Try Utah if you missed out of a Nevada big game hunting tag

If you were one of the unsuccessful applicants in Nevada’s big game tag draw you may not have to sit this season out after all. Utah still has more than 3,300 buck mule deer permits available and they go on sale at 7 a.m. PDT Thursday, July 11 . (That’s 8 a.m. in Utah, which is in the Mountain time zone and observes daylight saving time.)

But don’t wait too long to decide if you want to buy a permit because they are going to sell out fast.

There are no permits remaining for the any legal weapon season, but you will have a shot at one of 1,452 general archery deer permits or 1,851 muzzleloader permits that were left on the table following Utah’s permit draw. Those remaining permits are scattered across nine of Utah’s 30 hunt units, mostly in the northern part of the state. You may have to travel a ways, but probably no farther than you would if you were going to hunt in White Pine County or Elko County. Also available are 3,315 youth archery deer permits for hunters who will be 18 years old or younger on Aug. 17 .

All remaining deer tags will be available on a first-come first-served basis and can be purchased at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources website (wildlife.utah.gov), at its offices statewide and at more than 300 license vendors around the state. With that kind of availability you can see why they won’t last long. Keep in mind that you must have a valid hunting license or combination license to purchase a permit. If you don’t have one already you can purchase it when you buy one online at the time you purchase a big game permit.

If you are interested in buying one of Utah’s available hunting permits, be prepared to find an online crowd at the DWR website. According to Judi Tutorow, Utah’s wildlife licensing coordinator, once the website has enough traffic users will see a popup message that indicates the site has reached maximum capacity. If you find that to be the case, give it a few minutes and the site should return to normal. If you have any questions call the DWR Salt Lake City office, (801) 538-4700.

In addition to the leftover mule deer tags, Utah also has both bull and antlerless elk permits available. Bull permits have been on sale since the last week of June, but as of this writing they still come up as an option when I login to my Utah account. That means permits are still available. Once they are gone they will no longer appear in your list of options. Antlerless elk permits will be available July 18 at 7 a.m. PDT.

A non-resident basic Utah hunting license is $65 but you can buy a combination hunting and fishing license for $80. The prices for non-resident hunting permits are as follows: mule deer, $268; antlerless elk, $218; archery, muzzleloader and any legal weapon general bull elk, $393. The bull elk permits include a fishing license.

ICAST

After testing the waters elsewhere in 2012, the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades, also known as ICAST, has made its way back to the Las Vegas Convention Center. This year the show is co-located with the International Fly Tackle Dealer show to provide attendees with a look at everything the fishing industry has to offer, said ICAST Trade Show Director Kenneth Andres.

ICAST opened to manufacturers and vendors on Wednesday but is not open to the general public. This is the place where outlets from ranging from large, national store chains down to small, lake side tackle stores determine what you will find on their store shelves and in their catalogs during the coming year. This also is the place where your favorite fishing publications find content for product reviews that will appear in their pages during the coming months.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.