LITTLE ROCK — Bowhunters are by nature an optimistic crew. So as always, hopes are high for the Oct. 1 opening of archery deer season in Northwest Arkansas.
"From what I've been hearing from bowhunters, it sounds like we could have a good deer harvest again this season," said Bret Aggus of Southtown Sporting Goods in Fayetteville.
Aggus said enthusiasm arrived early this year with the cool spells in August.
Of course, seeing is believing, but bowhunters are liking what they are seeing in the images of bucks captured by remote game cameras.
"We are seeing some game camera pictures of nice bucks, but the best are nocturnal photographs of bigger bucks that seem to be mostly moving at night right now," Aggus noted.
Given a spotty and sparse acorn crop, cameras are revealing a lot of deer activity around wildlife food plots on private properties in Benton, Washington, Carroll and Madison counties.
"The bowhunters who have went out and gone to the trouble of planting food plots are having the deer coming to them," Aggus said.
Archers scouting public hunting lands could see the same pattern on the Madison County and Wedington wildlife management areas, where the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has planted food plots.
During a recent habitat tour of the Madison County WMA with regional wildlife supervisor Ray Wiggs, he noted that 70 acres of food plots have been planted to compensate for the lack of acorns.
Some archers, however, are putting out food for deer at feeding stations on their properties. Since most hunters have learned that corn is not a good choice for feeding deer, they are putting out more nutritious commercial products in the form of blocks and pellets.
One of the best-sellers at Southtown Sporting Goods has been a product called Buck Meal.
"It's a powdered product that comes in a bag and is kind of pricey at $17 a bag, but the hunters are saying the deer really seem to like it and are finding it right away," Aggus said.
The primary problem the archers are reporting from their scouting trips is associated with the ice storm of January. Where the broken limbs on the trees have opened up the forest canopy, the result has been a lush growth of underbrush on the forest floor to make deer hard to see.
However, with the worst of the storm damage confined to higher elevations, the archers are finding better visibility in lower-lying areas.
Damon Hillyer at Mountain Man Supplies and Pawn in Fayetteville also said bowhunters are reporting sightings of big bucks in the region.
A bowhunter himself, Hillyer reported seeing deer moving during daytime hours while scouting public hunting lands in the White Rock Wildlife Management Area in the heart of the Ozark National Forest.
"I'm having high hopes this year," he said, echoing the thoughts of many bowhunters.
Outdoors, Pages 31 on 09/24/2009