Tags for florida

[SwampFox]

I've been reading some old posts about how backward Florida's deer managment is and I totaly agree.  We need more days to shoot does and bucks should, at the very least, have to have a fork to be legal.  I like the three points on one side idea.  I was just wondering how everyone felt about the very liberal bag limits.  Would you be willing to purchase buck and doe tags like in other states?  I for one wouldnt mind it at all.  I dont usually kill more than two or three in a good season anyway.  It would be nice to be able to buy a few doe tags and use them at any time of the season we want, ex. muzzleloader or general gun.

[FlDeerman]

I voted yes on a FWC survey.Two bucks and ten doe tags will make the season a blast.

[SwampFox]

Sounds great to me!

[Sailfish]

I have done some research on FL deer herd management and it's not quite as "straight forward" as in other states. We have nutritional differences, amazing diversity in ruts, large intrusion by development etc.
It makes it quite difficult to say the least.
Having a larger doe harvest in some areas may be a great idea but in others it is not. The state would literally have to micromanage each individual environment almost like they were seperate mini-states. A deer management strategy that would work in the mid-central may not be valid in west central, etc.
With all that being said, I do believe they are working on a major plan (I think I posted the link somewhere's) that they hope to implement that would benefit the health of the herd and hunters (we hope right?).

Now with that being said, I LOVE the idea of setting "point" limits on bucks. I know I have seen them on WMA's I have hunted in FL, but maybe it would be great to have them throughout the state.

Maybe a softer plan, perhaps go to the tag system, first buck (spike or fork allowed), second buck 3 or greater on one side, or something but try to get consistency throughout (but once again, growth rates, reproduction rates, nutrition vary so much in our state, it is a challenge).

We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that the over time they have a successful management plan and the herd will remain healthy and perhaps get a few more buck like we did this past year in FL (we had some nice ones taken)!!

[69Viking]

I hear you Sailfish but one major flaw in Florida's Deer Management is they only allow one lousy week for the doe harvest and then have little to know restrictions on bucks. This leaves you with a bunch of young bucks and does running around and makes hunting mature bucks extremely difficult since there is no need for them to look far for a doe with the abundance of them. Look at states that border us and the kind of deer in them. Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. You can't tell me the northern half of Florida couldn't have better bucks like you get in Alabama and Georgia when we border those states. The big difference in our management of the heard compared to Bama and Georgia is we don't allow the taking of many does so in Florida you either get lucky and find one of the few mature bucks running around or pray you get a doe during that 7 day period. If that doesn't happen then just find you a young buck with 5" antlers and you're good to go. With no point restrictions on our bucks and no limit as to how many you can shoot in a season there is little chance a buck has to reach mature status because young bucks get shot when hunters have minimal time to shoot does. Sure there are a few wise bucks out there that have hidden from hunters but nothing like what you can find in our neighboring states.

[FlDeerman]

From what I read they will do this by zones.Not all zones need to reduce the does as bad as N.Florida.

[69Viking]

LOL, found this old post doing a Google search for Doe Tag Regulations in Florida if you own your own land! Thought it was funny that after almost 2 years of us having this discussion nothing has changed has it!? At least I haven't heard of any changes. Still just one week to kill does and this year they separated the Sat. and Sun. so you couldn't hunt them an entire weekend, probably kept a lot of people from even trying.

[Sailfish]

Did you read about the proposed tag system?
Everyone gets assigned an ID (EVERYONE who hunts  a deer in FL) and would be required to report kills?

I think they will try to make it go through. Of course tons of people will be upset that the state is gonna "screw" them and use the findings against them to limit hunting, harvesting etc.

I think long term management of the herd would benefit, not sure though, I suspect, our days would be cut and number of deer cut as well.

[Gulfcapt]

Sailfish you HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD AND DROVE IT IN WITH ONE SWING with that statment, and it will not benefit us in the long run!! NMF all over again..