Bag Limit

The Department of Natural Resources last week set hunting seasons for migratory game birds. The split dove season will run from Sept. 1 through Oct. 16, Nov. 12-20 and Dec. 18 through Jan. 1. The daily bag limit is 12. The early resident Canada goose season is Sept. 1-15 in the eastern zone and Sept. 1-25 in the western zone, which includes those portions of Baltimore, Howard and Prince George's counties west of I-95. The daily bag limit is eight. Teal season for the portion of the state east of I-95 will be Sept.

A number of hunting regulation changes are being considered by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wildlife and Heritage Service as a result of receiving more than 1,000 comments at stakeholder meetings, public hearings and online forums. The changes, which would go into effect this fall for two years, have been endorsed by the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission. The proposals include extending the archery season for white-tailed and sika deer, as well as the fox hunting season, and reopening the river otter season in Allegany and Garrett counties.

The state Department of Natural Resources has added a second Saturday to the fall hunting season for wild turkey and expanded the fall hunting zone to include eastern Washington County.The season will run from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7 in Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties.Proposed dates for the 1998-99 hunting seasons, other than for deer, are listed below.Upland gameEastern cottontail rabbit: Nov. 7-Feb. 6 in all counties except Garrett and Allegany; bag limit four. Oct. 31-Jan. 30 in Garrett and Allegany counties; bag limit four.

The Department of Natural Resources last week set hunting seasons for migratory game birds. The split dove season will run from Sept. 1 through Oct. 16, Nov. 12-20 and Dec. 18 through Jan. 1. The daily bag limit is 12. The early resident Canada goose season is Sept. 1-15 in the eastern zone and Sept. 1-25 in the western zone, which includes those portions of Baltimore, Howard and Prince George's counties west of I-95. The daily bag limit is eight. Teal season for the portion of the state east of I-95 will be Sept.

SHOWSSaturday: R. Madison Mitchell Chapter of Ducks Unlimited annual benefit dinner-auction at the Chesapeake Club on Aberdeen Proving Grounds, 6 p.m. Live auction, silent auction, raffles, door prizes.Dec. 11-12: Gun and knife show sponsored by Camrod Hunting Club, Putty Hill Shopping Center, Parkville, 9 a.m. both days. Admission is $4.FISHINGThrough Tuesday: Fall rockfish season for charterboat and recreational anglers in Maryland's Atlantic coastal waters and tributaries. 28-inch minimum, no maximum.

Over the next two weeks, hunting hits full stride in Maryland with the openings of seasons for rabbit, quail, pheasant, dove, brant, ducks, Canada goose and the two-week firearms season for deer.Although the season for cottontail rabbits already is open in Garrett County, the season in the rest of the state opens tomorrow, with a bag limit of four. The season closes Jan. 31 in Garrett and Feb. 7 in all other counties.The quail season also opens tomorrow, excluding Allegany and Garrett counties, with a limit of six per day. This season also has a split closure, with the western portion of the state (west of Interstate 83 south to I-695 to I-95 south to Virginia)

Good news for Canada goose shooters; probably more days afield this year -- also, more days with a bag limit of two. Yesterday, waterfowl managers of the Department of Natural Resources made modestly liberalized recommendations to the Wildlife Advisory Commission, but it will be a month before a final decision is made.DNR assistant secretary for wildlife Don MacLauchlan said the proposal involved a 60-day season as compared with 54 last year -- and six additional days with a bag limit of two rather than one. Maryland Outfitters Association would have liked more, but the DNR is playing it conservative, as it should.

A number of hunting regulation changes are being considered by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wildlife and Heritage Service as a result of receiving more than 1,000 comments at stakeholder meetings, public hearings and online forums. The changes, which would go into effect this fall for two years, have been endorsed by the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission. The proposals include extending the archery season for white-tailed and sika deer, as well as the fox hunting season, and reopening the river otter season in Allegany and Garrett counties.

Fishing is so productive it's difficult to realize that hunting starts Monday. Don't expect much with railbirds, but the shooting should be as hot as the fishing for mackerel and blues in much of the Chesapeake.Once again, it appears we have a bumper crop of dove throughout much of the state, and considering how poor much of the corn crop is because of the drought, there is considerable bushwhacking of crops to further entice the game. In addition, as more shooters turn to planting sunflowers, more doves fly into the fields.

The Department of Natural Resources yesterday submitted its final proposals for waterfowl seasons to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including a 60-day duck season with five-duck bag limit. Duck hunters will be allowed to take one additional teal during duck season, bringing the total bag to six. The USFWS has allowed Maryland to extend the snow goose season to 107 days, with the last of three splits ending March 10. Split dates for snow geese are Oct. 16-Nov. 26, Dec. 6-Jan.

Gobblers or stripers? The seasons for Maryland's spring surf-and-turf combo get cranked up over the next week, and not a moment too soon. Things have been just a little too tense around Casa Thomson, if you know what I mean. When Isabel shut down the electricity to the old Frigidaire for four days last fall, we had to toss out a lot of frozen striper filets. That made for mighty slim pickings over the winter, when the grill was willing but the icebox was not. On Saturday, we'll start reeling in the first stripers of the trophy season, an opening day when there are so many boats out on the bay that you'd swear you could walk from deck to deck without getting your feet wet. The minimum is 28 inches, one fish per day. Please use offset circle hooks to help throw-backs live to be big fish.

ABOVE THE RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER - Because it takes one to know one, Jim Wortham flies low and fast toward the river. His quarry, bobbing on the surface and resting in marsh grass, begin to rise in pairs and flocks, their shadows and the shadow of the pontoon plane skimming together along the brown water. As the formation sorts itself out, Wortham starts his head count, a sophisticated game of duck, duck, goose, with some swans thrown in for good measure. "As a biologist, there's no better perspective," says Wortham, a Baltimore resident who has been with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for eight years.

Howard County's expanded deer hunt starts before dawn tomorrow, when hunters carrying muzzle-loading rifles are set to enter the woods at Columbia's western edge, set up their tree stands and wait. The first three days of the expanded hunt at the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area off Trotter Road are for hunters using only the old firearms technology. Muzzle-loader deer season begins statewide Thursday, state Department of Natural Resources officials said. "The idea is being out in the woods.

The Department of Natural Resources yesterday submitted its final proposals for waterfowl seasons to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including a 60-day duck season with five-duck bag limit. Duck hunters will be allowed to take one additional teal during duck season, bringing the total bag to six. The USFWS has allowed Maryland to extend the snow goose season to 107 days, with the last of three splits ending March 10. Split dates for snow geese are Oct. 16-Nov. 26, Dec. 6-Jan.

The firearms hunting season for deer opens Saturday with new, regionalized bag limits expected to help stabilize deer numbers in areas where growth of whitetail populations has been rapid in recent years.The two-week season runs through Dec. 12, excluding Sundays.Since the start of bow season in September, hunters have been able to hunt four regions of the state under separate bag limits. In past years, hunters had statewide bag limits for bow, muzzleloader and firearms seasons."The new deer management regions with their independent bag limits give wildlife managers the flexibility to address deer population hot spots," said Department of Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin.

Maryland's three-day early muzzleloader hunting season for deer has grown in popularity over the past few years, and this year hunters will benefit from increased overall bag limits under the state's new deer management plan.The early season runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday."Muzzleloader bag limits have been modified to allow hunters to take more antlerless deer in sections of the state with growing or stable but high deer populations," said DNR Secretary John R. Griffin.The management plan, which was unveiled earlier this year, created four regions in the state and separate bag limits for each for bow, muzzleloader and firearms seasons.

Unable to reach an agreement, the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission yesterday sent back to the Department of Natural Resources two modified proposals for the upcoming Canada goose season, and also a suggested minor change in the snow goose shoot.It will be up to DNR Secretary Torrey C. Brown to decide the honker issue. One proposal would have the season open a day earlier than originally proposed -- Monday Nov. 11 and close Nov. with one bird a day, then reopen for a two-bird-a-day shoot Dec. 9 and close out Jan. 18.The other calls for the same opening day, beginning with the same one-bird bag limit, but from Nov. 27 through 29, the bag would be two -- and the two-bird bag would also be implemented during the Dec. 9-Jan.

Gobblers or stripers? The seasons for Maryland's spring surf-and-turf combo get cranked up over the next week, and not a moment too soon. Things have been just a little too tense around Casa Thomson, if you know what I mean. When Isabel shut down the electricity to the old Frigidaire for four days last fall, we had to toss out a lot of frozen striper filets. That made for mighty slim pickings over the winter, when the grill was willing but the icebox was not. On Saturday, we'll start reeling in the first stripers of the trophy season, an opening day when there are so many boats out on the bay that you'd swear you could walk from deck to deck without getting your feet wet. The minimum is 28 inches, one fish per day. Please use offset circle hooks to help throw-backs live to be big fish.

Maryland's new deer management plan, which divided the state into four hunting regions with independent bag limits for bow, muzzleloader and firearms hunters, is intended to "tailor" the deer kill according to the need for population control.In most parts of the state, the aim is toward thinning the number of breeders by emphasizing the hunt for antlerless deer. In far Western Maryland, however, the management goal is to maintain the deer population near present levels and antlered/antlerless ratio.

The state Department of Natural Resources has added a second Saturday to the fall hunting season for wild turkey and expanded the fall hunting zone to include eastern Washington County.The season will run from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7 in Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties.Proposed dates for the 1998-99 hunting seasons, other than for deer, are listed below.Upland gameEastern cottontail rabbit: Nov. 7-Feb. 6 in all counties except Garrett and Allegany; bag limit four. Oct. 31-Jan. 30 in Garrett and Allegany counties; bag limit four.