OutdoorsKentucky.Com
Award-winning journalist Art Lander Jr. posts news and information
about fishing, hunting, nature and self-sufficient rural living in Kentucky
Text and Photos 2010 Art Lander Jr.
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Winter 2010
What’s New
Elk season update here
Deer harvests in Kentucky 2004-09 here
The era of the big buck in Kentucky here
Kentucky’s first bear hunt buried by snowstorm here
Fall 2009
What’s New
Shorter vanes, faster arrows here
Muzzy MX-3 broadhead here
Deer processing made easy here
Early Season Buck Disappearing Act here.
November 2009 deer harvest down 5 percent here.
A message from the publisher here.
Spring/Summer 2009
What’s New
Record harvest during spring wild turkey season despite poor hunting weather here.
Find out why there’s so much optimism about Kentucky’s Spring Wild Turkey Season here.
Vero Vellini gun slings -- comfortable enough for all-day hunts. You’ll never get tired when chasing that long-bearded gobbler here.
Ross bows are beautiful shooters here.
Road trip! Central Kentucky’s top smallmouth bass streams here.
The 2009-10 Deer Season dates, changes for late muzzleloader season, and zone status information here.
Is it time for a new bow string? Take a step up to a custom string. Check out Winner’s Choice here.
Posted January 16, 2010
By Art Lander Jr.
OutdoorsKentucky.Com
Spring Wild Turkey Season Update Excellent
The outlook for Kentucky’s 2010 spring wild turkey season appears to be as good as it gets.
“It’s looking like one of the best seasons in the past 8 to 10 years,” said Steven Dobey, wild turkey biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “There will be lots of 2-year-old birds, and they will be doing a lot of the gobbling.”
A record hatch in 2008 is the reason for the bounty of long-bearded turkeys that will be roaming Kentucky's woods and fields when the season opens Saturday, April 17, 2010. The 23-day season closes on Sunday, May 9, 2010, and the limit per hunter is two bearded turkeys.
"I would rate last year's (2009) hatch as moderate, a trend we've been seeing for the past 6 to 7 years," said Dobey. "My best guesstimate is our flock now numbers about 220,000."
The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission voted last August to open the 2010 season a week earlier, on April 10, and extend it through Sunday, May 2, but the new timeframe did not pass the legislative review process.
The department and the Commission will seek more public input on the issue before making a recommendation on spring wild turkey season dates.
In just 30 years, Kentucky’s wild turkey flock has grown to become one of the best in the region.
“Of the states surrounding Kentucky (seven, including Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee), we’re tied for first place (with Tennessee) in the number of birds harvested per square mile,” said Dobey. “That quite an accomplishment considering Tennessee has a much longer season and (hunters can take) double our bag limit.”
In 2009, hunters took a record 29,007 bearded turkeys during Kentucky’s spring season, an increase of 10,764 birds over just a decade ago, during the 2000 season.
Hunters should find plenty of vocal 2-year-old turkeys when Kentucky’s spring wild turkey season opens April 17, 2010, because of a record hatch in 2008.
Photo courtesy of National Wild Turkey Federation
Posted January 21, 2010
By Art Lander Jr.
OutdoorsKentucky.Com
Kentucky’s 2009-10 White-tailed Deer Season
Ends With Higher Than Usual Percentage of Bucks in the Harvest
Kentucky’s 2009-10 white-tailed deer season ended Monday, and there were some surprising numbers in the final harvest tally.
Hunters telechecked 113,580 deer, a decline of 7,030 from the 2008-09 season, and 11,172 deer below the state’s record kill in 2004-05.
But most notable was the higher than usual percentage of bucks in the harvest – 57.4 percent. During the nine previous deer seasons of the decade, the average percentage of bucks in the harvest was 50.3 percent.
“Gun season opened during the chase phase of the rut,” said David Yancy, a wildlife biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources who works in the deer program. “We had hunters tell us they were seeing antlered deer on opening weekend, but not many does.”
Yancy speculated that because fewer does than normal were taken (48,434, or 42.6 percent of the total harvest), there could be an uptick in reproduction this spring.
Kentucky’s deer herd now numbers about one million, and there are an estimated 255,000 deer hunters.
During the first half of the decade, deer harvest steadily climbed to a record 124,752 during the 2004-05 season, but since then the numbers have seesawed up and down. “That’s indicative of a stable deer herd,” said Yancy. “What you don’t want to see are wild swings in the harvest total, sharp declines or a steady upward trend.”
During the 2009-10 season archers checked in 14,663 deer, modern firearms hunters 81,663, and muzzleloader hunters 16,160
Updated January 23, 2010
Staff Report
Elk Hunting Applications Deadline April 30, 2010
Applications for Kentucky’s 2010 elk hunt lottery went on sale December 1, 2009.
The deadline is April 30, 2010.
Applications cost $10, and hunters whose names are drawn will have a chance to buy a bull or cow elk tag. Applications are available online only, and only one may be purchased. The drawing by computer will be held in May.
After permits are awarded, hunters must buy hunting licenses and elk permits, and are asked to pick the top three elk management units they would like to hunt. Another draw determines where elk permit holders get to hunt.
Apply by logging onto the homepage of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Click here, then click on the yellow “Buy Licenses Here” box on the right side of the page.
Last season elk managers awarded 750 cow elk tags and 250 bull elk tags for quota hunts. More than 46,000 people applied for the 2009 hunts. Ten percent of elk tags are awarded to non-residents.
Youth hunters 15 years old and younger may apply for the 2010 youth-only elk hunt at Paul Van Booven Wildlife Management Area.
Youth hunters may apply only one time for the youth-only hunt, and one time for regular quota hunts.
The hunter success rate was 87 percent during the 2009 hunt for bull elk.