Yesterday brought the end of the 2015 - 2016 bow hunting season for deer in Maryland, and like many I headed out into the woods to try to get that one last chance at harvesting a deer. I personally ran into the problem of there was a lack of places to park in and around Loch Raven so it made hunting public land a challenge to say the least. I still was able to get out. I had high hopes for the evening, but even from the start of the hunt when I found it very hard to walk in the snow with all my gear, treestand, and bow I knew it wasn't going to go well. I was going in with the goal of finding a concentration of tracks in the snow, which sadly I was never able to find. I knew that I had to get close to a bedding area, but the area I was hunting the deer just didn't seem to be bedding where they normally do when it is not snow covered. I found a few sets of tracks here and there and I set up on a thicket where there was a 3 or 4 sets of tracks hoping something would come into feed for the evening. Well, I should have kept walking looking for more trails and more activity, I never saw a thing other than 1 squirrel. It was a long hard walk to not even see a deer. But that is hunting and about how my whole season went.
I didn't see anyone out close to where I was hunting and there were no other foot prints from humans, but did anyone else make it out and see anything?
Now as I sit here this evening reflecting back on the season, it was a good, fun, but a disappointing season. Like every other season, things I thought I knew were wrong, I learned some new things and found some new hunting areas. But I was unable to close the deal on even a doe this year. I had early season chances I let go, rut I was after a buck and that allowed me to let too many does walk hoping the buck was behind, and finally late season came and I never saw a deer. The last deer I saw while on stand was early December towards the end of rut, and I blew that chance when a doe caught me drawing my bow. Now my freezer is sadly more empty than normal, and I have a lot of hours on stand and nothing but new knowledge to go with it.
Now I will look forward to trout fishing in just under 2 short months, turkey season in 3 months and hopefully spring fishing at the local lakes and out on the Chesapeake Bay. Lots more to write about and hopefully give some good product reviews this coming year!
How was your hunting season? Are you looking forward to this Spring?
