With only seven or so weeks ago until Ohio archers can
launch their first arrows at deer, Lake Metroparks is still ahead of the curve.
The agency has revamped its controlled/by lottery archery-only
hunts for the up-coming 2014-2015 Ohio deer-hunting season.
For starters the parks system will offer controlled hunts at
four locations, up from the two sites utilized last year.
Besides allowing
lottery-selected hunters at Lake Metroparks’ River Road Reservation in Madison
Township and a portion of Indian Point Park in Leroy Township, added is a swath
of Lake Erie Bluffs Park in Perry Township, and also a portion of the agency’s Blair
Road/Walden II property, also in Leroy Township.
Other tweaks include allowing selected hunters to be afield
for three week increments. That change is one additional week from what was utilized
during the program’s previous three years of operation.
Another change is that Lake Metroparks will no longer provide
corn, used as bait to attract deer within bow or crossbow range.
Neither will
the parks system offer tree stand ladders or ground blinds at Lake Erie Bluffs,
Indian Point, and Blair Road, said Tom Koritansky, Lake Metroparks’ natural
resources manager.
“We will still be providing ladder stands and feeders at
River Road,” Koritansky said, “but no corn.”
Koritansky says the reason the parks system will give the
lottery-selected hunters an additional week is because hunters will need to
determine where to set up and whether salting the site with deer-attracting
food stuffs is necessary.
“We are also eliminating the doe-first rule,” Koritansky also
said. “We ran with that rule for the first few seasons but we just didn’t see
the results we were hoping for.”
While ladder stands and you-fill-it game feeders will again
make their appearances at River Road, selected hunters will still have the
opportunity to enjoy a 50-yard diameter wiggle room. This somewhat short leash
will give a hunter some freedom as to where to install a personally owned stand
or blind, Koritansky says.
Much more elbow is planned for the other three sites. At
Lake Erie Bluffs, for example and says Koritansky, the three hunting units there
consist of 15 acres, 30 acres, and 40 acres, respectively.
“Each of them is a mix of meadow, forest, brush and some wet
spots,” he said.
Copy that at both Blair Road and Indian Point, too, where
each selected hunter will have a designated portion of the respective property
in order to make set-up adjustments if desired, Koritansky says.
In all, the River Road property will field eight sites,
Indian Point will consist of four hunt units, Lake Erie Bluffs will have three
sections, and Blair Road will offer two units.
As to who gets to hunt which location, that choice will come
about by the order of the lottery draw.
Get drawn early and the pickings will
be better, says Koritansky.
Asked as to which location stands tallest in the
deer-hunting saddle, Koritansky says each of the four properties offer fine opportunities
for the archer looking for a controlled situation where he – or she – won’t be
blitzed by trespassing interlopers looking to cash in on a restricted piece of
real estate.
Still, the odds of being selected are around one pick for
every three applicants. Last year 108 primary hunters were drawn from a field
of 313 applicants. Another, smaller, group of applicants were plucked and who
were on stand-by as alternates.
An alternate list is intended to be maintained again this
season, says Koritansky
“We did utilize some of the hunters on the alternate list
too,” Koritansky said.
And though only one person at a time can occupy a hunting
unit or zone, a selected archer can name a partner. In such instances the
partner can fill in if the actual lottery-selected hunter is unable to be
afield on that particular day.
“This option has been well received but you have to remember
that the partner still must abide by the same requirements as does the
selectee,” Koritansky says.
Among those stipulations is the requirement to pass an
archery proficiency test and attend the appropriate orientation seminar/class,
Koritansky says.
Testing for the archery proficiency qualification is
scheduled for Great Lakes Outdoors Supply store in Madison Township as well as
Gander Mountain’s Mentor store.
A rule left unchanged since the program began is that the
lottery is open only to Lake County residents and owners of businesses in Lake
County. In short, the lottery is open only to the very people whose property taxes
go to help support Lake Metroparks.
The application process is available on-line via Lake
Metroparks’ web site at www.lakemetroparks.com.
Persons also may apply in person at the agency’s registration department,
located within the parks system’s Concord Woods Nature Park headquarters on Speer
Rod in Concord Township.
Prospective archery hunters can apply from August 7 to September 1, inclusive.
Complete rules and further information is available via
these two processing venues as well.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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