Goodbye late season honey hole... :(

[steeliedrew]

Last winter I stumbled onto this hillside that held a decent amount of elk and I was on them 5 out of the 7 days I hunted the late season. Even got a shot off too but a fern deflected my arrow!

Fast forward to this weekend:

Friday morning I'm up on the hill before first light. I can see the solouette of the hill I hunt and it just doesn't look quite right. As the sun begins to rise I see it......They had came in and clear cut the entire hill side!!! 

This location was perfect. Basically it "was" a massive clearcut with spaced out big timber/fern jungle type stuff on the uphill side of the cut. The cut itself has bowls and valleys in it so from the road you couldn't see the elk, but once you were at the tree line looking down you could see them and plan your stalk.  Last year, like clockwork I could be at the tree line at shooting light and was able to spot the elk feeding their way up into the timber every day. once inside the timber it was absolutely torn up with trails, beds, and scat everywhere.

So on Friday after I saw my honey hole was gone I figured the elk had to be still in the same drainage but just on another hillside. I ended up getting on a lone cow with a calf on the backside of my honey hole hill Friday afternoon but didn't think I should orphan the calf and did not attempt a stalk on the cow.

I hunted today also and when it was all said and done my Rino tells me I did 21.2 miles over the last two days. Only 4 of that was on my bike. The other 17.2 miles was on foot! The fact that I only bumped into the one cow and calf and a handful of deer after 21.2 miles says something. Last year I couldn't go anywhere in this area without getting on elk sign. today I had a decent amount of snow in the area and after a 6 mile loop on foot didn't cut a single elk track. Only a few deer tracks.

I'll just go ahead and say this spot of mine (and others' I'm sure) is in Winston and it was in one of the few areas not owned by Weyco. So maybe it was a combination of the clearcutting as well as the Weyco permits causing more pressure on non-Weyco lands that killed the honey hole but I'm starting to think all that talk about wdfw coming in and killing 600 elk in the Winston is true because of complete lack of sign.

[steeliedrew]

It's time to pick up the pieces though and get back to the drawing board. I've got two weekends left to hunt elk. On the way home I was trying to think of all the reasons that hillside held elk so well. It's only 2 miles behind a gate but uphill the whole way so access being sorta tough played a role I think and it's a south facing slope with a creek in the clearcut, plenty of grass and big, fern jungle timber for security.  Time to hit the satellite images.

I'm sure this won't be the last time a good spot gets leveled by a timber company during my hunting career.  Ever happen to you guys? And how did you come out on top? I'm feeling pretty defeated after this weekend.

[gaolista]

Was in Winston yesterday and today. Rained all day yesterday, woke up to about 5 inches of snow. This morning. Hit it hard both days and saw little to no fresh sign. Saw a cow about 25 min before dusk tonight and couldn't coax it back out of the reprod. Pretty dismal.

[HunterStrait]

Same thing happened to me about two years ago.
The loggers came in and logged the whole place, including the campsite.
It was a great place, the three years i hunted it.

[JimmyHoffa]

depending on how it was planted it could be good again in about 28-30 years.

[steeliedrew]

depending on how it was planted it could be good again in about 28-30 years.

I was thinking yesterday before leaving that maybe when I'm about 60 years old it will hold elk again. Haha. However, I saw no jack trees planted yet and saw a sign posted in the cut about some chemical spraying that was done.

[boneaddict]

I took a couple big hits in the NE by logging this year.   A couple spots where I would find a monster every year, completely clearcut.  Just wide open.   As much as I support logging,  this had me reeling.  No critters to be seen.   Just when you have it figured out.

[steeliedrew]

I took a couple big hits in the NE by logging this year.   A couple spots where I would find a monster every year, completely clearcut.  Just wide open.   As much as I support logging,  this had me reeling.  No critters to be seen.   Just when you have it figured out.

Sorry to hear about your spots Bone. It is a sobering feeling for sure when you work hard getting an area dialed and think about it year round, then you go to hunt it for the first time of the year and it's just gone.

[billythekidrock]

If there were elk there, they would still be in the area despite the logging. Hoof rot and thousands of cow permits over the last 5 years have taken it's toll on the unit.

[RadSav]

If there were elk there, they would still be in the area despite the logging. Hoof rot and thousands of cow permits over the last 5 years have taken it's toll on the unit.

 

Seems about every time we get really good at taking elk out of a particular area they clear cut it!  Just the way it turns out sometimes.  About every three of four years we have to get the maps out and figure out how their routine is changed by the logging activity.  Usually not too far away.

In Winston the local resident herds are really demolished.  Luckily with the snow hitting hard in the high country the later part of the season brings in more elk and the numbers concentrate much more.  Still no where near what it was 10 years ago, but success should still be rather high if a guy keeps good notes year after year.

Friday we shot an elk in a spot we had taken quite a few elk 15 years ago.  Hadn't hunted it since they clear cut it.  Christmas trees are now getting tall enough to see under the branches and get some close shots.  Animals were laying in the exact same beds they were almost two decades ago.  Used the same approach and the same technique.  We even found the ribbon we had used for the first spot of blood all those years ago!  Was pretty cool.

[bwhntr2819]

Did this happen to be on Port Blakely land?  I'm heading down today to hunt this week. Really only hunt the Port Blakely stuff but getting to my spot without crossing weyco land is going to be tricky.

[steeliedrew]

RadSav,

I'm glad you got into them. That's pretty cool the old spot holds animals once again.  It seemed interesting to me though that in my exploring I couldn't even hardly find sign on any surrounding hillsides. Last year I couldn't go anywhere in this area without finding elk sign. Maybe they just moved one whole drainage over or something.

[RadSav]

Could be a move to another drainage.  Or as we find in Winston late season...it's all about high snow.  You go into these areas during early season and nothing.  Even warm late seasons and nothing!  Get a foot of snow 1,000' feet above us and Shazam! elk are in there again.

I believe finding them from one area to another after a clear cut starts first with knowing whether they are migratory elk or resident elk.  Makes a big difference in our spots.

[steeliedrew]

Could be a move to another drainage.  Or as we find in Winston late season...it's all about high snow.  You go into these areas during early season and nothing.  Even warm late seasons and nothing!  Get a foot of snow 1,000' feet above us and Shazam! elk are in there again.

I believe finding them from one area to another after a clear cut starts first with knowing whether they are migratory elk or resident elk.  Makes a big difference in our spots.

I'd like to know whether or not they're resident. That's something I hadn't thought of. I'd venture a guess that I need to put in my time in the summer months and see if I find elk in the same spots. My spot is 1500-1900' elevation.

[JimmyHoffa]

RadSav,

I'm glad you got into them. That's pretty cool the old spot holds animals once again.  It seemed interesting to me though that in my exploring I couldn't even hardly find sign on any surrounding hillsides. Last year I couldn't go anywhere in this area without finding elk sign. Maybe they just moved one whole drainage over or something.

If the area was open during the earlier seasons, it may have just gotten pounded to the point the elk bailed.  I ran into a few game wardens and biologists this year after never seeing any there for years.  They said they were up near where I was because there were new, big clear cuts down the road.  They told me before any cuts it was a waste of time because they would drive around all day and might only find one or two hunters.  But they get near clear cuts and they can make lots of contacts.  The biologists said probably over 95% of the people they check are near cuts and most are in their cars.
I'd agree they probably felt the activity level and moved a drainage.

[RadSav]

I've seen more evidence of night poaching in the Winston over the past few years than ever before.  That can have a strong effect on resident herds too.  Last year four of us worked an area all day leaving at dark.  First light the next morning there were two yearlings field dressed with no tags on them right where we enter the woods.  That herd who had been there for a few days was never seen again that season.  From what I saw yesterday in the snow there were plenty of night hunters in our area again the night before. 

[steeliedrew]

I've seen more evidence of night poaching in the Winston over the past few years than ever before.  That can have a strong effect on resident herds too.  Last year four of us worked an area all day leaving at dark.  First light the next morning there were two yearlings field dressed with no tags on them right where we enter the woods.  That herd who had been there for a few days was never seen again that season.  From what I saw yesterday in the snow there were plenty of night hunters in our area again the night before.

That sure is a bummer.  People that do that deserve a kick in the *censored*.

[eldplanko]

Sad to hear also. It might have been worth checking in on your spot a few times earlier in the year, as depending on details, it can take some time to get an area ready to cut (i.e. survey, mark the boundaries, leave trees, rehab any roads, etc). If  you start to see a bunch of orange/green/blue paint on trees or  timber boundary markings the "time" may be coming.

Also, if you hunt DNR land, check online on their timber auctions. They added a nice online map (https://wadnr.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=b57d179877ac46fc9f18917f677d8f86) recently that makes it easy to tell where pending and active timber sales will be, as well as past sales that haven't been cut yet.

[Slimdog350]

My bro in law and I had a spot that we hunted religiously for years. There hadn't been any logging activity in there for quite some time. I pulled 2 nice Bulls out of there and we were always on elk everyday. It was too good to be true though. 2 years ago they started logging and haven't stopped. The whole valley is one ginormous clear cut. We still find elk in there but not the numbers we are used to. Now we hunt the surrounding hills in 20-30 year old timber. Deep and dark. We used to go out and scout and see 40-50 elk every time. One time we went out we saw 17 legal bulls and every single one was a 4 pt. it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Now we are lucky to see 4-5. It sure is disappointing. Oh well. That gives us incentive to find new spots. I'm sure you will find another one Drew.

[steeliedrew]

I've been scouring the Topos and Satelite images the last couple days and have a game plan at least. 

[eldplanko]

I've been scouring the Topos and Satelite images the last couple days and have a game plan at least. 

The "time machine" on google earth is also sometimes helpful... I'm starting to see new satellite imagery from this summer in some places. Find your spot and go back it in time. It's also helpful for estimating how old timber stands are if you can figure out what year they were planted.

[steeliedrew]

Good call on google earth. I just noticed that the new images of my area are up and it shows all the new cutting. I didn't even think to look at google earth before going down there. I do a lot of butt scouting on my iPhone via the google maps app and the pics aren't as updated I guess.

[GregE]

Hunted the snow and the rain late season in Winston.- very few elk seen compared to previous years even with reduced hunters due to the Access fee. 



Met a couple helpful Hunt WA guys. Wave us down if you spot the red Dodge.  Bandaid is my support driver.