SonofZ3


I agree fishing is #1...


It's a lot easier to get and keep kids interested in doing and to this day is still my #1 love ...

I'd still rather be fishing than most anyother sport there is ..

it can be work... traveling along a secluded trout stream for miles

OR

it can be completely relaxing .. sitting and still fishing a lake, river, stream or pond

you can make it what you want ... and since catch and release has become so popular it makes return trips just as exciting as the first trip ..

Some of my favorite squirrel spots are now gas wells..
they cut down the oak trees and cleared an area (about an acre)to put in the gas well, parking, road, etc...
SUCKS !!!

I'll try to find some new areas this spring between fishing trips..

I started hunting in the very early sixties and it was rabbits that I really loved to hunt. Having grown up in the heart of farm country with a lot of small woodlots the rabbit populations were high back then. I remember days when my Dad, some friends and I would head up to the big woods of what is now my district to hunt turkeys. Back then there were no turkeys close to home so we went north to find them. But, even while hunting turkeys I usually couldn’t wait until we headed home so maybe I could get the dogs out for an hour or two of rabbit hunting before the end of the day. Back then I ran those dogs about everyday before the season and new where every rabbit for a couple miles around our property could be found.
 
I watched a lot of things change over the years that resulted in the crash of the rabbit populations in that area. I am going to explain what I think are a few of the major changes that occurred and influenced not only rabbit but also other small game populations.
 
I first major change I saw can about with the end of the old steam locomotives and the railroads switching to diesel locomotives. Back through the fifties and perhaps very early sixties the old steamers ran through the valley about a half-mile from our farm and you could pretty much count on having fires that burned up through the woods to the farm fields at least once every year. That kept that whole area in a state of new growth all the time, we called it the red brush because of all the new oak and sassafras seedlings that were never more than about six to eight feet tall. It was full of rabbits; we could take the dogs there and have rabbit chases all day long day after day. It wasn’t uncommon for the neighboring farm lad, the same age as I was, and I to each come home with a limit of rabbits if we had all day to hunt.
 
Some days we didn’t go to the red brush to hunt and instead hunted some of the areas around the farms, apple orchards and pine plantings that seemed so common back then around the old strip jobs. We found lots of rabbits and even some pheasants and grouse hunting those edge areas of mixed habitat. But, a lot of things changed with that over the years too. Back in the 60s everyone planted corn but it wasn’t sprayed to prevent weeds from growing, instead it was cultivated a couple times until it got too tall to drive the tractor over without running it down. Then it was just left to grow for the rest of the summer. By the time it was ready to pick it full of weeds that were at least knee high and also full of rabbits. It was also pretty common to kick out a couple pheasants or perhaps even a covey of quail from that high grass left between the corn stalks. The hay fields were not mowed until into June or maybe not even until early July but I can still remember all of the rabbits running out ahead of the old sickle bar mower. There were also hedgerows between the fields and some fields still had the old stump and stone fences along the woods edges. Those places had lots of groundhog holes where the rabbits would sometimes head to when you bumped them up.
 
So what has changed? Well those old steamers don’t result in all the fires along the railways so the woods have grown in to forest habitat that stopped supporting rabbits, and in many cases deer too, back in the early to mid seventies so the rabbits populations really declined in those areas. Then about the same time we got in to the spraying of herbicides on our corn fields that killed all weeds and left a corn field as nothing but bare ground between the corn rows and looking like a strip job once the corn was cut or picked. The hay fields went form one or two cutting a year to sometimes three or more mowing that left no place for rabbits to live or escape either the machinery or predators. The hedgerows disappeared so every inch of land could be cropped just to try to break even financially. Grain harvesting equipment improved so that less was lost in the field so wildlife not only had nowhere to hide but less food.
 
When I go back home now and look at those areas where I once harvested limit after limit of rabbits and pheasants I can hardly believe how it has changed. The pines I could once see over but hardly walk through but chased rabbits all day are so tall I can walk under them without bumping my head. The old apple orchards are about all gone and the old bracken fields are now mowed lawns with side-by-side houses and driveways. The old red brush is a mature forest with almost no under story. The hedgerows are gone. The old stump and stone fences are no longer present. And, with all of those changes there are almost no rabbits or pheasants anymore, but I am pretty sure I can see why they aren’t there like they once had been.
 
Like many of you I too miss some of those good ole days and wish we could go back to them. But, that isn’t going to happen so we have to face reality and what life is in today’s society. But, on the bright side there are places that are being managed for small game populations and hunting on some of our game lands across the state. Some of them are even providing some pretty darn good small game hunting for those that still look for those hunting opportunities.
 R.S. Bodenhorn               

Just curious, GAMELANDS ??

ORIGINAL: Dr. Trout

Some of my favorite squirrel spots are now gas wells..
they cut down the oak trees and cleared an area (about an acre)to put in the gas well, parking, road, etc...
SUCKS !!!

I'll try to find some new areas this spring between fishing trips..

Good read RSB...Almost sounds like home cept we didn't run dogs...

Any of you ever hunt rabbits with your bow ??

It doesn't address the increase of predators and their impact on the small game but it is sure accurate on the loss of habitat which is the #1 issue.

Bings, I hunted rabbits and ringnecks as a teenager with the bow when the snow was on and snakes in the summer. My mother about croked when we brought our first rattlers home. 25# straight wood bow and wood arrows.

Native pheasants? What?

It could just be that there aren't any rabbits nearby to move into and begin utilizing that habitat. You can create/have some wonderful habitat, but unless theres an expanding population of rabbits nearby it won't be utilized. The report from the Iowa DNR said that a rabbit's maximum range is a 10 acre area. If your power line isn't within 10 acres of some rabbit populations then its unlikely rabbits will move in.

10-4!

ORIGINAL: SonofZ3

Native pheasants? What?

It could just be that there aren't any rabbits nearby to move into and begin utilizing that habitat. You can create/have some wonderful habitat, but unless theres an expanding population of rabbits nearby it won't be utilized. The report from the Iowa DNR said that a rabbit's maximum range is a 10 acre area. If your power line isn't within 10 acres of some rabbit populations then its unlikely rabbits will move in.

The power line has had great rabbit habitat for over 70 years and was good rabbit hunting until the mid 70's. So, the question then becomes ,what caused the existing population to virtually disappear and what prevented them from returning over the past 40 years.Last year I saw the first baby rabbit in about 10 years, but I never saw the adults.

Wrong again, it was snowing not raining!! the fact that there aren't any rabbits in the power line doesn't bother me one bit. However, since I am interested in the future of hunting for all game species I would like to know what factor is limiting the rabbit population in areas with excellent habitat. Maybe you don't care about the future of hunting but I do ,even though I am nearing the end of my hunting career.

Stir, Stir, Stir,

No doubt a conspiracy of some sort. I'd say the CGP ( Carrot Growers of Pennsylvania ), have infiltrated the PGC.

Naaa. Everyone, and i mean EVERYONE... knows pgc is the pinnacle of hunter friendliness and would never...NEVER be swayed by an anti-deer stakeholder group. lol.

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