CHARLESTON, W.Va. —  Members of the Natural Resources Commission heard the recommendations of Division of Natural Resources biologists Sunday for the coming big game seasons in the state.  However, the most notable suggestion presented at the Claudia L. Workman Nature Education Center had very little to do with bag limits or season dates.

A proposal from the Director of the DNR recommended the youth whitetail hunting seasons be changed to allow the young hunter to kill a buck or a doe.   Previously the hunts were strictly for antlerless deer.

“The Director of the Division of Natural Resources proposes that youth hunters during the Special Youth Deer Season be allowed to harvest either sex deer,”  read the proposal as it was presented to the Commission.

The proposal goes on to say the youth hunter would be allowed to kill one buck during the youth season and it would count toward the young hunter’s season bag limit of two antlered deer.   There is an exception for hunting in the CWD Containment Area where the season bag limit remains three antlered deer for the season.  The propsoal would allow the youth to kill one antlerless deer during the youth season which would not count toward their season bag limit of antlerless deer.

The proposal from the Director wasn’t the only suggested change for the youth hunting seasons.   There is also a proposal from the DNR Wildlife Section to change the limit in the youth squirrel hunting season to six squirrels in aggregate per day and the possession and season limit to 12 squirrels in aggregate.  The change is proposed to take effect in the 2025 squirrel hunting season.  Assistant Chief for Game Steve Rauch told Commissioners the change was to enable youth hunters to kill a limit of squirrels on both days of the season and corrects an oversight when the season went from a Saturday to a Saturday-Sunday season.

As for bag limits in the upcoming whitetail deer season, the biggest change is the well documented reduction of the overall number of bucks a hunter can kill in West Virginia from three to two.   This fall will be the first season the new limit will be in place and hunters will only be allowed to kill two bucks combined across the archery, firearms, and muzzleloader seasons.

The rest of the proposed changes for big game hunting in the state for the coming year were minimal.

There is a proposal to loosen the restrictions on antlerless hunting in southern Kanawha County.  Those areas were closed to antlerless hunting in 2023. For this year, the agency recommends allowing resident land owners to kill one antlerless deer and issuing 250 permts for non-landowners for antlerless deer hunting in the area.  It’s likely a change which will be welcomed since two of the public speakers at Sunday’s meeting asked for the restrictions on antlerless huning in Kanawha County be loosened.

The agency proposed  unlimited antlerless hunting permits for the eastern section of Raleigh County with a bag limit of one.   The bag limiit for antlerless deer in 2024 in Brooke and Ohio County is recommmended to be raised to three.

There were no counties or areas of the state where antlerless hunting restrictions were tighened.

The proposed bear hunting regulations were also minimal.  The DNR recommended a more liberal hunting season without dogs to a 7 day season running September 21-27.   The season would be open in

–Barbour County west of Route 92

–Braxton County west of I-79

–Calhoun County

–Clay County north of the Elk River

–Harrison

–Lewis

–Mercer

–Monongalia

— Monroe County west of Route 219

–Roane

–Taylor

–Summers

–Upshur County west of Route 20

The four lakes have been catch and release waters ever since they were built.   Bioloigists said without any harvest, the population of black bass has grown to the point it has created a uniform size structure among the bass population.

“Biological data has illustrated an overall decline in size structure, while abundance data remains extremely high in comparison to most of WV’s impounded waterbodies. Additionally, the observed relative weight, a statistic used to evaluate body condition, of black bass is less than standard targets. These data suggest that an overabundance of black bass is negatively influencing growth rates, size structure, and ultimately maximum lengths obtained by fish in these waters,”  wrote fish managers in thier presentation to the Natural Resoruces Commission.

“The goal of the proposed regulation is to encourage angler harvest of fish under 16 inches to reduce densities of smaller fish. Should these regulations work as intended, growth rates and size structure of black bass are expected to increase on these waters,”  the proposal added.

The idea is experimental and would be augmented by ongoing tagging studies and annual electrofishing on the four waters to determine if the new regulation improves the average size of fish caught from the four impoundments.

All other fishing regulations are proposed to be unchanged from last year.

All of the proposed changes to game and fish laws will be up for discussion and public input at the March Sportsman’s Sectional meeting which are set for March 11-12.  The big game regulations will be voted upon by Commissioners at the next Commission meeting slated for April 24 at Blackwater Falls State Park.