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By Walt Young
sports@altoonamirror.com
With the regular deer season for 2021 now completed, hunters can now turn their attention to a full slate of wintertime hunting opportunities.
The late small-game hunting seasons for ruffed grouse, rabbits, pheasants and squirrels are already underway and continue through Dec. 24. After the Christmas weekend hiatus, the seasons for rabbits, pheasants and squirrels extend until February 28. Due to severely decreased grouse numbers throughout the state, grouse hunting does not continue after Christmas.
To bolster late-season pheasant hunting opportunities, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be stocking pheasants on selected state game lands and other public properties during the next three weeks.
A special interactive map is available on the PGC website, pgc.pa.gov, that shows the locations of the properties that will be receiving birds, along with stocking dates and allocations. Pheasant hunters in Pennsylvania are required to purchase a pheasant permit for $26.97 for adults and a free permit for junior hunters in addition to a general hunting license.
For those dedicated folks who still have an unfilled deer tag, the late archery and flintlock deer seasons offer a final opportunity to put some venison in the freezer this winter. Both of those seasons begin on Monday, Dec. 27 and end on Monday, Jan, 17 and present plenty of challenges for those intrepid hunters will seek to bag a deer with those special weapons, especially during some of the harsh weather that can happen in January.
Bows and arrows were first legalized for deer hunting in Pennsylvania in 1929. The first archery season for deer in Pennsylvania occurred in the fall of 1951. The first winter archery season came in 1964 and was restricted to certain areas of the state. In 1967, the late archery season was expanded statewide and has been a fixture ever since.
The first muzzleloader deer season occurred in 1974. Hunting was permitted only with antique-style flintlock rifles with open, iron sights. The three-day season was restricted to just 37 state game lands, and both bucks and does were legal game.
Despite all those limitations, four bucks and 61 does were taken during that initial season. In 1975, hunters managed to take 174 deer during a five-day split season. Hunters bagged 340 deer during the 1976 muzzleloader season, which included 39 state game lands and two islands on the Susquehanna River.
In 1977, 60 state game lands were opened to the muzzleloader hunt, and the harvest more than doubled to 866 deer. The muzzleloader season finally became a statewide event in 1979 when flintlock hunters bagged 2,459 deer.
Another major roadblock to participation was those years were still in the longstanding era of one deer a year for Pennsylvania hunters. So even to be able to hunt in the late muzzleloader season, you either hadn't taken a deer in the regular season or simply decided to wait until muzzleloader season. In the late 1980s, regulations changed, allowing hunters to take more than one deer per year in Pennsylvania if they held the appropriate licenses. This allowed many more hunters to participate in the late flintlock season, and this special season continues to enjoy a significant following.
Varmint hunters can also enjoy the challenge of calling coyotes, foxes or crows this time of year using either mouth-operated or electronic predator calls. Crows may be hunted on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until April 10.
There is no closed season on coyotes, and foxes may be hunted until Feb. 19. Both coyotes and foxes can be hunted any hour of the day or night, including Sundays. A general hunting license is sufficient for hunting crows and coyotes, but a furtaker license is also necessary to hunt foxes.
The dates for late-season duck hunting around the state vary by special zones established specifically for waterfowl management. Most of our region is part of the South Zone where duck season opened back on Nov.23 and wraps up on Jan. 22. Most of our region is within the Resident Population Goose Hunting Zone where the season for Canada geese reopened on Dec. 13 and will run through Jan. 15, followed by another three weeks of goose hunting from Feb. 4-26.
During the late goose seasons, the daily limit is 5 geese. In additional to a general hunting license, duck and goose hunters must also have a federal duck stamp and a Pennsylvania migratory bird game bird license. For specific information on the various waterfowl seasons, hunting zones and bag limits around the state, consult the Pennsylvania Hunting and Trapping Digest that comes with your hunting license or check the Game Commission website, www.pgc.pa.gov.
The 2022 fishing licenses are now on sale and can be purchased online at huntfish.pa.gov or at more than 700 issuing agents around the state. A fishing license makes a worthwhile gift for any anglers on your holiday shopping list as well. Even the most hardcore fishermen who already owns every conceivable piece of tackle still needs a new fishing license each year. A voucher can be purchased online or from any license vendor, and the recipient can redeem it for an actual license. The price of an annual resident fishing license for 2022 is $22.97. Multi-year license options are also available in 3-, 5-, and 10-year increments and will enable the recipient to be properly licensed to fish for years to come. A trout permit, a Lake Erie permit or a combination permit are necessary add-ons for many anglers as well.