>>I think it's important to remember
>>that the previous few years
>>before last season were some
>>of the highest harvest years
>>Idaho has seen in a
>>long time. In 2015 the
>>deer harvest was the highest
>>it had been since 1991
>>and 2016 wasn't far behind
>>that. So in comparing 2017
>>deer harvest (a year that
>>they cut a lot of
>>antlerless tags that were being
>>offered in the years before)
>>to previous years you got
>>to keep that in mind.
>>The 2017 deer harvest was
>>still higher than 2013 and
>>the previous 10 years before
>>that.
>>
>>The deer, in general, throughout the
>>state have been doing fairly
>>well the last 10 years
>>with overall populations on the
>>rise. Last winter was hard,
>>but with this really easy
>>winter deer are going to
>>bounce back. I know there
>>are parts of the state
>>that aren't doing so well
>>and some more specific management
>>to those areas is needed,
>>and I believe those areas
>>should get that, but changing
>>overall state regulations when a
>>lot of Idaho's deer herds
>>are on the rise is
>>a little hasty in my
>>opinion.
>>
>>All in all, I think this
>>fall will be really telling.
>>If things continue to go
>>downhill after this good winter
>>then there is definitely more
>>problems to address, but I
>>don't think we will see
>>that.
>
>
>^^^^^^^^ What he said.
>
>This echoes my experience to the
>T for the last 5
>or so years.
>
>I could not believe how many
>deer we saw per day
>last fall, after the previous
>winter. My expectations before opening
>day were pretty bleak, but
>I was pleasantly surprised.
After my experience last fall, i would think all of the Southern half of Idaho was buried in snow.
But there has been a handful of people who have said they saw decent to good amounts of deer where they hunted. I think some of those people dont know how lucky they are and dont know the bullet their unit dodged and some definitely do know. There must have been an area of winter range where deer had fair enough conditions to make it through to offer some good localized hunting last fall.
The units i hunted last year were just a fraction of what they were the year before when i checked them out. I would say that i saw no more than 30% or so of the deer i saw the year before in South Central and maybe 30-40% of what i saw the year before in the SE. The harvest stats didn't make me feel any better. Unit 66A hunters had a 8.9% (or something like that) success rate on deer. Elk hunting success rates are better than that. Some guys in the South Central part of the state were saying as much as 80% of the mule deer didn't make it through the winter last year. Maybe i hit it at the wrong time last October and the deer passed me up, but i dont think so?..
I think i know which direction to go to find that area of deer that made it last year. But it'll be back to square one learning new country. Sad to see such great hunting in so many places do a complete 180 to the rebuilding phase.
