Photo by D. Robert Franz.

It's no secret that Florida has plenty of deer. Though they often seem to vanish like smoke in the wind when opening day comes around, every county in the state has at least a decent deer herd. And there's plenty of opportunity statewide for hunters to find those whitetails.

To find out where the best prospects are for bagging your deer this season, we talked to biologists across the state to get their recommendations for where to go on both public and private land this fall.

NORTHWEST REGION
Lt. Stan Kirkland, FWC Regional Public Information Officer for the Northwest Region, said that hunters should be looking at Eglin Air Force Base, Apalachicola, and Choctaw-hatchee wildlife management areas (WMAs).

"I'd put Eglin at No. 1, Apalachicola WMA as No. 2, and Choctawhatchee River WMA as pretty much neck and neck with Apalachicola," Kirkland surmised.

"Eglin is a vast area and it has a good game management program. The other two are lands owned by the water management district and are pretty much accessible only by boat. But they have a lot of land to hunt."

One great feature of Eglin Air Force Base is its 8,000-acre archery-only area. "That's an enormous area to be archery-only," he noted.

According to Kirkland, some areas of Eglin Air Force Base are closed because of safety concerns.

"Sometimes, some excellent deer cross from those closed areas into the open areas," he added.

Apalachicola WMA is just a few acres short of 582,000. It's in Franklin, Liberty and Leon counties, and is familiar to many hunters throughout the state.

"This is an area that's been one of the lynchpins of our system over the years, and typically has drawn hunters from central and south Florida as the seasons have closed down there," Kirkland explained. "One of the good things about this area is that the deer herd seems to be growing slightly. For a number of years, the herd here seemed to be suppressed for whatever reason, but now it's making some gains. People are seeing more deer, and seem to be seeing more racked deer."

Since Apalachicola is located on national forest land, it's managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which has an aggressive burning program.

"The burning program is the one thing we can do that's not expensive, but is beneficial," Kirkland said.

"Fire removes plants that tend to be hard and pithy, and are not as nutritious for deer. Areas that have been burned have a lot of plants that are young and tender and which the deer feed on."

In the eastern part of the area south of Tallahassee, some oak ridges near the airport are walk-in only, and those are good places to look for deer.

"And the west side of the area along the Apalachicola River is just incredibly beautiful, particularly down near White Oak and Cotton landings," Kirkland said. "There are some hardwood drainages down by the river. It's one of the prettiest places in Florida."

Be aware that the Florida Scenic Trail runs diagonally across the area, from near Medart in the north and west, and that hikers use this area. Camping is allowed on the area.

The Choctawhatchee WMA covers 57,299 acres in Bay, Holmes, Walton and Washington counties.

"This area is owned by the Northwest Florida Water Management District," Kirkland pointed out. "It stretches for 35 or 40 miles along the Choctawhatchee River in a narrow corridor from near the Alabama line to Choctawhatchee Bay. It has a hardwood drainage and with typical mast species."

There is limited access by road, so the best access to this area is by boat. A portion of the area is still-hunting only. The rest is open for the use of dogs during deer season. Two areas -- East River Island and the Holmes Creek Unit -- are open only for archery and muzzleloaders for deer.

"One good thing about this area is that the rut is a little later -- in mid- to late January -- in the Panhandle," Kirkland acknowledged. "There's no quota on this area during that period, and the season runs through the end of January, with an 11-day archery/muzzleloader season afterward."

In the Northwest Region, the western three counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa are probably the best bets for deer. The better areas lie north of Interstate 10, where there's a lot of agriculture.

"These counties have some of the highest deer populations of anywhere in the state," said biologist Arlo Kane. "One of the next highest is Gadsden County. Jackson County also has quite a few."