Mississippi’s SEC successes the likely cause of slow harvest
After an obviously tough archery season, Mississippi biologists and hunters — not to mention the outdoor magazines and writers that love to share good deer stories — are wondering why there’s been a shortage of big buck reports.
“No doubt, it’s been a slow season,” said Chad Dacus, the chief of wildlife for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “I just haven’t had the big deer stories come across the desk like I usually do. Our field biologists aren’t getting them either. It picked up a little with the youth gun season but, still, it’s slow.”
With only a few days remaining before the gun season opens statewide on Saturday, when nearly 200,000 more hunters might go to the woods, there are questions circulating. Among the ones heard:
* “The last two years have been so good, I wonder if we killed most of the mature bucks and nature hasn’t kept up?”
* “Do you think it was that the weather was just too goofy, mostly hot, dry and then freaky cold that didn’t last too long?”
* “You reckon it has something to do with all this corn being fed replacing all the nutrients they really need?”
* “Is it because the acorn crop has been so good, the bucks really haven’t had to move much?”
* “Got to have something to do with Obama, ain’t it?”
(OK, I threw the last one in as a satirical look at the ridiculous mindset of many Mississippians.)
Of those questions, and sidestepping notions that either overkill from previous seasons or corn could have anything to do with it, only two are worth considering, the weather and acorn factors.
Sure the weather has seemed, for most of the last 1½ months, uncooperative and unproductive for deer hunting. It has been dry. Some say it has been hot, too, but as Octobers and Novembers go, we’ve seen few falls this cool (and downright cold).
And, yes, the acorn crop has sure been good in many areas. However, it can be said that it could be as much an aid as a deterrent. Finding a hot dropping white oak, or a productive persimmon tree for that matter, would put you in a good spot.
Discounting those, I believe I have another reason, and as illogical as it might sound, hear me out.
Football.
Gridiron fever
More than anything else, I do believe the successes of the Mississippi State and Ole Miss football teams have impacted deer season. For most of the season, Mississippi ruled the football world.
Admit it: If you had awoke from a coma in the middle of this season and saw the headlines — MSU No. 1; Ole Miss No. 2 — you would have sworn you had died and gone to Magnolia State football heaven.
Either that, or you’d have thought that the liquid in your IV drip was an LSD-laced tequila concoction.
Until finally suffering its first loss at Alabama last Saturday, Mississippi State was unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in every poll including the new playoff ratings.
Ole Miss reached No. 2 before suffering late-in-the-fourth-quarter failures at LSU and at home against Auburn in consecutive games.
Fans without tickets didn’t stray far from TV sets, and, as we all know, tree stands in most of Mississippi don’t have a lot of 3G or 4G service.
“I don’t believe there’s an industry in this state that hasn’t been impacted one way or another by this phenomena,” said Jim Russell of Jackson, who works in the restaurant supply industry. “Some of the chefs I’ve talked to said they had seen their Saturday traffic fall. Unless they cater in some way to football fans, either by selling game-party food or having huge big screens, they’ve had a drop.”
Other events, including food and music festivals, have struggled to pull football fans away from the TVs.
Not going to change soon
Gun season begins for all hunters Saturday, and while it opens opportunity to thousands more Mississippi sportsmen and women, it will still be football season.
Mississippi State is the best one-loss team in the country. And even with its two losses, Ole Miss is still in the Top 10 and has a chance at the SEC West title.
This weekend, both are on TV again in SEC play — Ole Miss plays Arkansas at 2:30 and State plays Vanderbilt at 6:30.
And, the weekend after? Well, that’s the Egg Bowl with State at Ole Miss at 2:30 with a lot more at stake than usual in the rivalry game.
It won’t help this weekend that the weather, which has been absolutely perfect for deer hunting early this week, will be abysmal Saturday and Sunday. Instead of near-record freezes, the forecast is calling for much warmer weather with a high of 65 with heavy rain on Saturday. Yuck.
Sunday will even be warmer, with a high of 75 predicted for a sunny day. The silver lining there isn’t as much as it won’t be raining as it is that because of a shockingly bad Saints team …
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