Observations from Okanogan Area?

[Scottystyle]

Open sage country, so no grows.  The weather was jacked upfor sure, but I would imagine seeing the bedded in draws. Or. In the. Rocks or something.  Im wondering if poaching is an issue   

[MtnMuley]

I will guarantee that the number of late rifle quality buck permits and the general late archery season, especially with baiting allowed, has taken a big toll on the muley bucks here.

[ldjbuff]

I did end up getting a deer and we still saw 20+ deer a day but it was a lot tougher hunt than most years, we have property in some good areas up there. I gave a tip to a late hunt rifle hunter on this site, based upon the sheds i found he should have some good luck. It's all where the deer are hiding, most of the people I know up there road hunt and yes there were far less deer by the roads this year, not saying you guys road hunt. At bonaparte lodge there were like 6 deer taken the whole archery season by archery hunters, there used to be a list on the front desk with at least 30 deer taken and the area they were taken from. Deer numbers are down but I think this year the weather was the biggest enemy.

[rideorange]

i did carlton area couple days, not very familiar with area but numbers i say were very low, partner did get a 3 point. some guys shooting with more shells than i even take with me, scarey, i moved back up valley to familiar territory, one spot that always produces absolutly no tracks on whole mountain, moved about 8 miles and was seeing average 30 deer a day, cant believe the number of does, like all does, lots of fawns from this year also, almost all does had one. no predator tracks, also very surprised did not find any bones, usually always see those, buck population at 0 or really hiding, only couple rubs, in very ugly places, and yes i put on the miles, no roads or trails, also came back with tag soup. only real cool thing that happened, standing in open in middle of deer trail 15 animals come up trail and decide to bed down next to me, like 5' from me, that big orange vest is just a different looking tree i guess, was able to walk away without spooking them too

[canyelk48]

My partner and I hunted all over from Bonaparte Lake to Chesaw and also just West of Tonasket and saw very few deer, and those were does.  There were only 6 bucks logged in at the Resort for the first week of the season. We did find one 1x2 muley just West of Tonasket that some scumbag shot and left to rot.  Talked to one guy at the Bonaparte Lake Resort who had encountered a Native earlier in July/August with deer in his truck and he bragged about this one being his 28th deer so far.  Perhaps that's a big reason why the deer numbers were so low this year???  Not trying to stir the pot with Native issues, but isn't it about time that the Natives should have to adhere to the same regulations that we do when it comes to hunting??  At best, let them hunt their Rez's however they want, but when off the Rez, obey our laws!

[ldjbuff]

X2 on the indians, we talked to a guy with 3 deer hanging at his house, he lives on toroda creek road. He said he was stocking up for winter. He hunts his fields.

But we still saw bucks in our honey holes, Bonaparte area is hunted heavy and we still saw 2-3 decent bucks a day.

[CAMPMEAT]

Open sage country, so no grows.  The weather was jacked upfor sure, but I would imagine seeing the bedded in draws. Or. In the. Rocks or something.  Im wondering if poaching is an issue 

Open sage = muleys

[superdown]

My dad got a 4pt whitetail but as everyone else has said deer numbers were as low as i have ever seen. We skipped the fisrt two days of season because of the amount of people in the area was insane so we just went fishing. on Monday we saw two doe and a spike white tail. Tuesday we saw four whitetail doe. on Wednesday we went out for our morning hunt i got a rabbit when we got back to camp for lunch my fiance and my mom wanted to go fishing so we went to the lake and got 18 trout between the four of us. after we got back to camp my dad and i went on our afternoon/evening hunt that's when he shot his 4pt. we started to time the road hunters passing our camp and we had one passing our trailer every two minutes for about 4 hours each day 2 hours in the morning and 2 about hours in the evening.   

[huntnphool]

Every once in awhile you'll get someone that pipes in that they seen a ton, but I often wonder about those sightings

Well I guess you are talking about me. FWIW, I was in the Methow Pumpkin Patch the entire season, and like most of you guys wasn't seeing much after the initial onslaught on Saturday/Sunday. I counted 45 deer Saturday and 39 Sunday, with most of them heading right to the private land in the bottom of the valley, where the majority stayed the entire week.

 Every day we managed to see a good number of deer but the local, non migratory bucks were quickly wiped out. Each day we heard less and less shots, unless it was some idiot that emptied his clip on a buck that he couldn't hit.

 If you go back and read threads from last year and the year before you will hear guys saying the deer just were not there and the numbers are down blah blah blah..........wolves, cougars, bear, yotes etc etc etc. I'm quite sure they do make a impact on the herds but sooner or later you guys are going to wake up and realize that the single biggest factor in lack of deer sighting in the general season is the time of year WDFW is putting us out there.

 After the weather started to turn on Tuesday, we actually got some snow high in the hills, the deer started showing up more and more each day. We saw 50+ deer this last Saturday and more on Sunday.

 Same thing last year and the year before, yet when I went back 2 weeks later for late hunts there were deer in every draw, on every hill and plenty of bucks. Don't believe me? thats okay, just ask Bucklucky and his wife, they had never been there before and couldn't believe how many deer there were and how people on these sites could be saying there are no deer.

 This is what happens when WDFW starts the season on the second weekend of October and only lets the season go through the following weekend, some of us have been explaining this every year. It doesn't matter how long the season is if it ends on the 21st of Oct, you are likely only going to see local, non migratory deer and when they are wiped out the first few days its going to seem like the numbers are way down. They could add another week to the hunt but if its added on to the front end of Oct. its really not going to change the numbers much, other than it would greatly help spread out the hunting pressure. The same local deer aree the ones that are going to be harvested and not much more.

 When you take all those hunters and force them all to take off the same week from work and hunt the same time, the escapement for those legal bucks that are out there is extremely low. Once you take them out thats pretty much it until the weather and rut bring the migratory deer down out of the high areas. Is it a surprise that the last decent year we had was 04, the last year that the season ran to the 28th? If you think this year was bad just wait until next year when the season starts and ends a day earlier, and the year after that when it starts and ends two days earlier.

 After that we were told that the next three year set was going to see the eastside modern season was going to be cut back to allow the herds to rebound. Well this year we have the area bio's coming out and saying the herd is in great shape. My question is if the herd is in great shape then why have we not been given those days back?

 I'm betting 95% of you that hunt over there don't go back a week or two later to see what the difference actually is, to see for yourself. I'm not sure how you can hunt over there for a few days and come up with the determination that their numbers a way down.

 Yes there are those of us that come on here and pipe up that we saw a ton. Some will believe me, some won't, but those that I help out each year don't complain. 

[Guy]

Thanks for that. Rings true to me. 

Guy

[wamuledeer]

I agree also phool. Last year during the regular season we had a tough time seeing much of anything. We went back over early November and deer were everywhere. I have a whitetail tag in Winthrop next month and two of my buddies I will be camping with have Pearrygin late mule deer tags. It is going to be a fun week.

[huntnphool]

I have a whitetail tag in Winthrop next month and two of my buddies I will be camping with have Pearrygin late mule deer tags. It is going to be a fun week.

That is going to be a great hunt, I will be over there helping another member again this year, good luck to you.

[huntnphool]

 On another note, opening morning Shorty and I were hiking into a area and at first light a guy a couple hundred yards away shot a buck. We watched for a couple minutes as he made his way up the hill to his buck and then we continued on. Sunday night I had to run Shorty home for school on Monday and headed back over first thing in the morning. I went out for a short hike and still saw a bunch of birds on that guys gut pile. I set up the spotter to get a closer look and saw antlers sticking up so I wandered over. It looks as though the guy just saw antlers and shot rather than confirming it was a legal buck.

 I gave the details, GPS location and description of the vehicle to WDFW. I didn't get the license number because I didn't think anything was wrong at the time since I didn't see the buck before he shot.

 I found a dead 4 point as well that someone had lost, a buddy on here found a lost 4 point as well.

[savage.270]

this was my first year hunting and my friend helped get into hunting. he lives in the tonasket area and i went with him and his dad. he said it was the worst year for seeing deer in his life. his dad said the same. we did see deer down in the orchards. but only saw 2 bucks. one wasnt legal and one wasnt confirmed but as assumed legal(at about 400 yards and opening).

[boneaddict]

I actually wasn't.  I was speaking more of the ones seeing a ton of deer, generally in the field by big twin off of Paterson, or Moccassin, or up by the game range or bottom of beaver creek.  Some folks freak when they see 50 deer in a field.   They have no concept of what looking at those fields for the last 40 years has been like, or what the historical perspective might be.   

We have this arguement every year and of course I still think it would be devastating to have the season later.  We have already witnessed what it did the last time they tried that stunt.  Sure, you guys can knock em dead for a year.  Good luck the year after.

I would love to be wrong.  I hope when I go out next week all of the deer miraculously show up and I can see hundreds in the fields and lowlands to photograph.   I am sure I will find some as I usually do.  It sure isn;t like it used to be.   Pretty sick looking curve lately even compared to" the graph" I have been "charting" through countless bad winters, late hunts, early snows, the banning of hounds etc.