COLUMBUS — Ohio’s waterfowl hunting season opens Oct. 17 across all three of the state’s newly established hunting zones, giving duck and goose hunters in central Ohio a clear picture of where and when they can hunt this fall.
Franklin, Union, Delaware, Licking and Knox counties are grouped in Zone C, a designation that replaces what hunters previously knew as the South Zone. The first part of the split season for geese and ducks in Zone C runs through Oct. 25. Goose hunting resumes Nov. 21 and continues through Feb. 15, while duck season reopens Dec. 12 and runs through Jan. 31.
Daily bag limits set for the season allow five geese per day for a combination of Canada and white-fronted geese, including no more than one brant. The daily duck limit is six, with restrictions on mallards, wood ducks, pintails, redheads, canvasbacks and black ducks. Hunters are required to carry a federal duck stamp, a state waterfowl stamp and a HIP survey certification number on their hunting license.
Hunting hours run from one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. Hunters in northern Ohio face bigger changes this year, as the Lake Erie Marsh Zone and the North Zone have both been reconfigured and rebranded.
