Wisconsin’s crossbow/archery season opens Sept. 17. The season closes in most units Jan. 8, 2023, but there are some areas that extend to Jan. 31, 2023.
Whitetail admiring season never ceases.
Deer continue to change appearances and actions throughout September, notably being the shedding of velvet tissues from antlers. A pair of bucks in a bachelor group may show both velvet-covered and “hard antlered” deer. The friendship is not likely to last long because velvet being shed and buck aggression are related to hormone levels, which plays to photoperiod. Individual bucks become loners and may be aggressive to one another as the season progresses.
Body hair and entire coats of does, fawns and bucks change from rusty red to steal gray and then more brown. All hair changes are intermittent.
Fawns lose their spots as white hairs are lost and replaced.
Past deer regulations may have noted an illegal action of taking a spotted fawn or buck with velvet antlers, suggesting these deer may have been taken before a season opened. Most bucks and fawns have made those transformations by the September opener.
“There are a lot of really big bucks this fall and the archery and gun seasons should be really good,” says Wally Bamfi, at Wilderness Fish and Game in Sauk City. “There’s a strong mast crop and those are locations were early hunters should be set up.”
“Rabbit and squirrel numbers are quiet large, along with lots of turkeys and deer are plentiful it you’re in the right area. A few hunters have been out after doves, teal and geese already,” said Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage. “I did sell one ginseng digging license.”
Aaron Taylor, in Gays Mills said the starting price for good root is $200 a pound, green. Taylor buys for Hsu Ginseng in Wausau and can be reached at 715-581-7529 or 608-606-4729.
“I keep being reminded by the hunter who spent nine days up north last season and did not see a single deer,” Don Martin, of Martin’s in Monroe. “The same guy lamented he had 27 wolves on his trail cameras.”
Hunters know deer, as well as other game animals, are not evenly distributed.
Turkeys are another matter. Wayne Smith, in Lafayette County says locally the turkey population continues to be down, while beavers, raccoons, and geese are plentiful. Muskrats are down.”
In general, fishing has been good with large mudcats caught in Yellowstone Lake. Smallmouth bass in Madison Lakes and Wisconsin River are being taken on swim and crank baits. Stripers and bluegills of size-worthy nature have been taken in some area lakes.
Safety is always in vogue. Smith told a story of a friend who fell preparing his stand, broke both legs and numerous other bones and dragged himself a half mile. “It was either do that or die,” he told Smith form the hospital.
An Iowa County all-around outdoorsman, located three early Maitake mushrooms (hen-of-the-woods) and went back the next day, picked them and found a sulphur bracket polypore and a lot of golden oyster mushrooms.
His secret has been keeping records, going to the same tree year after year at about the same date and continuing to check other trees for as long as 5-6 weeks.
He lightly sautés them in butter, freezes them on cookie sheets and then bags the frozen pieces and places them back in the freezer.
Dehydration works, too and so does freezing some raw.
Pokeweed is becoming more common in some parts. This perennial, shrubby herb flowers in September. All parts of the plant, especially the roots, are poisonous. The fruit is purple-black berries. Destroy it before the animals spread the seeds.
Watch for hunting regulations pamphlets on sports shop counters and the season forecasts posted on the DNR web page covering bears, waterfowl, upland game, furbearers, and deer.
— Jerry Davis is a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
