Hunting seasons get preliminary OK
At its regular quarterly meeting last weekend, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners gave preliminary approval to the 2025-26 hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits.
No major changes to the general hunting seasons for deer, bear, wild turkey and small game were proposed. All those seasons and bag limits will be virtually identical to last year.
The three proposed Sunday hunting days will be structured like last year. They are proposed for Nov. 16, 23 and 30, which will include the final week of the statewide archery deer season and the opening weekends of the statewide bear and deer seasons.
The extended regular firearms season for antlerless deer for Wildlife Management Units 4A, 4D and 5A that was held during January this year will again be held next year. The dates for that extended season are Jan. 2-19, 2026.
All the proposed 2025-26 seasons and bag limits will be finalized at the next Game Commission meeting that is scheduled for April 11-12 at the Game Commission headquarters in Harrisburg. The public may submit comments regarding the proposed seasons and bag limits between now and the April meeting.
In other business, the Board of Commissioners gave preliminary approval to several changes to the elk license application process. The first of those measures would require everyone applying for an elk license to first purchase a Pennsylvania hunting license.
Under the current system, anyone can apply for an elk license but would only need to buy a hunting license if they are drawn for an elk license and actually go elk hunting. All elk license applicants must pay a nonrefundable fee of 11.97 with each application. There are three separate Pennsylvania elk seasons: archery season, general season and late season. Each season requires a separate application and application fee. A hunter is permitted to apply for one, two or all three seasons if desired. Application fees for all three seasons would total $35.91.
Being drawn for an elk license doesn’t automatically convey an elk license to the lucky applicant. It merely grants the them the privilege of purchasing an elk license, which costs $25 for residents and $250 for nonresidents.
Elk license applicants will no longer be required to provide their social security number or hunter ID once the hunting license is required prior to applying. That information will already be included in the electronic licensing system with the hunting license purchase.
When the first modern elk season in Pennsylvania was established back in 2001, paper applications were actually drawn by hand from a large rotating drum. That is no longer the case as elk tags are drawn electronically, so the language of the regulations describing the process of the drawing needs to be rewritten to reflect that change.
Also during the outset of the modern elk season, elk hunters were required to attend a special orientation program before hunting. That program is no longer conducted so the requirement for it will be eliminated.
There is currently no restriction on the number of nonresidents that can receive an elk license each year. Another proposal would limit the number of nonresident elk licenses to no more than 10 percent of the total elk licenses each year. And one final proposal would limit any hunter to drawing one bull elk tag in a lifetime, beginning on Jan. 1, 2026.
Currently, a hunter who is awarded a bull tag can reapply for a bull tag again after five years and possibly be drawn again. According to Game Commission sources, “Those who drew a bull tag prior to Jan. 1, 2026, are still eligible to draw a second bull tag using the bonus points they’ve already accumulated. They can’t enter any new bull elk applications after that date, however. And those who draw a bull tag after Jan. 1, 2026, would retain their bonus points, but they would be applied only to drawings for a cow tag going forward.”
All these measures regarding changes to the issuance of elk licenses will require final approval at the Board of Commissioners meeting in April.
Special presentation
The John Kennedy Chapter of Trout Unlimited will be hosting its monthly meeting at the Allegheny Township Volunteer Fire Department Hall, 651 Sugar Run Rd, Altoona, on Thursday, Feb. 6, from 7-9 p.m. This event is free and open to the public and will feature fishing guide Shawn Holsinger, who traveled to the South Africa last fall in search of trout and the native fish called Yellow Fish.
Holsinger’s presentation will include video showcasing the beauty and diversity of the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. In addition, he will share his equipment and setups used catch trout both here in the Northeast and in Africa with a focus on his style of euro nymphing.