Blue Mountains vs Teanaway Archery

[rosscrazyelk]

I live in Walla Walla and I can tell you that the elk numbers are way down.  I want to blame it on the wolves, but there are probably more reasons than that.  I still put in for the special draw tags here, but I started hunting Idaho for general season last year.  Was out bear hunting this past weekend and didn't even see an elk.  Going back to Idaho again this season.  Just my 

His name is Wik

[emac]

This year i had 14 cams in the blues 6 currently. The previous 2 years i had 10 cams in the blues. So over the last 3 years i have seen a decline in elk activity and am getting more predators. Usually i have had between 5-12 spikes a year between all my cams. This year i have had zero a big goose egg. I know there a some there somewhere but i think there is getting to be less and less. I would go to the teanaway for you best chance. But if you go to the blues skip the elk hunting and focus on cougars and bears

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[JWEBB]

Wolves are in there thick! I have hunted the blues my entire life and the decline in elk and deer is a lot worse than most know.

[BigGame]

I really appreciate all the information. Sounds like I should plan on a bear hunt in the Blues next fall, that'll be a good time to check out the area and scout. If anyone has any information they want to PM me on the Teanaway, I'd appreciate any help I can get.

Good luck this season everyone.

[Pathfinder101]

According to the WDFW meeting last week, a couple of bad winters and a lot of mystery.  Many elk living in the lowlands loving the garbs and being pressured hard by the department to move up to federal ground.  Total number reported about 4000 with a target of 5500.  A fair amount of predator discussion, bears, cats, wolves, but no real plan to reduce them.  Bull/cow ratios pretty good but cow/calf ratios are in the tank.  My take is habitat on the federal ground, even with fires is a problem.  Throw in seeing more bears than elk where the cows calve and calf survival is nasty.  Very hard to grow a herd when more die than are living past one year.  A tiny % of those calves breed there first year so living beyond age two is the only way to increase numbers.  Even with no cow seasons on public ground it is not happening.

Solution is get very serious about habitat where elk are preferred, public ground, and advertise (cheap tags, high cat quotas and more opportunity) the heck out of predator control on those public acres.  Not holding my breath

We have been complaining about the predators for years.  Cats and bear have always been a problem.  You can look at an elk herd in June and see lots of calves.  Look at the same herd in September and most of the calves are missing.    I never have been able to figure out why our bear season here doesn't begin until September.  Now the wolves have been added to the mix. 

[JWEBB]

According to the WDFW meeting last week, a couple of bad winters and a lot of mystery.  Many elk living in the lowlands loving the garbs and being pressured hard by the department to move up to federal ground.  Total number reported about 4000 with a target of 5500.  A fair amount of predator discussion, bears, cats, wolves, but no real plan to reduce them.  Bull/cow ratios pretty good but cow/calf ratios are in the tank.  My take is habitat on the federal ground, even with fires is a problem.  Throw in seeing more bears than elk where the cows calve and calf survival is nasty.  Very hard to grow a herd when more die than are living past one year.  A tiny % of those calves breed there first year so living beyond age two is the only way to increase numbers.  Even with no cow seasons on public ground it is not happening.

Solution is get very serious about habitat where elk are preferred, public ground, and advertise (cheap tags, high cat quotas and more opportunity) the heck out of predator control on those public acres.  Not holding my breath

We have been complaining about the predators for years.  Cats and bear have always been a problem.  You can look at an elk herd in June and see lots of calves.  Look at the same herd in September and most of the calves are missing.    I never have been able to figure out why our bear season here doesn't begin until September.  Now the wolves have been added to the mix.

   besides the wolves and cats(don’t get me started), the bear season over there needs to start earlier and 10 times more spring tags need to be given out. Complete joke by wdfw how they manage the spring bear hunts over there

[Pathfinder101]

According to the WDFW meeting last week, a couple of bad winters and a lot of mystery.  Many elk living in the lowlands loving the garbs and being pressured hard by the department to move up to federal ground.  Total number reported about 4000 with a target of 5500.  A fair amount of predator discussion, bears, cats, wolves, but no real plan to reduce them.  Bull/cow ratios pretty good but cow/calf ratios are in the tank.  My take is habitat on the federal ground, even with fires is a problem.  Throw in seeing more bears than elk where the cows calve and calf survival is nasty.  Very hard to grow a herd when more die than are living past one year.  A tiny % of those calves breed there first year so living beyond age two is the only way to increase numbers.  Even with no cow seasons on public ground it is not happening.

Solution is get very serious about habitat where elk are preferred, public ground, and advertise (cheap tags, high cat quotas and more opportunity) the heck out of predator control on those public acres.  Not holding my breath

We have been complaining about the predators for years.  Cats and bear have always been a problem.  You can look at an elk herd in June and see lots of calves.  Look at the same herd in September and most of the calves are missing.    I never have been able to figure out why our bear season here doesn't begin until September.  Now the wolves have been added to the mix.

   besides the wolves and cats(don’t get me started), the bear season over there needs to start earlier and 10 times more spring tags need to be given out. Complete joke by wdfw how they manage the spring bear hunts over there

Agreed.  Like I said, we've been complaining about this for years.