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
Kentucky’s 2010-11 Deer Season Dates and Zones here
Steiner Merlin 8 X 32 binoculars are bright, light here
Lorpen Socks keep feet warm, dry and scent-free here
Coyotes a visible predator here
Elk season update here
Kentucky’s 2009-10 white-tailed deer season ends with higher than usual percentage of bucks in the harvest 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
Updated March 9, 2010
By Art Lander Jr.
OutdoorsKentucky.Com
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission Votes to Award
800 Permits to hunters for the 2010-11 Elk Season
FRANKFORT -- At its quarterly meeting on March 5, 2010, the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to award hunters 800 permits for the 2010-11 elk season, and made some minor changes to the elk regulations.
The breakdown of permits includes: 200 bull permits and 600 cow permits. One hundred twenty-five of the bull permits are for elk with 4 x 4 antlers (four points on each side), or larger, and 75 of the bull permits are for elk with spike antlers, with up to
two points on each side.
Kentucky’s elk herd, which is estimated to number about 11,000, resides in a 16-county elk zone in eastern Kentucky, which is divided into six Elk Hunting Units (EHUs).
Last year, when 1,000 permits were issued, hunters took 778 elk – 276 bulls and 502 cows.
Elk permits are awarded by lottery drawing, with a few given to landowners who let the public hunt on their land, and a few auctioned for fundraising purposes to benefit elk restoration.
Beginning this season, EHU 3, will be divided into two sub-units EHU 3A, and EHU 3B. “Creating a small unit around the core of Consol WMA will better control hunting pressure, and the number of elk harvested,” said Tina Brunjes, elk biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
The November firearms season for elk was moved to December, so that it wouldn’t overlap with modern firearms season for deer.
A hunter drawn for a bull elk permit can’t apply for a bull permit for the next three years, but can continue to apply for a cow elk permit. This change is designed to increase the number of people hunting elk in Kentucky for the first time.
The 2010-11 elk seasons are:
Firearms: Youth-only, September 25-27
Firearms: Week 1 (bull), October 2-8.
Week 2 (bull), October 9-15
Firearms: Week 1 (cow), December 11-17
Week 2 (cow), December, 18-24
Archery: Week 1 (bull), October 2-8, and
October 16, 2010 through January 17, 2011.
Archery: Week 2 (bull), October 9, 2010 through January 17, 2011.
Archery: Week 1 (cow), October 16 through December 17, and December 25, 2010 through January 17, 2011.
Archery: Week 2 (cow), October 16 through December 10 and, December 18, 2010 through January 17, 2011.
For more information on elk hunting in Kentucky click here.
Updated March 13, 2010
By Art Lander Jr.
OutdoorsKentucky.Com
Bass Fishing Tackle and Techniques
There are lots of productive fishing lures and techniques for largemouth bass. Here are three productive seasonal tactics:
Spring
Tournament professional Kevin Van Dam refined the use of jerk baits and encourages anglers to give them a try, especially in the spring. "It’s a technique that bass haven’t seen at a lot of lakes (and rivers)."
"With jerk baits you can cover a lot of water and excite fish that aren’t necessarily in the mood to bite," said Van Dam, whose spirited approach to fishing shallow-running and suspending crankbaits has helped him win over $300,000 in prize money on the Bassmasters Tournament Trail in his first five seasons.
The Bomber Long A and Smithwick Rattlin’ Rogue have been his money lures.
Van Dam fishes the floating models about 75 percent of the time. Suspending lures are used in cold water or after fronts have passed, when bass are sluggish.
The lures aren’t fished deeper than eight feet.
Jerk baits mimic dying or injured baitfish, moving targets for opportunistic feeders. ‘‘Bass are always going to eat the shad that’s different in the school, the one that’s wounded or doesn’t swim like the others.’’
Clear water is the key.
‘‘It’s a sight-activated presentation. More than with any other lure, you can draw bass from a long way off.’’
He casts beyond the structure and jerks the rod tip down real hard to get the lure to the working depth.
The retrieve is a series of erratic jerks of the rod tip, followed by pauses that make the line go slack.
This makes the crankbait dart, float up and tremble.
The slower the retrieve, the longer the pause between jerks.
"The lure actually backs up (when you pause). Any bass that’s following can’t resist that kind of action. They strike at it out of instinct."
Since the bass usually takes the lure when the line is slack, Van Dam said "you don’t know a fish is on until you jerk again, and set the hook."
Color or size of the jerk bait isn’t as important as its visibility to the bass. "On sunny days I fish chrome or gold, on cloudy days, chartreuse or pearl."
Jerk baits are effective whenever fish relate to shallow structure — logs, rocks and submerged vegetation.
In the spring, jerk baits can be fished pre-spawn, all the way through post-spawn (into June).
Position the boat so that casts are parallel to the bank.
"Keep the lure over the fish, in the strike zone, for as long as possible. You don’t want the lure at the same level or below the fish."
"The idea is to make the bass come up to take the lure instead of taking the lure down to the bass."
Good sunglasses are a must when fishing jerk baits since the angler can often see bass as they approach to strike. And since the best fishing is in clear water, casts must be long to prevent spooking fish with the boat.
Hooks on the baits should be kept sharp because many strikes are very light. "They’ll slap at it, not even bite it but you’ll catch them."
Van Dam suggests fishing a 5 1/2 or 6-foot graphite rod of medium action, with a fast taper (light tip action). Spinning and casting reels are spooled in line from 6 to 10-pound test, depending on lure size. The lighter the line, the deeper the bait will dive.
Spring/Early Summer
Another bass lure that's very productive in Kentucky, early in the year, is the spinnerbait.
Ken Cook, who won the BASS Masters Classic XXI in 1991, proved that the spinnerbait is one of the most versatile lures in bass fishing.
A spinnerbait really doesn’t look like anything in nature, so why is it effective?
"The flashing blade catches the fish’s attention, and its vibration bombards the senses. That’s why the spinnerbait is a hot lure in stained water. Fish can easily home in on it."
The pulsating skirt makes the lure look like a swimming baitfish. Bass hit the skirt out of hunger or anger. Cook used an unorthodox retrieve to entice strikes from finicky bass.
"I like fishing it with what I call a doodling retrieve," Cook said. "I shake the rod tip as I retrieve it slowly. That makes the blade flutter and the skirt fluff and gives it a very erratic action. That’s what it took to get these bass to bite."
The retrieve made the lure dart left and right like a wounded, frightened baitfish looking for a place to hide.
A popular spinnerbait technique in early spring in Kentucky is slow-rolling, where the lure is retrieved very slowly, just fast enough to keep the blade moving, as the lure is guided over logs and down channel drop-offs.
This presentation works well when bass are holding on the edges of creek channels, prior to moving into shallows.
Summer
A technique that's hard to beat when bass are deep is Carolina-rigging plastic lizards.
This technique became popular when Phenix City, Ala., angler and lure manufacturer Jack Chancellor won BASS Masters Classic XV on the Arkansas River.
Chancellor didn’t fish with lizards, but he popularized the Carolina rig, which is the most widely used technique for fishing with lizards.
Carolina-rigging lizards and other plastic baits not only enable anglers to cover deep water a lot faster than with crankbaits, but more thoroughly.
Rigging a plastic bait Carolina-style requires a slip sinker, a red plastic or glass bead, and a small barrel swivel (preferably black). Egg sinkers are sometimes used because they don’t get hung up as much as bullet-shaped sinkers.
Tie a soft plastic bait to a leader and tie the other end of the leader to the barrel swivel. Thread the line from your fishing rod through the slip sinker and the plastic bead, and then tie it to the other end of the barrel swivel.
The bead prevents the heavy sinker from pinching and cutting the line at the knot (where it’s attached to the barrel swivel).
The rig is used most often to fish drop-offs. The heavier lead gives the angler a better feel for the bottom contour.
The rig is effective because the unweighted lizard floats and drifts just off the bottom, where bass are likely to be suspended. It is an especially effective presentation in submerged vegetation.
The lure stays in the strike zone longer, and the bass doesn’t have to swim up far to take the bait. Fish the rig as slow as possible for a much more natural presentation than a weighted bait.
