Photo by Mark Werner

The 2004-05 Kentucky deer season produced a record statewide harvest when hunters saw a marked jump from the previous season to the tune of 8,200 more whitetails added to the total season bag.

What does that say about the "state" of deer hunting in the Commonwealth, and about the expectations for this year's season? One answer is that on the whole, deer numbers continue to grow in Kentucky, as does opportunity for Bluegrass State hunters to be successful just about anywhere they go.

Kentucky has been on a steady trend of increasing harvest for years. After the 1999 season, when just over 95,000 deer were taken statewide, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) deer managers opened up the throttle regulatory-wise, and since the 2001 season, harvest has been on the upswing. The 2000 season saw the harvest break over the 100,000 mark, and it has not been below 103,000 since. Biologists say, however, the need to continue taking more does is still there in 2005 and beyond.

"It's great to be able to say we had a record season last year, but more importantly, it's good because hunters so far have responded to our call the last couple of seasons to take additional does from the population and help slow the growth of the herd overall," said Jonathan Day, the KDFWR's big-game program coordinator.

"You can see with the growth rate of our herd how crucial it is to the health and management of the deer population to have generous antlerless deer kills at the point of development," Day noted.

"We want to manage the growth and shape it where growth is needed and can be supported by the habitat, and be very mindful of keeping higher density areas well-checked to avoid excessive conflict with landowners, motorists and other concerns," Day said.

(Editor's Note: Johnathan Day has now resigned the KDFWR to pursue a teaching career in his home state of Georgia.)

Out of the 124,752 deer checked last season, 51.6 percent were female, which is vitally important to balancing the herd and maintaining the quality of animals within the herd. There were 49 counties last season that posted more than 1,000 deer individual harvests, compared to 48 the season before. Kentucky has no shortage of whitetails, and more hunters are being successful than in past years.

Let's take a region-by-region look at what happened last season in Kentucky, and glean some insight about where the best deer hunting will be this year. A post-season review is often a great indicator of where things will be hot the next year.

BLUEGRASS REGION
If we are going to talk about the best of the best, then we better talk about the Bluegrass Region first for deer harvest.

While things already looked very good for deer production in these counties, the 2004 season rolled in and topped the previous year in the Bluegrass Region by more than 3,000 more whitetails.

The gently rolling hills and knobs of this region cranked out more than 41,000 deer during the 2004-05 season. That was in spite of having some of the worst deer habitat and least accessible properties, many of which are clean-as-a-whistle, highly guarded horse farms. A host of the top harvest counties per square mile, as well as the elite 1,000 or more deer-kill counties, are found in the Bluegrass Region.

With the exceptions of Bracken, Crittenden and Livingston counties, every other county left in the 20 highest deer density counties are in the Bluegrass Region. This was also true in 2003-04, which indicates very stable herds and lots of deer in the midsection of the state.