12/14/2010
As we enter into the month of December I can’t help but make some comments based on my own field experiences. In a way, it was sort of a strange hunting season.
We opened the hunting season on September 1st with a
dove hunt in the northern panhandle near Chester. The wildlife manager had done an excellent job of preparing the fields. The crops were abundant and the fields had been brush-hogged to provide both food and pare ground, which attracts the doves.
There were several hunters in the area and they came from as far away as Morgantown and even some towns across the river in Ohio, confirming the popularity of the early dove shooting season. The birds flew well and some hunters shot their limits or near their limits. But the important thing was that everyone had fun and everyone left safe. In addition, there were several young people in the field and they were enjoying the action. A dove field is a great place to introduce young people to gun safety and hunting.
Next on the season agenda was the early
archery antlerless deer season. As luck would have it, the archers were met with 90 degree weather. The hot weather put a damper on the season and the kill was down from last year. Maybe this was a good thing (more on this later).
The weather continued for the
early muzzleloader season with similar results. But things changed for the
bear hunters. The weather was more conducive to hunting and the hounds ran the bears. The hunters took several young bears, but also I know of a few in the 300 to 375 weight class. So I think I can say the bear hunters had a good early season. These early seasons are designed to do a couple of things. For one, they give the hunters some extra hunting days. Secondly, it helps us take a few sows which, in turn, helps keep the bear population in check.
The
grouse and woodcock season opened with mixed results. Depending on where you hunted, you had several woodcock and enough grouse to keep it interesting. But like always, the woodcock were here one day and gone the next. We found several grouse in the mountain counties but numbers remained suppressed in the central and western part of the state, at least up until deer season.
One interesting day that sticks in my mind is one that I spent around Old Stony River Dam. I had hunted grouse and woodcock while working my way back to the old dam. The dam is gone, the water drained and the middle of the lake is a dry lake bed covered with grass. Well, I had put the dog away and was working my way back toward the A-Frame road. When I looked out into the middle of the dry lake bed I saw a large German shepherd apparently hunting for mice in the grass. I pulled over to get a better look and only then realized that it was not a German shepherd, but instead a very large, dark reddish brown
coyote. He was a beautiful predator, obviously a mature animal in prime condition. There he milled around about 150 yards out in the clear grass while I sat in the truck with a little 28 gauge double-barreled shotgun. I would have given $100 to have my .257 Ackley or my .223. If this coyote didn’t weigh 50 pounds he didn’t weigh an ounce. Any other time, especially if I had a rifle, the wild dog would have been gone in a flash. But today he knew that all Frank had was a little shotgun and he was safe.
Deer season is a story in itself. If you were out at all I think the first thing you realized was that in most areas there simply aren’t as many deer as there were last year. There are several factors that contributed to the low number of deer and the low harvest, including the weather during the opening days and the abundance of mast that kept the deer out of the fields. But surly one of the reasons was the fact that there was a much bigger winter kill last year than any of us thought. Where hunters used to see 20 deer in an area, they saw four or five this year. The harvest figures are not in as I write this, but I have talked to enough hunters in much of the state to say that I think the buck kill may be down by around 30 percent.
Where you might normally have seen 15 - 20 does, this year you may have seen four or five. The point is, it appears Mother Nature stepped in last winter and decided that we had too many deer. As the figures come in we will get a better handle on exactly what happened. As I write this the bear hunters may be having a tough time. There is a lot of snow at Mount Storm and the temperatures are supposed to plummet to near zero over a number of days. We can hope for better weather in the closing days of the season that will allow the bear hunters more opportunities. With the large mast production of this year, bears are less likely to go to den early, and that should make more available to hunters.
This may be another tough winter and it may have an impact on the wildlife. But one thing for sure, there is nothing we can do about it and we will simply make the best of what The Good Lord sends our way. Weather permitting, there is some great hunting to be had in January and February. If we can get into the woods and fields, those of us with beagles and bird dogs will be out there following the dogs no matter how cold it gets. Be safe and enjoy the rest of this winter.
Contact Information
Frank Jezioro
frankjezioro@wvdnr.gov