My son got drawn for LBL quota hunt

my 11 year old got the lucky draw this year for the Land Between the Lakes hunt in KY

Anybody hunted there before?

Any tips?

Chevy, we hunted it two youth seasons maybe 8-10 years ago and struck out but worked birds. We also deer hunted it in youth gun season one year. We did see a bobcat which was very cool. Lots of good looking land. Let me look up some areas and I'll tell you what looked good to us. Birds can be pretty call shy there. Check out some of the old Knight and Hale videos from down there, they'll get you fired up.

Sent you a PM. We liked Energy Lake Campground but like I said it's been awhile. Not sure what the facilities are like but they were fine then for our needs.

I have hunted LBL several times. It is a cool place but we had a lot of trouble with folks ignoring the rules on vehicles beyond gates. It is pretty easy to locate birds. You can just drive the roads and stop every couple hundred yards to locate. Put them to bed and work them in the morning.

If you decide to get back a ways. be sure to have a good map, compass and GPS. All that country looks alike and I had a tough time orienting in it.

Protect yourself against ticks. Take some time to go crappie fishing while you are down there.

thanks John,
what roads do they gate off? I heard some areas are walk in only??

That's what they are supposed to be but it doesn't seem to be well enforced. This was a little while back so it might have changed but I doubt it.

Hunted LBL for turkey twice.

First time, the plan was to be "smart" and out hike the other hunters into a remote area. Well, that didn't work. Saw more hunters than birds.

Second time, I killed a longbeard the first hour of opening day...less than 1/4 mile from the main north-south highway. Shot that bird in a small woodlot surrounded by cut corn fields. Lots of turkey using that woods...and lots of turkey hunters driving right past it.

thanks for the info, we are hunting the KY side and will plan to stick to the north end of the property

That's where we saw the bobcat, Pav. Ran right across the Trace in front of us. We saw a nice buck in deer season crossing there too. Be sure to visit the bison and elk prairie. Where we're talking isn't that far away from where you want to hunt 76.

thanks for the info, we are going to camp at Hillman Ferry. Plan to go down a couple days early to scout it out.