Anybody hunt feral hogs in Zaleski Forest? I'm considering extending my upcoming trip to Ohio for a few days and taking my son hunting down there. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

ask bleeohio about his luck .....I think if you are serious about hogs further south would be a better time.

You might try calling the Athens, District 4, Division of Wildlife office and see if they have any reports but hogs in SE ohio are pretty much non-existent since the USDA cleaned em out. A few hogs are running around in vinton county and locals dont seem to talk about them much

X2. Seems like the USDA has them thinned out pretty well. Also seemed to be a sore subject to most of the locals I talk to. Personally, I think you’d be pretty hard pressed to find any.

If you want hogs, keep driving south until you hit TN. The odds of seeing a wild hog in Ohio that isn’t behind a fence is astronomically low. The only hogs that do exist are escapees. There are a handful killed each year, but very few and the vast majority are in very specific locations. As in close to enclosures.

If the numbers are low and localized do yourself a huge favor and don't hunt them and make it illegal to hunt them.

Hunting does two things both bad. Busts up sounders and scatters hog over a wider area. Encourages Billy Bobs to take up the "sport" and start stocking hogs in their local areas all over the state.

Go some place where hogs are already such an issue that shooting a few and the results would be negligible.

BTW, keeping them localized and not shooting into sounders makes whole sounder trapping more effective. Whole sounder trapping is the most effective way.

Ohio has had a few wild hogs that so called hunters turned loose , just to hunt.
A few from game farms that escaped , but last I heard they were very much under control.
We don't want them here in Ohio.
There's plenty to hunt in other states that have a huge problem with them.

Any hog hunting places I ever knew anyone to hunt in Ohio were high fence "shooting preserves" that didn't have feral pigs, just swine of various parentage they'd bought and turned loose inside the enclosure. Same here in Michigan, although we had a few spots scattered around the state where hybrid European/feral hogs had escaped enclosures and were spreading. I kilt one of those in my county in 2006 ( sow dressed 165). It was running loose on state property. I knew of about15 of those that other folks whacked. They haven't seen any in quite a few years. Wildlife Services mopped up the whole bunch in the state as far as I've heard. They used "Judas Pigs".....trapped one or more in live traps and GPS collard them. They immediately fan back to their fellow porkers and the WS guys would GPS them and kill off the whole bunch.

I agree with the other OH boys on here, don't waste your time trying to find hogs in this state. If there are any here it would be so isolated and small that it wouldn't even create a blip on a radar. You'd have better luck snipe hunting. But the whether is warming up! I'd say extend your trip still and bring a fishing rod. Water is warming up slightly and it's already got the fish moving again. Or you could extend your trip and help me put up what remaining yote and bobcats I have left in the freezer lol.

when were you planning on coming down? until about may, we are in the height of flood season and zaleski floods like crazy. lot of the side roads get flooded out .

so if the ohio river is up as you cross into the state, you might have to do a lot of backtracking

Well, in our case, hunting helped get rid of them...at least until the next knuckledragger decides to turn some loose for 'sporting' reasons.

We are coming to my old home area near Dayton, OH in 2 weeks to have a memorial service for my mother who just passed away. My wife suggested I extend my stay and hunt, since the ODNR says there are hogs there. I spent a lot of time camping and hiking around Lake Hope many (MANY) years ago when I was a wee lad, but nothing recently.

Thanks all for your advice, I guess hunting is a no go, might see if my buddy up north has an opening for us to go to Erie and fish for Walleye.