Friday, January 17, 2014

One Last Hurrah

Iowa hunters have one last chance at filling a tag and the freezer with venison for the 2013 hunting season. The weather wont make it easy though as another storm takes aim at the state but then again, the weather has been pretty wild all season.

From thunderstorms with hail during the rut to near record cold temps and freezing rain in late season, the weather challenged hunters and their quarry.

The best deer hunting conditions boil down to two scenarios. The best in my opinion is associated with a falling barometer, cold temps, cloud cover and some form of precipitation. The other is a rising barometer, bitterly cold temps and light to moderate wind. Strong wind in any scenario tends to drive the deer to thicker cover.

Closing weekend for the January late doe season will feature strong wind on Saturday and near record Spring-like warmth on Sunday. Friday night and all of Saturday look to compile the best conditions in a hunter's favor. Sunday, temps warm substantially and the winds back down and game movement will slow way down.

I'll be ice fishing Sunday and with a slowly falling barometer the fishing action should be a lot better than the hunting. Some of the best ice fishing conditions occur when the light levels change surrounding sunrise and sunset. I've also found a dropping barometer to be good for fishing in the open water, but I haven't tested this theory much on the ice. Expect good fishing conditions Saturday morning and Sunday from sunrise to 10am and again the hour or so before sunset.

Good luck and stay safe!

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