"Rabbit hunting exceeds all small-game hunting on the area," Edwards continued. "The weekend is usually the most crowded, but during the Christmas holidays, any day you will be able to find rabbit hunters and their beagles. Yanahli consists of many overgrown fields that are intentionally managed that way for the small-game hunters. Our staff will often mow shooting lanes for hunters during their fall management activities.

"During early season, squirrel hunting is popular," Edwards said, "but all interest dies out when deer season approaches. With this in mind, Yanahli offers some great opportunities for this sport with very little competition from other hunters."

During the late season, harvested waste grain draws concentrations of raccoons around sharecroppers' fields and "hunters take advantage of that," Edwards said. "Since the Duck River flows through the heart of Yanahli, this is particularly attractive to this nighttime bandit."

Squirrels, rabbits and raccoons all play a huge role in the history of hunting in Tennessee. But in the South in general, the pinnacle of traditional hunting was the quail. In Tennessee, as throughout the South, wild quail have fallen on hard times.

"Quail numbers have diminished considerably statewide over the last 30 years," Edwards noted. "Quail hunting is hard on Yanahli, but the numbers are there. Hunters that know the area are usually successful by having knowledge of where agricultural fields are, having good dogs and the stamina to walk a good deal. Again, sharecropper fields, especially soybeans, are very attractive to bobwhites and quail hunters alike. Typically, these fields will be in the river bottoms on the WMA. Fields are usually rotated from beans one year to corn another, so it helps to do some scouting beforehand to know what is planted where."

Royal Blue WMA's claim to fame is some very good squirrel hunting, and a fair number of grouse.

"And we have some increasing potential for rabbits as we develop more small-game habitat through the creation of food plots, plus native warm-season grasses," said Stan Stooksbury, TWRA Region II wildlife manager. "Here in this area, because there was so much pre-law mining and present mining, the warm-season grasses are excellent for stabilizing soil."