Wisconsin opener

[Abndoc]

Who's getting excited? My 11 yr old and I will be hunting together, he planning on toping his 6 ptr from last year!

[MJ1657]

I'm excited!!!

[FISHINGURU]

I will get excited if anyone has any land I can hunt!!

[Shu]

My son and I will be in Polk county as usual. Nothing but a big buck for us as we each got a deer with our bows this year. I am bringing my brother and 8 yr old nephew along this year and am more excited for him to get a deer than anything else.

[ANYFISH2]

I will get excited if anyone has any land I can hunt!!

LOL, That is exactly what immediately went through my head when I read the Original post.

[Hoyt4]

Heading out to Crawford county first year to have a gun deer hunting in 20 years. My dad has been bugging me to go for the last 4 with him. Going to be a good time cannot wait to get even with the deer this weeekend.

I did take a decent buck in MN but already went through some of that meat. Need at least one more in the freezer if not two. Have to have them steaks for the fish house every weekend.

Good luck to everyone and safe hunting.

[B-man715]

Good luck tomorrow guys

Shu, I'll be in Polk county too (by east Balsam). Where you hunting?

[Shu]

I hunt near Luck. Not many shots yesterday, very slow. Did see a few deer including a buck chasing a doe around. Good luck B-Man!

[MJ1657]

Fair amount of shooting yesterday morning and evening. Very little this morning.

Seen a buck, 3 does and one we weren't sure about yesterday.

[laker1]

Never hunted Wisconsin,always thought it would be fun to hunt along lake Superior in Wisconsin.

I believe there is a lot of public land and maybe lighter hunting pressure? I don't really know?

[B-man715]

Heard a lot of shooting yesterday, well over 100, which was a lot considering the wind was blowing some (harder to hear them).

I saw 12 deer total, including a small eight chasing a doe and a fork chasing a doe.

Today is absolutely dead. I've only heard a half dozen shots and haven't seen a thing...... Which isn't all that surprising with only 50 yard visibility

[Abndoc]

My 11 yr old got a big old doe yesterday, seen 8 does one buck, nothing this morning lots of fog, not one shot heard

[laker1]

My 11 yr old got a big old doe yesterday, seen 8 does one buck, nothing this morning lots of fog, not one shot heard

Good going.

[B-man715]

Congrats Abndoc, sounds like you guys had fun!

Well fellas, this fog is getting even worse. I can't even shoot 50 yards and where the deer cross in the swamp is 150 yards away.

I'm climbing down to drink beer and watch football....... I'll hit her again Thursday-Sunday.

Good luck to you all who are waiting the fog out. I'm getting thirsty

[Abndoc]

We ended up sitting until noon on sunday, left due to the fog, didnt hear one shot all day

[mwal]

Lower Bayfield County report. I made it all day Saturday in the stand only 4 shots with in a couple miles. 1st one wasn't till 10am. Least amount I have ever heard in this my 38th opener. Sunday made it till 11am not a shot heard.

I also did not see a deer. Worst opener I can remember. Many camps were empty. I made the drive home without seeing a single deer on a vehicle or trailer or on a meat pole. Unheard of. I was in the bucks only area that was affected by winter kill and has wolves around. Scouting showed some tracks and sign but it was lighter than normal. My brother in Amery was blanked but did pass on some small does. I am switching to spearing pike next weekend and giving the few deer up there a pass.

Mwal

[mwal]

WI released opening weekend numbers less than a 100,000 for the whole state. I think they will have hard time selling licenses next year. Saywer county total kill buck and doe was 432 down from 1012 last year. I hunt Bayfield county 738 total last year 1112 dreadful Newspaper articles are now predicting numbers lower than 1981 or into the 1970's

Mwal

[deerhunter]

Hunt in Sawyer county group of 11 no bucks sad sad sad

[laker1]

Hunters statewide registered 48,926 bucks, down 9 percent from opening weekend of 2013, and 41,355 antlerless deer, a drop of 27 percent, according to the DNR report.

The department's license sales office reported 589,830 gun deer licenses sold by midnight Friday, before the start of the season Saturday.

Advertisement

Deer license and tag sales will continue through the hunting seasons.

This is what is the most interesting and significant in a good way.

The increase in Female youth hunters. Growing up and until recently it was all males. Welcome to all the new gal hunters.

About 22,000 new hunters have purchased licenses to deer hunt for the first time, or for the first time in 10 years. Female deer hunters continue to increase in number, and accounted for 35 percent of resident first-time gun deer licenses and 36 percent of resident first-time junior gun deer licenses, the DNR said.

No hunting-related incidents were reported during the first two days of the season, marking the second time in the last 10 years there were no hunting incidents investigated during opening weekend.

[laker1]

WI released opening weekend numbers less than a 100,000 for the whole state. I think they will have hard time selling licenses next year. Saywer county total kill buck and doe was 432 down from 1012 last year. I hunt Bayfield county 738 total last year 1112 dreadful Newspaper articles are now predicting numbers lower than 1981 or into the 1970's

Mwal

Ahh sounds like Minnesota hunters.

[ESSGuy]

I work and live in St croix co. Back in the early 2000's when the dnr was handing out antler less tags for a few dollars I was eating lunch in the local legion club. 2 guys in orange were eating and when they left the conversation went like this. Bartender said, so get any deer? Hunter: yep, but our group of 10 hunters still have 75 tags to fill, gotta get back in the woods. This was one group and may have been the exception and not the rule, but now even wi has no deer. Not hard to figure out.

[mwal]

Laker1

this is my 38th season in Bayfield cty. Had the cabin since 1970 this is approaching the lowest number of deer I have seen.

Mwal

[laker1]

Laker1

this is my 38th season in Bayfield cty. Had the cabin since 1970 this is approaching the lowest number of deer I have seen.

Mwal

I heard it was very low from a individual from Minnesota who has land up there. Sees very few deer compared to years ago.

I remember about 25 years ago population was down in Minnesota,and it was down in Wisconsin,North Dakota and Montana and also states eastward at the same time,all these states have much lower than normal populations again it seems.

Talked to a friend has a place in Montana,said it was the worse hunting in 40 years. It seems to some extent if one is down the others are down also.

I think much of that we all suffer from the same hard winter.

[mwal]

This winter is starting early as well and there are more bears and wolves than ever up there. We used to see occasional bear but last summer we see them almost every weekend crossing roads instead of deer. Another harsh winter and a cold spring could really slow down any recovery.

Mwal

[LightningBG]

Hunting Polk County.

We went 5 deer for 6 hunters. Took a little longer than most years but a couple guys only hunted Saturday morning. One left because he had already gotten one, the other because his kid was sick.

Saturday we got three in the morning, none in the afternoon.

Sunday I was the only one out, and it was pointless being out there. Visibility was only about 30-40 yards. Fog was playing tricks on me. I stared down a nice buck for about 15 minutes before concluding it was the roots of an up ended tree.

Three of us went back out Wednesday morning. The other two guys didn't see a thing. I picked up a nice doe and a small buck.

Even though our total ended up respectable, we didn't really have much to choose from. I saw 4 total and ended up taking 2 of them. Nobody saw much for total numbers.

Last year we picked up a pair of wall mounters on opening day, which is strange for us. We've never seen much size where we're at.

Up until a few years ago we could get the $2 bonus tags. Not sure if that had a ton to the current numbers. A few posts ago someone mentioned the 10 guys with 75 tags to fill. I don't know if that means much. When it was $2, I'd pick up 5-6 tags a year. Never had any intention of filling them. I'd take 1, maybe 2. Figured it was an extra donation to the DNR I guess.

Anyways. Our season turned out ok, but it seamed like we had to work a little harder than other years (which was fine). Hopefully things will be on the upswing and we can wrap it up by lunch in the future.

[PropsterII]

So you don't much like to hunt, you'd prefer to just get it over?

[PurpleFloyd]

I stared down a nice buck for about 15 minutes before concluding it was the roots of an up ended tree.

I chuckled. Been there before.

[LightningBG]

So you don't much like to hunt, you'd prefer to just get it over?

I love to hunt. Look forward to it all year long. But, if I'm just there to "hunt" and not shoot anything, I'll sit in my backyard in town. I think we all know that sitting there for days on end, not seeing anything, is "hunting" but it isn't too exciting.

[coletrickle26]

Northern Douglas County, Wi. Public land in Bucks only zone.

It was tough going out there for my dad and I with the weather giving us a full gamut of conditions from Sat-Tues. Saturday was decent. Saw 4 does throughout the morning. Sunday was the combo of mist, fog, rain and wind turning from south to north for the evening hunt. Didn't see a thing or hear a shot all day Sunday. Monday brought about 5-6 inches of the fresh powder and temps went straight down to single digits overnight for the early Tues morning hunt. Didn't see a thing Monday.

Was able to finally harvest a 6pt about 8:45am Tues. Nice conditions. About 10 degrees, no wind and bright sunshine. Overall, shooting was much less in our area over the four days I was out. After Saturday shots dropped way off. A few here and there but that's it. On the buck boards at local bars there were very, very few bucks on the boards. Everyone I spoke to was not seeing many deer if any deer at all in a lot of cases.

The deer I did see over the weekend did look very healthy so just hoping for a lighter winter. I will be scouting harder over the winter and into next year and excited to get back out there.

[Hoyt4]

Crawford county it was crazy opener, heard way over a hundred shots on Saturday opening day. Lost count and saw plenty of deer. We let a lot of deer go but wanted to take a doe and in the end we still have bucks chasing so we did not . Next year we will fill that doe tag and hope to get a least a basket buck or bigger after that. Freezer only has one deer and that meat will be gone half way through the ice fishing season at the fish house. Going back with the Muzzy and try and put a deer down. Was great opener saw a lot of big bucks taken around the farm.

Shots slowed a bit but still were high most the week. Came home for a Thanksgiving then headed back. This last saturday still a lot of shots maybe 30 or so and bucnh Sunday but did happen later in the day not much in the morning.