Metro

Last weekend, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners held its first regular meeting of 2026.

At their January meeting each year, the commissioners give preliminary approval to the slate of hunting seasons and bag limits for the upcoming year and then give final approval to that schedule at their April meeting.

Most years the season structures and bag limits vary very little from year-to-year and the entire process is rather routine. But this year, just the week before the January meeting, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) announced that the commissioners would be considering a proposal that would start the regular firearms deer season on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, a week earlier than it is now.

That shift would also require modifications to several other November hunting seasons as well.

This new season structure seemed to catch many folks by surprise. I know I had heard nothing about such a season shift before the PGC issued a press release on January 15 saying it would be on the agenda for the January commissioners meeting.

I was also intrigued to see if the commissioners would adopt such a significant change on relatively short notice. They did not. The vote was 6-3 for “NO” to moving the deer season opener.

I watched the discussion and vote regarding the measure on the PGC’s YouTube channel Saturday afternoon. The commissioners who voted against the proposal generally cited they would like more time to gather information and hunter input about the ramifications of moving the first day of deer season to before Thanksgiving.

Whether or not moving deer season earlier will get further consideration sometime in the future will remain to be seen.

I didn’t watch the public comment period on Saturday morning prior to the regular business meeting. From what I was able to gather from the accompanying chatroom, it seems as if as many or more folks were there lobbying for a return to the Monday opener than for or against the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

At this point, pushing for a return to the Monday opener is an exercise in futility. The move to Saturday back in 2019 was intended to help recruit new hunters and retain existing hunters.

After seven Saturday openers, the PGC generally acknowledges that change has accomplished those objectives. And based on the discussion surrounding another possible deer season shift, it is obvious that the agency considers Saturday as the right day to start deer season.

The only other question for them now is “Which Saturday is the right Saturday?”

Personally, I would not prefer seeing the season start any earlier because that makes it less likely to have snow. Having snow on the ground almost every day I hunted deer last month was very enjoyable.

Because moving the start of deer season failed to gain approval, the proposed 2026-27 hunting seasons and bag limits will mostly maintain the same structure as the past year. Sundays will be included in all seasons that have Sundays that fall within their start and end dates, and most seasons that previously ended on a Saturday will now end on Sunday to offer an extra day.

Whether the migratory game bird seasons will include Sundays has not been determined as they will be set later this year within federal guidelines.

One major proposed season change would be for small game seasons to remain open during the firearms deer season.

This would put squirrel season from Sept. 12 to Feb. 28, 2027; rabbit season from Oct. 17 to Feb. 28, 2027; pheasant season from Oct. 24 to Feb. 28, 2027; and grouse season from Oct. 17 to Dec. 24. All those seasons, however, would be closed on Christmas day.

All the proposed seasons and bag limits for 2026-27 can be found on the PGC website, PGC.pa.gov. Keep in mind that these are all preliminary and could be tweaked before given final approval at the April commissioners meeting, which is scheduled for April 10 and 11.

Fly-tying skills

The John Kennedy Chapter of Trout Unlimited will be hosting another special Fly Tier Roundtable at the Allegheny Township Volunteer Fire Department Hall, 651 Sugar Run Rd, Altoona, on Thursday, Feb. 5, from 7 to 9 p.m. This event is free and open to the public and will feature 13 of the best fly tiers from the area demonstrating their skills at creating a wide variety of fly patterns for trout and other species.

I am pleased to be one of the tiers invited to attend this gathering. The other 12 tiers scheduled to attend are Bill Anderson, John Brehm, Kevin Compton, Halena Fischer, Bryceten Forrester, Ron Holsinger, Shawn Holsinger, Jeremy Knapp, John Murone, Creg Strock, Dave Thomas, and Brad Zeiders.

This will be a great opportunity for any fly tier to talk shop and possibly get some worthwhile tying tips from an array of experts. If you don’t tie your own flies but have wondered what is involved with the craft, this event will be a great introduction.