L.B.L ??????

[pearsonbowhunter]

Did anyone have any luck this weekend?????[?]

John

[mossyhorns]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate that "luck" was scarce in the LBL this weekend.

[BuckBuster]

I tagged out early saturday morning with a 2 1/2 year old 9-pointer. I'd found a good ridge that the deer had been feeding on some acorns still on the ground. Deer droppings, scrapes and rubs were scattered, but it looked like a good area. So around 8:30 am a doe comes trotting through the creek bottoms below and then angled slightly up the hill with this buck in hot pursuit. He was long bodied, rut worn and only weighed 111 lbs. he sure felt heavier than that, pulling him out. I finally got back to check out around 10:30 and there had only been 6-deer checked out. Makes you wonder what everybody was shooting at.

[onearrow]

I got a 6pointer sat. when I checked it in at the north station there had been 46 checked in.There is a serious coyote problem there I saw more of those than deer.

[B.G.O. of Kentucky]

Better luck than we had...my old man passed on a small 8, and I passed on a fork horn, that was the only shots we had on deer with bones on their heads. But, that was the last week of october, so before the rut started...

[Kygun]

Hunted area 2. Passed on 2 eight pointers Sat. morning before the wind kicked up so much that everything bedded down. Saw nothing Sat. evening. Sunday morning I saw the something that really made me literaly sick. To make a long story short, I had a little doe at 40 yards that I had watched all morning. An unseen hunter shot her while I watched her through binos enjoying the deers' beauty in the early morning light. OK game over I think, he walks over to her and I begin the task of taking my climbing stand down. Once I got my stand on the ground I was unable to see in that direction. Well I get it down and all my stuff together and walk over to where the doe/hunter were expecting to see him dressing the deer. To my horror there was no hunter to be seen and the deer is laying down in the bedded position, head up and fully alert looking at me. The sorry SOB has spine shot this yearling doe and upon seeing how small she was took off!! As I approached the deer stuggled to get up but couldn't. I kneeled by her for several minutes to see if she wouldn't just expire but no luck. I knew what I had to do, bit the bullet, and made the mercy kill. I'm not ashamed to say it, but it just about killed me to do it, even though it was the right thing to do. I guess that I could have gotten in trouble since I had a buck only tag. I had enough at that point, packed up and came home. How sorry of a human being does it take to wound an animal and just leave it there??

[Wildcat]

Kygun, I don't blame you for doing that I would do the same. I was at LBL the Monday after opening weekend of the bow season and found 4 deer that died from wounds. One was just less than 100 yards from where someone had a stand where I had backtracked the blood trail. Some people call themseves real hunters.

[B.G.O. of Kentucky]

Kygun, you and I both know, that person would not qualify as "a hunter" he is what I refer to as "a slob". They give us all a bad name...

Secondly, you did the right thing, no since in that deer suffering from some slobs negligence.

[Wildcat]

onearrow,
You mind telling me what areas you saw the yotes? I've seen more this year than ever before in LBL and for the first time in an area I had never seen one in. Looks like I'll be out there in Feb. yote hunting. Hey, you want to go?

[B.G.O. of Kentucky]

Wildcat, there are no areas down there that has any shortage of 'yotes down there...I think there are more 'yotes than deer anymore...it is really amazing. We take our howler down and get em going. Pretty neat hearing em yap from all directions and all distances. They are like cockroaches down there...

I never get close to them is the only problem...

It would be fun to take the old .22/250 down there though! But I would have to settle for the .22 Rimfire I believe according to regulations. Am I right, no long action on LBL right...

[Wildcat]

During the month of Feb. you can use centerfire rifles on yotes in LBL. I live only 15 miles from the North Welcome Station and been hunting LBL since 1965. I've had yotes walk under my stands while deer hunting and have taken several with my bow while hunting LBL. A friend and I go every Feb with our 22-250's and electronic calls. The idea behind using centerfires only during Feb is people trying to poach deer by using the excuse they were coyote hunting, you don't want to see someone carring a 30-06 in Sept while your bowhunting do you. Besides by then most of the bucks will start dropping their racks so LBL is not worried about in Feb.

[Valley Station]

Wildcat ,
Have the coyotes completely exterminated the fallow deer herd yet??
It's been "down hill" for them since coyotes moved in. As slow as fallows reproduce, they don't have a chance.
As thick as 'yotes are , I can't believe there hasn't been a distemper outbreak to "thin em down".
Lock and load, please keep shootin'!

[Wildcat]

There's a few left. I can't remember what it was but some kind of brain worm that killed off the fallow deer in LBL back in the early 80's. Anyway the yotes sure haven't helped.

[onearrow]

Wildcat,I was in area 1.Thanks for the offer I will keep it in mind.

[mossyhorns]

That's why I quit hunting LBL even though I live nearby: Too many coyotes and idiots, too few deer. It's been a long time since I had a good experience at LBL! I used to be one of the cooperative farmers over there, too.

I think the time has come to seriously address the coyote problem over there (trapping, shooting, poison, etc) and go QDM on the area.

[Multidigits]

QDM will probably happen soon, but you'll never see trapping or poison because too many bunny huggers use the area.

[BigDaddy]

I totally agree with you Multi. Too many idiots and not enough deer!!! Although I do enjoy the thousands of acres of wilderness.

I'd rather be huntin....

[Valley Station]

At LBL the fallow deer have always been exposed to brain worms, causing a small per centage of mortality.( same for our elk)
Don't you think it kind of coincidental, that the "brain worm kill off" of the fallow deer during the early '80s, occured with rapid expansion of the coyote at LBL at that time??
Sure would like to see the fallow return to huntable numbers like we had prior to hearing the "coyote howl".

[mossyhorns]

I think LBL has been managed as an ecosystem rather than resource for hunters. Heck, they even wanted to release red wolves some years ago until the public outcry got too loud -- many folks claim they did anyway, though. They have bobcats and many claim a lion or two. I think what has happened at LBL is what happens when wildlife managers are more concerned with building or rebuilding their vision of what might have been in the past instead of managing to improve hunting opportunities.

My fear for LBL and Kentucky is that both are becoming a wildlife laboratory of sorts with restoration projects being all the rage. Top staffers are easier to attract if you have a high visibility program (elk?) ongoing. Sucess is measured by the number of articles and studies published in industry publications. I fear the hunter has been relegated to "tool" status where he takes his place along beside coyotes and other predators.

Just look at the quota hunts. Are they managed to provide a quality hunting experience? Hardly. The hunts are conducted to to reduce the prescribed number of deer in the shortest time possible. Anyone think that two days shoulder to shoulder with an orange army shooting anything that moves is a quality hunting experience????

The LBL could be the crown jewel for Kentucky hunting with deer, small game, turkeys, and waterfowl. Instead it is more of a refuge. Trememdous waterfowl opportunities could be developed there for public access. The deer herd could be managed for a top notch hunt available by draw to the average joe -- instead of the wack-em, stack-um mentality we see now.

Manage the WMA's and LBL year around with one goal in mind -- a quality hunting experience for the public. (After all, it is the HUNTERS, not the public at large that fund WMA's.) Then, instead of a two-day free for all, allow hunters to draw for 2 or 3 day slots on an assigned area throughout the season. Have more hunting days available but fewer hunters on the tract at any given time. This would be the way to manage for hunter opportunities, not just using hunters as a tool to remove excess deer.

[Wildcat]

LBL was NEVER set up for the hunter in the first place. Hunting nation wide is nothing but a tool to control wildlife populations.

The coyote will be the last animal to walk the earth. Ever since white man came to the new world they have been trying to control the population of the coyote without much luck. Once they came close with poison but it also killed too many other animals and birds too so that stopped. The reason the trapping is off is the fur market just hasn't come back, the very reason we're seeing so many coons across the state. I remember when I could get $45-$60 for one good yote.

You can trap in LBL. The season runs from Jan 13 though Jan 26 in areas 2,3,and 4 in Ky and 15 and 16 in Tn.

You can hunt coyotes during any open season in LBL.

I don't beleive the coytoes were resposible for the deaths of the fallow deer, if anything they cleaned up any deer that died. The whitetail deer can withstand the brain worm far better than the fallow deer can. In game farms across the land it's been reported that massive die offs happened when ever a brain worm would hit the herd of fallow deer. I'm not saying a coytoe can't kill a deer, they can and do but the Red Wolf that is in LBL in small numbers do kill more because they hunt in a pack.

LBL will go to some forum of QDM and has been trying for the past 3 years but TWRA has been putting a stop to it. That's a fact, they have been talking about it at their meetings for years. The TWC has been ordering TWRA not to support QDM at LBL but with LBL under control of the USDA all that could change as soon as next year.

[Wildcat]

I posted that before I saw your post.

I agree with you on some points like the draw hunts can get too crowded but I have learned to work around that and most years I never see another hunter while I'm hunting on those draw hunts. It just requires more work.

They've cut back the number of buck permits 17% from the 1998 numbers since 1999 and I've seen more older class bucks in the Ky part of LBL the past two years than I have for years.

That wack and stack them is the HUNTERS doing not the managements, it the HUNTER that pulls the trigger. If the HUNTER wants to take the very first deer to come along that he has a tag for that's his doing. I hold out for the one I'm looking for. If I go buckless, that's OK, I had a good game.

We have not been "relegated" to tool sttatus, we've ALWAYS been a tool to control the wildlife population and the BEST one at that.

One thing people don't understand about LBL, except for "User Permit" fees hunters have NOT given ONE dime to run LBL. That's a fact. When they started LBL TVA took on the total cost of buying the land and running the place. When it bacame too costly for TVA because they were lossing money at both LBL and their power plants something had to be done.Either LBL was going to be sold to private people or the Govt. was going to take over. Thank God the USDA took over when they did. If they had sold it to private people today it would be closed to the public and we would have to pay with our eye teeth to hunt there.

[Hammer]

about bunny huggers in LBL, were any of u there several years ago for the opener of the modern rifle hunt when all the PETA members were walking around the woods banging garbage can lids and ringing bells? One of my patients was telling me about that. He was sitting in his stand well before daylight when those idiots came through making a bunch of noise, yelling, banging, ringing, whatever. They were at least smart enough to be wearing blaze orange. It's a good thing these idiots have never been on my property, I don't take kindly to trespassers, especially idiots like that.

[AGR739]

I hunted Area 7 this weekend along with my grandfather and two of my uncles. This was my third time to get drawn, and the first two times I hunted Area 6. The first year I killed a 31/2 year old 10 pointer that field dressed 157 and the second year a small five pointer on the last evening. My first two times I had no problem with hunters, but this time I counted four flashlights from my stand sat. morning. I even had one hunter try to setup ten yards behind my stand. I saw one deer mid-day Sat. and no deer Sun. I've about decided that I like bowhunting LBL rather than going on the gun hunt b/c there are fewer hunters. All three of us came home empty handed with only one of us seeing a buck.

[P. Beyer]

Hmmmm, I'mup for a yote hunt whenever... It's really an un-used asset to me, the North welcome center is 30 minutes from my home.

Tons of deer there too!

"It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent"

Fred Bear

[Wildcat]

P.Beyer,
I'm just 15 mintues from the North Welcome Station. You want to meet up sometime and kill some yotes?

[P. Beyer]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Wildcat</i>
<br />P.Beyer,
I'm just 15 mintues from the North Welcome Station. You want to meet up sometime and kill some yotes?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

[:D]Sounds geat, I don't know much about em' But I'd love to.
Drop me an e-mail an let me know when!


<u><b>Happy Turkey Day</b></u>

"It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent"

Fred Bear

[B.G.O. of Kentucky]

Man oh man do I wish I was that close to heaven er LBL. I would love to hear the old .22-250 bark off at them sorry things. My old man just got himself a new game caller, and a decoy heart thingamabob and we are just dying to kill some. Perhaps we get a free weekend in Feb we will have to try it ourselves...