Ryan Nitz: How to Start Public Land Hunting in Florida

Full transcript of the Tom Rowland Podcast, Episode 365, Ryan Nitz...

Tom Rowland: What's going on, everybody? I got a really special show for us today. One of my favorite guests we've ever had on Saltwater Experience is my good friend Ryan Nitz. He took us out to catch giant snook, and a lot of people remember that show — it was fantastic. One of the things Ryan does very well, outside of snook fishing, is he's an outstanding public land hunter in Florida. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to get him on and talk about public land hunting from A to Z. If you've never done it before, you're going to learn something in this show. If you're a veteran, you're going to learn something too — there's a little bit of something for everyone. So if you're a veteran, stick with the beginning part of this show, because we're going to start fresh. Ryan gets a lot of people asking him how they can get started hunting, and we're going to go through that right now.

So I've got my friend Ryan Nitz here. Ryan, what's going on? How are you?

Ryan Nitz: Good, Tom. It's good to see you again. It's been a couple of years.

Tom Rowland: Well, it hasn't been a couple of years for me, because I follow you on Instagram and I watch all the stuff you're catching and killing — you're doing awesome, man. You just got back from your elk hunt, is that correct?

Ryan Nitz: I just got back from Colorado, twenty-eight hour drive. Funny enough, I got here at 3:30 in the morning, and I was back out in the woods at 5:30 hunting public land down here again.

Tom Rowland: Dang, you're an animal. Alright, well, one of the things we've had a lot of questions about, and I know you get a lot of questions too, is how do you get started public land hunting? Let's talk about it, especially in Florida. Let's go from A to Z, Ryan, if you don't mind sharing some of your knowledge with our listeners. Just kind of A to Z — what do you tell people when they ask about getting into hunting in Florida?

Getting Started: Hunter Safety and Licensing

Ryan Nitz: Absolutely. I get a lot of people asking me about fishing, and obviously that's way easier — you just go buy a fishing pole and walk down to the water and start fishing. Hunting, if you've never grown up around it or had someone show you, can be very, very hard to get into. Basically, it starts with getting your hunter safety course. You cannot buy a permit or have a license until you take the safety course, and that's offered through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC.

It's a simple course — a two-day course, though it might be different now with COVID, it might be online. But it's a super simple course that runs you through the basics. Once you have that, you can start applying to where you want to hunt. There's about six million acres of public land in Florida, so no matter what county you're in, there's going to be land to hunt somewhere. Primarily that's deer, turkey, hogs, ducks, and alligators. Some people are more into wing shooting — we have doves and quail.

So first things first, you get your hunter safety course. After that, here's where it gets tricky: every piece of land in Florida has its own rules and regulations. Florida is broken up into four zones — Zone A, B, C, and D — and each zone has different dates for when the season starts, so you've got to pay attention to that. Again, this is all on MyFWC, so whatever you're confused about, you go there and they'll tell you everything I'm about to tell you.

Wildlife Management Areas and Quota Hunts

Ryan Nitz: Some WMAs — for instance where I live, here in Jupiter, Florida — there are three huge WMAs, meaning wildlife management areas: Corbett, Hungryland, and Allapattah. I hunt those three a lot because they're right next to my house. Corbett, just for example, is 60,000 acres, and you don't need a quota there — a quota is limited entry. Anybody can go in as soon as it opens, and on opening day there are going to be hundreds of people flooding into Corbett.

Well, across the street from that is Hungryland. Hungryland is only 12,000 acres, and you need a quota to go in there, meaning you have to apply before the season starts on MyFWC, and if you get drawn, you can go hunt it. They only let 30 to 50 people in there on any given week. So you've got to know — if you're going to this place, okay, I don't need a quota, I can go in there; if I'm going here, I better have a quota.

Tom Rowland: Let me ask you this real quick — when you apply for that quota, you're doing all that through MyFWC?

Ryan Nitz: Yes.

Tom Rowland: And when would you get your quota — when would they notify you that you're eligible to hunt in that area?

Ryan Nitz: I think May is when you can start applying. Bow season is what opens first — that's always the first season to open in the country, bow season and archery. So you'd apply in May, and that goes pretty much all through the summer, and they'll let you know by email and alerts if you get drawn — probably about six to seven weeks before the hunt, so sometime in July. That gives you plenty of time to go out and set cameras. Now, on public land you are not allowed to bait — there's no baiting allowed. You can go put out cameras, but that's about it. It's not like private land hunting, and you've got to understand, as a public land hunter, it's not going to be like that.

If you talk to a private land hunter, they'll tell you, “Oh, I saw twenty deer today, and they were all over the place.” Don't expect that on public land — that's not how it goes. So basically, you get your quota, and you have a couple of weeks to go scouting. Scouting is huge. Scouting is everything — it's just like fishing, the more time you spend out there, the more you're going to know. And when it comes to scouting, no one scouts more than I do. I'm out there all day, all week long, putting in miles — I'm talking a minimum of eight miles. Now, a lot of people aren't going to be able to do that, but the more you scout, the better.

I've lately had an obsession with trail cameras — I can't stop buying them. That's the photographer in me. I don't even do it just for the hunting aspect; I like setting them up on cool logs and crossings and learning a lot more beyond just killing. So yeah, quotas are key. If you want a good chance of killing a deer in Florida, you want to get on a quota hunt. Like I said, a lot of people hunt around here, and it's very discouraging when you get to your stand and there are three people walking around with flashlights. That happens a lot, and that's another thing I'll talk about a little later — etiquette.

Public Land Etiquette

Ryan Nitz: Etiquette is probably the biggest thing out of all of it. Throughout the years — I'm 29 now, and when I first started hunting at 18, I didn't really know what was going on. I was just rummaging through the woods like a little banshee. So since we're talking about it, let's talk about it. If you're a first-time hunter — everybody hunts differently. There are people who want to walk around and walk-and-stalk, where you walk really slow, look for animals, and figure out how you're going to get a shot. And then there are a lot of people who like to find a good tree, whether they set up a ladder stand or a climbing stand, and sit all day.

If you're a walk-and-stalk hunter and you're walking down a trail and a hundred yards in front of you, you see a guy sitting in a tree — turn around, don't keep walking in front of him. I don't care if you know there are deer up ahead. Just be courteous. There are 60,000 acres of land — turn around, let the guy have it.

Another thing — a lot of people, before their hunt, put ribbons out marking trails with these plastic ribbons. Don't do that. Don't be that guy — I've seen so many ribbons left out there. It's public land; just because you put your ribbons up doesn't mean it's your property anymore. So don't do that.

When you're pulling into a spot in the morning, a lot of places have a designated parking area. If I pull up to my spot that I've been scouting all month and there are already five trucks there, I'm not going to go there — I'm going somewhere else. I can't tell you how many times I've killed deer by saying, “Alright, there's already enough people here, I'll go to this other spot” — a spot I'd never even scouted — and I walk two hundred yards in and kill a deer. That happens all the time. So don't get discouraged, and don't go picking a fight with somebody, because let's face it, some of these guys out there have guns, and you just don't know who's out there. No deer is worth fighting over — just go somewhere else. That's a big thing.

Bow Season

Ryan Nitz: Let's start with bow season. In bow season, you don't need hunter's orange. Bow hunting is very tough — if you're a first-time hunter, don't just go buy a bow and go out there. There's a lot of preparation in bow hunting. If you're going to be serious about it, get a bow months in advance and shoot it every single day. When it comes down to crunch time, you don't want to shoot a deer in the wrong spot and trail it for three days and never find it. So more than anything, you need to shoot, shoot, shoot — you need to figure out where that arrow is going, or you're just wasting your time.

Tom Rowland: Let me ask your opinion about that — how dialed in do you need to be to have success bow hunting in Florida? Do you need to have your ranges set at thirty, forty, fifty yards, or fifty, sixty, seventy? Do you need to be able to put six arrows into a two-inch target? What's your baseline for being able to ethically and effectively hunt with a bow?

Ryan Nitz: For me, 65 yards is my maximum — that's going to be different for everyone, and different for every state you hunt. Florida is really thick, so there are a lot of areas where you can get in tight with them and your shot will be twenty yards. That's very common. It depends on your bow. Bow hunting is my passion, so I've got the nicest of the nice — I have a Mathews VXR, one of their newest and baddest bows. So, of course, shooting 65 yards is no problem with a bow like that.

Not everyone has the luxury of buying a top-end bow, so it's really whatever you're comfortable with. An average bow, you can buy used online for anywhere from three to six hundred dollars, and that'll get the job done. A minimum forty-pound draw is legal in Florida — you have to pull at least forty pounds to legally hunt with a bow, and most young women can pull back a forty-pound bow, so don't worry about that.

My pins are set at twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty yards, and at sixty yards I can hit a pie plate every time — that's what you want to be able to do. If you can't hit a pie plate, you're not doing it right, it needs to be within an even smaller group than that. Your groupings need to be within two to six inches of each other, nothing farther out than that. If you're not there yet, you just need to keep shooting.

Muzzleloader and General Gun Season

Ryan Nitz: After bow season, you go into muzzleloader season. Muzzleloader is probably the best time of year to be in the woods — you're the first gun in the woods. Muzzleloaders have a lot of rules too: it has to be point-four-five caliber or bigger, and with a muzzleloader you're literally packing the powder like the old days. It's one shot — you get one shot, and that's it.

After muzzleloader comes general gun season, and that's when you've got to be careful. If you have a gun in your hands, you better have orange on — you need 500 square inches of orange, meaning a vest and a hat. Make sure you have that, because you'll hear horror stories every now and then of somebody walking through the woods, and some people, it's rare, but it happens, don't look at their target before they shoot. If you're going to become a hunter, you've got to make sure you know what you're shooting.

Legal Deer and Antler Restrictions

Ryan Nitz: That brings me to legal deer — it's a big thing to me now. When I was young, if it was brown, it was down; if it had eyes, it dies. Ten years ago, when I first started hunting in Florida, there was no bag limit and no reporting system — you could kill a deer every day of the season until it ended. But about four or five years ago, the FWC implemented antler restriction rules. First it was two points on one side, then it became three points on one side, which is what it is now.

So it has to have three points — let me show you. Here's a deer skull. This is your main beam, the long one. With the rule, it's three points on one side, or a ten-inch main beam. This one is probably a sixteen-inch main beam, so obviously you could shoot it, and it also has points. Now here's another tricky thing — you see this short point? It's not over an inch, and if it's not over an inch, it's not considered a point. The old-timers will tell you if you can hang a ring on it, it's a point, but by FWC rules it has to be an inch. So, to be honest, I wouldn't count that one. You've got to be careful. But this one right here is a point, this one's a point, and then you've got your brow tine — so that's three: one, two, three. That would be a legal deer.

But what you see a lot in Florida is young deer coming through with barely nine-inch horns and just four points, and people are killing those and saying, “Oh, I thought it was ten inches.” I don't like the ten-inch rule — I wish they'd do away with it, because so many people think, “How am I supposed to know?” Well, when in doubt, let it go. There are certain days you can shoot does, and every WMA is different — this WMA might let you shoot does, while the one across the street doesn't, so you've got to know what you're doing. Again, on MyFWC you can look up every specific WMA and see every rule for that particular area.

Feeding Rules and Reporting Your Harvest

Ryan Nitz: Again — no feeding. Never put corn or anything out on public land. That is very illegal, and the FWC doesn't play when it comes to that. If you get caught, they can take your hunting license away for three to five years, or indefinitely, so it's nothing to risk.

Tom Rowland: So, Ryan, just to be clear — are there places in Florida on private land where you can feed? Is there a difference in the rule, or can you just not feed in Florida whatsoever?

Ryan Nitz: On private land, you can feed. You have to have the feeder established — I believe six months prior to season — so you can't just go out there a day before and drop a hundred pounds of corn and hunt over it. It has to be established well in advance, but yes, you can feed on private land.

Tom Rowland: Okay, so for the purposes of this — on public land, there's no feeding of any kind, whatsoever, no exceptions?

Ryan Nitz: Never. And another thing — with reporting game, they've gotten very strict. This is the first year where, before you even move the deer, you have to report it. Most of us use our phones — there's an app, and you log it right in the system: “I shot an eight-point right here at this WMA.” For the old-timers who aren't doing that, you can print out a form, fill it out right away when you kill it — I think you rubber-band it to the antler — and you have twenty-four hours to call it in. Make sure you do that, because I've already seen people post pictures of their deer without reporting it, and a week later they're online saying, “Make sure you report your deer, I forgot.” The FWC is out there constantly monitoring — if you post a picture of your deer, somebody's going to be checking, so make sure you log it.

This year, they've implemented a limit of five deer a year in Florida, no more than two of which can be does. So you can shoot five bucks and no does, or three bucks and two does, or four bucks and one doe — you just can't shoot more than two does. That's more than enough to feed any family — when you properly clean and skin a deer, that's more meat than you can handle. I'm all about the limits, and in the few years since they started, I've seen a dramatic increase in bigger bucks being shot and more deer around. I think they're doing a good job with that.

Essential Gear for the Woods

Ryan Nitz: As for supplies, there's a lot that goes into it. First things first: a ThermaCell. ThermaCell, ThermaCell, ThermaCell, or you will die out there. The mosquitoes are terrible — turn that thing on before you even start walking, and you want it red hot by the time you get in your tree. Some people even use two of them.

A knife — I use a Havalon knife because the blades are cheap, and as soon as you put a new blade on, you can carve up a deer in no time. It's so much easier carving a deer with a sharp knife than a dull one — don't skip that.

For how you hunt — tree stand, climber, or walk-and-stalk — if you're a beginner, I think the best type is a ladder stand. They're a hundred to two hundred dollars, basically a fifteen-foot ladder with a seat on it. Get yourself a safety harness — a full-body harness that clips to the top of the tree. God forbid you fall out, you'll want that harness on. People die every year falling out of their tree stand, and I don't care how good or how young and spry you are, things happen up there. If you stand up and a big buck is coming at you, you might lose your footing; everything goes out the window when a big buck comes down the lane. So be safe and wear a harness.

Those are the basics — your ThermaCell, your knife, your flashlight. When you're walking in in the morning, get a light with a red setting. I think that's better — you don't want to go in there with a big white spotlight; people will be upset, and the deer see that. I don't think they see the red light, I've never really had a problem with it, so try to get a light that has that option.

Trail Cameras: Cellular vs. SD Card

Ryan Nitz: Trail cameras are big — I'm a big fan of Browning trail cameras. They're about a hundred dollars, and they'll tell you a lot about what's going on in the woods. They can save you a lot of headache.

Tom Rowland: So you have a couple different trail camera options — ones where you have to go out and pull the card, and others hooked up to a cellular network where the pictures get delivered to your phone. Which do you prefer, and is one worth the cost?

Ryan Nitz: Once you get a cellular camera, it's like Christmas every morning — I wake up at 4:30 and the first thing I'm checking is my cell cameras. That's something new this year that's really taken off. There's SpyPoint, Moultrie, Spartan — they're pretty new in the cellular camera game, so there are still some hiccups with all the companies. I don't think any one of them is flawless yet, but they all do a pretty good job. You're not going to get the video quality you'd get from one you leave with an SD card — those Brownings I mentioned shoot super HD video. I think you can get that with the cell cameras too, but you have to pay extra for them to transmit high-quality video.

Cell cameras are great, but more so for a private land hunter than a public land hunter. With public land, especially with quota hunts, you only have three or four days — your time is limited. Cell cameras are great for people with private land, because you can be sitting on your couch, see it went off, and go check it out. That's not as easy on public land.

But it's still very fun, and the best thing about a cell camera is you're not going out there constantly to check it — that's huge. Mature whitetails are smart. If you're checking your camera once a week, that deer knows — it's been living there for four or five years, and when you come walking through, it smells that. I have tons of videos of me setting up a trail camera for the first time, a buck coming in, hitting that scent, and taking off — you won't see him again for two weeks. With cellular cameras, I'm leaving them out there for months at a time, and the first week you won't get much, but after that they start coming through.

I think the most valuable thing about a cell camera is you get real-time data right away — you're not driving out there, you're saving gas money, and a lot of times the woods aren't in your backyard, it's an hour drive or an hour walk. So the cell cameras save you a lot of time and effort. I like them both — it's whatever you can afford. Cell cameras range anywhere from a hundred to four hundred dollars, and on public land I'm not putting a four-hundred-dollar camera out in the woods — there are people who will chop down a tree to steal your camera. I've seen it. You can put a lock on it — a twenty-dollar cable lock will keep an honest man out most of the time. But don't put a four-hundred-dollar camera out there and be surprised when it gets stolen. It can happen.

Scent Control and Playing the Wind

Tom Rowland: Good tips, man. What about scent? We briefly touched on it, but for hunters just getting started, they may not realize how important disguising your scent is, and the ways you can do that. Let's cover that real quick.

Ryan Nitz: Scent control in Florida is pretty much nonexistent. You can shower with unscented shampoo, spray down, wash your clothes in unscented detergent, but two minutes out there in the woods, you're soaked in sweat. So play the wind — the wind is it. Anybody can tell me different, but they make these things called Ozonics that suck in your scent or whatever — to me, that's all a gimmick. The wind is what matters.

Now, that's not to say I don't still spray down and try to get every advantage I can, but you've got to play the wind. When you find an area you want to hunt, one of my favorite apps is Windy — that's going to show you what the wind is doing. A lot of times I won't hunt a particular spot until the wind is right, because if the wind's in your face, you're good. If you're hunting an area and the wind's at your back, blowing right into where you think the deer are going to come from, you're never going to see them — they'll smell you so far away you won't even know they're there. So for scent control, really, just play the wind.

I'm out there usually just in my board shorts — that's it, nothing on but board shorts. I don't really recommend going barefoot, but people who know me know I'm the barefoot bandit around here. I'm a walk-and-stalk hunter, so I both encourage it and don't encourage it — if you're not a walk-and-stalk hunter, don't try to be one. It takes a lot of stealth and patience. You don't just walk around, see a deer, and fling an arrow, it doesn't work like that. You've got to walk inch by inch and take serious note of your surroundings to be a successful walk-and-stalk hunter. It's not for everybody, but you can try it — if you're not seeing anything, don't be surprised. They're probably seeing you long before you see them.

Snakes, Alligators, and Ticks

Ryan Nitz: Boots are tough, especially with all the rain lately — a lot of the areas you're hunting will be over your boot, which is another reason I go barefoot. But you can wear water shoes, and some people wear snake gaiters, kind of like shin pads. There are a lot of snakes around, I see them all the time. I don't wear any of that; again, I don't recommend going without it, but I'm very alert to my surroundings. I'm out in the woods every day, so I see snakes all the time — you've just got to be careful and watch for them.

Alligators are a big thing too — I've seen eight-foot alligators in a tiny little hole you'd never expect one to be in, so you've got to be aware of that. Another big thing is ticks — they're all over the place. A ThermaCell isn't going to help you with ticks; you want permethrin. Sawyer is the company that makes it — you coat your clothes in it a day before the hunt, it dries, and as soon as a tick gets on you, it dies. That permethrin works really well.

Tom Rowland: What about when you're out there in your board shorts — how are you watching out for ticks?

Ryan Nitz: You just get them, you'll feel it once you've had a couple. Luckily, we don't have as many ticks down here in South Florida; the ones we get are big enough that you feel them. When you go up to North Florida, there are seed ticks, and those are nasty — by the time you notice, you'll have hundreds of them on you. So North Florida's a little more sketchy when it comes to ticks. Down here, I'll get maybe one or two on me every now and then, mostly from walking through the grass for miles. When you're in a tree stand, you don't really have to worry about that as much — you're going to your spot, getting up in the tree, and sitting. Me, I'm like a deer — I'm walking through the woods picking up everything, so I've got to check myself after every hunt. That's what I do. Just check — they like the areas you don't want them to be in, so check those first.

Mapping Apps and Scouting Technology

Tom Rowland: So, man, that's a tremendous amount of information. As far as looking at areas you're thinking about hunting, whether it's either type of hunt we discussed, what about resources like satellite maps, or different apps you use for that kind of thing, to get an idea of the lay of the land before you even go?

Ryan Nitz: I'm big on the maps — I spend hours looking at Google, you can ask my girlfriend. onX is a big one — onX is probably the biggest app you're going to want to get. I think it's twenty dollars a year, and what onX does is lay out all the property lines for you. When you're hunting a specific area, you can go on MyFWC and they have these brochures, but the brochures they give you are super vague — you can't tell property lines on there. onX will paint you a beautiful picture — you can track yourself, pin things — so onX is the number one app I recommend for that.

Other than that, for figuring out an area, I'll use Google, Bing, and the Apple Maps that comes with your iPhone. All three will have different layouts and show you different things — cypress trees will look different here, a palmetto flat will look different there — and I use a combination of all three. You can literally pin things now; fifteen years ago you couldn't do that. There's a lot of new ground out there that people are exploring. Ten years ago, you weren't walking three miles into the woods, because you would have died, you'd have never found your way out. Never.

So definitely, when you find an area, go back home, pull up the aerial view, and just look — pay attention to what cypress trees look like on a map, what pine trees look like on a map. For me, my secret is cypress — bucks around South Florida love cypress, it's cover for them, the nastiest part of the woods there is, and that's where the bucks are going to be. The harder it is to get to an area, the more likely there's going to be deer there. Definitely, Google Maps is probably my favorite — it gives you the best layout of them all, and I'll use that in combination with onX. That's pretty much how I find my way around.

Where to Learn More and Why Hunting Matters

Tom Rowland: And for people getting started or refining their approach, do you have videos you're putting out, or is there another place people can go to watch videos and learn?

Ryan Nitz: YouTube — I particularly don't do it too much myself. I've never been a big guy on putting my own videos on YouTube; I kind of keep it on the DL. But there are tons of people on YouTube who are public land hunters, and they're showing you what you need to do, how to do it, and all the mistakes they're making. There's a couple of big channels out there, and you can find them really easily on YouTube. Any questions, people message me all the time and I'm glad to help. I love helping new hunters.

A lot of my buddies who never hunted before are huge hunters now — my girlfriend never hunted a day in her life, and she's probably one of the biggest bow hunters I know now. So I love getting new hunters involved, it's kind of a big deal. Hunting is a very touchy subject for a lot of people. You know, if you weren't born into it or you've never done it, a lot of people look down on hunting, they don't like it. But I can tell you, the first time you go hunting, you'll be hooked. It's not always about killing something. For example, my trip to Colorado, I was up there for seven days hunting elk. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to kill one, but just being out there in the mountains, meeting new people, some of the guides out there, that was more than I could have asked for. It was soul cleansing.

Follow Ryan Nitz

Tom Rowland: Well, let's end right there. Why don't you tell people how they can get in touch with you, how they can message you, follow you on social media — wherever you want to send them?

Ryan Nitz: Yeah, absolutely. Biggest is Instagram — I'm big on Instagram, that's Ryan Nitz, R-Y-A-N-N-I-T-Z. You can also email me at ryannitzphotography@gmail.com. Those are the two I check every day, and that's pretty much it, I try to keep it simple.

Tom Rowland: Right on. Well, Ryan, thanks so much for all that information — that's fantastic. And guys, he put it out there — if you have questions, send him an email. He's a very easy guy to talk to, and you'll get a lot of information out of it. And when you go follow him on Instagram, don't be surprised if all of a sudden you want to go fishing for giant snook, because he's pretty good at that too.

Alright, so that's how to hunt public land in Florida. I don't know about you, but I learned a ton. If you liked this, share it with one of your friends. Tag us on Instagram, Tom Rowland Podcast, and tag Ryan Nitz too — let him know you listened and that you liked what he had to say, and follow him on Instagram. He's got a great page.

Alright, that's it for today. We'll see you next week.