AUGUSTA — Despite predicted blustery weather, young sportsmen hoping to bag a deer will take to the woods on Saturday with adult mentors for Maine's annual Youth Deer Hunt Day.

This year, hunters between the ages of 10 and under 16 can hunt bucks and antlered deer throughout the state. Doe-hunting-only for youths and adults is allowed in Wildlife Management Districts that are open to Any-Deer permit hunting during the regular deer season. Those districts are 15-17 in southern Oxford County and central Maine, and along the coast in districts 20-26 and 29.

To view the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife WMD districts, visit www.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife/management/wmd/map.htm.

The firearms (bow and arrow, crossbows, firearms or muzzleloaders) deer hunt for Maine residents starts on Saturday, Oct. 31. Nonresidents can start on Monday, Nov. 3. The season ends on Nov. 28 for all firearms except muzzleloaders. Muzzleloaders can hunt through Dec. 5 statewide, and also from Dec. 7 through 12 in districts 12, 13, 15-18, 20-26 and 29.

This year, the department issued 45,385 permits to residents, nonresidents, landowners and Superpack holders.

An additional 755 permits were issued to Superpack holders who were inadvertently removed from the lottery drawing after the initial selection. Those permit holders have been notified, according to a Friday report.

The department no longer mails Any-Deer permits to permit winners, so these winners must record their permit number and report that number to the registration station when tagging their deer.

Hunters can find their Any-Deer permit number by visiting http://deer.informe.org/index.htm.

New this year are $5 registration fees, which will be collected at tagging stations during the hunting season.

The Maine Legislature approved the fee, which helps with the collection and processing of registration and biological information for big game.

Tagging stations receive $1 to collect information, and the department gets $4 to support the costs associated with inputting, processing and analyzing the collected data, the report stated.

"This fee is critical to the management of all big game species in Maine," Lee Kantar, IF&W deer and moose biologist, stated in the report.

"Without this fee increase, we would be in an extremely difficult situation as to how we currently register big game species and collect critical information about these species that guide our management decisions," Kantar said.

To switch hunting districts, Any-Deer, Landowner or Superpack deer permit winners can swap their permit with another same-type permit winner.

Additionally, residents can only swap with residents, and nonresidents can only swap with nonresidents.

The department does not keep a list of people wishing to swap permits. However, sportsman Jeff W. Zimba does, with a nondepartment-affiliated swap Web site at www.DoeTagSwap.com. For a small fee, permit winners can locate and potentially swap with other same-type permit winners.

The department still needs to be notified of the swap. Proper department paperwork must be completed.

The site also lets permit winners download for free and print a business card-sized Any Deer Permit/Transportation Tag on their home computer.

The department isn't mailing Any-Deer Permits this year, so winners are responsible for bringing their permit number to the registration station.

The IF&W permit swap fee is $7 (one fee covers both winners). The swap can be done in person at the department's main office in Augusta, or by mail with the required "swap request form" available on the department Web site. The department will assign a new permit number and mail back the form.

Swaps can be done online until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30. Mail-in requests must be received by Oct. 30. Please allow at least one week for processing. Visit www4.informe.org/ifw/nedeer/netransfer.html to complete the swap.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com