You Snooze, You Lose...Today is Application Day
8-1-2013
When does Wisconsin wolf, Horicon goose and statewide turkey hunting collide with Winnebago sturgeon spearing? When we’re all out of luck if we forget to apply for those seasons by TODAY, August 1, the application deadline. As soon as I’m done writing this blog I’m off to the local hunting store, checkbook in hand and no money to cover any of it.
Do you know this means I’ll be within 5 miles of a State Fair cream puff... or six? Just saying. Sometimes my GPS drifts off course. Especially when my stomach growls. Like a bear near a bait station.
Speaking of Mike Foss (told you I drift); I just talked to the OWO Bear Guide and writer this morning from Bayfield County. Mike, as you know, has earned a reputation for finding monster bears for his clients, including two 600-pound plus boars the last several years and too many to count in the 400 to 500 class. I’ll be up again to cover the Foss Camp in September, but Mike is on new territory and finding new brutes that you will read about in the September-October issue of On Wisconsin Outdoors. But how about a tease right now?
“We found a territorial scratching tree, an ancient cedar that is all torn up,” Mike said this morning. “The bear is huge. You can see where he approaches the tree from the same direction. The ground is all pounded down. When you look up and see the scratch marks, the claws are each two inches apart. Robert (Foss guide) said he’s never seen anything like it. The tree and leaving his scent is just a way to let other bears know he’s around. We also found his scat. It’s as big as a pop can. He’s a very big bear.”
And probably a very big bear wearing a tag soon if he keeps hanging around Foss. Connect with Northern Wisconsin Outfitters at www.northernwisconsinoutfitters.com.
According to Senior Fisheries Biologist and Winnebago Sturgeon Biologist Ryan P. Koenigs of the Oshkosh Fisheries Team, 500 lucky Upriver Lakes applicants will receive permits to purchase their license before the October 31, 2013 deadline, while applicants that do not receive a permit for an Upriver Lakes spear license will still be able to purchase a spearing license for Lake Winnebago through the October 31, 2013 deadline.
Goose hunters wishing to hunt the Horicon zone are reminded that today is the day to apply for a Horicon goose permit. The DNR says it expects 6 tags per hunter again this fall, which successful applicants will receive via mail.
Today is also the deadline to apply for the 2013 fall turkey permit drawing. Permit applications must be submitted by midnight, and can be purchased from authorized license agents, over the Internet through the DNR's Online Licensing Center, or by phone toll free at 1-877-945-4236. Application and license fee information can be found by going to http://dnr.wi.gov/, keyword "license".
According to the media release received over the OWO wire, there will be 96,700 wild turkey permits available to hunters for the fall 2013 turkey hunting season, the same number of permits as offered in 2012. Any fall turkey permits remaining after the initial drawing will go on sale beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24. Leftover fall turkey permits will be sold by zone until sold out or the season ends. Hunters who receive a fall turkey permit in Zones 1-5 will be able to fill their unused permits during the extended season in the zone for which they were issued.
The fall turkey season runs from Sept. 14 through Nov. 21 for all seven of Wisconsin’s turkey management zones. In addition, an extended fall turkey season for Zones 1 through 5 will run from Dec. 2 to Dec. 31.
For more information, visit the DNR's turkey hunting page.
Wolf hunters and trappers are reminded that today is the deadline to apply for a 2013 wolf season permit.
The permit application fee is $10 and applications can be purchased from authorized license agents, over the Internet through the Department of Natural Resources Online Licensing Center or toll free by phone at 1-877-945-4236.
The department has maintained the 10-to-1 license-to-quota ratio for the 2013 season. The season quota is set at 275, though the amount of wolves harvestable by state trappers and hunters may be adjusted dependent on state response to tribal declarations.
One half of available permits will be issued randomly among all permit applications and the second half will be issued through a cumulative preference point drawing.
Successful applicants will be notified by letter, likely in mid to late August. Applicants who are not successful in the drawing will be awarded a preference point toward future drawings.
The 2013 wolf season starts Oct. 15 and will run in each of six zones until the zone is closed by the DNR or the last day of February, whichever occurs first.
For more information and season regulations, visit dnr.wi.gov and search keyword “wolf.”
Visit “Outdoor News” “Inland Fishing” and “Firearms” and “Deer Hunting” on this website to review the most features, photos and reports sent from some of Wisconsin’s best guides, the DNR, and other sources of outdoor activity. We’ve begun production with our September-October issue. Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors.
Shoot Straight.
Dick Ellis