Youngster learns to master swamp

Two days after Christmas this past year, 11-year-old Jonathan Cheely walked behind his father Jamie Cheely in knee-deep water and rain to make an afternoon hunt in the Atchafalaya Basin swamp.
During the past few years, father and son had become almost inseparable as the younger Cheely decidedly became a deer hunter.
Suddenly, Jonathan spotted a deer that had walked out onto a pipeline staring right at them. What happened next would be the beginning of a week that most deer hunters only dream of.
“Look at that deer,” Jonathan said to his father.
“Get your gun ready,” came the older Cheely’s staccato reply.
Jonathan raised his Ruger Model 77, fired off a shot and the deer ran off.
Initially, his father thought Jonathan had missed.
But the youngster, having practiced, was adept with his scoped rifle, chambered for the 7mm-08-caliber cartridge, a round known for being highly accurate, having mild recoil and lethal on deer-sized big game animals.
This wasn’t Jonathan’s first deer, either.
Hunting since age 7 and killing his first two deer — a spike buck and a doe — at age 9 with a crossbow, he was seasoned enough to be confident in his shot placement, one that turned out to be a 160-yard shot for that matter.
As it turned out, the buck hadn’t run far. In fact, only about 30 yards.
When the two hunters approached the deer, it was way bigger than either of them first thought.
“I was aiming right behind the shoulder,” Jonathan said. “I was pretty excited because I saw the antlers and it looked like a pretty big rack but not that big. When we got to him, it was really big.”
The deer turned out to be a huge 10-point buck — a real swamp buster.
Moreover, a buck of a lifetime for many of those who hunt the Atchafalaya Basin, where historically hunting deer with dogs was the only consistent way to harvest one.
The elder Cheely, 44, whose family has had a lease in the basin for more than 45 years, said, “We have a camp right on our lease that’s called Bayou Boutte Hunting Club that I’ve been a member of for 26 years. For years we did good with the dogs, but it’s still-hunting only now. Also, our lease isn’t full of deer. It’s hard hunting. You have to wear hip boots or waders because we cross a lot of water to get to the stand. And actually, when you do shoot a deer, it’s quite a task to get it out of there. The 10-point Jonathan shot is one of the nicest deer that has come off of the island we hunt in 5 or 6 years.”
After harvesting his big buck, the younger Cheely wasn’t through hunting. There was still plenty of holiday vacation for the Patterson Junior High student to be in the woods with his dad.
The next week, father and son were back in the basin hunting deer again on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, this time from a box stand when a 6-point buck walked out on Jonathan.
Once again, the young hunter made a one-shot kill, dropping the buck in its tracks.
If that wasn’t enough, the next morning the two hunters were in the stand once more, where Jonathan says they could hear a deer walking in the water. The deer turned out to be a 7-point this time that the young hunter stopped with yet another one-shot kill.
“The past few years he just loves to go hunting with me,” the older Cheely said. “I’ve been letting him hunt with me and he’ll shoot. We’ll get up at 5:45 a.m. when it’s dark and we’ll go to the stand. We have different stands that we hunt. In fact, he and I two weeks prior to when he shot his 10-point, put up a stand together. I’ve been out there a long time and you don’t see a deer every time you hunt. But he’s been so lucky; every time we go, we see deer.”
Jonathan’s father says he and his son put their time in the woods looking for various sign like rubs, scrapes and crossings that indicate deer activity and movement.
Besides signs, they look for food sources like briars, willow leaves, acorns and persimmons all relatively plentiful in the basin throughout the year along with dewberries, swamp lily and alligator weed.
Jonathan also enjoys hunting ducks and rabbits.
The family has a camp in Calumet where they hunt the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area’s Wax Delta.
Even though these other pursuits allow more talking and movement — plus can be shared with friends — deer hunting is what the youngster prefers.
Jonathan, who also killed a hog this past season, would simply rather be in the stand with his father chasing big game.
His father tells the story how one afternoon at the camp everyone was sleeping, including his son, when he sneaked out to make a hunt by himself. It wasn’t long before a friend texted him saying, “Jonathan’s upset. He woke up and you were gone. He got his hunters orange on and is coming to meet you.”
The text message says it all about the youngster at this point in his brief hunting career.
But, the difficulty that comes with hunting deer in the bottomland hardwood swamp hasn’t had an impact on the young hunter yet.
When asked rhetorically, “So, you don’t think Atchafalaya Basin deer hunting is that hard?” the younger Cheely replied, “With the luck I have, no — not really!”
If you wish to make a comment or have an anecdote, recipe or story you wish to share, you can contact John K. Flores at 985-395-5586 or at gowiththeflo@cox.net or visit his website at www.gowiththeflo.com .