Even though deer hunting with bait remains illegal across the entire Lower Peninsula, most of the counties in the southern third of our state (Region 3) will be the best places for deer hunters to fill tags this fall, based on 2008 hunting success estimates by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Last year was the first time that deer baiting was illegal peninsula-wide because of a captive whitetail in Kent County that was diagnosed with chronic wasting disease (CWD). Baiting was banned because of concerns the disease might have also infected free-ranging deer and, if that were the case, it is suspected that baiting would speed up the spread of the disease.

The good news is that testing of thousands of wild deer bagged by hunters in both regions of the Lower Peninsula last fall failed to turn up any cases of CWD.

Before the 2008 deer seasons, some hunters claimed they wouldn’t be able to see many deer, much less shoot one, without bait, and others claimed that they simply were going to quit deer hunting. Reduced hunting success was predicted, both because of elimination of a popular hunting method and lower hunter numbers. Preliminary MDNR figures from last fall indicate that was not the case.

The number of deer bagged by hunters last year actually increased from 2007 in the northern LP (Region 2) and remained almost the same in Region 3. Success rates for deer of either sex ranged from “fairly constant” to “slightly increasing” for all seasons during 2008 over the year before in all L.P. districts. And the total number of deer hunters actually increased last fall in spite of a decline in the number of bowhunters by about 15,000. The number of hunters who participated in firearms seasons increased by more than that, according to MDNR figures.

Deer numbers are simply so high in most of Region 3 that baiting is not necessary for hunters to connect on whitetails. Forty-nine percent of the deer hunters who hunted in Region 3 during 2008 bagged at least one animal, according to MDNR statistics. That compares with success rates of 38.7 percent for the Upper Peninsula (Region 1) and 37.7 percent for Region 2.

The highest deer hunting success rate in Region 3 last fall for all seasons — 50.2 percent — was experienced in the South-Central District. The Southwestern and Saginaw Bay districts weren’t far behind, with success rates of 47.5 and 45.9 percent, respectively.

The district with the lowest success rate in Region 3 — 38 percent — is the Southeastern District because it includes the metropolitan Detroit area. Because of development in this district, deer hunting in some townships is limited to bow and arrow. Areas with archery-only restrictions are listed in MDNR hunting regulation booklets and on the MDNR Web site.

A significant increase in the number of antlerless permits available for Region 3 because of the emergence of CWD and an effort to reduce deer numbers played a key role in the resulting elevated deer harvest and hunting success. Hunters bagged 282,456 bucks and does in Region 3 during 2008, compared with 282,362 in 2007, an insignificant increase of almost 100 animals. The kill of antlerless animals went up by 8.9 percent (to 153,522 from 140,922), and the harvest of antlered bucks declined by 8.7 percent (129,056 versus 141,393).