Maine-Whats happened?

[Dskiper]

Well fellow woodsman I did it again! I went back to Maine(around Dover-Foxcroft) deer hunting all last week. Not 1 deer seen.NONE!Rutting time,cold mornings(20s),no moon,clear days! Trail watching,still hunting,old hunting&newhunting areas. Coyote tracks&scat onevery trail&woods road. Moose sign everywhere.Locals say 2severe winters in a row&coyotes out of control.Maine was always atough hunt as woods are thick& big. Few hunters these days.Usded to be part of the economy up there. I think they should cut the season(Nov.1-30) to 1 week for a few years. I've done this hunt over 35 seasons! No more,maybe. I wrote this last year also. Maybe south next year. Dskiper

[45-70cannon]

Well ya have two big reasons for no deer. Coyotes and moose. I hunt bear in Maine and the guides tell me that where you have a heavy moose population, ya won't find deer. Moose carry a disease that is detrimental to the deer. Then add the fawn eating yotes to it and the results is no deer.

By the way, the same is in reverse, where you have a heavy deer population, the moose aren't as prevalent.




45-70

Originally Posted by Dskiper

I think they should cut the season(Nov.1-30) to 1 week for a few years.

What good would that do? Do you think hunters are killing a ton of deer and hurting the numbers? That's obviously not the problem.

If anything they should lengthen the deer season so a guy buying a license has a fighting chance - if people can't enjoy the resource what good is even having it? Then they could put a small bounty on coyotes paid for by a voluntary donation drive and/or by selling more moose permits (not funded by stolen tax money or jacking up the license fees) put on by the state fish & game.

There's a free market solution to every problem of scarcity that exists - trouble is, bureaucrats don't tend to ever get creative because they have no profit motivation - they're gonna get paid regardless of the situation. :(

[ScottB]

The last time I talked to my dad, he told me the total deer harvest for last season(2009) was only 18,035! The article he quoted from didn't list how many hunting tags were sold.....

The article did mention that the last two winters were hard on the deer population. High snow, more coyotes and no supplemental feeding will always equal reduced herds.

Dad is going to till up the front 3 acres of the field(where it's protected by new pines along the stone wall in the front) and plant some kind of winter rye or something. Then try to keep as much snow off of it as possible(snowblower, I guess) for the deer to come and get a easy meal during the hard times. They already come around for some grain in the feeder, but he's hoping to get something green in their stomachs too!!

Not as many moose in the Lebanon area as the rest of the State, and the reason? I dunno, cause Lebanon is full of swamps!



Scott

[Dskiper]

hello, well I went again up to Maine! This is now 3 years in a row I haven't seen a deer in the woods!This season I hunted 12 days out of 15. Two sundays and 1 rain day missed.NO DEER! Scapes,but not active.NO sizeable rubs.Weather was warm but cold mornings. NO hunters to speak of either. Few shots,even distantly. Moose sign is prevelent but they were there 20yrs. ago. They cut this year where I hunted so rasberry will grow in and other foodsfor next yr. I think with changing weather(warmer falls)they only move at night. Nohuman sent to bump them from there bedding.I even brought my Fox Pro caller if Ishot a buck early.I should of hunted coyotes instead!Maybe I'll go back for them! All in all, I love the big woods so I guess I'll try again if alls well next season! One thing is surprising.TURKEY!!Many in fields and along roads.They were never that far north(above Bangor).How are they serviving "bad winters"? Dskiper

[yobuck]

you know what one of the definitions for insanity is skip?

[Ghostman]

Originally Posted by yobuck

you know what one of the definitions for insanity is skip?

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? LOL


Northern Maine's deer herd is in bad shape and seems to be getting worse (if that's possible) due to the following reasons ....

Unchecked logging operations. Paper companies are cutting off entire hardwood sections and replanting with fast growing pine. They spay the cutoff areas with herbicide which prevents new growth of forrage plants and hardwoods. Food loss.

The paper companies are cutting off slow growing cedar swamps many of which were deer yards in the winter. Habitat loss.

A totally unmanaged and growing Coyote population. Predation.

Two back to back bad winters which killed as much as 50% of the deer in the Northern zone.

Wardens and biologists are using the term "extirpation" which means local extinction to describe the deer populations in the Northern part of the state.

I love Maine and lived and hunted there for 17 years. I still go back every year for bear hunting but I wouldn't waste my vacation time deer hunting in the Northern zone. Central and Southern Maine have much higher deer densities.