Larry Fortin

Wrapping up the 2005 Big Game season is a little more complicated than the fishing season. The fall weather didn’t help. It rained so much, even the animals had to look for higher ground. The wind, on other days, blew so hard it wasn’t safe to be in the woods. Wearing a hard hat was almost a must to keep from getting crowned from falling branches. Wild life is very spooky when it is very windy because the noise and movement of shrubs and branches robs them of their senses to detect danger.

The bear season was the first to open, so we may as well start with the black bear. Until recently, it was a deep-woods animal rarely seen, and it avoided humans like the plague. Now it is all over the state and into the suburbs, which has made it much more visible. The average bear is between 200 and 300 pounds, but they are very powerful. They can bend a one and a half inch pipe with a bird feeder on it like it was a twig. They can be a one-man wrecking crew when trying to get at food. This year’s harvest was not a record, 433 bears which is average. A new record was set by a woman for the weight of a bear taken. She got a 532 pound male, shattering the old record of 494 pounds — that’s a lot of bear, and a lot of meat. Several years ago, I had some bear meat for the first time. I couldn’t believe how good it was. We had steaks and stew meat, it was great.

The deer season ended on a high note also. It starts up with the archery season. The wet, windy weather did a job on bow hunters.It was too wet and windy to be in a tree stand, a good chance to get seasick, and shooting from a swaying tree doesn’t make for an easy shot. Deer aren’t stupid, in bad weather they stay put. The harvest was 10,582 deer, 5% higher than last year. There weren’t very many big bucks taken early in the season. The peak of the rut in this area is usually around November 11. Late in the season, several big bucks were taken on Parade Road. Big bucks later in the season can be 40 pounds lighter than early in the season. During the rut they don’t eat much and they are constantly on the move. Let’s face it, if we only did it one month out of the year, we wouldn’t take time to eat either.

Another of broken records was the turkey season. The spring season registered 3,042 birds, up 12% from 2004. Bow hunters registered 244 birds in the fall. The bad weather and good acorn crop scattered the birds, making them harder to harvest. The turkey comeback has been unbelievable. It wasn’t that long ago there were none. Now they are all over the state. This year for the first time, I saw them in my own backyard. How are they to eat? It depends on who you talk to. Some love them, others find them dry. They certainly don’t have the fat injected into them like the “butterballs”.

Moose numbers were right up there also. Although no records were broken, the success rate was 77.6%, the highest since 1995. The success rate after the first week was about 60%, due primarily to the weather, and it looked like the season was going to be a disaster. The weather didn’t improve that much the second week, but those that drew permits must have felt that it was now or never, they toughed it out and raised the success rate. One moose that was registered was considered to be 17 years old, which surprised the biologists, because they thought the moose had a life expectancy of 10 to 12 years. This moose was not black but a little more brown. The rack was wide but had no palms, just points. It was only about 700 pounds. I imagine it was tough to eat.

The small game season looks promising. The pheasant season rebounded after all the wet weather. Grouse hunting is pretty good. A friend of mine gave me 2 grouse. Haven’t had one in over 50 years. Snowshoes have also rebounded. Wild life has had a great comeback since the early 1900s.