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Dirttracker18

Where are we in the deer rut?

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Monks

Forgot to add saw lots of does without bucks chasing, but saw bucks on most of the trails they walked later on

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MDR

Was out today...too warm or I am in the wrong area. Scrapes and rubs but no daytime activity it seems.


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Monks

Was out today...too warm or I am in the wrong area. Scrapes and rubs but no daytime activity it seems.

I would move, saw deer all day, most of them between 10 am and 2 PM. Lots of activity mid day when most hunters are not in the woods. For me the best areas are deeper in the bush. Lots of the does trying to get away from bucks and staying in cover. My friends hunting cutovers and fields seeing very little to nothing. The bucks move all day in the bush this time of year.

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gsambray

I had a rookie day Saturday. I was sitting in my spot and decided to try a few calls. After the first call I heard crashing in the brush beside me and there was the first mistake. A doe decided to come running out through the brush and stopped right beside me. She stomped and ran back into the bush. That's when I heard thrashing coming from further back. I tried my call again and a buck started stomping and thrashing. A few minutes past when he started grunting. He grunted a few times and went silent. I waited a good 20 minutes hearing absolutely nothing and gave my call a go. That's when I found out he had been sneaking up through the brush right beside me. I guess my call let him pin point where I was and he blew at me and ran. I sat in the area for te entire day till sunset without seeing or hearing anything else all day. Maybe next weekend I will have some better results

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Dirttracker18

I hear you sambray.



I set up a new spot where I could over look an area where I found a lot of scrapes and rubs on my property. I rode my quad to a spot I thought was a safe distance away before sunrise. When I shut it off all I could hear was running and crashing through the bush next to me :( Apparently I found a nighttime bedding area or something.



Although this area looks super busy and I tried multiple different calls, I saw nothing all morning and had to pack up to head to a prior commitment :(



The Great Outdoors

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Guest BlindLikeBat

I shot a 3 year old 6 pointer last night 1/2 before dark. Walked right down the middle of the field and stood in front of my blind at 40 yards :-)

I also had a doe come to the edge of the field and stand facing directly at me at 11:35 yesterday.

I agree with whoever previously mentioned that he's seeing action at mid day. On Saturday I saw 2 in the field (heavy snow) at around 10:30 or so.

I hunt on private land on the whitefish area.

BLB

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Monks

Sat tonight on a field edge stand while my kids were at track, only had an hour but why not. Heard a few grunts and such just at legal, a young buck and a nice 8, were running her. They chased her across the field. Just not the buck I'm looking for. Wanted to get into my south wind stand in the bush but just not enough time, darn day light savings time!


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Monks

Got in a couple hours today, my what lovely weather! 3 does, no bucks. Same three does Ive seen around for a week now. Pretty sure they haven't sent out the vibe to boys yet, so hopefully the big guys are not completely locked down yet.

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Nnev

I'm still seeing bucks searching. Weird my cam's have gone from all does to only bucks. Not a bad problem to have really.


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Pro fisherman-Stud Muffin

I'd say we nearing the end or climax.

. I'm not passing on deer now. Still have tags .

Been waiting for big one......my cutoff for letting doe's walk is 15th.


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2016 Dog Lake Open Champion.

Thunder Bay BASSmasters Vice-President 

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gsambray

On Sunday bucks didn't seem to excited about any kind of calls. Had a six pointer Just ignore the call and lay down not giving me a shot lol. Tried calling again and not even a head turn. Eventually he jumped up snorted and ran off when a fox came running down the hill. But on a plus side this is the third year in a row that my resident Lynx came by for a visit

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RatherBeFishin

I keep dates on all my pictures in my albums. My biggest buck i have shot was nov 17th years back. Next biggest was nov 18th at 12:00 pm exactly. I have had my best big buck luck every year for the past ten plus years between Nov 8 to Nov 20th ish. Nov 11 is also one of my favourite days for deer. However this nov 11th didnt produce.

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Pro fisherman-Stud Muffin

I keep dates on all my pictures in my albums. My biggest buck i have shot was nov 17th years back. Next biggest was nov 18th at 12:00 pm exactly. I have had my best big buck luck every year for the past ten plus years between Nov 8 to Nov 20th ish. Nov 11 is also one of my favourite days for deer. However this nov 11th didnt produce.

Good news. Then theres hope for my season


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2016 Dog Lake Open Champion.

Thunder Bay BASSmasters Vice-President 

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Fishbum

There may still be hope for your season but.... I don't see much hope for you 🤗 Lol

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Monks

I would say we're at the lockdown phase and moving into the second portion of the rut. From what I saw the last week. Did a fair mount of spot and stock due to little activity. I'm thinking and hoping the big guys have bred and will be on the move for the last of the receptive and younger does. Usually the young bucks have been beaten up enough by now, lots of time yet and a new buck may venture into your area. My favourite time is the last 2 weeks of December:). The rut is fun for seeing lots of deer activity. But for pattering the bucks I'm after, December is the best time of year. Worn down and feeding again and moving during the day.

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toma-hawk

Yes and so do I lol. Nice buck.

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Nnev

I had a nice 8 pointer step out 15 yards in front of me while i had my hands in my pockets trying to keep warm... was so upset I went in for lunch only to have him on cam for 30 minutes at 2 o'clock which I found out after I came back for the night hunt.

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Dirttracker18

This has been a very strange year and hard to judge, add in the wolf issue I now have and I am having a hard time figuring out what happened when.

 

All the deer in my properties have gone night hawk on me.  I am getting nothing during the day and this includes does and fawns.  I never did see any rut activity other than scraps and rubs, which seem to have slowed down but not stopped.

 

I am assuming the rut is over but some guys are reporting that they are just stating to see bucks in daylight where that not till this point.

 

What an odd year, anyone else think so?


The Great Outdoors

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hunt or be hunted

Deer numbers are down big time all across the Thunder Bay district, wolf numbers are getting way out of hand as well, I do agree it's been a very odd/hard deer season to understand what's happening where and when but I think that has a lot to do with the really low numbers of deer around, I've talked to a lot of fellow hunters and their all in agreement that deer numbers are greatly down from previous years and their seeing high numbers of wolves around. I was out Monday afternoon and ran into a gentleman who found a fresh fawn kill from wolves the previous day and while walking out watch' a pack of 6 wolves chasing a doe in the same area, he did his part and harvested one of wolves he had a chance at. Their getting super bad all over and unless everyone starts to help with the wolf problem it's only gonna get worse before it gets better on our deer populations 🤔

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Nnev
4 hours ago, Dirttracker18 said:

This has been a very strange year and hard to judge, add in the wolf issue I now have and I am having a hard time figuring out what happened when.

 

All the deer in my properties have gone night hawk on me.  I am getting nothing during the day and this includes does and fawns.  I never did see any rut activity other than scraps and rubs, which seem to have slowed down but not stopped.

 

I am assuming the rut is over but some guys are reporting that they are just stating to see bucks in daylight where that not till this point.

 

What an odd year, anyone else think so?

This is exactly what's happening to me. From 6PM - 2AM there is anywhere from 6-10 different bucks alone or up to 4 coming to my feed pile. No does, no fawns.. just night bucks. It's super frustrating.

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scandiman

Wolf numbers are definitely up; combine that with two hard winters in a row and essentially no limit on surplus tags and voila, way less deer. 

Once again a perfect example of how resource management is failing IMO

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