Good luck to our California brethren. Coastal deer opened this morning.
A season is open here in Lake County but its going to be hot like 95 or so. Before I retired I lived on the coast and hunted San Mateo County on the coast. Sure do miss the sound of an excited jump dog or a good hound cold trailing before it makes the jump though.
I don't know what happened to our blacktail herds. I doubt if the biologists know either. They are decimated to a tiny fraction of what they were. Maybe it is all of the things together, predator kills, natural cycles, mismangement/tag sales, highway kills. The "B" zones where I live, have steadily declined since the record winterkill in the mid 90's. A good portion of the deer no longer migrate to the high mountains in the spring, they seem to gravitate to the valley floors and foothills, usually where there is increased human habitation.??? Even the "eat anything" black bear population has declined. Never hunted very hard since hound hunting was outlawed, you would think they would flourish with no natural predators, they are now just a shadow of their former population. I have a renter who is a pro taxidermist, he used to keep busy all year with bear mounts and rugs, he's lucky to get one a year the last 5 years. Deer mounts the same, seldom any trophy bucks, now it's all just decent 4 points which are the new trophy I guess. Sad.
It was said that the California Deer herd was the best studied and the worst managed. I totally agree with that. The seasons and bag limits are set by someone in Sacramento who isn't even a biologist. Mountain lions, Bears and coyotes have decimated our herds. Here in Lake county they used to harvest 2500 Bucks a year, now maybe 200. With the recent fires around here hopefully with new growth of forage they will make some kind of a rebound. Sadly, the small numbers left make it hard to do that. I think more controled and perscription burning could really help them along with more predator control.
The lions were just starting to take hold in Paso Robles when I left a couple of years ago. They had already decimated the area North of Santa Cruz where I grew up. It's a shame the fish and game department is over ruled by the idiot voters.
I have never understood why CA holds the season so early. I was stationed there for 3 years and always took deer but it was a challenge handling the meat in 100 degree temps. Doesn't make uch sense to me.
The early season (A season) starts early to avoid hunting Bucks in the full rut. The Bucks normally start to go into the rut around the middle of September especially along the coast. You don't want to try and eat the meat of a Blacktail that is in full rut. It will run you out of the kitchen.