Early numbers are in for Ohio’s deer hunting season

On Feb 6, 2023

Ohio hunters checked almost 208,000 whitetail deer by the end of January. Numbers for the entire 2022-23 season, which ends Sunday, will be released later this week.

Deer season ends Sunday, a shining success as measured by the numbers. The Ohio winter, meanwhile, has not been all it can be, though ice fishermen during recent decades have learned to temper expectations.

Hunters had checked almost 208,000 whitetails by the end of January, topping 200,000 for the first time in a decade. What that might mean in terms of next season’s regulations won’t be known – nor will be the final 2022-23 season numbers – until later this week.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife is scheduled to present the Ohio Wildlife Council with proposals for the 2023-24 deer season on Wednesday. At least some of the planning will be related to what transpired during the season just passed.

Woodchuck prognostications aside, February temperature forecasts aren’t in the ice-making range, so prospects for angling on hard water in 2023 aren’t looking promising. Maybe next year.

Of possible interest will be whether a lack of ice cover portends a reduced hatch of Lake Erie yellow perch and walleye. Some evidence suggests yellow perch and walleye fare worse in years with scattered to non-existent ice cover, although factors influencing hatch success are numerous and complex.

Numbers produced by trawl surveys conducted each year by fishery biologists from Ohio’s wildlife division and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are less controversial, and the 2022 walleye hatch surveys were smiling-emoji positive in the widespread areas of Lake Erie that were sampled.

Walleye results in the western basin, which covers the lake’s shallowest section from Huron westward, averaged 85 fish per hectare, the fewest since 2017 although ranking ninth among hatches during the past 35 years. The 2021 survey remarkably turned up more than 320 young walleye per hectare, an area that covers 2.47 acres.

Walleye also scored well in the central basin from Huron east to the state border. Surveys turned up 14 young-of-year walleye per hectare, the seventh-highest result in 33 years.

Yellow perch delivered 572 per hectare in the western basin, nudging into the upper tier of trawl survey results. The long-term average stands at 461. Not boding well were the central basin perch results, which turned up only three young-of-year perch per hectare overall.

The above-average walleye hatches in the western basin are especially promising. Mature walleye spread east into the deeper parts of the lake during the spring and summer before returning in autumn to stage near their western basin nursery in preparation for spring reproduction.

Yellow perch, however, don’t demonstrate the same regular and wide-ranging movement. Although the perch schools do follow bait and are affected by water changes, they tend to stay in one place more than walleye.

In addition, yellow perch don’t live as long as walleye. Consequently, weak perch hatches in a large section of the lake affect the catch.

Wildlife agencies will set 2023 take quotas in March derived from yellow perch and walleye populations. Ohio catch limits will follow a predetermined formula based on the state’s allowable take.

Parting shots

Dan Armitage, a Worthington resident, longtime outdoors writer and a featured speaker at many a sportsman’s show, has ended a 26-year run as host of the Buckeye Sportsman radio program. … Squirrel season closed last week, and so did the hunting and trapping seasons for fox, raccoon, skunk, opossum and weasel. … Duck season has ended in central Ohio. Goose season continues through Feb. 13.