General spring bear season in Washington

[Bango skank]

The ne corner has an absolutely pathetic success rate for spring bear.  I think most people who draw these tags are clueless, and dont even try.  Its a huge joke.  Everybody puts in for these tags, just so they can feel like they won something, then they waste them.  I had 2 guys from the west side reach out q couple years ago, and i put them both on bears.  Other than that, seems like the only guys that fill these tags are locals, and one member on this forum, plus his buddies.  We could easily handle an otc spring bear permit here.  95% of west siders that draw the tags just waste them.  We need more bears killed, and lots of local guys would be happy to do it if they could just outright purchase a spring bear permit.  Getting rid of the 1 per year, sept 1st opener here would do wonders for our deer, elk and moose.  Just give us a 2 bear limit, 1 spring, 1 fall (aug 1st opener, not sep 1st), both otc.  The financial windfall for wdfw would be noticable in several ways.  Id buy both a spring snd fall tag, plus the ungulate hunting would improve. 

[bkaech]

I notice several people mention baiting for bears like the WDFW has choosen to not allow it, baiting for bears and using hounds is illegal in our state so the WDFW has no say in the matter. If they could allow baiting for bears they would, such as allowing for baiting for deer and elk now. In order to change that it has to be changed by our state legislatures or by a vote of the people it is not something WDFW can change.

Conspiracy theory: Perhaps WDFW wants the bear population to continue to grow and encroach on cities so that it forces the general population/legislatures to understand that hounds and baiting is necessary for bear and cougar hunting and finally get that law reversed.?

Also: I support increased spring bear opportunities, a first step would be for the WDFW to give a large number of statewide draw permits.

[tchoutacabouffa]

I think that's the gist.

If this state is truly in financial need, they should concentrate on their abundance of predators.   Think how much money they could make selling wolf raffle tickets.

Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[huntnnw]

I have written WDFW about this for years with no answer.. its all about the money! makes no sense. Huge bear population in WA a general free for all fall season,but come to spring heres a few permits.. what a joke. Plus some of the highest densities of bears in WA are in NE WA and yet they get a Sept opener and lots of the state gets Aug 15.

I talked with a guy from INWC in Spokane last spring about spring bear permits in NE WA and it sounds like there could be a significant increase in 2019 and 2020 being OTC

[Jonathan_S]

NE and South Cascades could definitely support Spring OTC

[trophyhunt]

I think it has to stay permit only in spring, they are just too easy to find that time of year. That said they should open most if not all gmus to permit hunting. I have never  heard a good reason why there is no spring season on the east slopes of the cascades.

Since they don't announce spring bear until the previous years season is over they could really target harvest in areas where not enough bears were harvested the previous season. Spring seasons on the edge of winter ranges would really save a lot of fawns / calves as well.

Agree, OTC spring bear hunts would ruin the Special part of spring bear hunting, seeing bears.  It would ruin how special certain areas are, the areas would be flooded with hunters, I do think it should be state wide for permits and I also think a baiting permit should be formed.  Hunting cougar with dogs also needs to be allowed, these are all dreams of ours that will may never see. 

[huntnnw]

too easy? I have hunted bears extensively in NE WA for 30 years and being a part of over 40 kills.. Ill tell you right now fall is a cake walk for finding bears they get super concentrated on the limited food sources that are available and with winter coming theres a urgency to feed. Spring theres grass growing everywhere even under the canopy of the forest in places and bears can really be anywhere at anytime. Ive hunted both seasons and fall is much easier to predict and hunt bears. Spring the weather plays a huge role, most guys don't have unlimited time to hunt bears and cold wet weekend for a guy during the spring can ruin a hunt.

[Jonathan_S]

I'm not really interested in the quality of bear hunting anyway, I'm interested in the management of predators in general and spring bear in particular.

I'm not going to prioritize the 1/7 years that I have a Sherman bear tag over the mule deer, whitetail, elk, moose, and caribou 

[buglebrush]

I'm not really interested in the quality of bear hunting anyway, I'm interested in the management of predators in general and spring bear in particular.

I'm not going to prioritize the 1/7 years that I have a Sherman bear tag over the mule deer, whitetail, elk, moose, and caribou 

Exactly.  Besides, if the whole state was OTC spring bear it would totally spread the hunters out like in Idaho.  It's downright criminal that there's no spring season at all in 113. 

[huntnnw]

Exactly.. make it statewide .. sorry it’s not going to hurt the population or all the sudden everyone is hunting bears. Lotta guys shed hunt, turkey hunt or fish that time of year .

[DWP]

I have no idea why certain areas do not have spring bear opportunities (Monroe comes to mind as well as many others).

A statewide spring season with different quotas in specific areas seems to make sense, as does a combination of a spring general season in some areas and a draw in others. Either of these would generate some quality revenue.

All I know is that we seem to have too many bears ( and cougars & wolves) and not enough harvesting to control their numbers.

[h2ofowlr]

I have no idea why certain areas do not have spring bear opportunities (Monroe comes to mind as well as many others).

A statewide spring season with different quotas in specific areas seems to make sense, as does a combination of a spring general season in some areas and a draw in others. Either of these would generate some quality revenue.

All I know is that we seem to have too many bears ( and cougars & wolves) and not enough harvesting to control their numbers.

They pulled the Monroe one because out of all the draws only 1 or 2 bears were harvested.