By Ed Harp

Of course, it's always a thrill to hunt on opening day. After all, it's been nearly a year since the opportunity to harvest a few rabbits has presented itself. Don't forget, however, that late season can be just as good. All you need to do is adjust your thinking a little bit.

Come January, life is not easy for an eastern cottontail. They have spent the fall, and most of the winter, just trying to survive. They have been hunted by everything ranging from house cats to bobcats on the ground, and by hawks, owls and other feathered predators from the air.

Cover has gotten a little scarce, making survival even harder. Despite rabbits' quickness and extraordinary ability to sense danger, thinner cover gives a split-second advantage to the predators. That's all they need.

On top of all that, the food supply has dwindled. The lush vegetation of spring, summer and fall is now gone. Most of the clover, tender young plants, berries and vegetables have been eaten. What is left over is getting brown, tough, tasteless and hard to find.

Still, rabbit populations as a whole are designed to thrive under these conditions. Spring is just around the corner. Like most species, rabbits will soon turn their thoughts toward reproduction. Mating begins, in most areas of the country, in early February. It will continue through October. Gestation takes from 28 to 32 days with an average litter size of four or five babies. Some rabbits breed again within hours of giving birth.

With these things in mind, three top rabbit hunters and beagle breeders were consulted to see how they approach late-season rabbit hunting.

Robert Oliver, president of the United Beagle Gundog Federation (www.ubgf.org), Tony Chastain and Phil Kirby (pkmillcrbeagles@ aol.com) know as much about rabbit habits and habitat as anybody alive. All three spend their time breeding, training and running beagles. They do this day in and day out, no matter the weather or the season.

They also hunt rabbits, mostly later in the season after the deer hunters have vacated the woods. Combined, they have more than 100 years of experience with cottontails.

Oliver, Chastain and Kirby offer the following 10 tips for taking late-season rabbits. The first four deal with forage. The next four deal with habitat. The last two suggest techniques.

To take full advantage of their knowledge, combine at least one tip from the forage group with at least one tip from the habitat group, matching the conditions on the land you hunt with the most appropriate tips. This should put you on a few bunnies. After that, you'll be in a position to try one of their techniques.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

To find clover during the winter, it is necessary to know something about it. For those hunters who do not know what it looks like, check the Internet.

Clover is a legume. That means it deposits nitrogen in the soil as it grows. This makes for leafy, green vegetative growth around it. High nitrogen content in the soil also helps the vegetation stay green a little longer during the winter.

Clover can usually be found in loose, sandy or well-drained soils. It grows best in areas with a lot of sunshine. Look for it in old pastures or in areas adjacent to them. (Many of our public hunting lands were once farmed.)

Of course, it is sometimes planted in food plots by deer or turkey hunters, and if the plot backs up to cover, big game won't be the only animals interested in the food.

In places, clover will grow wild. Wild patches are usually small and scattered, so finding them will take some time. It's time well spent, however.

As it turns cold some of those shoots - the ones down deep in the tangle near the ground - will remain green all winter. They offer a readily available food source.

Their tangles also provide some of the best cover available for rabbits. Hunters and other predators may find thick patches of berries nearly impossible to get through. Not so with rabbits. They easily make paths through them. Some live their entire lives in and around these patches.

Berries also provide protection from above. It's difficult, indeed nearly impossible, to see a rabbit from above such a mess.

Look for blackberries and raspberries growing wild along old fencerows, on hillsides, near old campsites, around old dump grounds and in old, long neglected fields.

Hunt such areas carefully. The rabbits won't be far away.

As winter wears on, clover and berry patches are harder and harder to find. This forces rabbits to look for something different to eat. The alternative is starvation.

Rabbits are especially fond of young deciduous trees. Many varieties of these trees grow rapidly, up to a couple of feet per year, so small yearling saplings are often available. They may stop growing in the winter, but they don't die. Under that dry, dead-looking bark is a little green.

Look for evidence of cottontail activity by inspecting the trunk of the sapling. If rabbits are in the area, you'll know soon enough. The bark of the sapling will be chewed off, in a circle, around the tree. What's left will look like the cob from an ear of sweet corn after Sunday dinner.

When forage is scarce it is not unusual to find scores of these saplings eaten down to the woody meat of the trunk. Not a single one will be spared.

Although we mentioned clover in food plots early, that's not the only plant that will interest a rabbit.

The obvious first choice is a deer food plot. In some public areas, they are planted by the state DNR. In others, they are planted privately in cooperation with the state agency. In still other areas, you can find food plots on private land alongside the public land you are hunting.

Some states lease public land to local farmers. They are allowed to grow crops so long as a portion of those crops is left standing in the field for game forage. Rabbits will feed around these places long after the deer have stopped. The crumbs and small pieces of debris that deer have no interest in will sustain a cottontail for a long time.

Savvy rabbit hunters work around these areas with care. It may not look like much to a human, but it is survival to a rabbit.

Much of our public land was once owned by private individuals. Before the days of large mechanized cropping equipment, it was common for farmers to chop their land into small fields. The fields were almost always fenced. Some farmers used fence posts, but many simply nailed the fence fabric to the nearest tree.

Long neglected, these fencerows are overgrown with trees, briars, brush and brambles. In most cases they are nearly a solid mass of undergrowth. This is a natural hiding place for cottontail rabbits.

Our experts suggest that hunters work along these old fencerows carefully and precisely. Stomp repeatedly on the wire. Shake everything you can. Walk both sides of the fencerow from both directions.

The rabbits will, at times, sit very tight along their lengths. If you are shooting on the jump, be aware that the rabbits will nearly always run parallel to the fence. Plan your shots accordingly.