Water and Wings

By KEN PARROTT

Out­doors Writer

The sea­son for three of Ohio’s most pop­u­lar game species—ring-necked pheas­ant, cot­ton­tail rab­bit, and bob­white quail—begins Fri­day, Novem­ber 4. The ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife is report­ing a good statewide cot­ton­tail pop­u­la­tion but the quail and pheas­ant num­bers may be lower due to the heavy snows last win­ter and the heavy rains this spring.

Pri­vate lands enrolled in the Con­ser­va­tion Reserve Pro­gram (CRP) have been very impor­tant to sup­port­ing upland game pop­u­la­tions. Williams and Defi­ance coun­ties in north­west Ohio have strong pheas­ant pop­u­la­tions because of the habi­tat con­tri­bu­tions by local landowners.

Upland game pop­u­la­tions are respond­ing pos­i­tively to habi­tat pro­grams in other areas around the state, espe­cially in coun­ties with sig­nif­i­cant enroll­ment in Scioto Con­ser­va­tion Reserve Enhance­ment Pro­gram and Quail Buffer prac­tices in CRP known as CP33.

Cot­ton­tail rab­bit hunt­ing con­tin­ues through Feb­ru­ary 29, 2012. Ring-necked pheas­ant hunt­ing is open through Jan­u­ary 8, 2012. Both sea­sons are closed dur­ing the statewide 2011 deer-gun hunt­ing sea­son, Novem­ber 28 through Decem­ber 4, as well as the extra week­end of deer-gun hunt­ing Decem­ber 17–18.

Rab­bits, pheas­ants and quail may be hunted from sun­rise to sun­set. The daily bag limit for all three species remains unchanged from last year at four rab­bits, two pheas­ants (roosters/males only) and four quail.

Hunters are reminded that snow­shoe hares are not legal game in Ohio and may not be taken. Recently rein­tro­duced to north­east­ern Ohio after nearly a cen­tury of absence, snow­shoe hares are brown early in the sea­son, resem­bling cot­ton­tail rabbits.

To avoid con­fu­sion between cot­ton­tail rab­bits and snow­shoe hares, por­tions of Geauga and Ashtab­ula coun­ties will be closed to all rab­bit hunt­ing from Novem­ber 4 through Decem­ber 4. The coats of most hares will have turned white by early Decem­ber, allow­ing for proper distinction.

The ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife releases pheas­ants on selected pub­lic hunt­ing areas through­out the state prior to open­ing day of the pheas­ant sea­son, the sec­ond Sat­ur­day of the sea­son and Thanks­giv­ing Day. Hunters may call 1–800-WILDLIFE for loca­tions of spe­cific release sites.

Bob­white quail hunt­ing is lim­ited to 16 coun­ties in south­ern Ohio: Adams, Athens, Brown, But­ler, Cler­mont, Clin­ton, High­land, Jack­son, Meigs, Mont­gomery, Pike, Pre­ble, Ross, Scioto, Vin­ton, and War­ren. The sea­son con­tin­ues through Novem­ber 27.

•Hunters har­vested 362 wild turkeys dur­ing the first week of Ohio’s fall wild turkey hunt­ing sea­son, accord­ing to the Divi­sion of Wildlife.

The fall wild turkey sea­son opened on Octo­ber 8 and will run through Novem­ber 27. Hunt­ing hours are a half-hour before sun­rise to sunset.

The bag limit is one turkey of either sex per hunter for the fall sea­son. A fall turkey per­mit is required in addi­tion to a cur­rent Ohio hunt­ing license.

Last year, hunters killed 417 birds in the same time period. The top 10 coun­ties for wild turkeys killed to date are: Noble-18, Knox-17, Guernsey-15, Monroe-14, Coshoc­ton, Holmes, and Richland-13, Ashtab­ula and Highland-12, and Tuscarawas-11. Wild turkeys can be hunted in 48 coun­ties dur­ing the fall sea­son. More than 20,000 hunters pur­sued wild turkeys in Ohio last fall.

•Thanks to mod­ern tech­nol­ogy, anglers can now pur­chase one-day and three-day fish­ing licenses over the telephone.

Cus­tomers have two tele­phone options to pur­chase a “last-minute” fish­ing license using a credit card: Call­ing 1–866-703‑1928 between 5 a.m. and mid­night to reach a live oper­a­tor who will walk the cus­tomer through the trans­ac­tion; a $5.50 con­ve­nience fee is included with this option, or by call­ing 1–855-765‑3474 any time for an Inter­ac­tive Voice Response (IVR) system.

Callers should be sure and have their nine-digit cus­tomer iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber, which can be obtained at no cost from the Wild Ohio Cus­tomer Cen­ter at www.wildohio.com. The IVR option includes a $3.25 con­ve­nience fee.

In both cases, the cus­tomer is issued a 10-digit license num­ber then instructed to carry it along with a pic­ture ID as proof that the angler is prop­erly licensed. A printed copy of the license is not included. Con­ve­nience fees in either option can be avoided by pur­chas­ing licenses early at license agent out­lets or over the Inter­net at www.wildohio.com.

Cus­tomers should note $10 of the One-Day Fish­ing License can be exchanged for credit toward the pur­chase of an Annual Fish­ing License at any time within the license year.

Also new this year, anglers have the option of buy­ing in advance an $11 “Lake Erie Char­ter 1-Day Fish­ing License” allow­ing them to wait and val­i­date the license at the dock the day of the trip. Wait­ing to sign and date the license allows for its future use in case the orig­i­nal fish­ing trip is can­celled due to weather or other cir­cum­stances. This license is not avail­able for pur­chase over the tele­phone. All license pur­chases include a $1.00 writ­ing fee.

Cus­tomers should be aware that Social Secu­rity Num­bers (SSN) will be required of all indi­vid­u­als, youth and adult, who plan to buy licenses and permits.

United States Fed­eral Statute 42 requires the col­lec­tion of SSN of any indi­vid­ual to whom the state issues a recre­ational hunt­ing or fish­ing license. When buy­ing a license, cus­tomers are also required by law to give their full name, date of birth, gen­der, dec­la­ra­tion of res­i­dency, mail­ing address, height, weight, hair and eye color.

•The first two weeks of the duck sea­son has been less than stel­lar. Unfor­tu­nately, the local mal­lard and wood duck pop­u­la­tion is not as good as usual. For­tu­nately, there are plenty of geese around to make up for it. Don’t expect things to change too much until the sec­ond split arrives the weather starts to get the migra­tion moving.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Staff Reports on Oct 29 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.