Penobscot Valley Hunting Report: November 16, 2007

The second week of firearm season for our whitetails brought cooler temperatures and better hunting conditions. Check stations I chatted with were busy, but the second week usually tends to be a bit on the slower side. In talking to hunters as well as my own observations, good rutting sign seemed to be starting to show up more consistently as expected. Big buck hunters full of confidence have just been sitting back waiting for the third week to get underway. That’s when they get serious about hunting deer. The third week for all will be more active as the peak of the rut kicks in and deer begin to move more during the day, especially if cooler temperatures stay in place. However, as we all know, the big boys may still stay nocturnal.

Hunter effort this past week seemed to be up from last year during the second week at least in most places. I spoke with a few folks located in the northern portion of our Region, and it was their opinion that the hunters were not there in their usual abundance. With people worried about the economy, or gas prices specifically, it will be interesting to see how hunter effort plays out these last two weeks.

The Penobscot Region is participating with the ongoing statewide effort to collect Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) surveillance samples. The sampling is going pretty well this year; the portions of Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 17 and 26 that lie within the Region have been completed. However, we still need your help in collecting samples from WMDs 11, 18 and 19. More specifically, we need samples from the towns of Brookton, Danforth, Haynesville, Carroll and Lagrange. If you harvest a deer from one of these towns and are interested in helping the Department with this sampling effort, please contact the Enfield Regional Office at (207) 732-4132. Your assistance with this effort will be greatly appreciated!