White-tail deer season runs until December 7. (File Photo/CKOM News Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Hunting Season Opens

Hunters head back out as white-tailed deer season begins

Nov 16, 2021 | 12:00 PM

Lodges may soon be seeing more business, and hunters may soon be out bagging more game, despite the snowy weather of late. As of November 1 and running until December 7, a new hunting season has begun.

White-tailed deer season has officially opened in Saskatchewan and hunters are looking forward to getting back to their pastime. After a strange hunting season last fall and winter, they’re eager to get back to normal.

“I haven’t spoken with a lot of guys but I know the guys who traditionally hunt white tail are quite anxious and eager to be out in the field, for sure,” said Don Erhart, VP of the Prince Albert Wildlife Federation.

COVID-19 didn’t bring hunting to a halt the way it did other sports, but it still forced hunters to make changes. Last winter, the province brought in numerous rules around social distancing and mingling between households. This brought a slight change in the season.

“It made it certainly a lot more difficult,” Erhart said. “Particularly around travel and those kinds of things where you had to limit yourself to your family in your vehicle and those kinds of things. It definitely complicated sort of the things that normally go on during hunting season.”

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“Hunting season is normally a time for camaraderie,” he added. “Guys get together and go out together hunting. When you sort of have to do that individually or are restricted to your family in a single vehicle, it made things a little more awkward for sure.”

With the new season, however, hunters are eagerly getting back into the field and setting their bait and blinds. There are some hunting grounds close to Prince Albert, while others are further afield. In both cases, people travelling north to hunt (something missing from hunting season last year) can provide a major boost to local economies, particularly in the smaller towns further north.

“Obviously that brings some revenue to those communities,” Erhart said. “Any of them that have hotels, eating establishments, gas stations, that kind of thing, there will probably be an uptick in revenue as a result of people being out and about travelling, buying fuel, eating, and staying in hotels.”

Erhart also said in many cases this time of year there are more deer close to the roads around Prince Albert as well, so people need to be more careful of them and keep an eye on the ditches in case deer are gathering there.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP