“It’s worse than being a weatherman,” said Dale Elrod who has been managing deer herds in Texas for 37 years and has 153 bucks in the record book (net 170+ B&C) about predicting hunting conditions for the upcoming season before officials know how severe the summer drought will be, which he said is more of an art than a science.
Texas still managed to produce giant whitetails, according to officials of the Venado Macho Deer Contest in Freer and Las Casadores Deer Contest in Pearsall, with bucks this year setting records in several different categories.
A lot of factors are involved, including reproduction and survival rates from previous seasons. “Lack of water and browse caused the deer to really move around a lot this year and be seen,” said Elrod.
Hunters should beware, however, that ideal conditions for wildlife might well be the very influences that make hunting harder.
Deer having plenty to eat is definitely a good thing, but it also might mean that the deer don’t move around enough to be seen by hunters because they just simply don’t have to. “Spotty rains means spotty conditions,” said Elrod, but when it quits raining for an extended period, the opposite is true and hunters’ success improves considerably.
You have to just take the good with the bad and be thankful you can be out in the hills or in the brush doing what we call hunting.
Until next fall, good luck fishing.
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