The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation back in December sent out a list of proposed changes related to hunting and fishing.
The ODWC does this each year and seeks input from the public. The agency provides three ways those people who are interested in responding can do so.
They include filling out an online public comment form, mailing a letter to the department or attending a public hearing that was held last Thursday, Jan. 6.
I must admit I didn’t do any of that. Not because I didn’t care or wasn’t interested, but I got busy and forgot about the deadline which was last Friday, Jan. 7.
One of the proposed changes, though, did catch my eye.
One was closing the quail season on Jan. 31 each year and opening up trapping season to statewide trapping regulations from Feb. 1 to the end of February on western Oklahoma WMA’s.
It’s the first part of that proposal which caught my attention and that is closing the quail season on Jan. 31.
Personally, I’m fine with closing the quail season the final day of January each year.
That idea got me to reminiscing about the early 1960s when I started hunting bobwhites. In those days, we were only allowed to hunt quail on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and official holidays.
The holidays included Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. In those days, the season always opened Nov. 20 and it closed on Jan. 15.
That meant if the season opened on Nov. 20, and if it wasn’t one of those days, we had to wait for the first allowed day after that to hunt.
I remember well that my dad always planned part of his vacation days around when he could hunt quail.
He had a good friend that almost always hunted with him and us that did that quite a bit too. Dad and I generally always hunted Thanksgiving morning.
We never hunted on Christmas.
And provided the weather was decent enough, always hunted on Jan. 1.
Over the years of course, the days allowed to hunt gradually increased. The Wildlife Department also at some point set the season closing date on Jan. 31 and eventually made it Feb. 15 which is the way it stands today.
Eventually, everyday hunting was allowed.
Still, though, until the last several years, and I’m not sure exactly when it was, the season opened on Nov. 20.
Now it opens on the second Saturday of November which is always earlier.
In essence, the quail season today is longer than it’s ever been and as far as opportunity in terms of days allowed, far greater than when the ODWC was created and began regulating hunting of the bobwhites.
As I said earlier, I’m fine with closing the season Jan. 31.
Quail hunting has become so dismal in the areas I’ve hunted all my life, ending it two weeks earlier isn’t going to make much difference anyway.