Indiana’s fifth annual National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) state tournament promises to be the largest indoor youth archery tournament in state history. The tournament will be March 11 at the Horizon Convention Center in Muncie.

The tournament features 45 participating schools with nearly 1,000 students competing.

Last year, more than 800 students from over 30 schools participated. Over the tournament history, participation has increased every year. There is no charge for admission.

Indiana NASP coordinator Tim Beck said he hopes the growth will continue, not only with the tournament but for the number of in-school programs.
Doors open at 7 a.m. with flight (shooting) times starting at 8 a.m. A new flight will start every two hours, with the last flight scheduled for 4 p.m. A shoot-off of the six top male and female scorers will follow the last flight.

The shoot-off will determine the individual winners in the 4th-6th, 7th-8th and 9th-12th grade classifications; and an awards ceremony will follow.
The Indiana Field Archery Assoc. will run the tournament with Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation officers, along with many volunteers. The Indiana Hunter Education Assoc. is sponsoring the tournament.

Supported as a joint venture between school corporations throughout Indiana and the DNR, NASP provides international target archery training in Indiana’s physical educational classes in grades 4-12. NASP supports student education and introduces life skills through the sport of archery.

Tournament competition is only open to schools offering the archery training provided by the DNR Division of Law Enforcement and having the archery program as a part of their school’s curriculum.

The program is supported and often funded through local school corporations, the Indiana Hunter Education Assoc., individual donations, conservation organizations and corporate sponsors such as the National Wild Turkey Federation.

For more information on NASP, visit www.indiananasp.com or contact Beck at 812-482-3093 or e-mail him at tbeck@dnr.IN.gov

Chinook tagging for Indiana
A program aimed at improving the restoration and management of Great Lakes’ fish communities is coming to Indiana this spring. The Great Lakes Mass Marking Program will kick into full swing in mid-March when the DNR marks nearly 225,000 small Chinook salmon scheduled for spring stocking in Lake Michigan.
The 2011 tagging effort is focusing on Chinook salmon to assess natural reproduction levels and provide fishery managers detailed data on survival parameters of each agency’s stockings.

Coded wire tag, mass-marking technology has been used effectively in the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Great Lakes for many years. Now, federal funding has allowed for a basin-wide tagging effort with all federal, state and tribal fish hatcheries participating.

“The mass-marking program is very important, and Indiana is committed to use this technology to learn more about where Indiana’s fish are caught and to compare survival from our three stocking sites,” said Brian Breidert, a DNR fisheries research biologist. “In addition to a fin clip, each fish will receive a micro-tag specifically coded to a stocking location.

“Current estimates indicate over 50 percent of the Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan are wild fish, and use of mass marking will refine that estimate and lead to a better understanding of Chinook population trends.”

The hatchery-raised Chinook will be about 3 inches long when tagged and close to 4 inches long when they are released in March. Biologists will use a specially designed trailer to count, measure, remove the adipose fin and inject each fish’s snout with a small coded wire. The tags cannot be seen with the naked eye but the clipped adipose fin will tell biologists and anglers a tag is present, indicating a hatchery-stocked fish.

Beginning in 2012, biologists will collect information and Chinook salmon heads during creel surveys and fishing tournaments. They will focus on fish with the missing adipose fin.

Trout and other salmon species will be tagged in future years so biologists will have the ability to answer questions regarding those species, as well.

Deer season kill sets new record
Indiana hunters established a record for the third straight year by reporting an overall kill of 134,004 deer taken during the 2010 seasons. Reports submitted from 461 check stations across Indiana topped the 2009 total by 1,252 deer, posting a 1 percent increase and bettering the 2008 total by more than 4,200 deer.

“We’re seeing a healthy number of deer throughout much of the state, and that is translating into success by our hunters during the hunting season” DNR deer biologist Chad Stewart said.

The 2010 total was bolstered by a record 80,997 antlerless deer and 53,007 antlered deer, the second-highest antlered total in the 60-year history of regulated deer hunting in Indiana.

The results came despite a slight dip in deer hunting license sales. Hunters purchased 268,485 licenses in 2010, compared to 271,951 in 2009. Resident firearms tags topped the list, totaling 102,626, and made up 38 percent of the license sales.

Hunters harvested 86,241 deer in the firearms segment; 26,342 in early archery (including urban zones), 17,400 in muzzle-loader and 1,684 in late archery. There were 2,337 deer taken during the two-day youth season.

Modern-era records were set in 29 counties, and another 20 showed harvest increases from the 2009 season. Thirteen counties set records for the second straight year.

“Hunters are continuing to put up high harvest numbers and see a lot of success in many northern counties,” Stewart said.

The biggest year-over-year harvest increases were reported in Montgomery (up 356 over 2009), Fountain (up 289), LaGrange (up 253), Pulaski (up 184) and Putnam (up 180). The biggest year-over-year harvest declines were reported in Harrison (down 311), Brown (down 279), Perry (down 202), Steuben (down 154) and Jackson (down 141).

Harvest totals in the northeastern Indiana corridor of Steuben, Noble and Kosciusko counties ranked first, fourth and second, respectively, for the second straight year despite Steuben and Kosciusko both reporting declines from their 2009 totals.

Hunters bagged 3,948 deer in Steuben, down from 4,102 the year before but still enough to make Steuben the top county in Indiana for the sixth straight year. Hunters reported 3,578 deer in Kosciusko, followed by Switzerland (3,400), Noble (3,323) and Franklin (3,054) counties.

The male-to-female ratio of the overall harvest was 50:50 for the third straight year. Male deer (antlered deer and button bucks) made up 50 percent of the total harvest. The complete report of the 2010 season is online at www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/2717.htm along with reports from 2000-09.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Jack Spaulding may contact him by e-mail at jackspaulding@hughes.net or by writing to him in care of this publication