OUTDOORS
some for sporting clays, while others take buggy rides or fish
on its 6,000 acres.
“People from out of state are most interested in hog hunting,”
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says Maria Fanizzi, who manages the property with her
husband Fred, a hunter and guide who was recruited by the
owner to oversee its operations when it opened to the public
in 2001. “People from up north have a fascination with the
hogs and that’s all they want. Next is axis deer because the
meat is very good,” but bird shoots remain the most popular
attraction here next to the sporting clays.
Quail Creek is where Hayden-Kaplan first took a bead on
a sporting clay arcing through the air. He credits that opportunity
to his stepfather, Tom Pledger Jr. of Jupiter, a native
Floridian, licensed boat captain, and hunter who has since
joined the board of the Young Guns organization.
“I believe we should try to grow kids’ interests and keep
them developing and building their abilities in their sport,”
Pledger says. “Some people are just natural at what they do,
and Sam was just a natural shooter.”
With his stepson at college, Pledger misses him as a hunting
buddy. He’s frequently among those called by agricultural
business owners and others with big tracts of land to
cull hogs that destroy property by digging it up. Pledger and
his children hunt a handful of hogs a year for themselves but
as a hired gun he may shoot as many as 40 a day. “They do an
extreme amount of damage and they multiply like rabbits, if
not worse,” he says.
REGULATIONS PROTECT GAME
Wildlife management officials have made strides in improving
hunting opportunities in Florida that declined from
HUNTING STATISTICS
Licensed hunters................................................ 242,000
Licensed fishermen............................................ 3.1 million
J.W. Corbett, the DuPuis area, Hungryland, and
Allapattah Flats
386 deer 416 hogs 1,500+ doves
*2015 to 2017 Florida Fish and Wildlife figures
over-use several decades ago, Pledger says. “People have to
understand if you kill everything you see you won’t have a
herd in the future.”
Hunting regulations for public lands have changed over
time, reflecting management challenges. Seasons can be
restrictively short — general gun season is just four days long
this November — and other regulations limit deer size and
age, for instance, to bucks with three points on each side. Still,
on nearby wildlife management properties that command
thousands of square acres between Lake Okeechobee and the
Treasure Coast, J.W. Corbett, the John G. and Susan H. DuPuis
area, Hungryland, and Allapattah Flats, there were 386 deer,
416 hogs, and more than 1,500 doves taken by hunters from
2015 to now, according to state fish and wildlife figures.
Ryan Gill was similarly attracted to hunting at a young
age and showed great promise in his shooting ability, but the
Brooksville resident honed in on bow hunting — primitive >>
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