Mainely Outdoors – Playing the Field for Whitetails

After last winter’s record setting snowfall and its corresponding devastation to Aroostook’s deer population, prospects for this month’s whitetail hunt have been mediocre at best. Summer sightings of deer by woodcutters, anglers and campers were nowhere near normal numbers and if a doe with fawn was spotted it was a real rarity. During the recent partridge and moose season, whitetail sightings continued to be sparse, especially in the thick forest of the North Maine Woods.
With the first full week of Maine’s favorite big game hunt behind us, an odd pattern has occurred. So far the sports haunting the deep woods aren’t faring very well, but that wasn’t unexpected by the outdoorsmen themselves and especially by regional biologists. Just as an example, one of the North Woods checkpoints logged 108 hunters in and out on one particular day last week, and the total deer count at the end of that day was three. Those are dismal results and terrible odds.
I’ll be the first to admit that the weather hasn’t cooperated at all. Aroostook experienced a lovely Indian summer for several days, and while those balmy fall temperatures are easy on the oil bill and great for outside activities, they are not advantageous to bagging a buck. Cold nights and crisp frosty mornings are more likely to keep deer moving about. And if unseasonably warm weather isn’t enough of a hindrance to hunting, more heavy, steady rain swept into the Crown of Maine. If one or the other doesn’t keep whitetails laying low, the combination certainly will.
Youth day turned out fairly well however with a respectable number of young nimrods enjoying success, and quite a few experienced that wonderful feeling of first time triumph Regardless of the ban on shooting does during the regular season, it was a wise and beneficial decision to allow adolescent hunters to shot either sex on their annual one day debut. Those photos in the album and venison in the freezer will provide lifelong memories of that premier success.
Having related how tough the deer hunting has been in the deep woods I’d be remiss in not touting how well some sportsmen are fairing by hunting the urban edges. Orange clad guys and girls who are still-hunting, perching in tree stands or just driving along cut grain fields, pastures, or acreage with a winter cover crop are taking a fair number of bucks. Small wood lots on rural farms also seemed to produce a few nice whitetails on a daily basis last week.
My theory about this early season farm field success, and it’s only that, is that perhaps there was more food and less competition in these spots during the worst of last winter. In addition, it’s likely that those whitetails living in the urban-edge farmland and small woods were better fed and fatter before harsh weather actually set in last winter. Whatever the case, quite a few does and a surprising number of four and six point bucks were sighted, and a fair number shot last week.
One of my friends got a seven-pointer in a field Saturday morning and another buck was with it. Another acquaintance missed a buck Saturday but got one Monday; while a third friend missed a buck Monday morning but connected on Tuesday just after sunrise. Two days later this last hunter spotted four more deer in a field, called a friend via cell phone, and they snuck up and downed a four-pointer from that quartet.
I’ve heard a dozen more stories of successes and near success by hunters haunting farm fields and forest during the past few days. Of the three bucks checked closely while being dressed out, skinned and cut up the neck and leg glands showed no sign whatsoever of impending rut. I realize it’s still early in the season, but the warm weather may be postponing things a bit too. Snow is great for tracking and trailing, but cold weather is what kicks the rut into gear and also increases the deer’s need to feed and move about more. That’s why many veteran buck chasers annually schedule their vacation days for Thanksgiving week. It’s possible that results in the big woods will improve as the season progresses, I hope so, but in the meantime, perhaps hunters should be playing the field.
Instead of passing up hunting opportunities while waiting for frigid weather to arrive, spending a few pre-work hours scouting around nearby farmland and small woodlots might just be rewarding.  While it might not be every deer hunters favorite approach, during a difficult gunning year exchanging big woods for sparse, rural edge forest might just turn out to be the best way to bag a buck.  It’s working steadily for others so far, why not try it for yourself.