Hunting and trapping regulations approved

The Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil recently approved hunt­ing and trap­ping reg­u­la­tions for the 2012–13 hunt­ing sea­son accord­ing to the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife.

Seven west-central Ohio coun­ties will move from deer Zone A to Zone B; those coun­ties are Auglaize, Darke, Mer­cer, Miami, Mont­gomery, Pre­ble and Shelby. Madi­son County, cur­rently in Zone B, will move to Zone A.

Antler­less deer per­mits will no longer be valid the first week of deer-gun sea­son in Zone C. The antler­less per­mits will be valid until Nov. 25 in deer Zones A, B and C. This is a return to reg­u­la­tions adopted in 2007. Deer hunters will have until noon the fol­low­ing day to com­plete the auto­mated game check process. The only excep­tion will be on the last day of any sea­son when auto­mated game check must be com­pleted by 11:30 p.m.

A hunter may take only one buck in Ohio, regard­less of zone, hunt­ing method or sea­son. Either a $15 antler­less deer per­mit or $24 either-sex deer per­mit and a valid hunt­ing license are required to hunt deer in Ohio.

Sea­sons and dates for 2012–13 for the deer sea­sons are: Archery sea­son – Sept. 29 through Feb. 3, 2013; Spe­cial area muz­zle­loader hunts – Oct. 15–20; Youth deer-gun sea­son – Nov. 17–18; Statewide deer-gun sea­son – Nov. 26 through Dec. 2 and Dec. 15–16; Statewide muz­zle­loader sea­son – Jan. 5–8, 2013.

Deer bag lim­its are zone spe­cific by per­mit type. A hunter may take one deer from Zone A, two deer from Zone B and three deer from Zone C dur­ing the entire 2012–2013 sea­son using the either-sex deer permit.

Only one antlered deer may be taken regard­less of zone. Addi­tion­ally, a hunter may take one antler­less deer from Zone A, two antler­less deer from Zone B and three antler­less deer from Zone C dur­ing the archery sea­son from Sept. 29 to Nov. 25 using the antler­less deer permit.

Those hunt­ing in urban units and at Divi­sion of Wildlife-authorized con­trolled hunts may use the antler­less deer per­mits dur­ing all deer hunt­ing sea­sons. Urban units and con­trolled hunts will again have a six-deer bag limit, and those deer will not count against the hunter’s zone bag limit.

The statewide deer hunt­ing zones are: Zone A — The zone includes six coun­ties: Erie, Fayette, Madi­son, Ottawa, San­dusky and Wood;

Zone B — The zone includes 44 coun­ties: Allen, Ash­land, Ashtab­ula, Auglaize, But­ler, Cham­paign, Clark, Clin­ton, Craw­ford, Cuya­hoga, Darke, Defi­ance, Ful­ton, Geauga, Greene, Han­cock, Hardin, Henry, Huron, Lake, Logan, Lorain, Lucas, Mahon­ing, Mar­ion, Med­ina, Mer­cer, Miami, Mont­gomery, Pauld­ing, Portage, Pre­ble, Put­nam, Seneca, Shelby, Stark, Sum­mit, Trum­bull, Union, Van Wert, War­ren, Wayne, Williams and Wyandot;

Zone C — The zone includes 38 coun­ties: Adams, Athens, Bel­mont, Brown, Car­roll, Cler­mont, Columbiana, Coshoc­ton, Delaware, Fair­field, Franklin, Gal­lia, Guernsey, Hamil­ton, Har­ri­son, High­land, Hock­ing, Holmes, Jack­son, Jef­fer­son, Knox, Lawrence, Lick­ing, Meigs, Mon­roe, Mor­gan, Mor­row, Musk­ingum, Noble, Perry, Pick­away, Pike, Rich­land, Ross, Scioto, Tus­carawas, Vin­ton and Washington.

Hunt­ing sea­sons for rab­bit, pheas­ant, quail, squir­rel, crow and wild turkey were approved as pro­posed. In addi­tion, trap­ping sea­sons for beaver, mink, muskrat, and river otter, along with the hunt­ing and trap­ping sea­sons for fox, rac­coon, skunk, and weasel, were also approved.

The 2012–13 Hunt­ing and/or Trap­ping Sea­sons and Dates are: Squir­rel – Sept. 1 through Jan. 31, 2013; Ruffed grouse – Oct. 13 through Jan. 31, 2013; Fall Wild Turkey – Oct. 13 through Nov. 25, in spec­i­fied coun­ties; Youth Upland Sea­son – Oct. 20–21 and Oct. 27–28; Cot­ton­tail rab­bit – Nov. 2 through Feb. 28, 2013;

Ring-necked Pheas­ant – Nov. 2 through Jan. 6, 2013; Bob­white Quail – Nov. 2–25, in spec­i­fied coun­ties; Fox, rac­coon, skunk, opos­sum, and weasel – Nov. 10 through Jan. 31, 2013; Mink and muskrat – Nov. 10 through Feb. 28, 2013; Mink, muskrat, rac­coon, skunk, opos­sum and weasel (Lake Erie Marsh area) – Nov. 10 through March 15, 2013;

Beaver – Dec. 26 through Feb. 28, 2013; River Otter – Dec. 26 through Feb. 28, 2013; Youth Spring Wild Turkey Sea­son – April 20–21, 2013; Spring Wild Turkey – April 22 through May 19, 2013; Crow (Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day only) – June 1 through March 10, 2013, and June 7, 2013, through March 9, 2014; Coy­ote and wood­chuck – No closed season.

Rules and sea­son dates for migra­tory birds includ­ing mourn­ing dove, Canada goose, rail, moorhen, snipe, wood­cock and water­fowl hunt­ing will be set in August, in com­pli­ance with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s 2012–13 framework.All hunt­ing and trap­ping sea­son dates and rules can be found at www.wildohio.com.

• The ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife has made it eas­ier to be in com­pli­ance with pur­chas­ing a fish­ing license. 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 by using a credit card: Call­ing 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.

Call­ing 855–764-3474 any time for an Inter­ac­tive Voice Response 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 and 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 online 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. All license pur­chases include a $1 writ­ing fee.

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.

Cus­tomers should be aware that Social Secu­rity Num­bers will be required of all indi­vid­u­als, youth and adults, 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 and hair and eye color.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Apr 10 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.