30 sports outdoors wWth Lou Rodia

Herald & Lantern 9 November '83

Hunters Take Over Role

Of Natural Predators

Saturday will mark the start of another small game hunting season and it will be one of the very- feu-1 have missed in a lifetime of outdoor living Priorities being what they are. my day will be divided between a family wedding and the 40th reunion of my high school class. I will enjoy both occasions, as they are happy ones, but 1 trust my

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relatives and my classmates will understand if they are not getting 100 per cent of my attention at times during the day. Much has been written about why we hunt, and some will never clearly understand 'he hunting psychology. Most hunters are looked on by the violently anti-hunters as

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cruel, barbaric persons who lust for the kill. A generation of people who have grown up with the Bambi influence are confused about what the real out of doors is like. Many are rabid and will not listen. Others know, but their anti-hunting sentiments are so strong that they refuse to accept some harsh realities. With the exception of isolated instances in nature (and man is one of the feuanimals which ostensibly mate for life) the family relationship in the wild is virtually non-existant. Momma, poppa and baby anything are in the preschool primers and in the Walt Disney movies. DEER. FOR EXAMPLE. breed and have young. Remove a nursing deer from the mother and replace it with another and nothing is noted or changed in the relationship. And, once the young deer gets to where it can eat on its own, then the cruelty erf nature really surfaces. Deer browse from the ground up. Overpopulation of deer in an area creates havoc on the available food supply. As the foliage is stripped it is the young deer which suffer first. Little deer cannot reach the foliage, and starve while the momma (bigger) deer continue to eat. There is no maternal instinct here. If danger comes, the deer all run If it is a pack of dogs chasing them, the bigger (faster) ones flee and the little ones get left behind Most non-hunters fail to reckon with some cold, harsh facts. There are more deer in New Jersey today than there. were when the Indians roamed here, for one. Second, because we have irrevocably altered the landscape we have driven away the predators which at one time kept the deep herd in check and compatible with the available food supply Wolves, bears and. bobcats have left this state and no longer take a toll on the deer Left alone the deer herd adapts readily to the new kinds of forest which has replaced the big timber which was here 300 years ago and the numbers grow Man must of necessitybecome the predator and the controlled deer hunting which is in existance keeps New- Jersey’s deer herd in balance in most areas. The balance which is ideal is one which matches the herd to the available food supply Ridley Creek Park in Delaware County outside Philadelphia is a case in point In a park which is bordered by an arboretum an estimated 900 deer have crowded into an area more suited to a herd of 120 to ISO deer The results: defoliation of some areas, and damage to the arboretum and to the shrubbery, crops and gardens in homes surrounding the park More important, however, is the threat to the wellbeing of the residents who have noted an upswing in the number of accidents on local roads involving deer People have been injured and cars have been damag ed with alarming frequency

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THE ANSWER: it lies somewhere between doing nothing and doing something. The hunt is not the complete answer because the 600 hunters who will be allowed to participate in a controlled hunt will not take 400 deer out of the park. To do nothing will eventually cause the deer to literally eat themselves out of house and home and they will starve. However, there are those who would rather the deer starve than to regulate the deep population by hunting. Ttwould be a safe bet to say that most of the people who would prefer the deer to starve (they call it dying a natural death) have never seen one that did, nor have they seen the effect of disease on a herd which has overpolulated an area. » Hunting is an emotional issue — one which gets sharp reaction. I make no apologies for having been a hunter all my life, and make none for having taught my sons to do so. They nor me will reach dramatic ^eights as we pass through life, but we. they and me, are better for the experiences we have shared on the water and in the woods. Fishing remains a viable source of outdoor excitement even if it is getting on to the time of year when all but that die-hard few will

have packed it in. We were surprised to find that there was quality fluke fishing to be had as recently as the past weekend. Ihe hot spot we encountered was off the Great Egg Inlet Bell between Ocean City and Longport THERE, fishermen who were equipped with very light tackle which provided the sensitivity needed to feel the light bites of summer fluke with a slowed metabolism because the water temperature had dropped a few degrees, did well. The secret to good catches on flul^from one to four pounds a light rod, six to 10 lb. test line, very light sinkers and a hook dressed sparsely with buck tail and fished at the end of a three-foot leader. Best bait foi the fluke was cut bluefish. Squid, vmllet, mackerel and fluke belly also produced, but not as well as the blue bait. Mixed in with the fluke were scattered weakfish •-and scattered bluefish. Both added angling thrills on the light gear. ^ Big weaks are being reported off Brielle and Belmar to the north of us and they should be moving down the coast. Weaks are still scattered from the surf to about 55 feet of water and mixed with blues. A few stripers are also being caught but not enough even to talk about. The striper

numbers are so far down that it is almost a wasted effort to go out to fish for them. SEA BASS, porgies, blackfish, occasional fluke and blues are the main course for party boat fishermen.. The mrinbers are such that the wreck trips are good for freezerfilling. Big Jim angleri out of Cape May are averaging 30 to 60 seas bass per trip. At Wildwood Crest, the Starlight fares are doing about the same with Jack Cadiro of Philadelphia a recent high hooker with 120 bass. At Sea Isle City, Capt. Neill Robbins also reported cooler and bag-filling action. Surf fishermen are finding blues and a few scattered weakfish and inland waterway anglers are locating some blues and weakfish. Blues range from snappers all the way to slammers in size with the topper this week a 20-pounder boated by George McGowan of Trenton. He caught his big blue and 25 others while on a trip to McCrie’s Shoal. He was using a hopkins lure. William Hooper of Ocean City caught a ISY^lb. weakfish at North Point off Ocean City on a Stan Gibbs lure and spinning tackle. Clay Sutton of Court House caught a 9 lb. 2 oz. striped bass in the Stone Harbor surf.

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