Posted 8:48 pm Sunday, October 07, 2007
Hunters Got To Like A Season Like This
Getting in the hunting mood is a little like cooking a good steak over hot mesquite coals.
It will be ready when it is ready. No matter how hungry you are, you can't rush it.
With daytime temperatures still in the 90s, it is hard to get fully in the hunting mode. I am talking hunting. I am planning trips, but I am not quite there.
I checked the 10-day forecast the other day and it looks like a change could be on way as early as later this week. That would be nice because honestly this isn't the kind of year you want to waste.
There are years that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's big game program leader Clayton Wolf is beaten down by the time hunting season opens. That includes the last two years when hunters and landowners blamed biologists for everything including the drought.
This year, however, the former Temple-Inland biologist has a bit of spring in his step. If you don't know why, just look around. The range is green as a gourd and the wildlife is fat and happy.
"I have not seen it like this and many of the old timers I have talked to haven't seen it like this," Wolf said the other day.
There is nothing that makes a wildlife biologist look better than rain. They can manipulate the habitat, cull herd sizes and do a lot of other things to impact deer, pronghorns, even quail and turkey, but they can't have the impact a wet year will have.
After two years of drought, the rains began to fall statewide in November and in some places they continue to fall. Rainfall records in the more arid portions of the state were smashed months ago.
"It is not uncommon to have areas of Texas with a lot of rainfall, but it is hard to find a place in Texas that did not have sufficient or more rain than needed," Wolf said.
Going into deer season there isn't a biologist in the state who isn't predicting a better-than-average antler year, and many of them are purposefully being conservative with that prediction. If cornered, they are absolutely giddy about the prospects.
"I think the harvest will show big animals, but it will also show equal or lower numbers because we have a bumper acorn crop," Wolf said.
Across the state, that is the big concern. It appears every oak species is producing mast this fall. One biologist last week said that with the number of acorns currently falling, it looks like rain.
What may surprise some hunters is that last year's drought really won't have an impact on this year's antler quality of a mature deer. Because deer shed their antlers each winter, antler development is a year-to-year thing.
However, the drought could impact the body size.
"Animals that are stressed in their formative years are likely never to make it up. For the lack of a better term, they are stunted," Wolf said.
The biologist explained that for the first three years of its life a deer puts most of it growth into long bone development. At that point their bones are fully developed and during the growing season their bodies are focusing on antler development, weight gain and muscle mass.
"Fawns getting a good start, they are going to be the maximum of the species. Down the road, a 2 1/2-year-old may not be as good as fawns born this year," Wolf said.
When looking for antler improvement over last year, Wolf warns it may be more noticeable in more arid counties to the west and south where such rainfall years are truly uncommon.
The truth is that while some of those counties reached record totals, they may not have totaled a normal year in East Texas where Wolf said antler development doesn't go through the peaks and valleys it does elsewhere.
It isn't just white-tailed deer that have benefited from good range conditions this year. Although the pressure is much less, mule deer hunters should be scoping some trophy bucks this fall. The outlook is especially positive in the Trans Pecos region, a portion of the state that ironically missed much of the drought and instead has been experiencing wetter-than-normal conditions going back to 2002.
Those same conditions have helped propel the regions bighorn sheep population to 991 animals. The count is 169 better than a year ago and realistically beginning to get in sight of the historic high of about 1,500 sheep during the 1800s.
A little to the east, pronghorn numbers, which have been languishing in Texas for years, are also rebounding. They may not be near record numbers, but it has reversed a negative trend.
If biologists have a warning, it is the same one they give every year. Don't get fooled and forget to conduct a doe harvest. Because of high grass census counts have been low, but there is no doubt that fawn survival is going to be high. Hunters need to remember the next drought is just around the corner and allowing an overpopulation just adds to another round of habitat degradation and a weakened herd.
"Hunters are too conservative on their doe harvest. They have a bad hunt or two, and they get conservative on their shooting. They need to stay on it. A deer herd can take you over in a year or two," Wolf warns.
Just a little cool weather and it will be time.
Contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight at (903) 596-6277 or by e-mail at outdoor@tylerpaper.com
It will be ready when it is ready. No matter how hungry you are, you can't rush it.
With daytime temperatures still in the 90s, it is hard to get fully in the hunting mode. I am talking hunting. I am planning trips, but I am not quite there.
I checked the 10-day forecast the other day and it looks like a change could be on way as early as later this week. That would be nice because honestly this isn't the kind of year you want to waste.
There are years that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's big game program leader Clayton Wolf is beaten down by the time hunting season opens. That includes the last two years when hunters and landowners blamed biologists for everything including the drought.
This year, however, the former Temple-Inland biologist has a bit of spring in his step. If you don't know why, just look around. The range is green as a gourd and the wildlife is fat and happy.
"I have not seen it like this and many of the old timers I have talked to haven't seen it like this," Wolf said the other day.
There is nothing that makes a wildlife biologist look better than rain. They can manipulate the habitat, cull herd sizes and do a lot of other things to impact deer, pronghorns, even quail and turkey, but they can't have the impact a wet year will have.
After two years of drought, the rains began to fall statewide in November and in some places they continue to fall. Rainfall records in the more arid portions of the state were smashed months ago.
"It is not uncommon to have areas of Texas with a lot of rainfall, but it is hard to find a place in Texas that did not have sufficient or more rain than needed," Wolf said.
Going into deer season there isn't a biologist in the state who isn't predicting a better-than-average antler year, and many of them are purposefully being conservative with that prediction. If cornered, they are absolutely giddy about the prospects.
"I think the harvest will show big animals, but it will also show equal or lower numbers because we have a bumper acorn crop," Wolf said.
Across the state, that is the big concern. It appears every oak species is producing mast this fall. One biologist last week said that with the number of acorns currently falling, it looks like rain.
What may surprise some hunters is that last year's drought really won't have an impact on this year's antler quality of a mature deer. Because deer shed their antlers each winter, antler development is a year-to-year thing.
However, the drought could impact the body size.
"Animals that are stressed in their formative years are likely never to make it up. For the lack of a better term, they are stunted," Wolf said.
The biologist explained that for the first three years of its life a deer puts most of it growth into long bone development. At that point their bones are fully developed and during the growing season their bodies are focusing on antler development, weight gain and muscle mass.
"Fawns getting a good start, they are going to be the maximum of the species. Down the road, a 2 1/2-year-old may not be as good as fawns born this year," Wolf said.
When looking for antler improvement over last year, Wolf warns it may be more noticeable in more arid counties to the west and south where such rainfall years are truly uncommon.
The truth is that while some of those counties reached record totals, they may not have totaled a normal year in East Texas where Wolf said antler development doesn't go through the peaks and valleys it does elsewhere.
It isn't just white-tailed deer that have benefited from good range conditions this year. Although the pressure is much less, mule deer hunters should be scoping some trophy bucks this fall. The outlook is especially positive in the Trans Pecos region, a portion of the state that ironically missed much of the drought and instead has been experiencing wetter-than-normal conditions going back to 2002.
Those same conditions have helped propel the regions bighorn sheep population to 991 animals. The count is 169 better than a year ago and realistically beginning to get in sight of the historic high of about 1,500 sheep during the 1800s.
A little to the east, pronghorn numbers, which have been languishing in Texas for years, are also rebounding. They may not be near record numbers, but it has reversed a negative trend.
If biologists have a warning, it is the same one they give every year. Don't get fooled and forget to conduct a doe harvest. Because of high grass census counts have been low, but there is no doubt that fawn survival is going to be high. Hunters need to remember the next drought is just around the corner and allowing an overpopulation just adds to another round of habitat degradation and a weakened herd.
"Hunters are too conservative on their doe harvest. They have a bad hunt or two, and they get conservative on their shooting. They need to stay on it. A deer herd can take you over in a year or two," Wolf warns.
Just a little cool weather and it will be time.
Contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight at (903) 596-6277 or by e-mail at outdoor@tylerpaper.com
