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Blue Tongue

I keep in touch with a lot of people in many different areas of the state. A couple things I can say for absolute certainty:

1.) EHD hit HARD. Reported numbers are just a itty bitty tip of the iceberg. I had friends finding them by the dozens this past weekend (33 in a 1 mile stretch in one instance). Why EHD isn't making bigger news is beyond me. We have to have lost thousands if not tens of thousands across the state.

2.) Our population is the lowest I've ever seen it, ever. I wasn't around during the 'beginning' stages of Iowa deer hunting, but in the past 15-20 years, there is no question we are at less deer, even if the 'numbers' tell us otherwise. EHD isn't to blame here.... we are... or if you want to get specific, the legislature that basically ignores sportsmen.
 
Ehd hit many areas very hard, but I doubt that is the issue in ne Iowa, especially if there aren't dead deer laying everywhere. Too many does being harvested year after year thruout the state is the main contributor...and throw in ehd in the southern 1/2...recipe for a very very low population! Dnr is sure doing their job at bringing the numbers down to nothing. Did the same thing in MN too...ten years ago deer all over...now, most Hunters just happy to even get a shot at one!
 
EHD hit fairly hard

I found 6 dead deer near creeks on my farm in Warren County. One nice buck and the rest were does. Numbers were down. I still saw more deer on my Iowa farm than on my farms in MN (big surprise right?)
 
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I know the DNR and Legislature have been fighting one another to get the tags lower. But guys....you pull the trigger, you can control how many deer you take. If your area has a lower population than it should, why are you running 13 man groups and pushing everything in sight? With our attitudes of needing to fill tags, there's no way we'll ever lower our harvest numbers and let the deer numbers rebound.

We've been lucky not to have bad winters (even tho IA winters are hardly ever bad enough to induce winter kill on deer), but we did get effected with EHD in Southern IA.

Bottom line...........STOP SHOOTING SO MANY DEER. We can all play our part in this and limit our harvest in areas that need to cut back.
 
SW Iowa, I didn't see any in Montgomery County. A guy in our party said he saw two, but since I pushed EVERY SINGLE hunt we did, I'm surprised I didn't see any. :)
Numbers were definitely down tho, not sure if that is from taking too many does over the years, or possibly blue tongue.
On a similar topic, one guy in our party swore that EHD was different than blue tongue, can anyone clear this up for me?
Thanks!
 
Altiman94 said:
I know the DNR and Legislature have been fighting one another to get the tags lower. But guys....you pull the trigger, you can control how many deer you take. If your area has a lower population than it should, why are you running 13 man groups and pushing everything in sight? With our attitudes of needing to fill tags, there's no way we'll ever lower our harvest numbers and let the deer numbers rebound.

We've been lucky not to have bad winters (even tho IA winters are hardly ever bad enough to induce winter kill on deer), but we did get effected with EHD in Southern IA.

Bottom line...........STOP SHOOTING SO MANY DEER. We can all play our part in this and limit our harvest in areas that need to cut back.
Click to expand...

There are many that would argue that EHD has hit and has spread more in areas of high deer densities. Therefore the tag argument is, questionable? Maybe not enough does were harvested?

Really hard to say?
 
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