Deer season ended statewide on Jan. 1. Hunters throughout the area took advantage of the last days by hitting the woods in good numbers. Several trophy sized bucks were checked in at local sporting goods stores.
Hill’s Minnow Farm reported 499 deer checked in by the end of the season. This number is up from last season despite dry weather and local outbreaks of blue-tongue disease.
Hunters across the state took advantage of the special bonus antlerless deer tags that were offered for the first time. More than 25,000 tags were issued across the state that were valid on private land in maximum deer season areas. Many deer were harvested using these tags, although many hunters got the tags “just in case.” The Wildlife Commission will decide later this year if the program will continue or be modified to add a fee for the bonus tags. Overall, most hunters seemed to approve of the additional harvest opportunity.
Public Hearing
Nine public hearings sponsored by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission are being held statewide. The hearings allow the public to discuss proposed new regulations involving hunting, fishing and trapping.
Among proposed regulations that may impact sportsmen are:
– Remove the exception that allows the harvest of two bass smaller than 14 inches within the five fish daily creel limit downstream of Cooleemee Dam on the South Yadkin River. The proposal would standardize rules with those of the Yadkin River and High Rock Lake.
– Implement an 8-inch minimum size limit for crappie and a 20-fish-per-day creel limit downstream of Cooleemee Dam on the South Yadkin River.
– Limit the number of jug hooks that can be fished to 100 per boat, require them to be labeled with the name and address of users, fished daily, and allow enforcement officers to remove jug hooks that are unattended.
– Establish a creel limit of one fish per day for blue catfish longer than 32 inches for Lake Norman and Badin Lake.
– Implement a two-buck bag limit for counties and parts of counties in the Eastern Deer Season that currently have a four-buck limit.
– Remove season and possession hunting limits for red and gray squirrels, raccoons and rabbits. Daily hunting limits will remain in effect (red and gray squirrels: 8; raccoon: 3; and rabbit: 5).
– Eliminate four regional trapping seasons for mink, muskrat, nutria, otter, skunk, weasel, bobcat, opossum, raccoon, coyote and groundhogs and replace them with a statewide season from Nov. 1 through the last day of February. Nutria may be trapped anytime east of Interstate 77, and raccoon may not be trapped in and west of Madison, Buncombe, Henderson and Polk counties. Starting date of the proposed statewide trapping season would be the same as the current beaver trapping season.
– Remove season and possession limits for trapping raccoons because harvest is self-regulating, depending on species abundance and behavior and the ability of the trapper. Except for otters in western North Carolina, no other furbearers have trapping limits.
– Remove the bald eagle from the list of federally threatened species and add it to the list of state-threatened species.
After reviewing the public’s responses from across the state, combined with sound management guidelines, officials change or drop proposals. The public can help structure wise management of the state’s wildlife resources by attending one of the hearings.
A complete list of proposed regulations and hearing dates can be found at www.ncwildlife.org.
Turkey hunting
No changes are proposed for wild turkeys, but because of format changes in the 2007-2008 Regulations Digest, some information about the wild turkey seasons was unclear. Complete details are:
– Winter Either-Sex Turkey Season (private lands only, some game lands by permit) is Jan. 14-19, 2008 in Alleghany, Ashe, Caswell, Granville, Person, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Watauga and Wilkes.
– The bag limit for the winter season is one bird, either sex.
– Spring Turkey Season, statewide, is April 12- May 10 for male or bearded turkeys only.
– The bag limit for the spring season is one per day, two per season unless you harvested a bird during the winter season, then you are limited to one bird because the winter season harvest is applied to the total annual harvest limit of two.
– Youth Turkey Season, statewide, is April 5 for male or bearded turkeys only. The limit is one per day, which applies to the total season bag limit of two birds.
Small game
Small game hunting has really hit high gear since the close of deer season. Most area gamelands are now open for rabbit hunting with dogs. Hunters are reminded to check regulations specific to the gameland chosen since hunt days, permits or other regulations may apply.
All small game hunters are required to wear either a blaze orange hat or vest when hunting. Many accidents occur when shooters fail to maintain a safe zone of fire and lose track of their companions. A running rabbit in heavy brush is often a difficult shot, but combined with someone not wearing orange and another not practicing safe gun handling can lead to a dangerous combination.
Fishing
Cold weather slowed some fishermen, but many still are hitting local lakes in search of slab crappie. On High Rock Lake, crappie weighing up to two pounds have been caught. Areas to try include around structures in Dutch Second Creek ranging from 2-6 feet on warm sunny days and 8-12 feet on colder, cloudy days. Dropoffs with associated stumps/brush piles are also good places to try. A variety of jig colors are working as are live minnows.
Pott’s Creek toward the railroad tunnel also is still producing good fish in large numbers.
Striped bass are being caught from Abbott’s Creek to Flat Swamp Creek along the Davidson County side of the lake. Key in on points and underwater humps. Live shad and buck tails are working, with fish weighing up to 20 pounds reported.
All the Yadkin River lake levels, including High Rock, are within 2 feet of full.
Q&A
Q: I heard deer season has been extended for archery hunters, is this true?
A: A special urban archery deer season was established by the N.C. Wildlife Commission for archery hunting within city limits. The town or city had to apply to the Commission to participate. No local cities/towns are participating.
Q: I was told that “Wildlife” stocked bears, timber wolves, cougars and rattlesnakes in Uharrie game lands. Is this true?
A: No.
E-mail Sgt. Anthony Sharum of the N.C. Wildlife Resources at huntfishguy66@aol.com.