Naze: Deer, small game and turkey hunts Sept. 17

Early goose, teal and mourning dove hunts opened Thursday, and locals who drew black bear tags up north can begin next Wednesday.

After that, there are Sept. 17 openers for bow and crossbow deer, wild turkey, gray and fox squirrel and Zone A ruffed grouse.

Prospects are very good for deer, turkey and squirrel hunters, especially. Interested hunters can check out a complete 2016 Wisconsin Hunting and Trapping Forecast online.

If you haven’t already done so, download the DNR’s free Pocket Ranger app to have season dates, rules, sunrise and sunset times and more right at your fingertips.

There’s also a Fields and Forest Lands Interactive Gamebird Hunting Tool (“FFLIGHT”) online to give hunters an interactive summary of young aspen and alder habitat to find woodcock and ruffed grouse hunting areas, pheasant-stocked public hunting grounds, and dove fields found on public hunting lands throughout Wisconsin.

Finally, if you haven’t purchased a license in the past 10 years, you’re eligible for a $5 New Buyer’s License. There are licenses available for deer, small game, fishing, trapping and turkey. Go to GoWild.WI.Gov for more.

Record pinook

Kewaunee County lost one of its state records during the K/D Salmon Tournament, but it wasn’t officially recognized until last week.

A rare cross between a chinook salmon and a pink salmon is Door County’s newest state record fish. Cody Krueger and Mike Homan of Shawano were fishing the K/D contest near Washington Island July 30 when the fish hit a meat rig on a wire diver over about 150 feet of water around 9:30 a.m.

Krueger immediately a photo to my phone via Messenger, and wondered if it was a big pink salmon.

Having photographed and handled both the previous record pinook and the current record pink, both caught off Algoma (in 2001 and 1999, respectively), my money was on pinook, and I told him so.

Little did we know that it would be nearly a month before fisheries staff finally agreed that it was a pinook, and at 9.1 pounds topped the previous record by more than half a pound.

Door County’s other state records are the chinook (44 pounds, 15 ounces, caught in 1994) and white perch (1 lb., 0.8 oz., caught in 2002).

Kewaunee County still holds state records for rainbow trout (27 pounds, 2 ounces, 1997) and pink salmon (6 pounds, 1.9 ounces, 1999).

More hunting

There were still more than 3,000 leftover fall wild turkey permits available for Zone 2 as of midweek. Check http://dnr.wi.gov/permits/fallturkey.html for a statewide update, zone by zone.

Meanwhile, the early goose hunt began Thursday and runs to Sept. 15, with a five-bird daily limit on Canada geese.

The early teal duck hunt also opened Thursday, and runs Wednesday. There’s a daily bag limit of six. No other ducks may be targeted. Shooting hours for the rest of the teal season are sunrise to 7 p.m.

Safety class

The Black Ash Gun Club is holding a hunter safety class Oct. 13-15 from 6-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 8 a.m. until about 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The DNR has completely revised the sign-up process. To sign up for the class, visit https://gowild.wi.gov and look for the link. For questions, call Barry or Quin at (920) 255-0395 or email quin@elnafarms.com.

Kevin Naze is a freelance outdoors writer. Email him at wildtimes@wizunwired.net.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Naze: Deer, small game and turkey hunts Sept. 17