Winthrop/Cub Creek area

[kirkl]

i doubt its the youth doe hunt, look at the harvest reports, there was only like 30 does killed and less in the surrounding gmu's since they give out less than perragyn gmu. if 30 less does out of the population are able to cause this then theres bigger problems. and yes. my daughter gas a does tag.

[kirkl]

oh ya, 3 fingered jacks for the seahawks game. get there early cause it can fill up.

[Oldguy]

Everywere i went there was cattle.I know on the bear cr. rd. side my buddy has a cabin there and says that guy runs his cattle right thru private property to get to the range land.When he yelled at him.He told him he can do what he wants it free range land.......I guess he is quite the a$$ from what he said.

The conflict with ranchers in that area is mainly caused by uninformed people who are not residents of the valley. There are permit grazing lands in the Okanagan National Forest and the open grazing laws the Methow Valley state that a property owner is responsible to fence his property to keep out cattle, not like non-open grazing land where the cattle must be fenced in. Hope that helps better understand the conflict.

[Alchase]

I was refering to my spot wich is almost 20 miles NE of town up in the hills. I have seen more deer the last 2 years than ever before.  Last year (2007) i got a nice 5x5 along with my uncle and his Doe tag.  The year before (2006) we got a 4x4 and 3x2 in our camp.  I just dont buy into the deer number being down.  Lots of fawns and lots of deer from what i have seen!  By the way only like 10 more days!  Woooo Hoo!

Where exactly was that? LOL just kidding.
I do not think the area ever fully recovered after the first year "youth any deer tag" was allowed. We saw one camp that had fourteen deer (spikes and does) hanging after the opener. they had butt loads of kids in their camp. Funny the kids could not remember who shot which deer? I remember every deer I have ever shot, especially my first one. Add two fires over the same range in the following years, if I was a deer I would leave the are as well, lol. I shot my biggest buck in that area in a year we only saw two shooters and I took one of them, so go figure. 

[saylean]

I got a second deer tag (anterless) that I am looking forward to using...hopefully will get to kill my first doe!

Plus, the way the economy is going, I am sure I can use the meat.

[boneaddict]

Wiilywin, I'm not trying to persuade people one way or another.  I just post what I know and what I see and believe it or not I have a bit of experience in the area.  Goodluck.

As for the magazines.   

That cattle rancher is probably one of my old best friends from Highschool, and I laugh at it.  Those damn Californians hate it when the cattle come through and *censored* on their green lawns.  LOL

[Oldguy]

Boneaddict, would that rancher friend's first name start with a "T?"

[wilywin]

Wiilywin, I'm not trying to persuade people one way or another.  I just post what I know and what I see and believe it or not I have a bit of experience in the area.  Goodluck.

[wilywin]

Yah same hear.  I also have some experince over there also.  Been hunting the same spot for almost 20 years and my grandfather hunted there from back in the 50's. Same hill!!! And what i am seeing is plenty of deer!  Lots of fawns the last few years.  Good Luck to everyone!

[boneaddict]

It does indeed.  Know him?  I would like to call him a great friend, though I haven't hardly talked to him except when I run into him moving cows and I am looking for bucks.  His family and mine are fairly close though through lots of relations and activities and great people, and I'd still come running if he needed something.

[alecvg]

Actually there are usually about 500-800 there in that area, so yeah, that is bad.

What do you mean by usually; I have never seen that many deer there in the past 10 years, and haven't even heard of that many in the past 15 years.  The most I have seen in a night is a little over 300, and we check quite a bit.  I am sure it was much better 20 or 30 years ago.

[boneaddict]

The whole area from wolf creek from Winthrop through Twin Lakes up towards Patterson and the Moccasin Lake ranch back towards the High School, you can see 100 IN A FIELD

[alecvg]

Here is my theory of why the Methow and Winthrop area aren't as good of hunting as it was 15 years ago: 30 years ago and even 15 years ago, there Winthrop was mostly a farming town, know, that people have "discovered" it, lots and lots of hippies have moved in.  Back when it was all farmers, they hunted their land and pushed the deer up onto the public land, but know that the hippies have taken over(for the most part) much less pressure is down low, they all want them down there, therefore, the deer have no reason to move up, they can just stay down in the lowlands.  I think there are still lots and lots of deer there, they just are all down low, were nobody can see them.  Now am sure the population is low now because of the bad winter kills the past couple years, but I think there are still the normal amount of deer on normal year, all the new twins, I am sure it will be all right as far as the population gos. But all in all I HATE hippies!!

[alecvg]

The whole area from wolf creek from Winthrop through Twin Lakes up towards Patterson and the Moccasin Lake ranch back towards the High School, you can see 100 IN A FIELD

Ya, I can agree with you, but I still do not ever remember seeing 500 to 800, maybe 300 or 400 on a good day, not EVERY field has the huge herds in them.  But I think the low numbers now are because of the terrible winter kills in the past couple years, it will go back to normal.

[boneaddict]

It fluctuates.  This just happens to be a bad year.  They will recover.  I am not doomsday on the population, at least until the wolves take over.     Guys take my opinion as it is, enjoy yourselves. 
Big thing I blame on the hippies is them building all over prime realestate(core winter range) then getting big dogs, but thats a whole other issue.  The other would be what you are saying and all the deer that get smucked on the hiway.