Thursday, April 05, 2007
Biologists discuss changes to way we hunt and fish
Bill Cochran
Recent columns
I have an acquaintance who always is badgering me about what kind of success I’ve had deer hunting. He doesn’t say, “Have you killed a buck?” Rather, he says, “Get-a-buck?” Only he asks it machine-gun style: “Getabuck?”
It is irritating to me, not just the way he asks, but the fact that he only asks when I haven’t killed a buck. Kill one and I never hear from the jerk.
“Get-a-buck” may give way to a new phrase, “earn-a-buck” if biologists of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have their way. They are advocating a regulation in eight counties that would require a hunter to kill an anterless deer (hopefully a doe) before he or she could kill a second buck.
The objective is to become more aggressive in reducing or stabilizing the deer population in Bedford County and surrounding counties that include Amherst, Franklin, Patrick and Roanoke. The same goal is being promoted for the Northern Virginia counties of Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William.
The “earn-a-buck” idea has been debated in the past but it “wasn’t quite ready for prime time,” said Bob Duncan, chief of the DGIF wildlife division. That’s not likely to be the case this time because of what Duncan calls “an acute overpopulation” of deer in several counties.
Just in case some hunters view the concept as dictatorial, wildlife officials are pondering a bunch of new opportunities to kill antlerless deer in the counties mentioned. They include an early antlerless-only firearms season (prior to the bow and muzzleloading seasons) and the extension of the late antlerless-only firearms season. Consideration also is being given to removing the daily antlerless bag limit.
What if you were out doing your best to kill a doe and you shoot what you think is a skinhead deer and it turns out to be a button buck or one with antlers so small they can’t be seen from a distance? Does this mean you’ve blown your buck tag?
Not necessarily. Officials are giving thought to offering an allowance for mistaking a buck for a doe. Duncan called it a “mulligan,” as in hitting a bad golf shot and being forgiven to the point that it isn’t included as part of your score. Officials don’t want hunters to be hesitant when it comes to knocking back the doe population. They are serious about the task.
The new regulation package is likely to include efforts to educate sportsmen on the importance of killing antlerless deer. Also under discussion is a reduction in the price of bonus antlerless tags.
As was mentioned in last week’s column, the recommendations of biologists are being channeled through a regulations process destined to result in new laws in 2008. Check the DGIF Web site for more details.
Here are some additional topics being discussed:
TURKEYS: Biologists are considering adjusting the second segment of the fall turkey season by starting and ending it one week earlier than in the past. That would remove turkey hunting from the final week of the eastern deer season when the big birds take a heavy hit from deer hunters. Nearly 35 percent of adult female are killed the last week of the season in counties with a long deer season.
Ronnie Lambrich, president of the Virginia Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, backed the idea, but expressed opposition to a longer fall season. One NWTF club, the Botetourt Longbeards, has asked DGIF to restore the four weeks of fall season that were removed in 1995, but wildlife officials did not embrace the idea.
Biologists did say that the city of Suffolk along with Accomack and Northampton counties on the Eastern Shore have enough turkeys to support fall hunting and should have a season.
BEAR: When hunters kill a bear they face a laborious checking procedure that includes taking the animal to one of 160 big game stations scattered across the state where a tooth is extraction for research purposes.
Biologists think the time may be right to streamline the process and are even talking about a phone check-in, like deer and spring gobbler hunters enjoy.
Hound hunters would like to see an expansion of both the chase season and hunt season, according to Charles Montgomery of Buchanan, vice president of the Virginia Bear Hunters Association. “The past season [a record kill of 1,633 bears] proved we’re doing something right,” he said.
GENERAL: Other recommendations of biologists include allowing hunters to use an unplugged shotgun for non-migratory game; requiring the use of non-toxic shot for rails, snipe, gallinules, moorhens and mergansers; allowing coyotes to be stocked in fox hound training enclosures; permitting the use of electronic game calls on national forest land; letting trappers use a small-caliber firearm to dispatch trapped animals in public waters; setting regulations to reduce the deer kill in western Rockingham County.
FISHING: A regulation that would make it illegal to cull a trout, by releasing one you have caught when you catch a bigger one, is among a handful of angling items under consideration.
Others include setting an 18-inch minimum size limit for walleye on the Middle and South Forks of the Holston rivers; allowing the use of a multiple number of single-hook dropper flies on streams where only single-hook artificial lures are permitted; permitting the use of multiple-hook artificial lures on the portion of the Jackson River were artificial lures with single hooks are currently required.
BOWFISHING: Thought is being given to including crossbows as legal bow and arrow fishing equipment; of adding northern snakehead fish to the list of species that can be taken while bowfishing; and designating that carp targeted by bowfishermen must be the common kind, not grass carp stocked in ponds to keep weeds under control.
