Looking like a wet one for the opener!

[bobcat]

A 6 day Razor clam season opens on the 14th.   

[JDHasty]

Here is a hint: 

Picking up four cinder blocks and taking them along with bunge cord rope to tie your ground blinds down with is a good idea.  Or 20 lb weight training plates or downrigger balls.  The crappy little stakes the blinds come with are not good for anything except maybe they can be used for earrings or a swizzle stick, any stake that will hold against wind gusts this weekend is probably also going to result in a torn up blind.  The cinder blocks seem to have just enough give to them on gusts to not tear the things to pieces, yet keep them from going all Mary Poppins on you. 

Tree stands are going to be moving around quite a bit.  Be extra vigilant.  The evening that buck in the photo was shot my stand was moving back and forth ten or twelve inches and it was up again a tree that was about three feet in diameter at the 17 foot height the seat sits at. 

You don't want this:   

[JimmyHoffa]

A 6 day Razor clam season opens on the 14th.   

That should be fun....30 ft swells with 10 ft wind waves.

[lamrith]

Great points JD!  Being my sons 1st outing and opening weekend of Modern I had planned to sit in a blind for the day, just get him used to being out in the wild.  Hope was to hunker down on some big open areas and let other hunters push deer past us.  Still might be the best plan given wet weather, but I am concerned about wind too.

No way to haul CInd Blocks were I planned to be, but I will be making up some heavy stakes to use for sure.

[JDHasty]

Great points JD!  Being my sons 1st outing and opening weekend of Modern I had planned to sit in a blind for the day, just get him used to being out in the wild.  Hope was to hunker down on some big open areas and let other hunters push deer past us.  Still might be the best plan given wet weather, but I am concerned about wind too.

No way to haul CInd Blocks were I planned to be, but I will be making up some heavy stakes to use for sure.

Sand bags can be filled with rocks etc

[JDHasty]

Great points JD!  Being my sons 1st outing and opening weekend of Modern I had planned to sit in a blind for the day, just get him used to being out in the wild.  Hope was to hunker down on some big open areas and let other hunters push deer past us.  Still might be the best plan given wet weather, but I am concerned about wind too.

No way to haul CInd Blocks were I planned to be, but I will be making up some heavy stakes to use for sure.

I have a chair blind that has an attached chair.   I got it at Cabelas.  I have used it in really stormy weather.  I like it.  I don't see it available at Cabelas any longer.  It is available online. 

 https://www.amazon.com/Ameristep-Tent-Chair-Blinds-Realtree/dp/B00JH4JBG4/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1476312090&sr=1-1&keywords=ameristep+chair+blind

You sit in it and that holds it down.  It keeps the rain and wind off you pretty well too. 

[Euro mount]

I was in the blues this last week hunting elk and it rained a bunch !  The deer where out in the rain midday in force saw a few really nice whitetails so get after um boys get wet an have fun ! Oh yeah there is not a laundry mat in Dayton!!!

[fishnfur]

Stay home? - that's what my wife says.  I say take a chainsaw with you so that you can extract yourself from the mess once you're done hunting.   

Be careful out there.  Every few years, one of these storms comes through that levels hundreds or even thousands of acres of forest in the coastal areas.  Not a good scenario to even contemplate.

[PolarBear]

Rain,wind  BRING IT ON !!! Blacktail time

PERFECT blacktail weather.  Last year during the 40-50 mph windsrorms with driving rain I was hiking timber edges and seeing 30-40 deer per day and no other hunters. You aint a blacktail hunter if you stay at home or in your rig during the big storms. 

Now I don't know about all that PolarBear!   The 40 - 50 mph winds in the timber part - well, all those trees laying scattered on the forest floor got there by crashing down around hapless hunters chasing blacktails in storms - at least that's the way I heard it.    Those big blow days are clearcut days in my book. 

I ordered new rain gear from Cabelas Thursday - it arrived today, the day after I got totally soaked sitting in a tree stand in my old "rain gear" during that pissing rain yesterday.  I think I'm good to go for the weekend.

Timber's edge and reprod. not deep timber.

[fly4fish]

Hopefully this will cut down on the mule deer harvest in E WA and a few will survive for late archery season and better bucks next year. To those who will be rifle hunting, good luck and don't forget rain gear!

[fishnfur]

Rain,wind  BRING IT ON !!! Blacktail time

PERFECT blacktail weather.  Last year during the 40-50 mph windsrorms with driving rain I was hiking timber edges and seeing 30-40 deer per day and no other hunters. You aint a blacktail hunter if you stay at home or in your rig during the big storms. 

Now I don't know about all that PolarBear!   The 40 - 50 mph winds in the timber part - well, all those trees laying scattered on the forest floor got there by crashing down around hapless hunters chasing blacktails in storms - at least that's the way I heard it.    Those big blow days are clearcut days in my book. 

I ordered new rain gear from Cabelas Thursday - it arrived today, the day after I got totally soaked sitting in a tree stand in my old "rain gear" during that pissing rain yesterday.  I think I'm good to go for the weekend.

Timber's edge and reprod. not deep timber.

It has to be tempting to go into the timber a bit after the day you had last year on the Halloween storm.  Hope you score a big one this year PolarBear.

Hmm......Some of my areas may not be accessible.  I just saw on the news that it is gusting to 60 MPH on the Oregon Coast as this Thursday storm moves north. 

[_TONY_]

Bring it on! I'll be up in the snow looking for early migrators.

Good luck everyone!

[JDHasty]

Be careful everybody. 

Good thing is tonight should blow a lot of the leftover hangers down... hopefully not right through one of your favorite tree stands, but it will also leave some new mankillers hanging up above.   Take a good look before setting up under one and give wide berth of any you locate.  Saturdays blow is supposed to be just five plus mph stronger and may be just enough to finish the job of bring them down. 

I expect the major deer activity to take place as the storm ramps up and for the deer to have moved into hunker mode as it peaks. 

The weather/time of day looks to me as though it is coming together the way I would like to see it.  That may or may not hold though.

Up above I mention three inch diameter limbs swirling in the wind the night we got that buck in 2014.  NOT while we were sitting in tree stands.  The storm was ramping up as the sun went down and it was nasty, but the storm didn't start knocking trees down and snapping off big limbs until a couple hours later and I drove to check on friends on the other end of the island and the deer were not out in that. 

[fishngamereaper]

Be careful for sure.

I love hunting nasty weather for blacktails. But gusts to 70mph on Sat put hunting at the crazy level. And in my 30 years of hunting experience I don't know to many animals that like to wander around when its blowing 50mph plus. There will be a lot of deer activity Friday and Sat in the am and then they will dig in deep and get out of the wind. Best time to be in the woods is Sun- Mon when the storms pass.

[JDHasty]

I'm right there with ya'. 

I like the lull between two storm fronts for sure, particularly as it ramps back up.  I think the deer want to top off with apples that they know are being blown down right before hunkering down to ride it out (and the bucks will be cruising the apple trees) and I hope that ramp up coincides with sundown.

And I agree, after it breaks I too expect to see a lot of deer movement Sunday especially to the apples that have blown down.