Water and Wings

By KEN PARROTT

Out­doors Writer

Hunters took 19,251 deer dur­ing Ohio’s muz­zle­loader sea­son, Jan­u­ary 7–10, with Coshoc­ton County again lead­ing the state with 722 deer checked. In 2011, a pre­lim­i­nary total of 16,934 deer were taken dur­ing muz­zle­loader sea­son. I am sure the big jump had a lot to do with the great weather muz­zle­load­ers enjoyed for the short season.

The other top coun­ties report­ing the high­est num­ber of deer checked dur­ing the muz­zle­loader sea­son included: Coshocton-722, Licking-639, Muskingum-638, Guernsey-612, Tuscarawas-581, Belmont-577, Harrison-569, Knox-470, Meigs-466, and Jefferson-465.

Locally, all of the area coun­ties showed sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment over last year’s har­vest num­bers dur­ing the same sea­son. Deer hunters can enjoy deer hunt­ing through Feb­ru­ary 5 as the archery sea­son continues.

•The 2012–13 hunt­ing and trap­ping reg­u­la­tion pro­pos­als were pre­sented on Jan­u­ary 4 to the Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil by the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources, Divi­sion of Wildlife. Sep­tem­ber 1 is the pro­posed kick-off date for the state’s fall hunt­ing sea­son begin­ning with squir­rel and dove hunt­ing. Other pro­posed hunt­ing and trap­ping rules will be sim­i­lar to those now in effect, with only slight changes to fall and spring hunt­ing dates.

Hunters age 17 and under are pro­posed access to hunt statewide for rab­bit, pheas­ant and all other legal game in sea­son dur­ing two des­ig­nated week­ends, Octo­ber 20–21 and 27–28. Spring youth turkey sea­son is pro­posed for April 20–21, 2013.

The remain­der of the pro­pos­als con­cern­ing Ohio’s white-tailed deer hunt­ing will be heard dur­ing a sep­a­rate Wildlife Coun­cil meet­ing on Feb­ru­ary 8.

Open houses will be held on Sat­ur­day, March 3 in each of the state’s five wildlife dis­tricts to pro­vide the pub­lic an oppor­tu­nity to view and dis­cuss pro­posed hunt­ing and trap­ping reg­u­la­tions with state wildlife offi­cials. Direc­tions to the open houses can be found at www.wildohio.com or by call­ing 1–800-WILDLIFE. A statewide hear­ing on all of the pro­posed rules will be held at the Divi­sion of Wildlife’s Dis­trict One office on Thurs­day, March 8 at 9 a.m.. The office is located at 1500 Dublin Road in Colum­bus. After con­sid­er­ing pub­lic input, the Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil will vote on the pro­posed rules and sea­son dates dur­ing its April 4 meeting.

•Con­trolled trout-fishing oppor­tu­ni­ties on Cold Creek, one of Ohio’s most unique streams, awaits fish­ing enthu­si­asts who enter a spe­cial lot­tery con­ducted by the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife.

A half-mile sec­tion of the creek, located at the Castalia State Fish Hatch­ery in Erie County, will again be open to a lim­ited num­ber of anglers on selected dates between April 2 and Novem­ber 2 next year. Anglers inter­ested in fish­ing the stream must apply online and pay a non-refundable $3 appli­ca­tion fee by Jan­u­ary 31, 2012 in order to be eli­gi­ble for the ran­dom draw­ing. Appli­cants can apply on the Divi­sion of Wildlife web­site at wildohio.com.

Only one appli­ca­tion is allowed per per­son. Anglers age 16 and older must hold a valid fish­ing license in order to apply. Appli­ca­tion infor­ma­tion can be obtained from the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife web­site wildohio.com.

Two sea­sons will be offered. Adults and teens 16 and older will have a sea­son from April 2 through June15 and again from August 20 through Novem­ber 2. A sec­ond sea­son will be held for those 15 and younger from June 18 to August 17.

Indi­vid­u­als selected to par­tic­i­pate in either sea­son will be allowed to bring two adults (includes 16 and older) and three youths age 15 and younger (no more than six peo­ple total). Anglers 16 and older must hold a valid fish­ing license in order to par­tic­i­pate in this event. Par­tic­i­pa­tion is deter­mined by a computer-generated, ran­dom draw­ing, which is held in early Feb­ru­ary. The results of the draw­ing will be posted on the division’s web­site at　www.wildohio.com. Appli­cants not cho­sen will not be notified.

Spe­cial fish­ing rules will be in effect for this event to ensure that a qual­ity fish­ing expe­ri­ence is main­tained through­out the sea­son. This includes a no catch-and-release rule; anglers keep all fish they catch. The daily bag limit will be five trout per angler.

Anglers will be required to check in at the hatch­ery upon arrival and check out at the end of their ses­sion. Fish­ing ses­sions will be open from 7 a.m. to noon. Anglers age 16 and older will need a valid 2012 Ohio fish­ing license.

An Ohio res­i­dent annual fish­ing license costs $19; a one-day fish­ing license costs $11. Those who pur­chase a one-day fish­ing license may later return it to a license agent to receive credit toward pur­chase of an annual fish­ing license.

Cold Creek truly is a unique stream being gin clear. You can lit­er­ally see every fish in water if you know what you are look­ing for. The fish­ing on that stretch can be quite good since it is stocked. It is well worth the ninety minute drive to try your hand at these deli­cious table fares.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Ken Parrott on Jan 21 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.