GSO CURRENT EVENTS/UPDATES

Watch our GSO Welcome Video.   CLICK HERE

Update: January 2010

Mr. Ken Herson of Michigan, a hunter and friend of the GSO staff and family, passed away Jan 10, 2010. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Update: January 2010

Recent Game Cam Pics January 2010

Update: December 2009

Joe Estenes Sr, Joe Jr. and Phillip Emerson (Phillip's first deer)

Update: September 2009

Scott from Montevallo, AL takes a nice 260lb boar

Update: April 2009

Jerry Sakowski and sons recently visited GSO for a Hog Hunt / Fishing trip.

Update: March 2009

Steve Garner; Georgia
  4 bearded turkey

Update: February 2009

Our newest cabin completed in Beaver Ridge. Come relax in Beaver Ridge, sit on the deck and enjoy a beautiful view of the lake.

Update: January 2009

Brian Crosby of Florida takes this nice 10 point...last hunt of the trip, raining, pushed for time to get on a plane... isn't that the way it happens.

Update: December 2008

Here’s a nice 10 point buck taken on the GSO Childrens hunt held December 21 - 23.

Update: December 2008

Kasey Kahne, Nascar Sprint Cup Series # 9, Enjoys a day of quail hunting at Great Southern Outdoors with quail guide, A.B. Smith.

Update: December 2008

8 Canadian Friends enjoy 3 days of Quail Hunting, Fishing and Hog hunting. The Eight take home 328 birds and 3 hogs.

Update: October 2008

Dick Masters caught a nice 5lb 4oz Bass during his visit to Great Southern Outdoors.

Update: October 2008

B&G Equipment & Supply visited Great Southern Outdoors and had a great time Quail Hunting.

Update: October 2008

Mitch visited Great Southern Outdoors and went Quail Hunting, Hog Hunting, Fishing and shot sport clays all in one day!! Way to go!!

Update: September 2008

Shannon McFerrin celebrated her 30th Birthday at Great Southern Outdoors with a weekend of fun September 2008.

Update: August 2008

Jonathan Taylor visits Great Southern Outdoors and takes two nice hogs.

Update: July 2008

Great Southern Outdoors plants over 328 acres of protein. This is some of our summer corn crop which consist of over 160 acres.  The following protein that we grow for our wildlife is Grain Sorghum,  Iron Clay Peas, Egyptian Wheat, also this year we planted 40 acres of peanuts for the first time. As we continue to go thrrough summer we will upload pictures of the different crops we have planted.

Update: June 2008

Clearview Baptist Church of Tennessee visits Great Southern Outdoors and has a great time.

Update: June 2008

Ben from North Carolina visits Great Southern Outdoors and takes a nice hog.

Update: May 2008

Brad and Josh Cox visit Great Southern Outdoors on May 28th 2008 and take a nice Hog.

Update: April 2008

Great Southern Outdoors is always glad to have Auburn Head Coach Tommy Tuberville and his son Troy Tuberville down doing some one on one fishing.

Update: April 2008

Great Southern Outdoors hosted the 5th annual 2008 Spring Fling that featured some of the worlds best bass fishing for three days.  The Spring Fling brings together the nation's top outdoor writers with fishing companies, manufacturers and numerous magazine companies in a three day event.   Even though they only had two days of fishing, they had over 1100 bass and 350 in crappie. This year the biggest bass came from Rob Reaser with Hearthland USA magazine with a nice 10lb bass. Syd Rives with SPRO had a nice 2lb crappie. What a great time we all had, and look forward to next years 6th annual Spring Fling.

Update: March 2008

Hi Ginger,
My husband, Jim Shaughnessy, and his friend, Richard Masters, were fishing at Great Southern Outdoors the end of March. They had a great time. They told me that the fishing was excellent!   Mr. Masters wanted me to email you this picture of the fish that he caught during that trip. They also wanted me to thank you for Great Southern's hospitality.
Karen Shaughnessy

Update: March 2008

Mike Ellis with Guide Steve Long, Takes a nice "Long Beard"
 

Update: March 2008

Video is from a March 2008 Great Southern Outdoors opening day Turkey Hunt. Click the link below to view the video

Update: October 2007

Alabama Power joined us for a day of sporting clays, fishing and a little hog hunting.

Update: October 2007

This hog was taken on a hunt given away by Alabama Outdoor News

Our first quail hunt of the season!!

Update: October 2007

Unbelievable…..  That’s all I can say about the fishing at GSO.  In two days on the big lake, over 500 largemouth bass were caught and released by me and Mark Davis, Director of PR at Shakespeare.  Most of the fish averaged around 4 lbs with an occasion big fish bite coming throughout the day. Big fish caught included a 10 lb’er, two 8 lb’ers, and two 7 lb’ers.  My first 3 casts on day 2 resulted in a 3 lb’er, 4 lb’er, and an 8 lb’er.

The lake is very healthy with the primary forage being crappie.  (BIG CRAPPIE) You can see an example of this from the picture. Crappie schools were everywhere, and we caught a few just for amusement. It’s kind of hard to justify catching crappie in a world class trophy bass lake, although you could very easily catch 5-6 hundred a day.

I honestly believe there is no other place in the country that supports the number and quality of fish as the lakes at GSO.  Where else can you have a 5 bass limit of over 40 lbs and catch 150 fish per day per person?  I will definitely be back.

James Therrell
Quality Manager
Shakespeare Fishing Tackle
 

Update: September 2007

This father and son came from California and took this nice hog.

Update: September 2007

Labor day weekend brought us three hog hunters. All three had shots at hogs, two of them capitalized on these three pigs.

Update: September 2007

Before our opening day dove hunt these young guys took these four "eatin' size" hogs.

Update: September 2007

Full Day Quail & Chukkar Hunt                                       $ 765.00

Includes noon meal and appetizers in the evening.
Includes 25 quail and 10 chukkars cleaned and packaged.

Update: June 2007

We are currently in the middle of our busy time for hog hunting. We are doing really well so far with 80% rate of opportunity. We have seen a lot of hogs and taken some nice trophies as well as some good meat hogs. I have to tell you about this though, Mr. Fred Owen just left out of here and missed three times, that's 3, at hogs. So make sure you look for his picture on our wall of shame. Also make sure that you check out the trophy hogs we have been taking in our trophy room. If you're checking out those pictures and want to come join the action, we are hog hunting through September..

Update: May 2007

Finally we are getting around to an update about our turkey season, It was a really fun and amazing year. We ended the season with an 80% success rate, which is great.  We also had some very special things happen. Mr. Ron, from Atlanta, scored on his very first turkey on opening morning here at great southern, and took a hog weighing 227 pounds that evening. Also, Mr. Bobby harvested two turkeys in two days both of them sporting double beards. The first birds set measured 11 inches and 8 inches. The second bird's beards measured 10 inches and 7 inches.  We also did quite a bit of afternoon fishing during turkey season. The crappie bite was really on at our big lake and we caught stringers of over 30 fish on several occasions. The bass were biting great too giving our turkey hunters a little something to take their minds off of those gobbling birds.

Update: April 2007

Back at the beginning of April we had some serious fishing going on, and even though it was some time ago we really wanted to fill you in. Let me set the stage for you. We had sixteen people here to fish all three of our lakes for two days. The group consisted of several outdoor writers as well as representatives from several manufacturers of fishing equipment. They came in the first evening and laid out all the new gear that they brought. It was a spread that would make any angler drool. They got geared up and put together some plans for the next days fishing. The weather cooperated and set a beautiful scene, and after fishing for two days the group put up some awesome numbers. They brought in a total of 1104 fish, 748 of which were bass and 356 crappie. Here's the really impressive part, the biggest bass was 11lbs. 8 oz. And the biggest crappie was a huge 3 and a half pounder.

Update: February 2007

2006 - 2007 Deer Hunting Stats

Great Southern Outdoors has for many years been on The Alabama Deer Management  Program.  In the last 9 years Great Southern Outdoors has averaged a 1.6 to 1.8 to 1 doe to buck ratio. Beginning this season 2006-2007, Great Southern began a new  program and that's how many hunters came in on an average for a 3 day hunt and how many deer was seen.  At the end of the 2006 -2007 deer season with an average of 11 hunters on a 3 day hunt. November ending up with a total of 233 and December at 189 and in January the rut came out with a total of 167 deer.

Each year Great Southern Outdoors only takes 175 deer hunters per season.  Being a part of Alabama Deer Program for last 17 years and also offering 8 points or  better, we can look back each year to see our outcome by the hunts and by the  months. Great Southern would like to thank the State of Alabama and all the hunters for making Great Southern Outdoors apart of the Outdoor World.

Please read our rules and regulations that govern all hunts