Water Valley Lodge Buckmaster Magazine Article
Below is the Magazine Article that we are famous for...enjoy.
The House That Jake Built
This west Alabama deer manager has his own way of doing things and it’s working!
Text by Mike Handley
I’d been watching a young buck stretch his lanky adolescent frame in the pursuit of a willing girlfriend all afternoon. He had worked himself into a lather, stopping only occasionally to sniff the scented air before charging toward whatever doe happened to be nearest. Pencil-necked and shallow-chested, whenever he faced my hiding place, he’d curl his upper lip a la Jack Nicholson and point his nose skyward.
Observing the 3-pointer’s comical antics in a field full of does and yearlings was the only thing keeping me awake. I’d just driven three hours from Montgomery to Gilbertown, Ala., where I barely had time to inhale a couple of pieces of fried chicken before it was time to dress, grab my rifle and hop into the Suburban with four more guys who had arrived at Water Valley Lodge the previous evening.
After the others had been dropped off within walking distance of their stands, the guide, Gary Doggett, asked if he could sit with me. Our destination was a power line, portions of which had been planted in clover, and he wanted to bring a video camera. A week earlier, while hunting in South Texas, I shared a deer blind with another adult for the first time. Since I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I was more than happy to have Gary accompany me.
My expectations were not high for that mid-December hunt, although Gary and I saw several deer en route to the shooting house and even more already grazing in the distant food plot when we arrived. Another hunter had sat there the previous afternoon, and he’d asked to see a different part of the property. December is midway into Alabama’s long season, and the deer in most places have a way of disappearing until the rut peaks in mid-to late January.
During our vigil, Gary captured several does on film before the 3-pointer stepped out into the open to pester them. He was filmed, too, even though he was probably 400 yards distant. Three hours into the huntand perhaps a half-hour before dark, the camera was turned off and I was hoping that Gary couldn’t see me straining to keep at least one eye open. I kept thinking that if I closed the eye hidden from his view, I might get half a nap without embarrassment.
When my overworked right eye swiveled to the left, the other one popped open. A barrel-chested buck had just stepped out of the pines almost 200 yards in front of us and was watching the youngster’s unsuccessful attempts to romance the ladies. After blinking maybe once, I whispered, “Buck … to the left!”
About the time Gary focused his camera on the buck, I started counting points. To be legal at Water Valley Lodge, a buck must have at least eight points around a 15-inch spread. He fit the bill, even if I couldn’t see the kicker that made him a 9-pointer. When I fired, the buck fell to the ground like a stone, which made for some awesome footage. I had just bagged the second largest Alabama buck of my long career and my fourth trophy in a wonderful 1999 season!
I was hunting Jeff Utsey’s Red Roof Farms near Lisman, a portion of Water Valley that is pressed into service only when brother Jake has a full house. Otherwise, most of the hunting is done closer to Gilbertown – “deer heaven” in my book.
When Russel Thornberry, this magazine’s executive editor, asked me to fill in for him at the Choctaw County hunt, I had to hide my smile. Russell has never hunted in that part of Alabama, but I had. Choctaw County borders the state’s Black Belt, and it has the unique distinction of being home to both numbers of deer and quality bucks. When Russell almost apologized for dropping this hunt on me at the last minute, I felt like Briar Rabbit being thrown into the briar patch.
What I didn’t know before I visited the Utsey family’s place, however, was that the management philosophy at Water Valley Lodge has built a herd reminiscent of those here in the 1970s. That equates to lots of deer and big bucks that aren’t nocturnal. The woods and fields were teeming with whitetails, and I saw them all day long, even in the lush green fields.
Later that night, after admiring another bruiser whitetail taken by someone else, most of the hunters retired to their rooms in Water Valley’s practically brand-spanking new lodge – built from timber harvested off the family’s 12,000 acres. Jake and I, however took advantage of the time to become properly acquainted. I wanted to know more about the place.
“I don’t like a bunch of shooting,” he said matter-of-factly. “And I don’t agree (with biologists) that I need to slaughter does. I might change my mind later, but – right or wrong – that’s how I feel right now. We only take mature bucks here. If a hunter doesn’t like it, he or she can go someplace else! I’m really more interested in attracting the discriminating hunter anyway.”
Jake’s philosophy is the heart of the management program at Water Valley. He’s not so interested in the buck-to-doe ratio as he is in protecting immature bucks and not overstressing the rest of the herd. To accommodate the resulting, booming whitetail population, he spares no expense in planting lush food plots for the deer, and the animals visit these all-you-can-eat buffets morning, noon and night.
But I didn’t have to take his word for that. Since I’d already harvested a nice buck, I asked Jake to let me hunt the next morning where the odds of taking a wild hog were greatest. I didn’t see any hogs, despite myriad fresh rootings, but I did see hordes of deer. It was after 7am, well after sunup, before I spotted the first few whitetails. Before they appeared, I was treated to the sounds of a dozen or more turkeys waking in the nearby pines. During the next three hours sitting in my ladder stand, I saw at least 2 dozen does feeding contently in the green field.
Deer rarely feed out in the open before 4pm in Alabama, except when there is no hunting pressure. This helped convince me that Jake’s old-fashioned – some might say ill advised – reluctance to shoot does is accomplishing exactly what he wants: for his clients to see a lot of deer, and for the mature deer not to be strictly nocturnal. I can’t say that I totally agree with his feelings about protecting does, but I sure enjoyed seeing all of them. It beat the heck out of seeing a deer or two a day, and it carried me back to my youth, when I used to see large herds of deer on every outing.
Commercial hunting operations in the Heart of Dixie are blessed in that they have a lot of leeway in deciding how to manage their properties. It is legal in this state to harvest a buck a day from Oct. 15 through Jan. 31 – the first 35 days reserved only for bowhunting. Archers have their choice of sexes throughout that time in most counties, and gun hunters may shoot either sex during the ‘doe days’ or when visiting a club or lodge that subscribes to the state’s deer management program (DMP). Lodges and clubs have the freedom, however, to set any antler-size restrictions or limits that they desire – despite unsuccessful moves in recent years to legislate the allowable size and number of bucks that may be harvested.
I say this to explain how the many different lodges have their own set of rules. Choctaw County is home to many commercial operations. At one place bucks must have at least 6 points to be a ‘shooter,’ in another customers have the option of hunting a tract where anything goes, or visit lands where only 8-pointers or larger may be harvested. At nearly all of the lodges, if a hunter shoots a deer that falls short of their minimum, he or she must pay a fee, sometimes as much as $500, even though the buck would be legal under Alabama law.
“We’re not asking people to pay the fine – we call it a fee – as a source of revenue,” Jake explained. “We’d rather no one had to pay it. This is the only way that we can control the harvest. It forces people to take closer looks at the deer they shoot … to be more discriminating. It prevents a lot of ‘accidents’ and ground shrinkage.”
In other words, if you get a shot at Jake’s place, you might as well call the taxidermist!
Editor’s Note: To book a hunt there, write Water Valley Lodges Inc. P.O. Box 615, Butler AL 36904. Call (205) 459-3791 or (334) 843-3168 or e-mail them at hunting@watervalleylodge.com
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