Fires and Wenaha East Archery bull tag

[jackelope]

I feel your pain man but as far as giving the tag holders the tag next year is not right. As bad as it is, it's Mother Nature doing her thing! what if a massive snow storm hit the blues (which is possible) and guys couldn't get to n.f or wilderness and it pushed the elk to private. Should a guy get the tag the next year if that happened?

REALLY? WOW, lets stretch the scenario just a bit. YOU can hunt in snow, you CANT hunt if the entire unit is closed. The chances of getting snowed out of a
September hunt or any hunt in the blues including the modern hunt is less than 5%. Hell my dad used to hunt up by godman in the late archery season in late November, never snowed out.

beings u know percentage so well, what was the percentage east wenaha would get shut down for fire? Like I stated its Mother Nature doing her thing! Every body that puts in takes the chance of it shutting down

A hell of alot more then being snowed out thats for damn sure. When has the area EVER been snowed out??? When was the last time the blues was effected by Lightning? 10 years ago! Regardless there is no reason the state couldnt grandfather these type of tags in a (mother nature) type of situation.

I can tell you when it was snowed out. It wasn't in September though.

"The Blues" is a big area, and there's been lightning issues and fires more recently than 10 years ago. It's a concern down there each and every year.

[coldsteel3d]

I have 1 of the 3 Wenaha West tags and we are completely shut out as well. The only difference if they let us  hunt next year on this years permit is that the 9 of us who drew east and west have already had the 3+ months to spend time and money preparing for this hunt. If nobody could draw it next year 9 of 500-600 would be sufferring the loss that we are but nobody knows who those 9 random people are and I bet those 9 random people aren't taking as big of hit as the 9 of us this year are.
I think that they should wait to give us our points back until they open the area and if it opens a week late, run our hunt a week late. If it opens more than a week late then call the 9 of us the have permits and see if you want to keep your permit or turn it in for points based on whether you feel like you can get it done or not in the time left. So there is 9 days between when archery closes and muzzleloader opens so they have room to push our end date out that far. So say they open the wilderness on 9/10, move the hunt end date to 9/29, if they don't open it until 9/20, have the hunt end 9/30 but give the 9 of us the option to turn our permit in for points or keep it if you think you can get it done in 10 days. Personally if I was guaranteed 5-7 days of my hunt I would keep my permit. Then if they end up not opening it by the time October rolls around just reimburse all 9 of us our points. I think this would be the best option for us.

[nw_bowhunter]

I have 1 of the 3 Wenaha West tags and we are completely shut out as well. The only difference if they let us  hunt next year on this years permit is that the 9 of us who drew east and west have already had the 3+ months to spend time and money preparing for this hunt. If nobody could draw it next year 9 of 500-600 would be sufferring the loss that we are but nobody knows who those 9 random people are and I bet those 9 random people aren't taking as big of hit as the 9 of us this year are.
I think that they should wait to give us our points back until they open the area and if it opens a week late, run our hunt a week late. If it opens more than a week late then call the 9 of us the have permits and see if you want to keep your permit or turn it in for points based on whether you feel like you can get it done or not in the time left. So there is 9 days between when archery closes and muzzleloader opens so they have room to push our end date out that far. So say they open the wilderness on 9/10, move the hunt end date to 9/29, if they don't open it until 9/20, have the hunt end 9/30 but give the 9 of us the option to turn our permit in for points or keep it if you think you can get it done in 10 days. Personally if I was guaranteed 5-7 days of my hunt I would keep my permit. Then if they end up not opening it by the time October rolls around just reimburse all 9 of us our points. I think this would be the best option for us.

Seems reasonable to me and somewhat of a positive outcome for the tag holders.

[ridgefire]

Im all for the tag holders that have had their unit shut down get their points back. I know it's mother nature but I feel for them. If they had areas they could hunt in the unit it would be different.

[Woodchuck]

This is not good news.


http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/weatheralerts/Walla-Walla,WA,United-States/we-city-46.070,-118.342?iso=US

[Elkpiss]

How about they let the permit holders have the permit next year AND still have the draw next year. That would only be 12 permits total and since there won't be any state hunter harvest during the season this year it shouldn't affect herd numbers terribly. Just a thought.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

That was a thought of mine too..  instead of 2 people hunting the unit it would be 4.. thats not to bad

[Mxracer532]

I have 1 of the 3 Wenaha West tags and we are completely shut out as well. The only difference if they let us  hunt next year on this years permit is that the 9 of us who drew east and west have already had the 3+ months to spend time and money preparing for this hunt. If nobody could draw it next year 9 of 500-600 would be sufferring the loss that we are but nobody knows who those 9 random people are and I bet those 9 random people aren't taking as big of hit as the 9 of us this year are.
I think that they should wait to give us our points back until they open the area and if it opens a week late, run our hunt a week late. If it opens more than a week late then call the 9 of us the have permits and see if you want to keep your permit or turn it in for points based on whether you feel like you can get it done or not in the time left. So there is 9 days between when archery closes and muzzleloader opens so they have room to push our end date out that far. So say they open the wilderness on 9/10, move the hunt end date to 9/29, if they don't open it until 9/20, have the hunt end 9/30 but give the 9 of us the option to turn our permit in for points or keep it if you think you can get it done in 10 days. Personally if I was guaranteed 5-7 days of my hunt I would keep my permit. Then if they end up not opening it by the time October rolls around just reimburse all 9 of us our points. I think this would be the best option for us.

I would also be ok with this!

[coldsteel3d]

I think that would be my number one choice and I think that it would be the most fair outcome for everyone involved, I don't see why anyone who has 1 of the 9 tags would have a problem with it and we would still have an oppurtunity to possibly hunt our permits. I don't see why anybody would have a problem with it, there is only 9 people who are completely shut out so it is not like they would have to call hundreds of people. If we could get all 9 people to support this idea and suggest it to Paul Wik I wonder if he would even entertain this idea?

[Mxracer532]

I think that would be my number one choice and I think that it would be the most fair outcome for everyone involved, I don't see why anyone who has 1 of the 9 tags would have a problem with it and we would still have an oppurtunity to possibly hunt our permits. I don't see why anybody would have a problem with it, there is only 9 people who are completely shut out so it is not like they would have to call hundreds of people. If we could get all 9 people to support this idea and suggest it to Paul Wik I wonder if he would even entertain this idea?

When i talked to Paul monday he said what happens is out of his hands.

[soccerguy]

Maybe just for inspiration, but here is a 183 buck shot in Unit 27 about 1976.  Hunted the Alma Mesa area.  Not a lot of deer back then but there was some quality.

[JoeE]

So if we can't hunt the blues for elk we should hunt mulies in Alma Mesa?? 

[PlateauNDN]

So if we can't hunt the blues for elk we should hunt mulies in Alma Mesa?? 

Is your area closed?

[JoeE]

So if we can't hunt the blues for elk we should hunt mulies in Alma Mesa?? 

Is your area closed?

My area is the Mill Creek watershed. I had planned on going over and scouting this past weekend but with the fires I was told that I can't get close enough to the shed to do any scouting. I don't think you can get to Table Rock right now. Hopefully something happens by the opener in there onOct 31 because if it was an early archery hunt I doubt they would let us in.

[BENCHLEG]

Joe you will b fine all you need is 3 days prior to the hunt and hope for no fog or heavy snow.

[JoeE]

Joe you will b fine all you need is 3 days prior to the hunt and hope for no fog or heavy snow.

That's good to hear! I'm glad the hunt is so late in the season with the way this fire season is going.