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Togo Island/Swamp Donkey Sting

Posted on 12/16/25 at 4:34 pm
Posted by No Colors
Sandbar
Member since Sep 2010
12948 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 4:34 pm
Just checking to see what others have heard on this. I've heard slightly different stories from two different sources.

But apparently up to 25 (seems exaggerated?) MS game wardens descended on the place over the weekend. The primary focus seemed to be baiting. Cameras and phones were seized. Tickets were written, etc.

Seems like a lot of manpower focused on a relatively benign practice of baiting (inside a CWD no baiting zone). Is there something else to this?

Posted by pdubya76
Sw Ms
Member since Mar 2012
6477 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 4:38 pm to
Wonder how they caught it. Isn’t SD behind a locked gate. I hunted on Togo a few years ago before primos and SD were involved.
Posted by WillFerrellisking
Member since Jun 2019
2523 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 4:52 pm to
So all of the wardens in MS. haha

Are the Primos guys still doing hunting show in MS? I know Jimmy was getting up there in age and they went thru a couple different places recently after Will sold his place.
Posted by turkish
Member since Aug 2016
2268 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 6:14 pm to
Many of the Primos guys are still doing stuff, just under other names. Some are in the real estate biz. Jimmy has a gun store in Madison. Brad ditched Togo several years ago. I don’t know for a fact, but I think it was over some typical camp drama.

If the OP is true that this was a baiting sting… I hope they punish them to the fullest extent of the law. Make an example of them. Laws are laws, and I loathe baiting deer with every fiber of my existence. Hopefully this doesn’t turn into another CWD thread.
This post was edited on 12/16/25 at 6:17 pm
Posted by Jim Hopper
Ocean Springs Mississippi
Member since Sep 2019
4399 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 6:20 pm to
quote:

Many of the Primos guys are still doing stuff, just under other names. Some are in the real estate biz. Jimmy has a gun store in Madison. Brad ditched Togo several years ago. I don’t know for a fact, but I think it was over some typical camp drama.
Brad gotten real big into real estate (great guy btw), he has a place in Claiborne he’s flipping with his partner, all the others are filming with Walker at cottonwood killing swamp donkeys.
Posted by prostyleoffensetime
Mississippi
Member since Aug 2009
12250 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 8:02 pm to
Wouldn’t surprise me. That whole situation has been mismanaged since it became a share club.

The River wasn’t their friend the first 5-6 years of ownership either, but it wouldn’t have mattered. They tried to turn a cottonwood plantation into a historic river camp overnight.

I haven’t heard much about it since the people I knew got out, but I doubt it’s changed much.

Speaking more specifically about Togo and Karnac, not Swamp Donkey.

Swamp Donkey looks more shady than mismanaged.
Posted by turkish
Member since Aug 2016
2268 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:00 pm to
That Claiborne tract is a good deal, whether they’re flipping it or not. Brad lives on an absolute gem of a spot in Hinds cty that he bought when he sold his Togo holdings, or so I’m told.

Instant gratification (baiting) will be the downfall of deer hunting. Hide and watch.
This post was edited on 12/16/25 at 9:03 pm
Posted by pdubya76
Sw Ms
Member since Mar 2012
6477 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:06 pm to
quote:

Speaking more specifically about Togo and Karnac,


I hunted right there across from Karnac lake in Buck Run HC. It was close to the gate for Paradise HC. I loved that place.
Posted by turkish
Member since Aug 2016
2268 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:08 pm to
Back when ATCo had clubs all over the river bottom, those were the good ol days.
Posted by pdubya76
Sw Ms
Member since Mar 2012
6477 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:14 pm to
Yep…not a pine tree anywhere. We had an area they called the blowdown. It was a thicket created by a tornado coming through. It was a deer highway.
No need for corn or any other feed.
This post was edited on 12/16/25 at 9:17 pm
Posted by prostyleoffensetime
Mississippi
Member since Aug 2009
12250 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:23 pm to
Those hardwoods right along the river banks were just beautiful. Parking a Bronco as the sun comes up and jumping in a ladder stand to be able to see 150-200 yards through those open woods as the horse riders were moving through…. Just an elite way to spend a Saturday morning.
Posted by turkish
Member since Aug 2016
2268 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:26 pm to
I was an ATCo hillbilly but I had some buddies in the swamp. Got to experience a little bit of it. I’ve ditched the lease and bought my own place, but you’ll never convince me that today’s deer hunting is better. If I could snap my fingers and go back 25 years, I would in a heartbeat. Spikes and all.
Posted by pdubya76
Sw Ms
Member since Mar 2012
6477 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 9:39 pm to
I’ve told my wife for years if I win the powerball, I’m buying Togo.
Posted by turkish
Member since Aug 2016
2268 posts
Posted on 12/16/25 at 10:59 pm to
A few of the members knew what they had back in the day. Not many, but a few.
This post was edited on 12/17/25 at 6:52 am
Posted by ElDawgHawg
L.A. (lower Arkansas)
Member since Nov 2012
3628 posts
Posted on 12/17/25 at 8:00 am to
quote:


I’ve told my wife for years if I win the powerball, I’m buying Togo.


Most of my hunting career I've watched the Primos guys. One of the best shows out there and the guys that have been with them through the years seem like genuine good guys that are a lot like us except they got the chance to do that for a living.

I don't know any of them personally but I do have a couple of friends in the industry and used to work on the fringe of it a long time ago. Always heard the Primos guys, especially Will and Jimmy were solid people. Heard the same for Brad and Kenneth.

And a lot of that is coming from a guy not affiliated with them.

The first time they went to Swamp Donkey it seemed to be a lot different than most of what they did. Felt kinda' off.
Anxious to see how it plays out.
Posted by No Colors
Sandbar
Member since Sep 2010
12948 posts
Posted on 12/17/25 at 8:19 am to
I have a family member who owns river bottom land very close to there. And I can tell you that when it's good, it's great. But when it's bad, it's awful.

We basically had high rivers for a decade. The 20 teens from about 2011 to 2020. One year (i can't remember but maybe 2018) that place would have been covered with water as late as AUGUST.

It absolutely devastated the deer. And they didn't just come rushing back either. Numbers were way down for years, even in the hills adjacent to the river. Because essentially does that got stressed either aborted or their fawns died or they never got pregnant.

Deer numbers in those areas just got back to normal within the last year or two. And they definitely aren't back to where they were 20-30 years ago.

Imagine spending millions on a place and not being able to access it for months on end. No electricity at your camp. All tbe food spoiled. The camp mildewed and musty. Roads covered with logs and flood debris. Culverts washed out. Huge piles of sand randomly dumped by the river. Deer stands with twisted ladders.

Now imagine dealing with that basically every year for a decade. And then having basically no deer or turkeys to hunt during that time.

No thanks.

I grew up hunting the river not far from Togo. But I'm glad that chapter is over.

Give me paved road frontage, year round access, no flooding, stable wildlife populations, and no river gage anxiety.
Posted by White Bear
AT WORK
Member since Jul 2014
17261 posts
Posted on 12/17/25 at 8:24 am to
quote:

Swamp Donkey
They should be sent to Angola for naming a hunting club Swamp Donkey.
Posted by prostyleoffensetime
Mississippi
Member since Aug 2009
12250 posts
Posted on 12/17/25 at 8:34 am to
^^^ This is what the old guard at Togo understood that the FU Money crowd did not, or didn’t care.

They managed what they could manage, but weren’t going to spend a stupid amount of money with an uncertain return.

The place starts taking on water when Vicksburg is at like 22’. The hunting is electric when it’s at 25’. It’s inaccessible and there’s not a deer on the island at like 30’ or something. These numbers aren’t exact, been a minute since I kept up with that, but kind of puts it into perspective. The place low ground.
Posted by No Colors
Sandbar
Member since Sep 2010
12948 posts
Posted on 12/17/25 at 9:19 am to
That's about right.

The place we hunted on the river near there started to get water at 28. And at 32 it was about 50% under water. And at 35 you couldn't get to the camp and the only thing out of water was the tops of a few ridges.

The place we hunt now started getting effected by the river at 45. And only about 1/3 of the place is flooded at 55. And we can get to the camp at anything below Noah.

Posted by No Colors
Sandbar
Member since Sep 2010
12948 posts
Posted on 12/17/25 at 9:20 am to
quote:

They should be sent to Angola for naming a hunting club Swamp Donkey

When I first heard that I honestly thought it was a bad joke.

Like something a cheese ball at the level of Michael Wadell would come up with.
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