Outfitter Review - Water Valley Lodge

Outfitter Information

Outfitter Name: Water Valley Lodge

Outfitter / Contact: Jake Utsey

Location: Alabama, US

Hunt Information

Animals Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Game Quality: Poor

Game Quantity: Very Poor

Accomodations: Excellent

Camp Condition: Average

Food Quality: Average-Good

Guide Experience: What Experience?

Other Personal Experience: What Other?

Review Information

Hunter: Morris T Yates

Phone: 225 683-8072 / 683-3

Email:

Would Recommend: Not without lying

Overall Impression: Disgusted!!!

I hunted the last week of December, 2002.I was driven to within 1/4 mile of where I was to hunt and given general directions as to where the stand was located and told that if I couldn't find it with a flashlight, then wait until daylight and look some more and should be able to see it. Found it accidentally because it wasn't where I was told it would be.Saw 9 does & 9 turkeys before the so-called "guide" came walking through the woods to bring me a peanut butter sandwich for lunch as I planned on staying in the stand all day. Saw no more deer. Day 2, finally found another stand with bad directions as to where it was ( located after daylight and still not sure if it was the one that the "guide" gave directions to ). I didn't see any deer that morning but I did get to see 2 hounds running all around my stand all morning. I had planned to stay on stand all day again but didn't see the point due to the dogs. Got out and waited for the "guide" to bring my sandwich and told him that I wanted to hunt another area, without dogs, for the afternoon. He was gald to oblige and promptly took me to another stand that was located in a field that was located within 400 yards of a house. Didn't see anything except the fireworks display from the house that started sometime after 4:30 and ended just before dark ( guess they ran out of fireworks ). I was picked up well after dark and returned to the lodge at which point I decided to end my pain and just go home.There were over 20 hunters in camp during my ordeal and the success ratio was approximately 10-15%. Some of the hunters came from as far away as West Virginia and left with nothing to show for their long drive.If this had been my first experience with a "guided" hunting operation, I probably wouldn't book another, but fortunately I have had better experiences in Texas and will never hunt in Alabama again. To this day, I'm still trying to figure out where those great quantities of deer are located that I read about in a Buckmasters Magazine article about Water Valley Lodge.

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