Patoka Sportsman 8-10-19
Patoka Sportsman 8-10 & 8-11-19
There will be a 3-D Broken Arrow Archery shoot Sunday August 11 at Beaver Lake CR 325 E Jasper IN. Sign-in will be from sunrise till noon. A practice range will be available, and concessions will also be sold. There are new lower prices for entry fees. The entry fee is $10 for all adults, $8 for children age 11-17, and free for the cub class (10 and younger) and active military members. From Jasper, take State Road 164 east to County Road 325 East, turn left and follow the road to the clubhouse on the right. For more information , call cliff fleck at (812)630-0454 or karla brames at 8128273756.
Patoka Lake Bowhunters will host a 30 Target 3-D Archery Shoot on Sat & Sun August 17th & 18th at Patoka Lake Archery Range near Wickcliffe. Participants should use the Main Entrance at Patoka Lake off State Road 164. Registration is from Daylight - Noon. Shooting fees are $10.00 for nonmembers, and $5.00 for youth (age 11-17), Cubs 10 and under along with Active Military will shoot for for free. For more information call 812-309-9373
Reserved hunt application periods are open for dove, waterfowl, deer and pheasant. The application period for deer will close Aug. 26. Waterfowl and pheasant application periods will close on Sept. 16. You can only apply for these hunts online. To get started with an application, go to on.IN.gov/reservedhunt and click on “Apply for a reserved hunt.” Only one application per hunt is allowed, and no changes can be made once an application is submitted. Applicants must possess a hunting license valid for the hunt for which they are applying.
The Patoka Lake Watershed Steering Committee encourages individuals, families, friends and service groups to save the date for the 13th annual Patoka Lake Clean Up on Saturday, August 24 at the Patoka Lake Dam. Participants of all ages and abilities can sign up on location at 8 am EDT and will be assigned an area to pick up trash and recycling along the shore.
At 11 am, all volunteers return to the dam to be treated to a fish fry, music, door prizes, goody bags and of course, a free event t-shirt! Service and youth groups are asked to please register in advance! Join in the fun and help rid Patoka Lake Watershed of unsightly, unhealthy trash! Each year volunteers pick up over 2000 pounds of trash and recycling during this event.
All supplies are provided; volunteers just need to show up! The event takes place at the Patoka Lake Corps of Engineers office at the Patoka Lake Dam. For information or to register a group in advance, call the Patoka Lake Nature Center at 812-685-2447 or check the Patoka Lake Watershed Steering Committee Facebook page for updates.
The DNR’S turkey brood survey runs through Aug. 31. While you are out this summer, you are asked that you help them count the number of young wild turkey poults with hens. These surveys provide the DNR with information about turkey poult survival and inform wild turkey management. Create an account and start reporting your observations at on.IN.gov/turkeybrood.
Now’s the time of year that many of us have trail camera’s out trying to find out how many and what types of deer are roaming our hunting woods. Now is also the time of year that farmers and landowners are seeing lots of deer in the bean fields. Deer can eat a lot of soybeans. If you have a lot of deer the damage can be pretty big. Many landowners will contact the Dept. of Natural Resources and fill out Deer Control Permit Applications to harvest deer during the month of September. A deer control application can be submitted whenever there is active damage. Permits are reviewed by the permit coordinator in Indy as they are received and district biologists perform site inspections in certain cases. The first step is to go online and fill out the deer control permit application. Go to the www.in.gov and do a search for wildlife biologists. Click on your district and your contact will show up. I’ve considered this but decided that the newly born fawns probably need their mothers more right now. Once hunting season begins I want to concentrate on harvesting does. That gives the fawns a couple extra months to establish themselves.
If you want to see more and bigger bucks, and larger body weights, you probably need to thin your doe population out a bit, possibly a lot. A given piece of land will hold and sustain “X amount” of deer (both bucks and does). Because of territorial tendencies, social pressures and Mother Nature’s influence, a large matriarchal society may develop over time. You must also understand for there to be “more” mature bucks, there must be additional bucks coming from somewhere, and a crop of new bucks following up in years to come.
Let’s say that a doe has one buck-fawn and one doe-fawn. After the fawn’s entire first year, which is spent with the doe, usually at around 18 months old, instincts are believed to urge the buck to go seek out a territory a fair distance away from his mother. Pressure to move is also provided by older bucks in the area and it’s believed the doe also helps by having her own instinct to drive her male offspring away.
On the other hand, the female offspring will usually take up a territory right next to, and typically inter-twined with the doe’s home range. So if you’re not keeping up with your doe harvest, over time you get a big doe matriarchal society that just keeps growing and growing.
Then, when a year old buck disperses from his birth range and goes off searching for where he will take root and spend the rest of his life, when he comes across your property he may not be able to stay because all of those X’s (living spaces) are filled by that large matriarchal doe group. To see more and bigger bucks, balancing the ratio and making spaces available for new animals is very important.