Know the regulations before you apply for a permit

The 2014-2015 Alaska drawing permit hunt supplement has been out for more than two weeks now. I’ll go through some of the application instructions, discuss any new hunts and finish up with some comments about lessons learned from this past season’s drawing permit hunt process.

The application period began Nov. 1 and runs through 5 p.m., Dec. 16. You must apply online; no paper applications will be accepted from now on. If you need an alternative to applying online, contact your local ADF&G office by 5 p.m., Nov. 25 and the department will provide accommodation. You must already hold a valid hunting license if you are 16 years or older before applying. The minimum age of a hunter/applicant is 10 as long as that person is 10 before the starting date of the hunt.

You may only apply for a specific hunt once per year. If you plan to submit an individual application and a party application, that specific hunt can only be listed once on one or the other of the two applications, not both. Use only the specific hunt number listed in the current supplement and be sure to list it correctly. The hunt numbers involve two capital letters and three numbers. Check to be sure you are listing the correct number for the hunt for which you apply.

You may only hold one drawing permit per species per year, and if you drew a permit for a particular hunt last year, you may not apply for that same hunt this application period. Permits are not transferrable. You can only apply for up to three different permit hunts per species on all your combined individual or party hunt applications. The one exception is that you can apply for up to six different hunts for moose, but only three can be for bulls. You can apply for six antlerless moose hunts if you so desire.

Remember the hunter education requirements for applying if you were born after Jan. 1, 1986 or if you are applying for specific hunts that require one or more of the hunter education certifications. For all the application requirements, pick up a copy of the newsprint supplement anywhere hunting licenses are sold, from your local ADF&G office or read it online.

There’s not a lot of new permit hunts this application period. If you hunt up north, there’s a new youth caribou hunt in GMUs 20 and 25 — specifically, Fortymile zones 1 and 3. There are two new moose hunts in GMU 16B. The first is referred to as Skwentna South, hunt number DM540, and the second is a youth hunt in GMU 16B, hunt number DM 541.

My wife and I learned some tough lessons regarding permit hunts this past season. We were both excited about being able to apply for up to six antlerless moose permits each, making a total of 12 chances to draw. In past years, I was the only family member to apply, and then only for three hunts.

If either of us drew a moose permit, we wanted to keep the experience a day-trip hunt rather than mounting an expedition and hauling a complete hunting camp off in the pucker-brush. As a result, we both listed hunts in areas near home. I was unfamiliar with access in some of the areas and others I hadn’t been in for a few years. I assumed things were the same in those areas as before — not!

I didn’t draw an antlerless moose permit, but my wife did. It was for an area north of our location that I hadn’t visited in a few years. All the primary public access I remembered had been converted into private ownership in recent years and all the spots I had hunted before were posted as no hunting allowed. We hunted the fringes where we could legally access spots, but things didn’t work out to our advantage.

I did draw a caribou permit. I decided to concentrate on helping my wife with her permit and I figured to hunt the winter season for my caribou. The quota for my hunt area was reached during the fall season and the winter hunt was cancelled. I never got out of the house to hunt caribou.

This year, we will only apply for antlerless moose hunts where we know we have access. We’ll also be more careful about hunt timings if we draw more than one permit total between us.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.