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Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:29 PM CST
Bad weather means fewer deer taken
By DAVE SHADOW
Only a big baby would sit home and watch the ballgame instead of being out in the woods in pursuit of a worthy adversary on the very last weekend of white-tailed deer season in Illinois, right? Also, that same “big baby” may be at work today instead of nursing pneumonia or some similar ailment caused by sitting in a near-freezing rain. Could be that those were the smarter hunters?
It’s hard to remember any worse hunting conditions than those we endured during the 2006 late winter firearm season of Jan. 12- 14.
It rained almost non-stop for the whole season. The rain would stop just long enough to make you think you could get in some “stand-time,” and then it would start again. I dried out my hunting gear so many times it was ridiculous. This particular season replaced the old “pistol season,” so I rationalized that I should use my favorite 44 Mag Colt for this purpose.
This is a scoped model, and just keeping the rain off of the scope was frustrating enough.
As I reflect on past seasons, there’s only one that may have been worse. I’m not sure of the year, but Joe Fitzpatrick and I elected to go down to Giant City State Park for our attempt that year, and it was horrid. We woke up to “black ice” on the winding blacktop road and a crusty topping of ice on the several inches of snow that had fallen prior to its arrival. Trying to walk on that stuff was a stress test in itself. You would almost complete a step in time to crash through the crust, and if you managed not to end up floundering around like a baby hippo, you still had to pull your foot out of that hole and try for another step. We hunted real close to the truck on that outing. We probably needed some snowshoes, but that’s not something an Illinois hunter normally carries in his backpack.
Anyway, the white-tailed season ended rather uneventfully in this hunter’s inability to fill that last tag, and I suspect the harvest numbers will look rather bleak compared to other years. But all is not bad. We’ve already been enjoying many winter meals of roast venison and have especially enjoyed some fine deer bologna from a new source this year. It may be, however, that some counties had more breaks in the weather than we enjoyed in Shelby County. I will try to put the total harvest numbers all together as soon as they are available and publish them in a future article.
Now is the time to examine your stands and do some repainting or repairs.
Painting should be done now so that all the odor is gone long before they are needed again. Be especially watchful of ratchet straps and other items affected by the weather. Wash and pack away any clothing that you won’t need during your other hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities in a sealed bag so that they do not spend all of the off-season soaking up odors. Don’t worry that those bibs and jackets were getting a little tight. I’m sure you’ll lose enough weight before next season so that they will fit just fine
Just in case anyone is wondering, the Ghost of Paradise survived another season and is alive and well. I hope he has sired enough offspring of sufficient quality to make your next hunting season a top-quality experience.
It’s health, happiness and hunting.
Dave Shadow is the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier’s hunting and fishing columnist.
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janet ruiz wrote on Jun 5, 2007 12:35 PM: