Don't put your hunting gear away yet

Deer season has come and gone and that might be a signal for some
sportsmen to pack away their gear for another year, but that would
be a mistake. These days, more than ever, there are plenty of
reasons for hunters to keep going afield. Everything from deer to
small game to waterfowl come back in season at various points in the
next few weeks. The statewide late archery and flintlock muzzleloader
deer seasons, for example, run from Dec. 26 to Jan. 14. Flintlock
hunters also have the option to use crossbows. They can take a buck
provided they have an unused back tag, or a doe using either their
back tag or a unit-specific doe tag.

Hunters with a doe tag also can chase does in wildlife management
unit 2B over the course of those 21/2 weeks from Dec. 26 to Jan. 14.
In the Allegheny County portion of 2B, hunters are limited to using
shotguns. The parts of Beaver, Butler, Washington and
Westmoreland counties that also are a part of 2B are open to rifles
during the extended season.

Squirrels, rabbits and pheasants are in season from Dec. 26 to Feb. 4.
Male and female pheasants are in season on those same dates in units
1A, 1B, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4B and 4D. Grouse are in
season Dec. 26 to Jan. 28. Snowshoe hares are fair game from Dec. 26-31.
Hunters using archery or muzzleloader licenses are not required to
wear fluorescent orange clothing, but Game Commission officials
recommend that they do when their seasons overlap with others.

Winter trout

Just in time for the start of ice fishing season, the Pennsylvania
Fish and Boat Commission is stocking 20 lakes around the state
-- including several in this region -- with trout. A total of 21,600
fish will be released through Friday. Most of the fish, 16,000, will
be rainbow trout. There also will be 3,350 brook trout and 2,250
brown trout stocked. Waters locally getting fish are Lower Twin
Lake in Westmoreland County, Lake Rowena in Cambria County,
and Lake Pleasant in Erie County on Tuesday, and Cloe Lake in
Jefferson County on Wednesday. Justus Lake in Venango County
was stocked in November. Extended trout season rules apply at
each lake, meaning that anglers are limited to keeping three fish
per day. They must be at least seven inches long.

Good Fishing

A number of anglers recently have reported finding some good
fishing for bass and walleye on the Allegheny River, near the West
Penn Power discharge just above the Templeton boat access. The
Kinzua Dam tailwaters, meanwhile, have been producing some
walleyes on minnow imitation lures and live baits like minnows.
There have been a few reports of trout being caught, too.

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Where do I find the big bucks?

I find this article to be so untrue. There might still be
some decent size bucks around here, but the numbers
have certainly diminished. I used to temporarily
house 10-15 hunters every year and only 3 came back
this year due to the fact that the guys just aren't
seeing the deer like they used to. Coyote's? Mountain
lions? Brought in by the govt and sponsored by
insurance companies? They claim not but we as
citizens firmly believe that is the case.

While many Keystone State hunters claim to be unhappy about reductions in deer numbers of late, there are relatively few complaints about the quality of bucks that are being harvested. Many experienced hunters have taken their best bucks since antler restrictions were imposed. In fact, there has never been a better time for trophy-buck hunting during the lifetimes of most Pennsylvania deer hunters.

It is impossible to apply a measurement to buck "quality" because the Pennsylvania Game Commission has not conducted a trophy measuring session for several years. With the current budget crunch, there is no measuring session scheduled for the future, either. But it does not take a quantitative measurement to see what is happening.

In general, hunters are taking fewer bucks. This has been partly because of antler restrictions and partly because we had fewer deer in most parts of the state last season. Pennsylvania hunters took 124,410 bucks during the 2004-05 hunting seasons. That was nearly a 13 percent decline from the previous season, continuing a three-year trend. Following the harvest of 203,247 bucks in 2001-02, antler restrictions led to a 19 percent reduction in 2002-03 and then a 14 percent reduction the next year. Overall, since antler restrictions began, the buck harvest has dropped 39 percent, and, remember, one of the primary goals of the antler restrictions was to reduce the buck harvest


WHAT'S GOING ON?
Antler restrictions have been the most popular of the newer deer hunting regulations. Random surveys suggest 70 percent to 80 percent approval among hunters.

"Results of our hunter surveys over the last three years also indicate support for antler restrictions. Pennsylvania hunters have done a good job of adapting to antler restrictions and we expect to have them for the foreseeable future," stated Dr. Christopher Rosenberry, new head of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer management section.

A great deal of the minority that disapprove of antler restrictions base their argument on a misunderstanding.

"Antler restrictions were never about trophy buck management," said Calvin DuBrock, the Game Commission's director of wildlife management. "The idea with antler restrictions was to let the bucks grow a year older," DuBrock explained. If they can survive the wrath of
the coyote's and mountain lions!!!

Certainly antler restrictions have improved the likelihood of taking trophy bucks, but the reasoning behind antler restrictions was to benefit the health of the deer herd, to restore it to a more natural condition.

Antler restrictions are working. The Game Commission has conducted extensive research to determine that about 88 percent of the bucks that get through hunting season survive until the following hunting season.

According to Rosenberry, current research activities include collection of breeding timing-embryo count data each spring, CWD surveillance in wild deer and tracking surviving bucks from the buck study.

New research activities are focused on female deer in WMUs 2G and 4B. The focus of this research is on survival and response to hunting activities in female deer.

THE HARD FACTS
Pennsylvania's deer population is declining. This, combined with fewer antlerless deer license allocations, almost certainly means that hunters will take fewer deer this fall. Predicting the buck harvest is less certain, though, because other factors enter into the number of legal bucks that are available this fall. The number of bucks might actually be increasing. But whether or not the number of legal bucks has increased can depend heavily on the mast crop last fall, which will affect the condition of bucks and the growth of antlers. Unfortunately, mast crops have been poor across much of the Commonwealth since antler restrictions began. This has somewhat masked the results of the antler restrictions.

SOUTHEAST REGION OUTLOOK
Hunters took 20,440 antlered bucks from the Southeast Region last year, third highest among the six regions. This was a 9 percent dip from the year before. In a distinct change, York County led the region with a harvest of 3,800 bucks, which ranked fourth in the Commonwealth. That was a slight increase from last year, one of the few counties to do so. Berks County, which typically leads the region, was next with 3,100 bucks, ranking 11th in the state.

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