Dear Otus,
I read with great interest historian/archivist Tom Dillard's [June 14] column on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He noted this was the commission's centennial year and lauded many of its accomplishments.
"Restoring depleted wildlife populations has always been an emphasis," Dillard says, and then lists everything from bobwhite quail and black bears to alligators.
What he does not discuss is Game and Fish's controversial "Catch and Release II" program for deer. I know C&R was tried a few years back, but here we go again.
Is it because hunters checked only 208,075 deer during the 2014-2015 seasons? That's a 2 percent decrease from the year before, but will catch and release actually benefit the herd?
-- Jody Baxter,
Mountain Home
Dear Jody,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and a pleasure to have the opportunity to explain what the commission is up to.
Game and Fish first introduced the Catch & Release program to Arkansas in 2009 and, admittedly, there were few takers. It takes a manly man to get down out of the deer stand and go mano a mano with a strapping buck.
But the 867 who participated claim there is no greater feeling than to test yourself against the monarch of the forest and prevail.
The number of those applying for the special C&R license has skyrocketed this season due primarily to last fall's hit History Channel series Buck Stops Here, starring the Joad family (Tom, Uncle John, Noah and Win) of Bucksnort, Tenn. (halfway between Jackson and Nashville).
The first episode of Season 2, "Duck River Cervids," debuts at 8 p.m. Monday immediately following the new season of Swamp People.
As in 2009, Game and Fish has brought instructors from North Carolina Wildlife Resources to teach Arkansas' deer hunters the finer points of catching and releasing deer. C&R has really caught on in the past decade in North Carolina, where there are tournaments and cash prizes that are getting the attention of hunters across the South.
Martin "Buck" Forrester is the NCWR specialist in your zone. Forrester taught a beginners' C&R class last weekend in Hardy and will teach another today from 3 to 6 p.m. under the tent between Dodd Creek and the East Parking Lot at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home.
Other experts will teach classes at the same time today in Yellville at the high school; Mammoth Spring at the Pace Senior Citizens Activity Center; Berryville at the community center (use the east entrance by McClung Realty); and Siloam Springs at the old American Legion building on North Mount Olive Street.
Forrester said the sport of catch and release began in 1997 in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest northeast of Asheville by a group of hunters who were tired of sitting on their butts for hours and hours in tree stands.
"I'll admit that on paper it sounds nuts," Forrester told The Baxter Bulletin last week. "But once you have the basic principles down, catching deer and then releasing them is a real rush. It just takes patience."
Forrester said that anybody can use a high-powered rifle with a scope to kill a buck at 300 yards.
"It takes a real hunter to draw in the critters and take 'em from behind," he said. "It's the quintessence of pack teamwork and the way our primeval ancestors hunted."
Apparently the best way to catch and release is in groups of four. One team member slathers himself with a musky doe-in-estrus pheromone product such as Doc's Devastator 249 ($29.99) or Tink's No. 69 Doe-In-Rut Buck Lure ($12.99).
Having transformed himself into an irresistible endocrine lure, he hides beneath a camouflage tarp in the middle of a clearing. The other three team members are likewise hidden, but are wearing human-scent-free camo, having washed with natural peanut butter, rolled around on pine needles and sprayed themselves with boiled celery leaves.
Forrester will cover the sport's fine points, but it basically involves the "lure" using bleats and grunts to bring the curious bucks in. Then the hunting team pounces on the buck (see photo) and pins it to the ground.
"The bigger the rack, the better the handle," Forrester said. "And there's no better feeling than when you release that trophy buck and watch him bound back into the woods."
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you the C&R classes are free and refreshments will be served.
Disclaimer
Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat's award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
HomeStyle on 06/20/2015