What will you elect to hunt this season? By Kevin Kelly
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Tom Edwards photo
Photo courtesy Steve Beam
OTERS ACROSS THE nation will go to the polls in November to choose the next president of the United States. Kentucky Afield knows you’ve not come to our pages looking for more election coverage. But in the spirit of election season we’re getting into the act by offering a voter’s guide of our own. It’s one any hunter can get behind. Fall means hunting, and Kentucky offers an abundance of choices. Liberal seasons and conservative license fees are part of the appeal. In this guide, experts at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources stump for hunting bear, deer, elk, wild turkey, small game and waterfowl in Kentucky. Like you, they are hunters, and their tips may help make your decisions this fall a little easier.
Obie Williams illustrations
“I enjoy many types of hunting and with a 10-year-old son who is really starting to get interested, I am super excited about this fall and have plans for a little bit of everything. That is one of the most wonderful things about our state; for the price of a sportsman’s license, my son and I will be able to enjoy deer, squirrel, rabbit, upland birds, dove and fall turkey. I plan to throw in a federal duck stamp so we can duck hunt a few times and hope to pick up a bear permit and give that a go as well. “I was talking with a good friend not long ago who is spending most of his hunting time these days getting his grandkids involved. He is constantly amazed at the difference in opportunities compared to when he was growing up. “My friend and I were also discussing the downside to all this opportunity. There just isn’t enough time to do it all. I realize I am in no way unique in that regard, everyone is busy, but I encourage other Kentucky hunters to do what they can to schedule some high-quality time with your family and friends this fall.” ± Steve Beam, Wildlife Division director, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife
fw.ky.gov
John Brunjes photo
BEAR
“Things are healthy with our state’s bear population. Our research shows the population is growing. Last year was really the perfect storm for bear hunters between a mast crop failure that concentrated bears on the food sources that were available and very favorable weather. Our archery-crossbow hunters took 22 bears and our firearms hunters took 21. The season lasted one day in both instances. “Some of the top counties last year were Harlan, Letcher and Wayne. That’s traditionally been the case over the years. I think a good sleeper spot is the Daniel Boone National Forest in McCreary County or Pulaski County. I don’t know that many people hunt that McCreary County country but it’s full of them. “If we have good mast this year like I think we’re going to have, they’re going to be on the acorns. If you could find an area of trees dropping acorns, you’re going to find bears and you might find 10 to 15 at a time. Just cover some territory and look for bear sign. Go and find whatever they’re eating and still hunt like you would deer. Play their nose. Bears can’t see that well, but they smell as well as deer.” – John Hast, bear program coordinator, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife
FALL TURKEY
“If you’re a deer hunter and you like to spring turkey hunt, too, you should think about trying the fall turkey season. It’s a fun way to spend time outdoors and it’s a lot more compatible with deer hunting than some people realize. I think some people probably don’t pursue turkey in fall because they’re too worried about messing things up for deer. Look for ways that you can mesh the two. “There’s the well-known October lull for deer and that falls right in our first shotgun season. Giving the deer a rest and focusing on turkeys gives you a chance maybe to pick up some scraping activity. “Because they’re turkeys, they’re still going to be associated with fields a lot of the time this time of year. In the woods, it’s similar to spring; you’re looking for scratching. They’re scratching for acorns that fall. Also be looking for soft mast opportunities ± greenbrier and grapes and things like that. But once you find those scratchings, sit down and be patient. Birds are liable to show up in the area. “In fall, you’ve got an opportunity to take any bird that walks by. It kind of opens the door on turkey hunting.” – Zak Danks, ruffed grouse and wild turkey program coordinator, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Fall 2016 Kentucky Afield 13
John Brunjes photo
DEER
“Why wouldn’t you want to hunt deer here? We have lots of deer, lots of nice deer. There is ample opportunity. Permits are comparatively easy to acquire and affordable. We have public land all across the state that people can go harvest an animal on. We have lots of opportunity on private land. We’re a destination state because of all of those things. “Everything points toward another good season. We’ve had a really wet spring and a wet summer so far with lots of food available. That just equals healthy deer. “ Tr a d i t i o n ally, when you have good mast years, we usually see a decline in the harvest from the previous year mainly because of a change in feeding habits. They’re not coming to corn feeders and they’re not coming to green fields. They’re in the woods. “You have good mast and bad weather, you’re not going to harvest as many deer during the November season. That’s what drives our harvest. We’ve been setting archery records nearly every year and every month, so we’re seeing more interest in archery hunting. But we’re still a modern gun-dominated state and weather is the biggest key in that. “We’ll see. For hunters, it’s about to be the best time of the year.”
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ELK
“The elk herd is doing extremely well. We’re producing record-book animals and last season added three new entries to our list of top 10 largest bull elk taken in the state. “We also opened a lot of new land last year with Revelation Energy Hunting Access and the Voucher Cooperator Elk Permit Program. These were properties that had been hunted a limited amount. By offering more places to hunt, we’re spreading out hunting pressure. “October is the peak of the breeding season and peak of bugling and our bull firearms season pretty much sets the stage. From that point it goes into a lull before picking back up again at the end of November. Elk start coming out as it starts getting into winter. They start drawing back into bigger herds. Breeding season is hard on them so they’re trying to recoup and eat and eat and eat to get ready for winter. It looks like acorns are going to be pretty good and that’s going to put them in the timber a lot. “If you look at the past five years, the average success rate for bull archery hunters is 73 percent and bull firearms is 88 percent. Cow archery is 38 and cow firearms is 67. Those are the highest success rates in the country for those kinds of permits. Nobody has success rates like that.” – Gabe Jenkins, deer and elk program coordinator, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife
Dave Baker photo
SMALL GAME
“Small game hunting allows for family and friends to get into the field together, and it’s great for youth because it doesn’t require being still and quiet all the time. It has the largest window of opportunity ± there are more days available for small game hunting than all of the competition ± but that probably cuts both ways. If you’re trying to partition time, be thinking small game in the morning and evening. “I like to sell the value of squirrel hunting as a way to develop woodsmanship and hunting skills for some of the larger critters like deer and turkey. I encourage people to try to use rimfire or small caliber rifles for squirrels because it really hones your marksmanship. “If you want to harvest something for the table or add meat for the freezer, your best bets are squirrel and rabbit. Old fields with brush piles are going to hold rabbits. “If you’re a person who really values a challenge and a very rewarding hunting experience when you’re successful, then you’re thinking upland game birds, whether it’s quail or grouse. “Where the habitat is good there are reasonable opportunities available to encounter a couple of coveys of quail a day. Wing-shooting grouse is one of the most challenging things I think you can do in hunting. Long-term memories are formed through some of those experiences.”
Dave Baker photo
WATERFOWL
“From hunting Cave Run Lake surrounded by mountains to the flooded corn fields in western Kentucky to the hunting on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, a lot of other states don’t have ducks in the kind of unique, different settings that we have. It’s just a wide variety and there are more birds than ever before. “We have the highest count of mallards that we’ve ever counted. This spring’s count of resident Canada goose was our highest on record and the population continues to steadily inch its way upward. This season we have an expanded framework which allows people to hunt (goose) until Feb. 15. Those extra two weeks could be really good depending on the weather. “The strategy in the early season is to be out there hunting because it changes so much. Things fluctuate day to day. Birds move. If you internet hunt or you wait until you hear that it’s good it can be over the next day. “Waterfowl and migratory birds are driven by what the weather does. In general, in Kentucky, it benefits us to have cold and nasty weather. “It’s a good time to get out and go hunting. The good old days are today.”
– John Morgan, upland game program coordinator, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
– John Brunjes, migratory bird coordinator, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife
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CAST YOUR BALLOT The Beam family welcomed a new Brittany puppy into their home this summer. One evening before bedtime, 10-year-old Ryan told his father that he thought “Sam” had the makings of being a good bird dog, and that got Steve Beam thinking. “Other than a propensity to point honey bees I have no indications whether he will grow into a serviceable bird dog,” he said. “I do know that if he does, we will have to make room in next year’s fall schedule for woodcock and upland birds. I don’t know how we will make the time, but I am looking forward to trying.” People’s lives are busy and hunting time often has to fit around other commitments. How do the experts handle it? “During the late summer each year, I enjoy an exercise that I suspect most busy hunters across the state share,” said Beam, wildlife division director for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “I look at the entire calendar for the fall and try to map out as much time in the field as I can.” He hunts squirrels and doves before the early wood duck season. For his family, that leads into the most anticipat anticipated time of year. “My son is eagerly awaiting deer season,” Beam said. “At our house, hunting is certainly about the adventure, experience and time outdoors with family and friends, but it’s also about putting meat in the freezer. After deer season, we will try to get in a couple of duck hunts and try to tag along with a buddy and his dogs so we can experience the sheer joy of listening to beagles chasing cottontails. “I have a couple of friends who want to give bear hunting a try. None of us have ever hunted bears so we hope to combine the last couple of days of the December turkey season with a scouting expedition and then spend the weekend sitting in a likely looking spot hoping to meet up with a bear.” John Morgan groups opportunities when possible. His strategy is to fill the freezer early to maximize the time he has to hunt upland game birds with his dog. “When you have a bird dog, that’s 16 Kentucky Afield Fall 2016
FOR MORE INFORMATION The annual Kentucky Hunting and Trapping Guide is the go-to source for season dates and a summary of regulations pertinent to fall hunting and trapping. It’s available online at fw.ky.gov and wherever licenses are sold. POLLING PLACES Looking for a place to hunt? The Wildlife Management Area and Public Hunting Areas Search on Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s website will point you in the right direction. To access it, enter the phrase “Wildlife Management Area and Public Hunting Areas” in the search box on the homepage. TROPHY LIST The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources is compiling a list of trophy bears taken by hunters in Kentucky. The bear must meet the Boone and Crockett Club awards minimum to be eligible. Boone and Crockett scores are based on skull dimensions. The skull must dry for at least 60 days before it can be measured by an official Boone and Crockett measurer. A list of official measurers is available online at www.boone-crockett.org. HELPING HANDS Hunters can help Kentucky Fish and Wildlife keep tabs on the state’s small game population by keeping a daily hunting log. Sample hunting logs are available online at fw.ky.gov. Enter “small game logs” in the search box on the homepage. Participating hunters will receive the log, a copy of the survey results and a small gift. Quail hunters also can send in one wing from each harvested bobwhite quail. Preaddressed quail wing envelopes are available by calling the department at 1-800-858-1549. going to be your number one driver,” said Morgan, upland game bird coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “It will favor you to minimize some of your other days
and maximize the opportunity to use your dogs, which will be a good portion of the small game hunters out there.” This strategy was one of the reasons he bought a crossbow. “The crossbow added turkey hunting days for me because I was trying to balance deer hunting, which is the freezer filler, and small game, which isn’t necessarily the best of freezer fillers, particularly if you’re a bird hunter,” Morgan said. Gabe Jenkins’ ideal day would go something like this: be in a duck blind before sunup, kick up a rabbit or two in the late morning or early afternoon then climb into a deer stand in time to bow hunt before dark. “I’d be whipped,” he said, “but you only have a few days in the year to do that.” It’s possible over Thanksgiving weekend in Kentucky. Archery deer season opens in September and runs into January. Rabbit and upland bird seasons open in November and extend into the New Year. This year, duck season runs from Thanksgiving Day through Nov. 27 and from Dec. 5 through Jan. 29, 2017. “That week of Thanksgiving is big with all the small game hunting and all the tradition that goes with hunting around the holiday,” said Jenkins, deer and elk program coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Depending on the year, we could be deer hunting still. Elk season is in full swing. Waterfowl comes in that weekend. Upland game is in. You’ve got everything.” What hunting days would you not sacrifice to go to a friend or relative’s wedding? John Hast has his list. “Early wood duck would be one of those weekends,” he said. “It would be muzzleloader deer. I would give up every other deer hunting day to have early muzzleloader season. And at least a two- or three-day period during late muzzleloader deer season and duck season. I will be unavailable.” Hast played football at Centre College. One off weekend in his junior season, a pair of teammates accompanied Hast to his family’s farm in western Kentucky. “Our thing was we would wood duck hunt in the morning, dove hunt in the early afternoon and then bow hunt,” said Hast, bear and furbearer program coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “I did have a buddy who killed a teal, a handful of doves and a doe. That’s one of those somewhat magical weekends.” n fw.ky.gov