East Okanagan Unit (GMU 204)

[HoytHunter24]

My wife and I will be hunting this unit for the early archery season. It will be the first time we hunt it and plan to take a trip over next weekend to check it out. I hear a lot about the north half of this unit around Bonaparte and Chesaw but what about the south part of the unit that butts up to the Colville Reservation? Does it see a lot of pressure? How is the animal activity?

I am not asking for any spots, just wanted some general information on the area.

Thank you!

[throttlejocky20]

hopefully you get some help

[HoytHunter24]

Anyone today?

[Ajj828]

I'm also thinking about taking a trip to hunt this area. I've got a friend who lives up there and he's seen lots of big bucks in the area. Im not sure if it's crowded or not he hasn't told me

[renewed]

Hello Hoyt.

I have a cabin in the area you are planning to hunt.
Please know that that is where the big fires were..on the reservation side.
That being said...It does make for a lot of good shooting lanes.
Also ,from what I saw , Most the fire damage seemed to be more to the west..towards tonasket and down to riverside.
And as a side note .I find the area you were thinking of as being more open, less dense than the chesaw area.
There are plenty of good hunting areas back there.
I would just suggest staying east and north of the crawfish lake area.
Just my 
Thanks for reading

[BKMFR]

Sent you a PM....

[HoytHunter24]

Thank you to those who PM'd me! We are headed out tomorrow afternoon to check the area out. If anyone has any more information please let me know!

[HoytHunter24]

Well we have made two different scouting trips over to the area. The first trip was just to get a lay of the land. We drove over 200 miles on gravel roads finding which were blocked so we could decide where the pressure would be. We didn't see much for animals but that is to be expected for just driving around. We spoke with some locals and got a little bit of knowledge on the area and began searching new areas. At the end of the weekend we threw up a single game camera up a major game trail leading in to a nice green field tucked away from plain sight. Total we saw a bunch of deer, elk, moose and bear sign.

Last weekend we headed over again. Dang that place has gotten dry. We spent all weekend looking for water sources and hiking. We were able to mark off a few locations that we thought would be promising since they weren't what we expected. We were able to find a couple water sources that i imagine the elk will be near. We found a decent amount of elk, deer, and bear sign in most of the areas we concentrated on. This time we set out 4 cameras in various locations feeling really good about our game plan.

We will be heading back over on Sept 6th until the 17th for our season. Weather looks to be in the mid 90s..... not conducive to hunting but what can you do.

Here are a couple pictures we got from our first camera. We got 4 bear, 10 nice whitetail bucks, a cow elk, and some other critters.

[hal]

be careful in the Chesaw area of 204. we own property off of Pontiac Ridge. the area is where the grouse hunter from the Aberdeen area was shot and killed 5 years ago. he were hunting on a right of way which is not allowed and a local and his father shot him and shot at his partner with a .22. they are doing 33 years for murder as of last year. the guy they killed had just purchased a camp on prior loop rd a couple of months before he were shot. although most of the locals are good people there are still enough of them hiding out to make it dangerous. we are starting to see more visitors hunting since the big fires of last year. most are road hunters but still effect the hunting. There are many pieces of national forest and a little DNR in the area with the best access via private property. Not trying to scare you, just reality.

[superdown]

be careful in the Chesaw area of 204. we own property off of Pontiac Ridge. the area is where the grouse hunter from the Aberdeen area was shot and killed 5 years ago. he were hunting on a right of way which is not allowed and a local and his father shot him and shot at his partner with a .22. they are doing 33 years for murder as of last year. the guy they killed had just purchased a camp on prior loop rd a couple of months before he were shot. although most of the locals are good people there are still enough of them hiding out to make it dangerous. we are starting to see more visitors hunting since the big fires of last year. most are road hunters but still effect the hunting. There are many pieces of national forest and a little DNR in the area with the best access via private property. Not trying to scare you, just reality.

I used to own property on pontiac ridge and i now own property on cow camp road where the shooting happened just past the second cattle guard on the left in the little meadow if your coming from chesaw. "fat john" as the locals refered to him threatened to shoot anyone who hunted near there awhile before it happened sitting in the mercantile.I have been hunting camping and vacationing in the area for the last 26 years and have never been threatened or even met a mean person.My neighbors all disliked John and his son.I have heard the "rumors" of pontiac ridge and chesaw for all these years and this is the only incident that i have ever heard that actually happened.Hal is right there is a lot more people hunting the area since the big fires and definitely keep your eyes open no matter where you are.Regarding elk in all the time i have been going out there i have seen 11 elk and it was south of molsen on chesaw road north side of the road above some old buildings on private land.I am not discrediting anyone else's experience's just sharing mine YMMV.

[cbond3318]

be careful in the Chesaw area of 204. we own property off of Pontiac Ridge. the area is where the grouse hunter from the Aberdeen area was shot and killed 5 years ago. he were hunting on a right of way which is not allowed and a local and his father shot him and shot at his partner with a .22. they are doing 33 years for murder as of last year. the guy they killed had just purchased a camp on prior loop rd a couple of months before he were shot. although most of the locals are good people there are still enough of them hiding out to make it dangerous. we are starting to see more visitors hunting since the big fires of last year. most are road hunters but still effect the hunting. There are many pieces of national forest and a little DNR in the area with the best access via private property. Not trying to scare you, just reality.

I used to own property on pontiac ridge and i now own property on on cow camp road where the shooting happened just past the second cattle guard on the left in the little meadow if your coming from chesaw. "fat john" as the locals refered to him threatened to shoot anyone who hunted near there awhile before it happened sitting in the mercantile.I have been hunting camping and vacationing in the area for the last 26 years and have never been threatened or even met a mean person.My neighbors all disliked John and his son.I have heard the "rumors" of pontiac ridge and chesaw for all these years and this is the only incident that i have ever heard that actually happened.Hal is right there is a lot more people hunting the area since the big fires and definitely keep your eyes open no matter where you are.Regarding elk in all the time i have been going out there i have seen 11 elk and it was south of molsen on chesaw road north side of the road above some old buildings on private land.I am not discrediting anyone else's experience's just sharing mine YMMV.

Thank you for the input regarding these wack jobs. It is quite unerving to hear there are areas of recreation that have a reputation of that you may get your butt shot by some weirdo with a strange set of ideals. That pisses me off. Glad to hear this is a one off incident by the mentally disturbed.

Hope the OP has a great hunt, I'd be a liar if I said I haven't wanted to dedicate a summer doing what you've done to have a chance at an OTC E. Washington Branched bull. Make it happen!!

[CAMPMEAT]

Pontiac had a bad rep, buy I think it has calmed down. I lived in Curlew for almost 17 years and never heard of anything horrible, except the shooting of the grouse hunter. That area gets hit pretty hard by hunters. Find a land owner who'll let you hunt his land if you have time to ask or find one would be my suggestion.

[Ghost Hunter]

Pontiac had a bad rep, buy I think it has calmed down. I lived in Curlew for almost 17 years and never heard of anything horrible, except the shooting of the grouse hunter. That area gets hit pretty hard by hunters. Find a land owner who'll let you hunt his land if you have time to ask or find one would be my suggestion.

Pontiac Ridge, Mt. Hull, Cougar Creek, yadda yadda....all had a reputation years ago and you needed to respect those.  Those were the days........      but then how would I know 

[CAMPMEAT]

Pontiac had a bad rep, buy I think it has calmed down. I lived in Curlew for almost 17 years and never heard of anything horrible, except the shooting of the grouse hunter. That area gets hit pretty hard by hunters. Find a land owner who'll let you hunt his land if you have time to ask or find one would be my suggestion.

Pontiac Ridge, Mt. Hull, Cougar Creek, yadda yadda....all had a reputation years ago and you needed to respect those.  Those were the days........      but then how would I know 

Worse things happened in Republic and Curlew than all of those mentioned. I think we had 6 murders in almost 17 years of living there and one was right across the road from my house....

[R2Rcoulee]

I've got property off the East Cougar Creek. I hear those stories also, but I've met a lot of the neighbors & everyone is nice. BTW it's 40 acres & backs up to DNR on two sides of the property. Might be willing to sell. Lol