Northern Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Its no secret that Northern Wisconsin deer populations are struggling at best. In the county I hunt in there's more land for sale than I can ever remember. Use to be tough to come by. Many hunting camps are losing members as frustration continues to mount with the deer populations. The D.N.R. did its damage. The wolves do there damage. Mother nature hasn't been kind in the winter. Than we have all the politics of hunting which are driven by money and greed with little regard for the resource. Will northern Wisconsin deer hunting ever recover? It seems like a long shot to me given all the circumstances. What do you guys see in the future?
Near future I don't see much changing say in the next 5 years or so. I am afraid that with doe off limits this year a lot of small bucks will get shot that might otherwise lived to be bigger bucks. We might have to apply through a draw to get a buck tag up here. Don't laugh.
The buck in this picture could be one of the few that survive. Look close, he does have two antlers.
My option, the kids starting out hunting during this very low deer population are going to get a poor taste and will not get the interest in hunting or loose it fast. I see it in my own son. I have heard somebody saw at a deer meeting "kids are spoiled these days" Maybe they are, but don't forget, we are the ones that did that.
We have Schools teaching kids at a young age not to kill animals and guns are bad.
So the DNR and Madison should look at these issues coming on before it get worse. They need to get people interested in hunting, and not by letting them hunt at 10 years old and giving a cheaper license, if they are only seeing 1 deer a day they are done.
Think I'm wrong on this? Go into Scheels in Eau Claire, Wi and what did they add on to? Not the hunting department! The "quite sports" and I have nothing against them. Then all the other business suffer. My 2 cents
Northern WI. has gone through this before. It has been a while since we have had this type of winters and that is what determines the deer numbers mostly.
It will recover but it might be hard to keep some folks interested in this area. I know of camps that have not come up this year and kids now are easily distracted and like most people these days want immediate gratification. Not hard earned success.
When I started hunting in the sixties the herd was low, less than it is now but my strong desire kept me at it.
It will recover but we will never see years like we did back in 2000 to 2005.
NAZ tell us how good we got it up north:^)
I live north of Merrill and the hunting has been good as far as seeing deer the limited amount of time I have been able to hunt due to work and lots of OT. I can drive from my area to another and show you 50+ deer also. There are pockets of deer. The DNR and hunters will have to show restraint for more than just this season and those "other" areas will start to fill in again.
The perfect storm hit. Remote winter feeding was banned, logging practices changed, wolves, bears and coyote numbers exploded, cougars moved in, off reservation hunting not policed, more normal winters of recent, too many doe tags, expanded seasons, crossbows in archery season increasing hunting success and pressure, etc, etc.
Folks, you would have to be fools to invest in acreage north of Highway 64 if your plan is to hunt deer and protect your investment.
Hunting Is more than a hobby to me so Im not sure what to type. I deal with my stress by hunting in the north. I enjoy the outdoors and everything it takes to find that perfect spot.
I reached hunting age in the late 90's. Hunting at our shack was fun. Everyone getting together and I saw deer despite my beginner hunting skills.
Our hunting shack use to have 14-19 guys hunting. This year there will have 5 guys. I have more hrs in the stand than I can count and have seen 5 deer this year. Hunting is still fun for me but when the hunting is so hard it doesn't relieve much stress-sometimes it causes more!
The herd may recover but I fear new law changes in logging and baiting could quickly set things back to days like this. Mother Nature hasn't helped much either.
FIP, What changes do you see happening that will improve the current situation?
I'm sorry but, having hunted most of my life up north in good and bad. I believe the answer is a totally different approach to non-human predators, forest management, and the reimplementation of Hunters Choice. One deer, one hunter. Pick your deer, buck or doe, and the doe tags are drawn tags. That is what got us the 80's and 90's. Need to harvest more timber! Need to open coyotes back up and make wolves and bear OTC when the herd is down. Make predators a draw tag when deer numbers are back up. My two cents worth.
400 less wolves(better than nothing), No Doe tags, Hunter dissatisfaction(less people hunting less deer dead), and at some point we will get a few weak winters(not this year)
On Friday I spoke with a private Forester here that shot a big buck (150?) on his land in NW Sawyer County. He manages his land with food plots and the surrounding land has active logging going on. I have not seen a buck like that hunting or on camera this year on public land. He also showed me some trail cam pics fro his land.
As for one buck. I did not see a buck this year that I would shoot so they are safe from me. I wonder how many will pass or self limit.
Having hunted in Oneida county for 40 years, I agree with 10.
Well said Smokey! Up north hunters will have to go through a bunch of lean years as the herd will recover at some point. Also hunters will have to restrain from pulling the trigger on just any old deer.
Fip says: "400 less wolves(better than nothing"
Yes, there may have been 400 killed by hunters/trappers but I am sure there at least that many pups borne to replace them. At the number of tags issued this year we will never get the population reduced.
Deer numbers and likely kill rates are down drastically all over the north. But there are pockets where there is enough private land that is managed well enough to keep some deer around. (like Smokey pointed out.) Come gun season I will be hunting on two decent 80's with good foot plot crops on them this year. We have not taken a single deer off of either in 3 years now, in spite of seeing doe and 2-3 bucks a day on one of them. Often the same bucks over and over. We would see more but one parcel has some open forest crop land nearby and the other has quite a few little 2 acre lots with hunting shacks on them where anything gets shot. This year there is one average 10 pointer and an average 8 pointer on camera at one of those parcels. I don't know yet if I will pull the trigger on that 10 or not. Gonna be hard not to knowing he will probably get shot next door if he crosses the line.
In the areas I hunt, my observations are we have a huntable population in ares that have alot of homes like lake community's and edges of the small towns. Most likely because of feeding still be allowed. In the large track araes its a complete different story. Very few tracks on the firelanes after a week of snow cover, lots of coyote and in some ares,lots of wolf tracks. These areas didnt get the feeding supplement like the private areas- its going to be real slim for hunters in those ares. The clear cuts hold some activity and will be the best bet. I see our herd improving on the private sections in two or three years- the big public spots will take several average winters to recover with no does shooting- and continued wolf and coyote harvest. It will be interesting- I dont agree with the feeding bans in the CWD area - its not a proven science that the herd will be decimated by this disease or that recreational feeding will harm the herd. It is a proven fact that feeding deer in the winter in populated ares has maintained the herd and this herd is much healthier than the areas that didn't get that extra boost of feed this past winter.
It's almost not worth going anymore in my opimion. I have two sons approaching hunting age. One is not interested and I don't know how I could possibly bring the other up there to hunt for a week and see 3-6 deer if lucky. At one point I was disappointed that my one son isn't interested, but at this point it's probably for the best. If it weren't for my family still hunting up there, I wouldn't go anymore and I used to live for it, but it's beyond terrible at this point.
ever the optimist I hope we are in the bottom of the swail and the deer pop will grow w/ a few bucks only seasons and the de-listing of the wolfies. After reading Dean Bortz's editorial in WON Ashland cnty has had a recent number of bucks only and nothing is changing got me worried. It looks like southern Ashland is in the Chequamegon natural tree museum though.
While my hunting group has always been hard hunters, and the last 30 years we have had plenty of deer; if it ever got to the point where the deer was as scarce in my area, as you northern folks claim, I would want to believe that my gun hunting group would still get together each year, at least to enjoy each other's company. Maybe we wouldn't hunt as hard, and instead spend more time in the shack, but it still would be a good time.
I think once you break the tradition of going to deer camp each year, it will get harder and harder to get back into it.
I've hunted with 2 different groups up in Oneida County for 15+ years and in both groups the numbers have just dwindled over the years. Some people quit hunting all together due to age and not wanting to sit in the cold and others because the hunting is that poor.
When I was younger we had a group of about 10 uncles, aunts that hunted up that way. Only 2 of us from that group still hunt up that way. Most of them aren't hunting anymore, 1 hunts a different area in the state and I don't blame him.
My other crew which I joined up with after college, is mostly older gentlemen who enjoy getting together and shooting the bs for hours on end. We used to get close to 15+ at the shack for hunting, last season we had 5.
Back in the 60 ' s it was terrible , very few deer . In 1965 , taylor cty , 5 of us hunted 4 days and saw 1 set of tracks , We hunted out west the next 3 years and WI was full of deer again . I am worried , winter is allready off to a nasty start in the Northwoods .
I am lucky in the fact that I have land to hunt in the West central part of the state. In fact I pretty much quit going with our up north group near Port Wing a long time ago. It wasn't because the hunting was bad then, but the hunting was better on our land in Pierce county. Now I go up once in a while to hang out with my buddies that still have cabins up there, but not for gun season. A lot of guys that I know that have cabins up there, have been going out of state to hunt.
It's too bad the state just had to be greedy and not do anything until it's too late. But hey, they really don't care about the cabin owners, business owners and others this will hurt.
Just got back from checking stands. Went from Washburn to Cornucopia (20 miles Northern Bayfield County) very few tracks, Washburn, Mt Valhalla and the Barrens area has about 12 -15 inches of snow, more in the higher elevation areas. Cornucopia area I was surprised, closer to the Lake the less snow (South Shore side), only about 8-10. From there I traveled to the Bayfield area, once again very few deer tracks. They got the most snow 15-20, it seems the snow has settled some as I was hearing bigger totals a few days ago. We have Lake affect snow coming down as I write, so far today about 4 inches. If you plan on coming up this way to hunt don't expect much, if you don't have a 4x4 truck plan on bringing a shovel, your going to need it. Good Luck everyone this coming weekend, hope you have a safe and successful hunt.
In northern Wisconsin I'm not so sure that the hunting season impacts the economy up that way like it used to. I regularly go to lunch or dinner and these places would be packed and now you have no problem finding a seat and can eat right away.
The bar owners even admit hunting isn't the money maker it used to be, it seems to be that snowmobiling has a much bigger economic impact up that way.
A buck only season needs to happen for years to help the herd up that way get back on it's feet. My parents have lived up that way for a few years now and they have seen a few bucks (nothing big) but they haven't seen any does with fawns this year. Scary!
Fip, I see the wolf thing like Jeff. Anything is better than nothing but we aren't even harvesting the recruitment rate each year. To many politics involved to ever harvest enough wolves to make a difference. The only way to keep a "no doe tags" season is with severe winters. As soon as we have a mild winter, expect the D.N.R. to get on the "shoot the does" bandwagon that we are all to familiar with. Agree hunting pressure will diminish until the herd rebounds.
I hunt in what used to be unit 39.We have not had doe shooting for about 4 years. I have seen no change in deer numbers. There are alot of does that have no fawns.Just curious SMOKIE were there as many bear in the sixtys as there are now and was it common to see doe without fawns???
I hunted the Gerrard unit of the Marinette county forest from '66 till somewhere around '86. Our 'gang' was usually 16-18 hunters ageing from 12-70 or so. Early on it was nothing to see 20 deer a day, mostly doe. We never shot a doe till maybe the last 5 of those years but would usually have a doe tag or two in the group in case of a mistake which did happen once. There would always be 10 bucks or more hanging on the pole by the end of season.
In the later maybe 8 years sightings were way down. On half of those years my dad and/or I would have the only bucks shot and the other half of the years maybe one or two others. (mostly because dad and I hunted ALL day while most of the rest spent more time at camp playing cribbage than they did in the woods)
Point is it was a hunting gang, it was an event, a get together, a reason to get out of school for me. It really didn't matter if we got anything. Still it was nice to at least see a few deer.
So, I hope those of you saying why go? That's why. It is an event, seeing people you know that only get together once a year for a common passion.
I have hunted many areas in Wi but the Boulder Jct area was my best area to hunt. I spent 25 straight years there with my group with Bucks usually taken by bow and gun. Then the doe tags came; thousands of them for years with our hunting spots in the Northern Highland Forest flooded with meat hunters. After about 4-5 years of harvesting those does the hunting vanished. I spent my last 4 years on the stand never seeing a deer except one small fork that I didn't have the heart to kill. Snow we always had but deer tracks no where to be found. Soon the hunters disappeared and so did my group of almost 3 decades. I went to Jackson County which was never the same hunt; not even close and now after 7 years I am back to Boulder Jct seeing some nice deer again. Hopefully the DNR will keep the doe tags down or not offer them and the snows won't kill off the herd too bad as it has before. Wolves are a definitely a big problem the locals say and they are spotted in town a lot due to the deer that frequent the feeders. Northern WI is a great place to hunt and enjoy your time. I wonder where these wolf lovers are now with the numbers where they are at today. They sure had a voice back when they wanted them reintroduced.
This is north-central Upper Peninsula, big woods, not farm country, in the heart of wolf country. A friend's buck taken opening weekend. Teased him that it died there in that deep snow. This is the guy I wrote about in another thread, who has been hunting up there for three decades, and says deer movement has actually improved by day since wolves arrived. Apparently they don't like to sit still in one place for too long. Now, with the winters they've had up there two years in a row, and all the wolves, coyotes and bears, they still shoot deer up there year after year.
Another friend drove the five hours north only to find three feet of snow on the state forest roads that he planned to access his spot, and not plowed. $170 for license and deer tag, and turned right around and headed home. He was solo and couldn't risk getting stuck out there.
Back to Wisconsin: agree with those who say there are "pockets" of good deer numbers up north, often around cabins, homes and businesses that feed, or active logging operations, or young regrowth from operations in recent years. Certainly with no doe tags in many areas, the north numbers will be way down this year. But I don't think the buck kill will be as bad as some think. Of course, if a lot fewer guys go north this year, that'll impact the numbers, too. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Again I will say winter is the limiting factor with the others coming in after that less. If the herd had not been reduced winterkill would have been much worse. Also, years of mild winters with increasing deer herd reduces habitat quality. There is only so many deer the land will support in a healthy state before something corrects the numbers. Here it is usually winter.
Naz, that pic reminds me of a buck I shot in gun season around Athelstane with knee high fluffy snow. He ran and with every long leap there was a huge patch of blood sprayed over the snow on the exit wound side. Pretty soon no more tracks or patches of red ahead to follow. I stood there a little confused, the track appeared to just end. Then I looked in what I thought was the last set of tracks and realized he was buried under the snow.
Smokey is right, but it's no fun not pointing fingers at the DNR or wolves. And yes, I agree more wolves and bears and coyotes could and should be shot, but where's the effort on coyotes (biggest fawn killers of all, based on ongoing studies in Wisconsin and U.P.)? Certainly not like the effort on bears or even wolves, IMO.
Jeff, awesome story! I keep laughing every time I see that photo posted above. At first glance, he looks alive and exhausted. Then you realize he's dead, and just dropped right there. The guy who shot him is a fun target to tease, so it has brought a lot of comments on Facebook.
I believe even if we have mild winters, the numbers will not bounce back, things have changed, its getting to the point that a hard Winter is becoming an old School excuse. To many other factors involved than just old man Winter. The deer population for how many years now, keeps shrinking and shrinking, and no signs of rebounding. Its very discouraging.
Took another ride this AM, Lake affect snow still coming down in the AM, now finally 12:30 pm after 2 days the sun is peeking out. Different snow amounts all over.
I started hunting with a group from what's now central farmland in Douglas county jackpine forest in 1965. At that time we saw 20-30 deer a day. We hunted making pushes and drives. In the last 5 years I have seen an average of 7 deer for the season. The guys still come up to hunt the opening but half of our group of 12 goes home early to hunt where they see deer. We still make pushes and drives.
Well, I am now a lot more optimistic. Checked cameras today. Not sure if these are the same buck or not but he is one that my partner or I will shoot if we see him. These two pics are near stands that are about 400 yards apart.
Here is the other one. When I set these two cameras there were no scrapes to put a camera on so I created this one with a stick.
It is sure going to make it a lot easier to sit in this cold weather knowing there is at least one nice buck in the neighborhood. Maybe two.
Good luck, beautiful animal(s) and yes, certainly helps make the time on stand a little easier to take knowing he could show up!
NWO, are you hunting in the National Forest Museum or county and paper lands. Where I am in southern Bayfield its cnty and paper lands and has been cutting continuously for 15yrs, shouldn't be this bad. What if this trend continues and it seems we are de-valuing our big woods which scares me.
Jeff, I'm more surprised that you seem to have good luck with those WGI cameras than that you have deer near you;) Good luck to you and your buddy, have fun and be safe.
WausauDug. I have never really hunted National land, mostly County Land and the paper lands (Plum Creek)that I believe you are referring to has been bought up by a new investment company which they log out and sell about 3 years later. Logging makes for good deer habitat.
Those cameras work better than me. Look at the time stamps on both of them. oops
Lots of people said they were junk when I started buying them but I have been quite pleased with the results especially considering the purchase price. I have 10 in the woods right now.
Jeff, Good luck with that deer. Not many like that left in the north it would seem.
I just got the hunting report in Minnesota from the guys in the group that I used to hunt with starting in '77 when I shot a 177" NT and the four of us filled out in a day and a half (all bucks). I eventually switched to hunting SE MN because the wolfs were so bad there weren't many deer left. (way worse that WI is now)
This year the camp had 6 people that hunted for a week. They don't hunt hard but harder than many do. The total tally for all 6. One doe sighted. That's it. Thanks to the wolfs and lack of management by the state and feds and courts. (and recent bad winters)
We will hear stories like this from northern WI this year.
I hunted on Nov 13 seen 2 small bucks and 4 does on private land outside of washburn
