A
s I write this leader it is the height of the roe rut in my part of Yorkshire. The pandemic restrictions meant I couldn’t stalk in the precious months spring months of April and May - the time of year when I harvest two-thirds of the buck from the estate. This of course put a lot of pressure on me to catch up on numbers during the rut.
Thankfully the rut has started well, the bucks have responded well to the call and the keepers intelligence service better still. If you have a stalking lease it is imperative that the stalker gets on with the farm manager and the keepers. Fortunately, the three keepers and the farm manager on the estate I rent for stalking are all top blokes, and I am regularly updated as to buck movements and locations. This information is priceless; these guys are out on the ground working long hours every day and this helps me immensely when it comes to developing a calling strategy.
There is anything more exciting in field sports than calling up a roebuck, the pull of a salmon as he takes and turns on the fly is a close second but the roebuck galloping into the call like a prancing polo pony is really something to behold. It doesn’t always happen like that of course, depending on the stage of the rut (the buck may be spent), the weather and other myriad variables, a slower more cautious approach might be the response. So far this season the dozen or more bucks I have called, came quickly and could certainly be described as committed to clearing out the trespassing interloper treading his does.