nature takes its toll

[fishman1 164]

speaking to many outdoorsman it seems that 08 didnt go over as well as many hoped it would. the deer population has seemed to have peaked in 07 and with the exception of a few reports there were many disappointing stories. the wolf population has rebounded with the deer population and combined with the excess doe tags available, it seems that many areas are now in decline. we will see what happens this year with the snow. as well, the moose population is a mystery of its own. i spoke with one c.o. who said he counted the kills on one hand after the opener. the minnesota moose are dying and they dont know why. is this also happening north of the border? many hunters have spoken of lack of animals in the woods in 08.

[GC 54 31]

Decline, Decline, Decline, that is all I am hearing as a lame excuse for not getting your moose or deer.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !

For those of you who read my posting, it was my own thoughts directed to certain 'friends' who have since commented to me about the posting. All in fun.

However, mother nature is doing funny things these days, but she has been good to our group. As for my 'friends', they must have tried to fool mother nature and she got even with them.

[JustMe 5]

I would have to agree with GC54, I hunt for deer with my 2 brothers in a small area outside of town and there were only a couple of day's that we didn't hear or jump 2 or more deer. I gave up moose hunting a couple of years ago because I didn't like getting a tag every 5-6 years. We all have venison in our freezer. Sorry George I'm having spaghetti for supper.

[Jayfishin 63]

I'm glad to hear that the overall success rates are down this year for both moose and deer. Filling the freezer every year with ease can take away from the appreciation of hunting and harvesting animals. A fall of hunting with little or no success only makes one appreciate a past good season. I just enjoy being out in the bush in the fall. Its obviously nice to fill the freezer early in the season but I like to hunt from October to December, so its nice that the moose and deer ruts are staggered which allows us here in the north to hunt quite successfully for two months. Some times the freezer has only moose, sometimes moose and deer and other times only deer, we are fortunate to have some variety so close to home. I definitely like to hunt deer but I kind of hope that this winter is alot harder on those deer so that the poor old swamp donkey has room to expand / rebound. Those articles by Byran Meadows where excellent but I look forward to more definitive reports on the moose decline in the near future (by the MNR and ???).

Jay

[fishman1 164]

well it seems that you were one of the bright spots george. my freezer is full as well, but i guess you dont read the paper or talk to many people . as far as feeders go, my friends have timed feeders and they most certainly do not bring in the deer in the daylight hours. my trailcams showed a lot of deer at night and a lot of young deer.i myself had a good year, but a lot of people didnt.

[GC 54 31]

I'm just the driver and the caller, just fortunate to be part of a successful group, but really do enjoy getting out and hunting throughout the season, like my neighbour Jay says in his post. That is why I moved here and enjoy living here, besides the fishing and the great 'friends'.

[fishman1 164]

I'm just the driver and the caller, just fortunate to be part of a successful group, but really do enjoy getting out and hunting throughout the season, like my neighbour Jay says in his post. That is why I moved here and enjoy living here, besides the fishing and the great 'friends'.

thats why we all live here. nice to see you guys had a successful season and good luck next year. with all the snow, we should have a good spring run. see you at the cabin pool.

[Guest dano]

2008 was a great year. It makes me mad when hunters say that the game animal populations are down even though that hunter has meat in the freezer. I hear this line often " We only got a one bull, usually our group shoots 4 or 5 moose a season.We hunted that spot for 10 years. The moose population is way down!" Huh,4 or 5 a year? how many moose does a person or group need? Or, this is "I only shot a doe. Never saw anything with antlers". Well news flash! not every deer is going to be 200 inch record book buck. A hunter should be thankful for what they get and to just be able to get out hunting.

[Guest Nick C]

Well said. They should be glad that they got one and that they have food in their freezer.

Nick C

[Mr. Canoehead 69]

I spent about 15 or 20 days or partial days hunting deer this year. Lots of tracks, some fresh rubs and scrapes but...only saw 1 deer and it was 10 mins after hunting hours so I didn't shoot it. A nice buck, an 8 pointer I think, and would've been my first ever deer. I'm pretty sure it was the one making those scrapes. That kinda burned!

I spent lots of time sitting still in a blind, in the thick stuff, spent time tracking in the snow, and spent some time driving around too. Flying solo every time probably didn't help either... I'm trying to get in touch with a friend of a friend who has property in pass lake to try next year.

It's dissapointing, but it's true that it will only make it that much sweeter when I finally do get one.

So anyways, dec 15th passed with no deer down .. and I took it all out on the chickens! I whacked about 10 of them after the 15th. That made me feel better lol!

[Bottom Bouncer 22]

I can only say that I have talked to several biologist and it's unamimous that there is a problem with the "MOOSE" population in the immediate area of TBay. They also said they have been in contact with bio's in Northern Minnesota who are also experiencing a decline with no explanation. Conservation Officer's are also reporting significant declines in the number of successful parties.There are several theorys on the reasons why but no hardcore evidence. So if you didn't get a moose this year maybe you were unlucky for a reason other than sleeping in.

[Fisherman08 6]

My son and I were able to get 3 deer this year. Only 1 tag not filled. We seen quite a few deer east of here, does, fawns and bucks. All very decent in size too. With our Moose Hunting Party, we were successfull in getting a calf and last years bull. It's nice to beable to have a freezer full of meat to cut down on the grocery bills, and sure makes a great dinner.

While hunting east of the city this past fall, driving logging roads my buddy and I came across 4 very large wolves walking down the centre of the road. This was in early November. When there in pack's like that, there going to take down the herd considerably for sure. I can only imagine that there are more out there as well.

I hope next year is still going to be a good year to harvest meat for the table.

[fishman1 164]

I can only say that I have talked to several biologist and it's unamimous that there is a problem with the "MOOSE" population in the immediate area of TBay. They also said they have been in contact with bio's in Northern Minnesota who are also experiencing a decline with no explanation. Conservation Officer's are also reporting significant declines in the number of successful parties.There are several theorys on the reasons why but no hardcore evidence. So if you didn't get a moose this year maybe you were unlucky for a reason other than sleeping in.

kudos to you nisswa.

[Guest BannedCore]

I was concerned about the moose numbers over 5 years ago. But the last few have been really bad. Years ago I used to see tons of moose and not so many bears. That has now flip flopped. I know that I used to see 12 moose to 1 bear. Now I see 12 bear to 1 moose. Also not many calves anymore. 2 years ago I drove over 10,000 kms in northern Ontario and saw 0 moose!! I was very concerneed over this. I used to live in Sault Ste Marie and work out of Wawa. When I would drive to Wawa I always saw moose. I know that there are other factors that are hurting the moose populations, but bears have done most of the damage. When we used to have the spring bear hunt they were being fed by the outfitters, once we took that away the next food source for a hungry bear in the spring is the calf moose. I have seen over 300 bears in the last 5 years and that is more than I saw in 30 years prior to that. I have only seen 30 or so moose in the last 5 years and only 3 or 4 calves. This year I saw 3 different sows with 3 cubs and many others that had 2. I saw 10 bears in one day on the cameron falls road. I know that the M.N.R won't admit that the bears are taking their toll on the moose population and that is SAD. I did speak with a C.O who noticed the same trend and admitted that the bears were playing a role in the moose population decline. I also respect that C.O for having the guts to say so. The moose/bear stories are really piling up and I could write a book about it. Until we cull the bear population many calves will die and the stress on the moose population will continue. Maybe we all should start bear hunting. We are spending MILLIONS on the bear wise program just to shuffle them around. You can tell that this whole situation really bothers me. Humans are also at risk with so many bears around and we are lucky so far that no children have been killed. Shame on the government for being so stubborn and not admitting that they made a mistake with the spring bear hunt. I know this is the deer forum sorry if this is a hijack.