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Outdoor Corner: Hunting reports thus far
Gene Plihal
for Smoky River Express
Being in the bush each day, I have a lot of people stopping and asking, “How’s it going?” Indeed, as far as hunting is concerned, how is it going?
One long time hunter stopped and remarked how many fewer whitetail and moose he’s seen this year. His observation was based on a couple weeks of hunting and observing one “litmus test of hunting” an area alfalfa field where he said, “Last year I observed 75 deer a day grazing in there. This year nothing.”
I know which field he is talking about and it isn’t an exaggeration. There indeed were 50 or more deer grazing the field on a daily basis, not to mention a half dozen moose cows and calves each morning sprinkled with the occasional bull. On one occasion I counted four bulls in this field at once.
No doubt a few were hunted. In this particular field, maybe four or five maximum were taken by hunters based on my daily observation of hunter activity there last year. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see evidence of an animal being dragged through an alfalfa field, not to mention the give away signs of raven and crow presence. So, where did the other deer go?
Some local speculation is that the wolf population is way up. One hunter who stopped for a chat cited an Eaglesham hunter who had been out three weeks continuously and hadn’t harvested any cloven hoofed animal. Last year, apparently, his party harvested nine wolves in the same area.
One former RCMP member (retired) stopped today (Oct. 4) and reported that his party of four had harvested a grand total of one Bullwinkle size bull moose and “That’s it”. They had been at it for over a week using quads, and the latest hunting machine fad, a Prowler.
One local wildlife officer, in his stop for a chat, mentioned that he felt mule deer numbers were “definitely down”. Whitetail appear to have held their own through the past year.
In my opinion, winter has definitely done a number on wildlife numbers. As mentioned in previous articles, I spent considerable time roving the bush with snow shoes or just by walking packed game trails this past winter. The depth and compactness of the snow was amazing to me, as well as to my Siberian Samoyed, Chance, whose ancestry comes from severe winter climes. Chance did not always appreciate the snow depths last winter. I marvelled this summer at how the trees managed to keep their green despite the extreme drought this summer. Indeed, there are still, at the writing of this article, lots of green leaves on the trees. This can only be attributed to the amazing amount of moisture winter snows must have put into the ground for this summer. The culprit, I think, in large part has been the two last winters.
I personally have seen small pockets of large number of game animals in various places, but certainly not the wide and numerous presence of wildlife that was present even late last fall. However, as I say, there is still a lot of green in the bush and so it is possible that wildlife numbers are still there and a lengthy spell of cold may bring them out. However; at this juncture it looks like maybe next year SRD may have to look at revising their harvest of wildlife, particularly in the area of mule deer doe and moose calves, and possibly bulls. At any rate, I appreciate the chats from passers-by and welcome any other “reports” on hunting success that you may have. And this year it may be more important than ever to hunt assiduously, but more importantly, accept that sometimes being a good hunter means an unfilled tag and accepting that.
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