hardwood timber. Beaver activity for the past three decades has helped to create a vast expanse of open, marshland habitat on the WMA along the northern reaches of the lake. WMA personnel also maintain permanent wildlife openings and plant summer and winter food plots to provide additional food for wildlife.
Squirrel hunting, with and without the use of dogs, is the most popular form of hunting, followed closely by deer hunting. Deer hunting pressure ranges between light to moderate with an annual harvest rarely exceeding 20 deer.
Seasons available for hunting deer include archery, primitive weapon and gun, with gun being limited to shotguns with slugs only. Deer hunting on the WMA is ‘still hunting’ only.
Waterfowl hunting opportunity exists on the WMA and can be fair, at times, considering that the WMA is not located along a major flyway. Okatibbee Lake helps to attract more diverse waterfowl species than one would expect to see in the hilly landscape of east-central Mississippi.
Hunting for rabbit, quail and dove is poor, but spring turkey hunting can be good.
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