The coming weekend will be the final holiday weekend of the year on Barren Reservoir and boat traffic will be heavy.

For many, this will be the final weekend of the year for lake outings.

State officials are hopeful that the relatively safe year on the water will continue on the Labor Day weekend.

Thus far into the year, five people have lost their lives on the Kentucky waters, making boating fatalities for 2008 the lowest at this point of the season in the last five years.

“These lower statistics are what we love to see,” said Sgt. John Anderson, boating education coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Through nearly the first eight months of 2008, Kentucky boaters have reported 41 accidents with 26 injuries. These accidents cost five lives.

By comparison, 71 accidents occurred on Kentucky waters in 2007 with 13 fatalities.

The Keep It a Safe Summer boating safety campaign combined with increased patrol efforts have contributed to these positive changes, Anderson said.

Anderson reminds boaters to avoid drinking alcohol while operating a boat. Take frequent breaks when driving a boat to avoid fatigue. Wear a personal flotation device or life jacket when the boat is under power. Be aware of other boaters and pay close attention at all times when on the water if operating a boat.

The fishing report is sketchy this week, mostly a repeat of what was happening last weekend. Scattered reports of both bass and crappie catches have come in and hybrid action has slowed. Jugging for catfish has still been productive.

This week from Kentucky Afield reporter Hayley Lynch, we learn that Kentucky’s statewide archery deer season begins Sept. 6. Despite the heat and mosquitoes, early season is prime time for buck hunters.

“The first 5-10 days of the season are the best time if you’re going to harvest a mature buck in velvet,” said Bill Mitchell, the KDFWR management foreman at Taylorsville Lake Wildlife Management Area. “Bachelor groups of bucks are frequenting clover and alfalfa fields. They’re getting that last shot of protein into their antlers.”

Bucks are still in their summer patterns this time of year. It’s not uncommon to see them coming into food plots and pastures just before dark, or even earlier if the weather is mild.

“They’re probably the most vulnerable they’re going to be, in September and early October,” said David Yancy, a wildlife biologist in Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s big game program. “They haven’t gone secretive yet. They are much more visible, reliable and predictable. When they start to peel the velvet off their antlers and female deer come into heat in mid- to late-October, the predictability starts to fall off.”

Yancy recommends that hunters set up along paths that lead to fields or food plots, rather than on the edge of the opening itself. “It would probably be better to set up on a trail back into the woods,” he said. “Try to pattern them, and find trails going in and out of pastures. Work back from those trails and find a place where two trails come together and merge into one, then set up there.”

Mitchell said setting up on trails that lead to fields allows hunters to catch deer before dark. “They’ll wait till that last bit just before dark and they’ll start stirring,” he said. “If the deer are waiting for dark, you can intercept them before they get to the field.”