Well, let's get off the economy and politics for a thread.

This weekend marks the start of the Michigan Firearm deer season, and I can't wait!!!  After working 6-7 days for the last 3 months I'm looking forward to next week off.  It is so relaxing to just sit in the cedar swamps for hours.  Last year I scored a real nice 6 and a small 8.
I think many of the south western states already have had their season, or it's still going now.  So, how are you guys doing?  Any big ones yet?

I expect this season to be much different than years past here in our state.  Late this summer a deer on the west side of the state tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.  This deer was not part of the wild herd, rather it was a private herd deer.  This prompted the state DNR to completely ban deer baiting and feeding for the entire 2008 season.  They (DNR) believe that this is passed on from body fluids such as saliva and touching noses while eating on a small bait pile.  Now a lot of the guys that bow hunt have said they have seen a big reduction in the amount of deer being taken.  The state farmers are up in arms over this since carrots, shell corn, sugar beats, and apples used for deer bait are estimated to be a million dollar plus crop.

I have never hunted over bait even back when I did bow hunt.  I always found the real quality bucks steer clear of that stuff, it's kind of like saying "here I am".  Big bucks don't get big by making mistakes like eating that pile of apples in the middle of an oak stand.  Sure it's nice to see a lot of deer every day when hunting over bait, but they are usually does and little guys.  I have been much more successful by putting the time into scouting and learning the deer movement patterns versus just throwing down a bag of corn and sitting over it for a week. 

Hopefully I'll post a picture in a week showing how good (or bad) our season really is.