By December and January, those hickory nuts will, of course, be long gone, but the squirrels likely will not, Hall said. The hunting will probably remain good in that area unless, as was the case on my trip to Monroe County, the weather temporarily becomes foul.

RABBIT REPORT
Rabbit populations tend to fluctuate by the season or weather conditions, however.

"The number of rabbits present depends on the time of the year," the biologist explained. "Production in rabbits is high in spring and early summer; however, as fall and winter approach, the habitat that was so lush in the spring and summer becomes very sparse and rabbits become susceptible to predation. Where you have good, thick escape cover, you will generally find good populations of rabbits."

As many cottontail chasers well know, the epic days of the 1950s and 1960s when rabbits populated the state in solid numbers are well past. The days when farmers left their fencerows grown up in brush, when overgrown fields were common, and when cedar mounds seemed to be on the edge of every field, largely do not exist now.

"Generally, the best rabbit habitat is where agricultural practices are still being carried out," Hall explained. "Areas along the Ohio River and Eastern Panhandle, specifically the Potomac and Shenandoah river bottomlands, have always maintained good rabbit habitat. Farmlands that produce row crops as well as brushy fence borders provide excellent habitat for cottontail rabbits."

PUBLIC LAND CHOICES
What does Dick Hall say about national forest and state lands for squirrels? Once again, his answer should not surprise anyone.

"I can't think of any of the WMAs that would be poor for squirrel hunting," Hall said concisely.

Indeed, this is certainly the case. To be honest, a squirrel hunter who lives in McDowell County along the Virginia border is not going to take off for Bear Rock Lakes WMA in Ohio County along the Pennsylvania border just because he heard that the public land hosts healthy numbers of squirrels. No one in this day and time of abundant silvertails is going to make a six-hour drive, like our hypothetical McDowell hunter, to pursue this small-game critter.

Tim Wimer and I drove 42 miles to the Potts Creek WMA because we wanted to scout for deer and turkeys and relish the outdoor experience. But if I wanted to go squirrel hunting to put meat on the table, I would have gone behind my house, to the dairy farm six miles away, or to the national forest land that lies a few miles from my home. This game plan, no doubt, is the same as most West Virginia squirrel fanciers.

If you are new to the state and really need a public land to go hunting on, visit the DNR's Web site at www.wvdnr.gov. Then click on "Hunting" and "Wildlife Management Areas." Next, click on "Select a Wildlife Management Area by Map and District." You will then see a map of the counties with numbers and letters inside. Those numbers and letters are coded to public lands.

Let's employ our hypothetical McDowell County sportsman once more. If he clicked on McDowell County, he would find the following links to public lands: "43, Anawalt Lake WMA; 45, Berwind Lake WMA; 54, Tug River WMA; and H. Panther State Forest. Our fellow sportsman could then click again, this time on the individual public lands and receive informative descriptions on each of them. All of these areas would be relatively near his home, all would offer good squirrel hunting, and maybe several of them would eventually prove interesting as a place to go after, for instance, deer and turkeys at some later date.

Dick Hall maintained that a number of public-land possibilities for rabbits exist. Obviously, though, the numbers of WMAs that offer bountiful rabbit action are far fewer than those that offer satisfying squirrel sport. One public land that the biologist does recommend for rabbits is the well-known McClintic WMA, a 3,655-acre tract in Mason County.