Hunters will be happy to hear that the Board of Pennsylvania Game Commissioners have voted on Jan. 15 to maintain the firearms buck hunting season the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

There was an earlier proposal to start the firearms season the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but that drew loads of complaints from sportsmen as they gave numerous reasons against the proposal.

But there still remains many hunters who would like to go back to the longtime traditional Monday after Thanksgiving opener that the PGC changed to the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2019.

At their recent meeting, the board gave preliminary approval for the 2026-27 seasons that include several significant changes. They changes are as follows:

* For wild turkeys, a bag limit of one spring gobbler is proposed to offset possible additional harvest due to the inclusion of Sundays and ensure that harvest rates remain within sustainable levels.

* For white-tailed deer, minor adjustments to date structure of extended firearms, flintlock, and late archery seasons are proposed to reduce complexity and to ensure season lengths and correspond to sporting arm efficiency and management objectives.

* For black bears, in WMU 3D, a longer archery bear season (overlapping with the entire first segment of the archery deer season) is proposed to increase harvest response to high levels of bear-human conflict in this area.

* For elk, a new early October firearms season segment is proposed to limit crowding and maintain hunter satisfaction under current and potential future increase license allocations. The late firearms elk season is proposed to be moved later in January to avoid conflicts with major holidays.

* For small game, the squirrel, ruffed grouse, rabbit, pheasant, bobwhite quail and woodchuck seasons all are proposed to remain open during the firearms deer season.

The PGC says the public may offer comments on all proposed 2026-27 seasons and bag limits, as well as other board actions, between now and the board’s next meeting on April 10 and 11 at PGC’s Harrisburg headquarters.

TROUT

STOCKINGS

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission announced that the 2026 trout stocking schedule has been posted on their website. As a sampling and in Lehigh County, initial stockings are as follows but not all portions of the stream will receive trout at one time:

Jordan Creek, Feb. 17; Little Lehigh, 2-18; Kistler Creek, 2-24, Ontelaunee Creek, Switzer Creek; Monocacy Creek, 2-28; Little Lehigh, 2-26.

In Northampton County: Minsi Lake, 2-19; Saucon Creek, 2-20; Little Bushkill, 2-23; Monocacy, 2-25; Hokendauqua Creek, 2-28.

The PFBC says volunteers are welcome to help stock and should check the schedule for the creek(s) you wish to help with and show up on the location and times.