By james art 
By Luke Clayton
I write my column at the beginning of the week, late Sunday afternoon actually. This weekend was the start of the general deer season here in Texas. Saturday marked the first day hunters can take to the deer woods with centerfire rifles, muzzleloaders, large-bore air rifles; any legal sports hand.
I hunted a bit in October on a friend’s ranch with land permits managed by TPWD, but I have yet to take a deer. I hunt for meat as well as antlers, and honestly, it’s just been too warm, too hot, to get fired up about gathering my meat from the wild.
I have several places to hunt this fall and winter and I have no doubt that I will have the opportunity to take three out of four deer, which will hopefully include a few fat does as well as a mature buck or two.
I would say I don’t care about antlers, but I’ve always said that any deer hunter who says they don’t want to kill a deer with big antlers is probably lying. As far as money goes, my goal is a mature animal that has reached its potential. I’d rather take an old buck on his way down, this good looking and new 2.5 year old, but that’s just me.
With the earlier than usual opening day on November 2nd and the unseasonably warm weather, I decided to monitor a few of my friends who hunted this weekend via cell phone. I’ve been getting texts from a couple of guys hunting in deep East Texas, North Texas, and the Hill Country, and a lot of the messages were like, “It’s just too warm for a lot of deer movement. I had several puppies and a small buck came to the feeder. The track is running but I don’t see any money. I sure wish it would get cooler.”
One of my friends scored a big ten, so the old adage “You can’t kill them at home in the rocking chair” does have some validity.
I was perfectly content manning my phone this weekend and serving as a command center relaying messages to many of my friends, but by the time you read this, Ole’ Luke’s opening day will be upon us. The meteorologist is predicting highs in the 60s and overnight lows in the 40s by midweek. Now it is more deer hunting time and I plan to hunt with a good friend in Kaufman County.
I helped my friend Larry Weishun and the ranch owners with deer surveys on the ranch during the summer and I know there are some really good bucks roaming the bottomlands and adjacent hardwoods at the higher elevations. Trail cameras have witnessed some big heavy mature bucks that may not qualify as trophies for many, but for this old hunter a heavy antlered six-point buck with some age will fill the bill nicely.
I didn’t have the luxury of choosing when I wanted to hunt most of my life, but thanks to my work as an outdoor writer and radio and TV host, I can now adjust my schedule to the best times to hunt and fish.
Weather is key in almost every aspect of the outdoors. I try to plan my fishing trips around the weather. For example, stripers in Texoma always bite best with a little chop in the water. A little wind is almost always a good thing for most types of fishing. That’s not to say it’s impossible to catch fish on a calm day, but from many hours on the water fishing everything from bass to hybrid stripers, I’ve come to believe that a light wind is a very good thing, not a gale, but a nice breeze from 5 to 10 mph.
As for deer movement, after about 62 years, plus or minus, in the deer woods, I had my best luck on a cool day with little wind. Frosty mornings are good, but not necessarily at the height of the day. I have found that deer seem to move best when the sun has melted the frost on a really cold morning, but there are exceptions to every rule. I gave my top dollar to meet in North Dakota on a frosty morning when everything was frozen. But deer in this cold country don’t have many options, if they wait for warm weather in winter, they will starve.
The peak of the riots, which will begin any day across much of the state, is the perfect time to be in the deer woods. Bucks are actively chasing fish in all weather conditions to some degree, but they just don’t move as much during the day when the weather is warm. I have watched bucks drag a doe in the heat of the day and seen both fall to the ground exhausted, tongues out and panting from the heat. Deer can see quite well at night, and when it’s warm, they limit much of their activity to the cooler hours.
Like last year’s hunting season, TPWD biologists expect deer hunters across most of the state will have plenty of opportunities to fill their freezers. Much of the state received drought-relieving rain in the spring, which allowed for excellent habitat growth during the early part of the growing season. Spring production of grass (weeds and flowering plants), which is a critical component of the diet of deer emerging from winter, was abundant and offered essential nutrients for growing kids, lactating does, and newborn fawns.
Also, improved habitat conditions earlier this year helped keep fawns healthy enough to survive the first few months (also known as fawn recruitment). Although this spring has provided lush vegetation, with the current drought conditions affecting most of the state, hunters should have plenty of opportunities to encounter deer as they search for local and supplemental food sources.
Since your old outdoors scribe spent the whitetail observing the hunts of several friends across the state, next week’s column will include a recap of my midweek hunt when temperatures will be cooler and greatly increase the chances of a harvest of big money. Weather forecasts for the second weekend of deer season are currently calling for cooler weather to continue.
My CVA Cascade rifle in 6.5 PRC with a Stealth Vision scope shoots tight groups much further than I will be able to shoot. Wish me luck and know this: we are now living in the “good old days” of deer hunting. There are more whitetails in the woods now than at any time in recent history.
Here’s wishing you a great season with antlers on the wall and backs in the pan.
Listen to Luke’s weekly podcast, Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends, anywhere podcasts are heard.