By Eddie Salter

Editor’s Note: Eddie Salter, of Evergreen, Alabama, a longtime H.S. pro staffer, has spent his entire life hunting the flood plain along the Alabama River.

"Swamps are my favorite places to hunt anywhere in the nation, especially late in the season in areas that have experienced great hunting pressure," Salter said. "When most hunters look at a wet marsh and flooded timber, they'll decide the terrain is just too hard to hunt. Instead they'll hunt an area that doesn't take as much effort and where they most likely will find as many or maybe even more deer. But the older age-class bucks that have survived several seasons have learned the water provides sanctuary for them during daylight hours."

To take trophy bucks in wet areas, Salter begins his scouting early in the season. He uses a small, lightweight canoe to paddle around the backwaters and not only look for trails entering the flooded timber but also for islands and high spots out in the water.

"Many times I'll discover little islands and sometimes even big islands out in the middle of vast areas of flooded timber. I've found islands 200 to 300 yards from shore and 5 to 10 acres in size. You can't reach these islands except by boat. Most hunters won't carry a boat or a canoe through the woods, put it in the water and paddle out to hunt only 10 acres. The deer understand that if they stay on those islands during daylight hours they generally won't have any hunting pressure."

When Salter finds an island in flooded timber, he knows he has a late-season honeyhole for a large buck. A trophy deer soon learns if he remains in sanctuaries like islands out in a swamp, he can avoid hunters and survive. The hunters who go to the trouble to take a boat through the woods to hunt these sanctuaries often will encounter some of the largest deer in a region.

"I also have learned that the less human odor swamp bucks encounter the more likely you are to take them," Salter advises. "That's why I like topaddle into my tree stand about 9 or 10 a.m. and plan to hunt until dark."

Salter believes that deer in flooded timber tend to move more frequently during the middle of the day and the afternoon with their peak movement generally occurring during the last two hours of daylight.
"I like to get into my stand in the morning to give the woods plenty of time to settle before the deer start moving," Salter explains. Also by using a canoe, when Salter does take a nice deer, he can float the buck out of the woods without having to make a long drag through the mud.

If you've been negative about hunting swamps like many outdoorsmen and said, "I'm sure big bucks live in there, but I'm not going to fight mosquitoes, snakes, redbugs, ticks and gorillas to go get them," then you have missed some of the best trophy-buck hunting in the nation.