Washington State Reserve to Hunt Program

[EWUEAGLESHUNTER]

So I am just curious to know what everyone's take is on this program? Has anyone had success reserving land and had quality hunts from it? I have tried to reserve the same darn place all month, there are 4 reservations available, I get on at 7:50 wait tell 8 try to reserve a spot and every time it says all hunts have been reserved in just a split second! I have other places to hunt so its not a huge deal but just find it weird that every time I try this I come away unsuccessful. Anyways, it would be great to hear other peoples take on this program, stories/experiences with the program.

[full choke]

In my personal opinion- it is the worst program the state has ever come up with! Would be fine for big game and maybe upland, but for waterfowl it is stupid. 90% of waterfowl hunting is scouting. Kind of hard to do when you have to reserve a spot 3 weeks in advance and hope weather and bird plans fall in line... I would rather they didn't even have the access over the reservation system. At least that way the state couldn't use that acreage as a feather in their cap and say look what we have done for you sportsman...

[EWUEAGLESHUNTER]

I have heard a lot of great stories from hunters on the deer hunting and pheasant hunting aspect of the reserve to hunt program. Lots of acres opened up now that never was open to deer hunting before.

[Tealer]

It's a great program. Reserve it and if nothing is using it do t hunt it.


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[Stickerbush]

As far as getting spots its cool, better than the quality hunts where you have guys posted up early when they aren't supposed to be there till 4am. For me coming from 1.5 hrs away I would rather have a guaranteed spot than to drive up and gamble

[idahohuntr]

I think it is a good program.  I have heard they will take the high demand areas (the ones that get reserved in 0.0001 seconds) and offer them via lottery, which will be an improvement imo.

[fair-chase]

I think it's an excellent program. Far superior to the "Hunt By Written Permission" sham which has infested so much of eastern Washington.

Yes, right now there appears to be some growing pains with this program in regards to how fast these lands get spoken for. But in my opinion, that is simply a testament to how well it is being received by hunters. Instead of making a lottery, the WDFW should be exhausting every possible resource to expand this program and enroll more lands. They could start by wholly eliminating the HBWP program which (with very few exceptions) has been a complete waste of signage.

Once there is an adequate supply of lands to combat the rapid reservation rates, I would like to see the department push the reservation window back to 6 months for big game. As well as allow for 7 days of reservations vs the 3 we have now. Because lets face it, 14 days notice is cutting it extremely short if you are trying to plan a big game hunt. Especially if you are traveling from other parts of the state. Knowing you have a place to hunt, or that you don't and need to be knocking on more doors in advance would be beneficial.

[hntrspud]

It's a great program. Reserve it and if nothing is using it do t hunt it.


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While the program may be great, if you haven't tried to reserve a spot up north, then you don't feel the frustration for those of us that do try. Then drive by said spots, more than once a day, only to find them Not being hunted. It begs a few questions about future guidelines perhaps,  something that would eliminate the reservation and not hunting.  Things happen from time to time I understand. 

[Tealer]

It's a great program. Reserve it and if nothing is using it do t hunt it.


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While the program may be great, if you haven't tried to reserve a spot up north, then you don't feel the frustration for those of us that do try. Then drive by said spots, more than once a day, only to find them Not being hunted. It begs a few questions about future guidelines perhaps,  something that would eliminate the reservation and not hunting.  Things happen from time to time I understand.

Why would you think I haven't tried to reserve a spot up there? The program really helps with crowding.


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[Colin]

Personally in the skagit areas it seems like a waste. If you do reserve it and conditions end up being bad for that area you either feel obligated to hunt a less than ideal spot due to the reservation or just go to a different spot and no one gets to hunt the reservation spot so it's like taking two of the spots. Speaking strictly to the QH spots it seems like a bad way to limit waterfowling. I guess I don't see what is being gained by the reservation system as it applies to waterfowlers. I mean if they want to rest the unit they could restricted a QH site to certain days of the week with a little rotation to allow ppl who can only hunt certain days access. If the land owner wants to know who is where on what days they can do the register to hunt on site like they have in other units already. To me crowding isn't an issue once you secure a site you want to hunt since only your party can hunt it. IMHO crowding occurs when there are more hunters than QH sites available to hunt. Either way doesn't effect me except that I probably won't hunt the reservation sites since you can't scout them.

[constructeur]

I'm a big fan of the system as it allows hunters a chance at some property without having to foot the bill for a club or lease. We've all had goons show up, set up close, sky bust, etc. after we got there early and this allows for a chance at a better hunt IMO. It isn't perfect though, and is managed by the government, so we'll all find some drawbacks with how it's managed, ran, what should be happening, whatever...


I also don't see the argument about no one being on the property if it's reserved and there are no birds on it. If it's not holding birds at the time being, it's not holding birds. It's not like if it was feel free to hunt, you'd be out there hunting something that wasn't scouting well unless it was a very last resort. We all pay the same in DFW fees to hunt them, the reservation is about the chance to have a nice hunt, not that you absolutely must park your butt there once you've won the right to be there.

[CP]

It' a great program.  It lets the fields sit awhile so they don't get over hunted.

[aaronoto]

Anyone use this program last year?  If so, how was your experience?  I'm most interested in whether people actually respected the reservations, or if you rolled up to your "reserved" spot and found someone already in it...

[JJD]

I think it's an excellent program. Far superior to the "Hunt By Written Permission" sham which has infested so much of eastern Washington.

Yes, right now there appears to be some growing pains with this program in regards to how fast these lands get spoken for. But in my opinion, that is simply a testament to how well it is being received by hunters. Instead of making a lottery, the WDFW should be exhausting every possible resource to expand this program and enroll more lands. They could start by wholly eliminating the HBWP program which (with very few exceptions) has been a complete waste of signage.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but what were your issues with the hunt by written permission deal?  I have never used or attempted to use the program so I have no idea.
Just curious because I post all my property that way.  And yes, I realize that is totally different. 

[h2ofowlr]

It's a joke on the QH ones.  Half the time they are empty or sit empty.  You should hunt them when the conditions are right and have the time, guys go in the AM to hunt them and some of them are PM spots or require wind to blow the birds off the bay.  You can't hunt them without a reservation.  I tried the reservation on a few and never could get a spot.  Sucks when you used to hunt many of them by talking to the farmer and now many of us are locked out.

It would be better if they allowed open walk in's after a specific time as well, for those that reserve spots and just don't show up.  Which is pretty common.

[Limhangerslayer]

The part i have a problem with is the game department giving then 3 dollars an acre to lease it and they can still let people they know in and can save the best dates for friends and family.   

[Snowgoose1]

I totally understand the program and get the idea of getting some people a few spots to hunt.  Last year a majority of the time the areas were reserved, but left empty.  There were several fields I saw that had a lot of birds on them and nobody was hunting it.  People change their minds and I understand that.  When I went to eastern Washington to hunt, a lot of the reservation fields that I saw had a sign that explain that if nobody was in the spot by 8am it was then open to hunting.  The spot then became open to people who were already entered in the reservation system and all you had to do is fill out a card and you could have it.  I would hope that western Washington could come up with something like that.  I find the popular fields which most everyone knows are gone so fast when it comes time to click on the fields they are gone.  I speak from going up to and near most snohomish and skagit county duck quality fields 3-4 times per week last year.

[CP]

Anyone use this program last year?  If so, how was your experience?  I'm most interested in whether people actually respected the reservations, or if you rolled up to your "reserved" spot and found someone already in it...

Yes, I had one instance last year when I showed up for my reserved spot someone was parked there and in the blind.  I took photos of his rig and license plate and tried to report it but it was 4:30am and no one was answering the phone.  So I just packed up my gear and went out to the blind.  The guy sheepishly left claiming ignorance and complaining that the place is always empty, no one hunts it, blah, blah …

I emailed the photos to the WFDW – don’t know if they ever did anything about it.

In my mind this is the same as poaching and trespassing.  You hunt a spot without a reservation you are stealing someone’s hunting opportunity.

Next time I’ll post the photos on this site for public humiliation.

[CP]

The program does need some tweaking, like you can’t cancel a reservation within 3 days of the hunt.  If they did away with that it would save a lot of “not used” issues.

I’m not in favor of the “if it isn’t used by 9:00am it’s open to anyone”.  That means it gets hunted all day long and the place get burnt out.   I’d rather see the reservation day spilt into 2 reservations i.e. morning until noon – then say 1:00pm until evening.   

It’s a good program and I hope they keep it up and keep improving it.

[EWUEAGLESHUNTER]

Here's my  the reserve program works great for deer and pheasant hunting. You can ask a lot of the deer hunters who use public land to hunt deer, since the program started its reduced a lot of pressure on public lands giving more opportunity to any one who needs public/private land access through wdfw to hunt deer. As far as the waterfowl hunting, I would rather the state use our license money to pay for the land and give anyone a chance to hunt it vs. paying $250 a head to hunt with a guide who is paying the farmer. Plus the more people who give praises to the reserve to hunt program for waterfowl the more money gets funneled into it opening up more and more land. This program is guaranteed money for the farmer vs. guides only pay the farmer when it's their fields being hunted. Bottom line is though even if the program gets more money and more fields for us to hunt, waterfowlimg fields takes a ton of time scouting. So if guys don't put in the time and figure out when the birds are hitting what field then the fields go unused or there is minimal success. Something the state can't control for us.