Got opinions on WA deer management?

[bigmacc]

Shorten all seasons.
All east side seasons become draws.
Don’t give out thousands of mule deer for tags.
I’ll give as many bios and managers my opinion as I can muster.
At least I get a honest answer when they say “We manage for opportunity not quality”
Given that fact...you can see why a guy might have such a negative opinion on the deal.

Good deal, ya got to keep hounding them(check my post from 1:26pm on Nov.9th) my dad never gave up when it came to the Methow herd, lots of people said it would do no good, they said that decisions were made by "experts" not by guys like him etc. etc. etc. He told them of his history there, he showed them 100,s and 100,s of pictures to prove points, he told them stories and showed journals, whatever it took and eventually he earned their respect. As I said it went on for years and soon a lot of Game Department folks from all different levels would be at our camp, sometimes 4 or 5 at a time for hours asking many questions and at least listening. Persistence and respect

[hunter399]

Shorten all seasons.
All east side seasons become draws.
Don’t give out thousands of mule deer for tags.
I’ll give as many bios and managers my opinion as I can muster.
At least I get a honest answer when they say “We manage for opportunity not quality”
Given that fact...you can see why a guy might have such a negative opinion on the deal.

How about all deer hunting in the entire state become permit,or make wet side seasons the same as east side so we are not getting pounded by wet side hunters.

[JakeLand]

Shorten all seasons.
All east side seasons become draws.
Don’t give out thousands of mule deer for tags.
I’ll give as many bios and managers my opinion as I can muster.
At least I get a honest answer when they say “We manage for opportunity not quality”
Given that fact...you can see why a guy might have such a negative opinion on the deal.

How about all deer hunting in the entire state become permit,or make wet side seasons the same as east side so we are not getting pounded by wet side hunters.

even if the seasons are the same you will still get wetsiders going over for Muley and whitetail make it a choice east or west because the blacktail get hammered by everyone from east and west after the east side general closes .

[bigmacc]

Shorten all seasons.
All east side seasons become draws.
Don’t give out thousands of mule deer for tags.
I’ll give as many bios and managers my opinion as I can muster.
At least I get a honest answer when they say “We manage for opportunity not quality”
Given that fact...you can see why a guy might have such a negative opinion on the deal.

How about all deer hunting in the entire state become permit,or make wet side seasons the same as east side so we are not getting pounded by wet side hunters.

even if the seasons are the same you will still get wetsiders going over for Muley and whitetail make it a choice east or west because the blacktail get hammered by everyone from east and west after the east side general closes .

Heck why not take it to another level, instead of east west tags you not only choose your weapon(bow, muzzy or modern) but you also pick a species for deer, you either buy a blacktail tag, a white tail tag or a mule deer tag, which ever you purchase is only what you can hunt that year. Another spin on that would be making it draw only in the Methow and Entiat units, maybe 100-200 permits per unit and eliminating the quality late hunts in these units BUT having the season for these two areas be open for 10 days and always ending on Oct. 31st. And then again there is huntinphools idea of the odd-even system in the Methow and Entiat

[huntnphool]

At the WDFW 2018/2020 Public Season Setting meeting I attended in Wenatchee there were 20 WDFW staff and bios, but only 3 members of the public showed up. That meeting was well advertised, and yet pretty much no one bothered to attend.

At that meeting I asked why WDFW was managing NCW mule deer for "Opportunity" not "Quality" hunting, especially given the recent challenges face by NCW mule deer herds. Their answer was that WDFW works for the public, and that what they hear from the public is that we value the opportunity to hunt mule deer every year, more than the chance to hunt less frequently but be more successful.

 Wait a second, how/where do they "hear from the public" if only 3 people were there?

[Cervus]

Huntnphool, that's a good question, and one I didn't ask at the meeting. I'd guess WDFW gets  input from public meetings, written public comment periods, and people calling/writing to the Department? Also informal conversations b/t the public and biologists and managers?
 
I think it's safe to say they are not getting their input from the HW forums though  which is all the more reason we need to reach out, speak up, and share what we want to see in for hunting and game management priorities.

[huntnphool]

Huntnphool, that's a good question, and one I didn't ask at the meeting. I'd guess WDFW gets  input from public meetings, written public comment periods, and people calling/writing to the Department? Also informal conversations b/t the public and biologists and managers?
 
I think it's safe to say they are not getting their input from the HW forums though  which is all the more reason we need to reach out, speak up, and share what we want to see in for hunting and game management priorities.

 Point being, they are getting the same opinion you gave in the meeting, as they are getting in the other fashions you just mentioned...public meetings, written comments, calling etc, yet the only opinion that matters is "opportunity over quality"?

 Seems to me they are CHOOSING which option they want to listen too.

[Mr Mykiss]

OPPORTUNITY OVER QUALITY

Tired of hearing it?

Too bad. Get used to it.

[hunter399]

OPPORTUNITY OVER QUALITY

Tired of hearing it?

Too bad. Get used to it.

Not much opportunity,When there is no animals to hunt.
General seasons are crap.Do to more opportunity.
I see a lot of ,as they lay deer pics being taken out of state just on this forum alone.Why?

[Sandberm]

Went for a late afternoon drive south off the Kahlotus highway at Snake River road. Cut through the fog over to that HMU I cant remember the name of. Probably saw 50-75 deer in a half hour or less.

All does except one 1x1 buck all by himself. How is that little guy gonna get all those women pregnant?

[Mr Mykiss]

I’ve been hounding them on Kahlotus for years...their surveys turn up 15ish “bucks” per 100 does...somehow.
Apparently the answer to the problem was to issue 350 second deer tags during general rifle.
From your recent experience it sound like they shoulda issued more, like 1000? 1500?
Perhaps mule deer in eastern Washington should be on a year round shoot-on-sight program??

[huntnnw]

it blows my mind that this state with so little habitat for mule deer and so many hunters is still open to general season hunts! There are states with 100X the habitat and far less hunters that are managed by a draw system. The second whitetail doe tags in NE WA need to be gone period. Issue only to private or what ID does good for private or within a mile of private land.

[Ridgeratt]

it blows my mind that this state with so little habitat for mule deer and so many hunters is still open to general season hunts! There are states with 100X the habitat and far less hunters that are managed by a draw system. The second whitetail doe tags in NE WA need to be gone period. Issue only to private or what ID does good for private or within a mile of private land.

You left out eliminating the Multi-season permits as well.  Along with the muzzle doe tags in eastern Washington. This year the WDFW optioned them to any whitetail.
 

[hunter399]

Think most huntwa members will agree something's need to change ,Maybe we should all email the new director with some ideas ,that all of can agree on.Maybe start the email with the same paragraph, then go into your own personal ideas.

[huntnphool]

Maybe we should all email the new director with some ideas ,that all of can agree on.

 And those ideas are what exactly?