As publishedNov 6, 2026 - Nov 29, 2026
Restricted to 16 counties and specific wildlife areas only (exact county list not located in this pass). Youth small game season (quail included) runs Oct 24-25, 2026 and Oct 31-Nov 1, 2026, same bag as regular season. Wild bobwhite population is low-density in Ohio (ODNR's 2020-21 hunter survey estimated only ~728 wild-bobwhite hunters and ~208 birds harvested statewide that season) - relative-scale context only, not current-year data.
ODNR's Crown City Wildlife Area Northern Bobwhite Population Status Report (Lawrence/Gallia counties, roadside call-count + distance sampling, annual since 2019) is a real, rigorous, but narrowly-scoped instrument -- the 2025 edition (published June 2025) estimated 159 bobwhite (95% CI: 88-287), broadly stable-to-increasing since 2019. A 2026 edition was checked for directly this pass (guessed URL 404s) and via fresh search -- not found. Fieldwork runs May 15-June 30 annually; exact report-publish lag versus fieldwork completion isn't independently confirmed, so an exact expected date can't be stated, but no 2026 edition exists yet as of 2026-08-19.