I love this state. Excellent place to live and one of the lowest cost of living in the country. Homeschool rules are very lax so the govt not up my rear end all the time. And we are relaxing trapping laws not tightening them down.
Other folks just don't know do they
So since so many Okies are in this thread I want y'all if your willing to consider contacting ODWC. I have been working on Jarod Davis the ODWC furbearer biologist to see if we can get the cat bag limit lifted. He told me it's not possible to get them to change the limit, so I offered maybe a different type of license or bag limit extension.
I've been working on him for 8 months but I'm doing it alone for the most part. My proposal was a 3 tier limit extension
56$ for +10
76$ for +20
106 for unlimited
Obviously these prices and limits can be adjusted before he gets the chance to make a final push with the "power that be" as he calls them, but if y'all know someone in the ODWC I hear that they are more inclined to make a decision like this if there is something in it for them. And I figured this might be the only way to get that limit lifted and it wouldn't have to be for every person cuz every person doesn't necessarily trap that many cats
If y'all would like to have the opportunity to catch more than 20 cats then maybe put a bug in his ear or someone else you might know up at ODWC
Feel free to contact me if you want to talk about it
-Ken Smith
405-413-5231
Definitely NOT in favor of an increasing fee tier system to allow increased bag limit. Terrible idea. I would much rather approach it from a scientific standpoint of predator control to maintain a healthy balance of predator/prey ratio. I’m not buying the argument that “it’s not possible” for the wildlife commission to increase it. They have increased the cat limit before, they increased then eliminated the raccoon limit. Maybe a good discussion for a different thread.
I mean your not wrong, they "could" increase it, but folks on the inside understand that they won't unless they get something out of it
If I catch 40+ cats at 95-110 average what does it matter if I pay them 2.5% to make it happen. I saw that in 2022 less than 10 trappers tagged 20 cats in 2023 I was told it would be less. The average cat trappers per trapper in Oklahoma in something like 2.3
So 10-15 trappers paying them and extra 100$ to get no limit helps them and the professional trappers.
And it's not like it's not open to everyone, it's not a special draw. Anyone can choose to pay for an increased limit and the ODWC makes some money so they are more likely to consider.
There is no argument that the limit should just be increased mathematically through science. Every statistic points twords removing the limit completely. I mean every state bordering Oklahoma has limit on cats. They haven't increased it because no one is screaming about it. The squeaky mouse gets the cheese. The "powers that be" are just not willing to consider that kind of change without their skids getting greased.
It's a 360 win