Update 2016-10-20: WMA check-in hunt does not count towards Georgia bag limit.

WWALS member Patrick Kunes took this video of Deserter Lake in Irwin County on the Alapaha River in the new Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area (WMA) on the Alapaha River betweeen Tifton and Ocilla. You can hear him talking about turkeys he saw, and you can see the lake on the river. He mentions deadfalls, which are a common feature on the upper Alapaha River. The river itself is not really boatable up that far much of the year, but lakes like this one often still have water. Many such lakes do not have public access, but Deserter Lake does now. This lake is upstream from the formal start of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT), but we’ve included it in the online material about the ARWT because Deserter Lake is in the new Alapaha WMA.

Patrick wrote about this video:

A WWALS member investigates the accessibility of the Alapaha River from the established internal roads within “The Pasture” hunting club that has been purchased by the State of Georgia for a habitat for the Indigo Snake and Gopher Tortoise, both protected species.

The Alapaha WMA is open for hunting and other use, since October 1st 2016. For where the WMA is and where Deserter Lake is, see previous post. Here are approved hunting season dates for the Alapaha WMA, found in other Alapaha WMA information. Bag limits are presumably the same as for the rest of Georgia.

SportFish says Deserter Lake is a great place for anglers to land that monster fish..

We hear that “it is told that a couple of local soldiers who grew tired of the carnage of the Civil War deserted to to hide out until the end of the war.” Does anybody have any further information on that?

Here’s the video:

Deserter Lake in Alapaha Wildlife Management Area 30 August 2016
Video by Patrick Kunes for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).

-jsq

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