SILVESTER, Ga. — There is an art to throwing a good party. It’s a mix of a great location, uncommon entertainment and interesting guests.
J Todd Tucker knows how to throw a party. More importantly, he understands how a great party one October weekend can also function as serious business year-round.
Tucker accomplishes both with his annual “Singer/Song Writers Quail Hunt” at Southern Woods Plantation, located just a few miles from his home in Moultrie, Ga. This year marked the seventh annual gathering when Tucker thanks his Bassmaster Elite Series sponsors and cultivates some new ones by inviting them and their friends to south Georgia for a party.
The daytime entertainment is one of this country’s legendary hunting experiences — bobwhite quail hunting on a Georgia pine plantation. At night, three of the most accomplished country music songwriters in Nashville grab guitars and play some of their chart-toppers.
“Not many people have these kind of resources,” Tucker said with a smile.
He makes a valid point. Few people have access to one of the finest quail hunting plantations in the South. Southern Woods Plantation blends the comfort of a new facility with an emphasis on two great Old South traditions – quail hunting and hospitality.
“The bobwhite is so greatly loved in the South that most people simply call it ‘bird.’ If a sportsman is going bird hunting, even little old ladies in tennis shoes know he is not going after doves, grouse or ducks – but quail!”
— “Bobwhite Quail Hunting” by Charley Dickey, 1974
The main Southern Woods lodge sits atop a rise at the end of a long entrance road lined on each side with a freshly painted white board fence. The two-story red brick building encloses 26,000 square feet, fronted by four tall white columns. It overlooks a large pond, which provides some beautiful views at day’s end, as the sunlight filters through the tall pines.
There’s a skeet house on the pond bank, which provides an opportunity to sharpen shotgun skills before hunting.
A separate one-story, red brick, 4,900-square feet building was completed this year. It features 10 more bedrooms, added to the 20-plus in the main lodge.
But it’s a mistake to focus only on this elegant facility in a scenic location.
“We’ve got a bigger facility than anybody I know of. But you can build the Taj Mahal, and if you don’t treat people right, they’re not coming back,” said Benji Deloach, who has managed this place for over two decades. “Our staff has a lot to do with our success.”
J Todd and his wife, Emily, have served on that staff, off and on, many times over the years.
The lodge was built by Dr. Gene Bishop, an Atlanta native and successful business man in the healthcare field. When Bishop died at age 76 in 2011, Deloach was a pallbearer at the funeral.
It’s Bishop’s collection of trophy animal mounts that decorate the great room at Southern Woods. They include everything from elephant and hippo heads to a full-size crocodile and two giraffe mounts, from the neck up, placed on either side of a doorway.
Deloach, 52, is one of Tucker’s biggest “sponsors.” It’s a relationship built on friendship, not performance on the pro bass circuit. Tucker, who used to own a commercial quail raising business, has done everything from putting out birds to hanging ceiling fans at Southern Woods.
During the plantation quail hunting season, which runs from October through March – beginning a month earlier and ending a month later than Georgia’s regular quail season – Deloach will oversee up to 28 employees.
“He gave me a job when I was fishing the (Bassmaster) Opens,” Tucker said. “He’s always been there for me when I wasn’t making any money.”
Emily continues to work there. She has done everything from painting to bartending at Southern Woods. An accomplished photographer, Emily now produces the photo hardback books for any group wanting a memento from their visit.
Get onboard the quail train
The “quail train” runs twice a day at Southern Woods – 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. That’s when a small fleet of specially-designed dog-and-hunter trailers pulled by jeeps arrive at the circular drive in front of the lodge.
The buggies have two facing bus seats mounted on top of metal dog crates. They’re like miniature quail country versions of London’s double-decker buses and provide an open-air view for the hunters as the group spreads out over the 2,100 acres of Southern Woods Plantation. (Bishop’s estate owns 1,200; another 900 acres are leased.)
“There is not enough good quail land to take care of the number of people who wish to hunt. What’s more, there never will be. That means somebody gets left out.”
— “Bobwhite Quail Hunting” by Charley Dickey
Nobody gets left out at Southern Woods. A total of about 160,000 quail are placed during each season, Deloach said. Pen-raised quail won’t provide the explosive covey rises of wild birds, but they can come close enough.
As more and more farmland is maximized for production, overgrown fencerows and undisturbed woodland edges – prime quail habitat – have reached an all-time low. The number of quail hunters has shrunk accordingly.
“That’s what kind of worries me,” said Deloach. “I don’t see a lot of young people getting into this.”
But at this point in time, the Southern quail hunting tradition remains in the not so distant past. Many people still remember the joy of following a pair of pointers through the woods on an autumn afternoon and the adrenalin rush of a covey rise.
That’s one reason why Tucker’s annual gathering at Southern Woods Plantation is special. Sixty-one people accepted Tucker’s invitation this year. They came from 10 states, including Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia and Florida.
Quail hunting in the South is a unique outdoor experience. But Tucker’s annual gathering taps into something far more common – enjoyment of the great outdoors.
In much of the business world, everybody’s working for the weekend, so to speak. Phil Peppers is the president of ProCom Sales Inc., one of Tucker’s primary Elite Series sponsors. ProCom, headquartered in Woodstock, Ga., is what’s known as a non-endemic sponsor for a pro bass angler. Pro Com is a manufacturer representative firm in the telecommunications business.
“Our industry has nothing to do with bass tournament fishing,” said Peppers. “But the reason a lot of people work is so they can hunt and fish on the weekends. I got interested in this event from the start, and I began bringing customers here.
“We’re doing something for our customers that they wouldn’t do for themselves.”
Peppers recalled one particularly stressed customer, who said he hadn’t slept all night in two years, thanking him for the quail hunt, after it led to a night of deep sleep.
The golf course is often cited as a place where many business deals get done. But if statistics were kept, hunting lodges and fishing camps would rival golf courses for out-of-office business venues.
“It a unique deal when you can get people like this together,” said Butch Tucker, J Todd’s father, who pitches in to do some barbecuing for the gathering. “There are a lot of successful business people in this informal setting.”
It all goes back to B.A.S.S.
In 2008, both J Todd and Butch Tucker occasionally competed as co-anglers in Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments. J Todd was a regular in the Bassmaster Opens, trying to get qualified for the Elite Series. Butch, a cardiovascular technician, was simply doing something he loved — tournament bass fishing. In his first Elite Series event, Butch won the $25,000 co-angler title at Florida’s Kissimmee Chain in March, when Kevin VanDam won the pro division.
Songwriter Rodney Clawson was also fishing as a co-angler in ’08. It would be the last season the Elite Series included co-anglers. J Todd and Clawson had become friends, so Tucker invited him to the first Southern Woods quail hunt and told him to bring a few friends. Clawson invited Donny Lowery, a fellow songwriter. They’ve not missed one of these gatherings since.
“Donny and I have become the entertainment by default,” Clawson laughed.
Clawson, 49, continues to fish bass tournaments, but work limits him to weekend events within driving range of Nashville. He said he averages winning one tournament a year.
“I’m still good friends with Chris Lane, Marty Robinson, Casey Ashley,” Clawson said.
Some might recall that Clawson brought Ashley to Nashville to record a song that Clawson wrote for him, entitled, “Fisherman.” The chorus is as follows:
I can catch ‘em shallow, I can catch ‘em deep,
Open water or the back of a creek,
The wind, the rain, to me it’s all the same,
I make a living playing this game,
I thank the Lord above every time I can,
I get to be a fisherman.
Ashley has both the voice and charisma to be a promising country music talent, but he prefers the life of a bass pro.
Clawson grew up on his father’s farm near the small town of Gruver (not Grover), Texas, located north of Amarillo, near the Oklahoma panhandle.
Clawson wrote three songs that went to No. 1 on the country charts before moving to Nashville in 2005. Since moving, Clawson has earned songwriting credits for another 15 songs that reached the top of the country charts. Like Ashley, Clawson never had the desire to be a country music performer.
“I’ve always said I’d rather spend 200 days a year on my boat, not a bus,” Clawson laughed.
Clawson claims there is a common trait in being a good songwriter and a good tournament angler.
“A guy that’s a real good bed fisherman, he’s only going to do well in a certain number of tournaments,” he said. “The good ones can do everything well.”
Clawson’s songwriting versatility is illustrated in the range of artists who have recorded the songs he’s written or co-written, from George Strait (“I Saw God Today”) to Faith Hill (“Sunshine And Summertime”) to Jason Aldean (“Amarillo Sky”) to Florida Georgia Line (“Get Your Shine On”).
Donny Lowery is best known for a co-writing “There’s An Old Flame” with Lyman McAnally. In 1981 it became one of Alabama’s biggest hits, and it’s one of those songs with staying power – still played often on radio.
“That one opened up a lot of doors for me in Nashville,” Lowery said.
Lowery has writing credits on 75 songs that have been recorded by various artists, ranging from Charlie Pride to the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. In addition to “Old Flame,” three others went to No. 1: “Stand A Little Rain” (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), “Why Does It Have To Be Wrong or Right” (Restless Heart) and “Say What’s In Your Heart” (Restless Heart).
Coming off a recent arthroscopic knee surgery, Lowery was pushing the extremes of “doctor’s orders” by going quail hunting. So he kept an eye on the ground for gopher tortoise holes. The now-endangered species is native to this area. Their burrows can be as long as 52 feet and as deep as 23 feet. One misstep in a gopher tortoise hole can undo knee surgery in an instant.
“I just love to watch the dogs work,” said Lowery, who grew up in south Arkansas, when the quail population there was still good. He has retained his skill with a shotgun.
Watching two pointing dogs working the woods, searching for quail scent, then becoming statue-still when they find it, that is maybe the greatest pleasure of quail hunting.
“Nothing ruins more hunts than sorry dogs, and nothing makes a hunt more enjoyable than dogs with style and manners.”
— “Bobwhite Quail Hunting” by Charley Dickey
There’s a dog kennel “complex” at Southern Plantation. It houses more than 100 dogs, seemingly all of which have style and manners. They make for a memorable day afield.
Making the most of Elite Series status
During his first year on the Bassmaster Elite Series, J Todd Tucker quickly realized he was going to need some help.
“I knew I had to have some staying power to keep me in this long enough to learn how to compete with these guys,” Tucker said. “I can’t gamble $100,000. I don’t have that kind of money. You can find yourself broke one day.”
That figure of $100,000 is roughly what Tucker estimates is the cost of a year on the Elite Series, with entry fees, travel expenses, etc.
Tucker has addressed the financial challenge with the most unusual list of sponsors on the Elites Series tour. You won’t see these companies listed while thumbing through Bassmaster magazine or a Bass Pro Shops catalog:
— TE Connectivity: Tucker’s title sponsor is a $14 billion global technology leader. Its 80,000 people, including 7,500 design engineers, partner with customers in over 150 countries across a wide range of industries.
—Prysmian Group: A world leader in the industry of high-technology cables and systems for energy and telecommunications with subsidiaries in 50 countries, 91 plants, 17 research & development centers and about 19,000 employees.
— ProCom Sales: A manufacturer representative headquartered in north Georgia offering complete solutions from leading outside plant telecom and utility manufacturers.
That’s just a sample. There are several others. Tucker has a list of endemic sponsors as well, of course, the biggest one being Phoenix Boats. Gary Clouse, president of Phoenix, and chief operating officer Teresa Johnson were part of the small group that met with Tucker one morning as he detailed the work he’d done for his major sponsors over the past year.
“He’s doing some things I didn’t know about,” Clouse said. “I learned something. It’s probably a good idea for anyone in his position to do this.”
Tucker estimates that of his total sponsorship support, 85 percent is from companies outside the fishing world. He didn’t plan on rounding up telecommunications companies to help sponsor his Elite Series career. This annual quail hunt began simply as a way to say thanks to his sponsors and do it in a special way. But it has served as an unusually effective networking event, leading Tucker to sponsors that he never would have considered otherwise.
The outdoors common connection
When Peppers of ProCom Sales attended the first quail hunt seven years ago, that’s what got the ball rolling. Three years ago, Peppers invited Jaxon Lang, a vice president for TE Connectivity who works out of its Shakopee, Minn., office, near Minneapolis.
“I didn’t come here looking to sponsor a bass fisherman,” Lang said. “It was the last thing in the world I thought about doing. It was seeing the excitement and the energy our customers had for the outdoors that got the wheels turning.
“When the (sponsorship) opportunity became available, it seemed like a good way to make a better connection with our customers.”
Tucker has built this non-endemic sponsorship list by using his people skills in combination with his accomplishments as an outdoorsman. Instead of the usual appearances a bass pro makes at boat shows and the like, Tucker pulled his boat to two telecommunications trade shows this year.
“To J Todd’s credit, he has become very insightful about our products and our business,” Lang said. “He’s become a really good spokesman for our company.”
The TE Connectivity logo on Tucker’s Phoenix boat doesn’t much matter to the company. Tucker connects with various TE Connectivity sales people as he travels during the Elite Season. For example, he stayed six days after the tournament at Toledo Bend last season to take TE Connectivity customers bass fishing.
“One man lost a 7-pounder at the boat,” Tucker recalled. “His 11-year-old son, who had never caught a bass in his life, caught a 7-11.”
That will be a lasting memory.
“What makes it really work is J Todd,” Lang said. “Our relationship with him allows us to get more connected to our customers. But part of our agreement is his maintaining his Elite Series status.
“If it was just some guy who was really good at fishing, that’s a guide. This is an Elite Series professional. That’s more interesting, and it’s a better draw. It’s more significant to our customers to go with a pro.”
Lang estimated there were “upwards of 20” TE Connectivity customers at this year’s quail hunt.
The new guy: Craig Wiseman
Rodney Clawson invited a newcomer to J Todd Tucker’s gathering at Southern Woods this year. It’s always a good idea to include your boss on a fun-filled weekend.
After he’d been in Nashville for three years, Clawson signed a contract with Craig Wiseman’s publishing company, Big Loud Shirt. That company name provides a hint as to what makes Wiseman tick. If you didn’t already realize Wiseman has a wonderful sense of humor, check out the lyrics to a song Wiseman wrote and Pam Tillis performed in 1995 entitled “Betty’s Got A Bass Boat”:
Betty’s got a bass boat,
Betty’s got a truck,
All of a sudden things are looking up.
She’s the most popular girl in town,
Since she got a new camper and a huntin’ hound.
Might be coincidental,
Oh you just might never know,
Oh, but things sure got a lot better since Betty got a bass boat.
So, yeah, Craig Wiseman is a hoot. He’s also one of the most accomplished songwriters in Nashville. He was named “Songwriter of the Decade” by the Nashville Songwriters Association International in 2009. Recently, at the 100th anniversary celebration of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Wiseman was honored with a Heritage Award as the most-performed country songwriter of the century. Yes, the century.
When asked to name his favorite of the hundreds of songs he’s written since moving to Nashville in 1985, Wiseman said, “That’s a little like asking who’s your favorite kid.”
But Wiseman admits he does have a “favorite kid” — “Live Like You Were Dying,” the 2004 hit performed by Tim McGraw, co-written with Tim Nichols. It received all sorts of “song of the year” awards, Wiseman and Nichols received a Grammy for Best Country Song and McGraw won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
“It did well, and I believe in what it said,” Wiseman explained. “A song that means a lot and is a commercial success, those two don’t necessarily go together.”
On both Saturday and Sunday evenings, Wiseman, Clawson and Lowery sat down with their guitars at Southern Woods Plantation and played some of their hits for an enthusiastic audience.
It should be noted that Wiseman, in another nod to his sense of humor, honored a request to perform a song he co-wrote, recorded by Colt Ford, entitled, “Titty’s Beer.”
If you haven’t heard it, you should have been there.
Yes, J Todd Tucker definitely knows how to throw a party.
View the complete photo gallery here.