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Locals flock to ODFW office for leftover bow-hunt tags Mail Tribune / Alex Szlachtianshyn Mike Ziemba, left, and his brother, Tom, center, buy their bow-hunting tags from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Merv Wolfer at 4:03 a.m. Sunday, shortly after the sale of tags left over from the June lottery began at the Central Point ODFW office and elsewhere in Oregon. By MARK FREEMAN CENTRAL POINT - During 30 years as deer hunters, Tom and Mike Ziemba never considered giving up fall rifle-hunting for blacktail bucks just for a chance to try their hands at bows and arrows. But the Ashland brothers were willing to give up a good night's sleep Saturday for the chance. The Ziembas were among almost 20 hunters who spent Saturday night camped outside the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Central Point to earn their best possible shots Sunday at bow-hunting tags under the agency's new program for dishing out leftover tags. When ODFW biologists turned on their tag-sale computers at 4 a.m., the Ziembas were the first of about 80 hunters in line at the agency's Central Point office to buy previously unwanted deer and elk tags on a first-come, first-served basis. By 4:03 a.m., the life-long rifle hunters became prospective archers as well. "None of us were willing to give up our rifle tags, so we've never been able to bow hunt in my life," Tom Ziemba said. "Because of this, I can now do both." John Thiebes, the ODFW's Rogue Watershed manager, said most agency biologists had little notion that these unwanted tags in the first lottery would draw so much attention Sunday. "This just shows you the real desire of wanting to have hunting as a quality recreational experience," Thiebes said. Before dawn on Sunday, several hundred sport-hunters herded into cramped ODFW field offices here and elsewhere in Oregon to vie for the approximately 2,200 leftover deer and elk tags. The tags were in 12 of Oregon's 36 big-game management units where hunter numbers are limited each year to ensure no over-harvest of animals or to reduce over-crowding by hunters or both. The tags went on sale at exactly 4 a.m. and will remain available until all are sold. Ironically, the tags were not considered desirable enough for anyone to apply for them in the June lottery, but had become appealing Sunday for two primary reasons. First, hunters who struck out in the June lottery could still get limited-entry tags. Second, they could nab extra tags that previously were off-limits to hunters who traditionally have been limited to one or two deer tags a year, or just one elk tag. "Get two elk tags? We've waited a lifetime for this to happen," says Kathryn Pabst, who was one the hunters camped overnight at the ODFW's Central Point office off Agate Road. Pabst considered driving to Ontario before she realized that town's Mountain Time positioning would not get her an hour's head start at the draw. But she could have used a minute's head start. Pabst's application for a bull-elk tag in southwestern Oregon's Tioga Unit went into the computer at 4:12 a.m., one minute after the last of 25 leftover Tioga tags were swallowed up. She settled for a cow-elk tag in Coos County's Powers Unit. Pabst would have drawn her coveted Tioga tag had she showed up 15 minutes earlier Saturday and beaten Dick and Sherry Walker to the overnight ticket campout. The Walkers drove from their Bonanza home outside Klamath Falls to get in early Saturday because they failed to draw any tags in the June lottery. Sherry Walker went first and drew the last of the 31 leftover Crooked River elk tags. Dick Walker settled for a Mount Emily tag for a spike-only elk hunt. "He'll cook when I hunt, and I'll cook when he hunts," Sherry Walker said. "I'll tell you if this is all worth it after the hunt." Perhaps no one cooked up a bigger batch of tags than Waylon Knight and Christ Carlgren of Sherwood, who were in town for a Saturday night bachelor party but still snagged the 29th spot in line. They each drew one leftover elk tag and two leftover deer tags. Combined with tags they won in the June lottery and general-season bow tags, they each have legal tags to kill as many as five deer this fall. "This is what I've wanted for a long time," says Knight, 26. "It's better than winning the lottery." For the Ziembas, their first bow-hunting experience begins today. "We'll be out hunting (today)," Ziemba says, "for bows." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.