Buck tangles with combine and survivesHigh water closes ramps at Carlyle LakeBy Rod Kloeckner, News-Democrat, BND.comThursday, Nov. 19, 2009It was bound to happen.
With so much standing corn still in the field, it was only a matter of time before a report came in of an encounter between a bedding whitetail and a combine.
One such instance happened last week in Washington County. In this case, the deer won.
Wayne Harre, of rural Nashville, said his father, Arnold, was shelling corn in the evening when he came upon a monster buck straddling three rows of corn.
"It had its hind legs in one row, skipped a row and had its front legs in another row," Wayne Harre said. "It was at least eight points. It was huge."
The buck didn't budge when Arnold Harre approached with his combine. Because it was dark, Harre didn't see the buck in time to stop. It became caught on the corn header.
Arnold Harre stayed in the safety of the cab until he figured out what to do to free the buck. He eventually reversed the corn header and dislodged the buck, which sprinted into a nearby timber.
"I can't believe it didn't break the legs," Wayne Harre said. "He said he reversed the corn head, it popped out of there and just took off. We went and looked for it that next morning and it was nowhere to be found."
Wayne Harre, who is the varsity girls basketball coach at Nashville High School, said he wished his father could have snapped a photo of the buck when it became tangled in the corn header.
"That's the dangest thing I've ever heard," he said. "There's so much power behind one of those corn heads, I can't believe it didn't break one of it's legs."
On the downslope of the rut
Paul Shelton, forest wildlife manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, thinks the rut in Illinois hit its peak last week. The rut is the time when deer breed, are the most active and let their inhibitions down, making them easier to hunt.
"We're still in it," Shelton said. "You have to visualize it as a big bell curve where it climbs up, hits a peak then starts tailing off. It's not something that starts and ends overnight. I would say the peak of it happened one day last week.
"We're still well into it, but we have a lot of breeding going on right now and things are going to start to tail down from here."
Shelton said the overall harvest sex ratios are right where they need to be. Last week, harvest sex ratios for the week were 32.6 percent does to 64.5 percent bucks. Overall sex ratios for the season to date are 50.6 percent does to 49.4 percent bucks.
"Our harvest balance has been pretty good," Shelton said. "When all was said and done last year, we might have ended up with slightly more does than bucks, and we're right on track to be there already, which is good for us.
"Typically, once we get past the firearm season, the harvest tends to become more skewed towards does as well. We're right on track to have that good balance and that's where we want to be."
Some ramps at Carlyle Lake closedHeavy rains have raised water levels at Carlyle Lake, impacting several recreation areas.
At the present pool elevation of 451.52 feet -- which is about 6 feet over normal pool -- the boat ramps at Dam West, Coles Creek, Boulder, Dam East, Allen Branch, Peppenhorst, Patoka, Tamalco and Wood Duck are all closed.
The Horseshoe Island, Dam West, Dam East, Boulder, Coles Creek and Apache high-water boat ramps are all available for launching. The Maple Grove and Lakeview Handicapped Fishing Piers are also closed.
Contact reporter Rod Kloeckner at rkloeckner@bnd.com or 239-2663.http://www.bnd.com/sports/story/1015749.html
