2018 seems very lean

[CougHunter]

I find this threat reassuring after reading in the Spokesman Review that "Deer hunters in Washington and Idaho are finding more legal bucks than they did last year, both whitetails and muleys."

This was my third year of hunting and looking like my third year of tag soup. I had one of my most amazing weekends in the outdoors last weekend, but at the same time it's getting old seeing tons of deer and nothing legal. My wife has a lot of coworkers who have quit hunting due to low success. I'm in it for the long haul, but I feel ridiculous for not being able to harvest one after dedicating thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.

[Skyvalhunter]

Count yourself fortunate to even see deer.

[Scuffy]

Just got back from the Aladdin unit and it was way too hot for the deer to be moving. I also found a bad predator to deer ratio. Pulling the cards on the game cams from the last month, I saw a spike buck, two fork horns, and a 3 point whitetail to go along with 4 different adult cougars and 3 juvenile cougars. Needless to say, there was a lot of hairy poop in the area.

[singleshot12]

A few more years WDFW is gonna have a hard time selling tags.

Maybe when sales go way down something will finally be done about the predator problem 

[RockChuck]

WDFW logic will be to keep raising the tag price so the fewer hunters will still pay the bills..

[Southpole]

A few more years WDFW is gonna have a hard time selling tags.

Maybe when sales go way down something will finally be done about the predator problem 

Naw, this is what the upper management of the department has been working towards to eliminate hunting all together. Looks like it’s working pretty good.

[timberfaller]

Seen today coming for decades,   once they combined the two departments into one.   Some don't remember but every inter-agency sub-department in the game department was turned over to a "fish" person, even the Hunter Ed department.  We lived through it, but it was a fight to save what we had!!!

Its been slowly going downhill since the late 70's and then took a drastic turn after the 2015 fire season.

Until there is a "ideology" change in Olympia YOU'LL never see it get better!

 Remember, "the Methow herd is in great shape" and "the 2016 winter was so mild the herd didn't migrate out of the high country" right from the "horses mouth" WDFW

[Southpole]

My Curlew cams from April to Oct. 18 had only a hand full of does, a couple of dinky bucks and very few bears (I always get a ton of bears). It was an extreme change from the past 11 years. Lots of turkeys though!

[Karl Blanchard]

Many of us aren't even pursuing muleys anymore in WA. Numbers are horrid in general. I don't even see a rebound in the near future. Makes me sick.

spot on.  I refuse to assist in the continued destruction of washington mule deer.  My daughter has a doe tag over in the wheat country that we will hunt but even that kind of stings. Cant wait till she is ten and can hunt idaho.

[mburrows]

I agree with permit only for muleys. No more over the counter mule deer tags.

This, better predator management and better protecting winter ranges all need to happen.

[singleshot12]

A few more years WDFW is gonna have a hard time selling tags.

Maybe when sales go way down something will finally be done about the predator problem 

Naw, this is what the upper management of the department has been working towards to eliminate hunting all together. Looks like it’s working pretty good.

Do you think the folks in upper management are anti-hunting or just plain ignorant to wildlife management?

[Karl Blanchard]

I agree with permit only for muleys. No more over the counter mule deer tags.

This, better predator management and better protecting winter ranges all need to happen.

  there needs to be a full on assault on all things detrimental to mule deer.  Habitat, predators, hunting pressure, vehicle collisions

[woodswalker]

A few more years WDFW is gonna have a hard time selling tags.

Maybe when sales go way down something will finally be done about the predator problem 

Naw, this is what the upper management of the department has been working towards to eliminate hunting all together. Looks like it’s working pretty good.

Do you think the folks in upper management are anti-hunting or just plain ignorant to wildlife management?

Mostly and to the greater extent the former, but also the latter.  When a Methow wildlife Bio tells me that he is glad that the weather is not pushing the migrating herd down, so we hunters don't mess up his buck/doe ratios...That tells me all i needed to know about the Department's priorities.

[jackelope]

Many of us aren't even pursuing muleys anymore in WA. Numbers are horrid in general. I don't even see a rebound in the near future. Makes me sick.

 

I never thought I would say this, but I think I might almost be there myself...told Dale that yesterday. It's rough spending an entire weekend in country that usually has at least some deer in it and not seeing any deer at all.

[Karl Blanchard]

A few more years WDFW is gonna have a hard time selling tags.

Maybe when sales go way down something will finally be done about the predator problem 

Naw, this is what the upper management of the department has been working towards to eliminate hunting all together. Looks like it’s working pretty good.

Do you think the folks in upper management are anti-hunting or just plain ignorant to wildlife management?

Mostly and to the greater extent the former, but also the latter.  When a Methow wildlife Bio tells me that he is glad that the weather is not pushing the migrating herd down, so we hunters don't mess up his buck/doe ratios...That tells me all i needed to know about the Department's priorities.

I agree with him.  That's not anti hunter that's pro mule deer sir