Polar Vortex or not, Ohio's sportsmen
and anglers are gearing up by purchasing their hunting and fishing
licenses.
With good, legal reasons, too.
New
2014-2015 Ohio hunting and fishing licenses are required beginning
this Saturday, March 1. This is an all-inclusive requirement whether
the prospective license buyer is a resident of the state or a
non-resident of Ohio.
Even obtaining a state
waterfowl-hunting authorization is now available, though the first
goose can't be legally killed for another six months-plus.
About the only permits not on sale
right now are those required to hunt deer. The reason: Ohio is in the
initial stages of the required comment period for deer-hunting
regulation proposals announced earlier this month by the Ohio
Division of Wildlife.
Even so, anglers and hunters are
stepping up to the plate and buying the necessary point-of-sales
paperwork needed to legally fish and hunt for the respective
2014-2015 fishing and hunting seasons in Ohio.
At Gander Mountain's Mentor, Ohio
outlet, a sales staff member said this morning (Wednesday, February
26) that store has already sold more than 1,000 fishing and hunting
licenses, mostly the former.
That's a remarkable number given that
sales of Ohio's 2014-2015 hunting and fishing licenses did not even begin until
this past Saturday (February 22).
As for cost, for Ohio residents age 16
to 65 an annual fishing (or hunting license, for that matter) costs
$19. For Ohio residents age 66 and older born after Jan. 1, 1938, an
annual fishing or hunting license costs $10.
Ohio's one-day fishing license for
either resident or non-resident costs $11 and may also be exchanged
as credit if a person desires to upgrade.
A one-day Lake Erie charter-fishing
license also costs $11, though the details on this document has
always left me confused. Best to read a free fishing license guide
that is available at virtually all license-issuing agents.
An annual non-resident fishing license
costs $40 while a three-day non-resident “tourist” license costs
$19.
Duplicate licenses for those documents either lost,
stolen, destroyed or eaten by the family dog are available for $4 at
any license-issuing agent.
But a license holder can avoid this
expense by simply photocopying his or her newly acquired document. I make two copies; one that I keep in
my car and the other that I keep in my gun vault.
Yes, it is perfectly legal to copy your
license and use that as a spare. Some Wildlife Division personnel I
know follow the same protocol as me.
As for March 1 being significant for
other Ohio outdoors reasons, Lake Erie anglers need to remember that
the daily bag limit on Lake Erie- and Lake Erie tributary-caught
walleye drops from six fish to four fish. This restriction eases
beginning May 1 when it returns to six walleye per day.
Not to be forgotten either is that on
Saturday – once again, March 1 – the Ohio Division of Wildlife
will host a series of fish and (mostly) game law hearings around the
state.
This year's fish and game hearings are
particularly relevant and important. That is because the Wildlife
Division is proposing several significant changes to the way it
manages the state's deer herd, regulates hunting and hunters.
And the agency is even
advancing the idea of allowing the use of a host of
straight-walled cartridges chambered in rifles for pursuing deer
during the statewide general firearms deer-hunting season.
Each of the Wildlife Division's
district's will host a hearing, all at the same time from noon to 3
p.m.
The district offices for Wildlife
District One, Two, Three and Four will all serve as hearing venues.
Meanwhile in Wildlife District Five (southwest Ohio), the Greene
County Fish and Game Club in Xenia is pegged as that unit's hearing
site.
In addition, the Lake Erie Shores and
Islands Welcome Center in Port Clinton will supplement the process by
being a fish and game hearing site.
So too will the Fairport Harbor
Fisheries Research Station in Lake County.
For specifics on any of these matters
or for directions to one or another fish and game hearing site,
contact the Wildlife Division at 1-800-WILDLIFE.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
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