We can stop whispering. It's OK to talk openly about fall, especially deer season.
That's because the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission notified applicants on July 10 about whether they successfully drew permits for controlled deer hunts on wildlife management areas, and also whether applicants drew alligator hunting permits.
Successful applicants posted news of their good fortunes on social media and texted it to friends. So begins the countdown until deer season, and the anticipation of seeing rutting whitetails and cooler weather will get us through this hot, dry patch.
At least, it's been very dry in our little corner of Hot Spring County. Miss Laura is making another heroic effort at vegetable gardening, but without rain, you cannot put enough water on patch to do any good.
Bluebirds are again raising a family in the Birdie Bed & Breakfast. They seem late arriving this year, and I had about given up hope until daughter Hannah spied them carrying groceries through the porthole.
With the release of the WMA controlled hunt permits, though, my mind is in the woods. There is so much to do at camp.
For starters, one of my stands is back in play after years of disuse from having been swallowed by a thicket. The landowner thinned the timber on one side and opened up a new world of sun-drenched lanes. The stand is at the border of the thicket and a streamside management zone, so it's in an ideal position to see deer moving between feeding, bedding and chasing zones.
The stand where I do most of my hunting needs some touch-up work. Two thin plywood sides rotted and fell to the ground about this time last year, and I replaced them with a more durable material that should last a decade or more.
A third side, as well as the door and flanking panels, appeared destined for the ground during turkey season, so I'll replace them, as well.
During last deer season I identified dozens of limbs for cutting. Reaching the these shooting obstacles will require strapping a deer stand ladder to the offending tree and removing the limbs with a polesaw. I will, of course, wear a harness and a lineman's belt.
The long strip on either side of the stand is a work in progress. I've disked it twice since it came online, and it's always awash in greenery. I intend to convert it to a food plot, but it's pointless to sow a bunch of seed in such dry weather. Our recent history with food plots at Old Belfast is to have seeds sprout after a shower and then wither away in ensuing droughts.
Another stand rejuvenated last year after a timber thin, and it treated me to a mature buck during muzzleloader season. It would benefit greatly with a couple of lanes cut through a brush thicket that deer use to travel between pine thickets.
Feeder batteries need to be replaced, and it will soon be time to activate remote cameras to get an idea of deer movements.
Nevertheless, I intend to diversify my activities this fall. Besides witnessing one good day of rutting activity in late November, my modern gun season was uneventful. I hunted nearly every day, but my time did not produce a commensurate amount of writing material or photos.
Every boring minute I spent in deer stands found me daydreaming about all the fishing I was missing around our great state. Next to spring, fall is the best time for fishing in Arkansas. Some say it's even better. Crappie, bass, walleyes, stripers and hybrids get active as the water cools, and they feed aggressively as they fatten up for the winter.
Bill Eldridge of Benton says he loves deer season more than any other because all the hunters go to the woods and leave him virtually alone with some of the year's best fishing in some of the most beautiful places on earth.
There are still so many places in Arkansas that I haven't fished, or haven't fished in a long time. One of the former is a place in Calhoun County called Big Johnson Lake. With a name like that, the fishing has to be good.
It's all a matter of balance. I'll hunt on peak hunting days, and I'll spend the rest on the water.
Who knows? I might even visit a few deer camps and meet some new friends.
Sports on 07/15/2018