2019 spring bear?

[steeleywhopper]

I lived and hunted in Dayton and I am 100% for a general Spring bear season. Those bears eat a crapload of elk calves each year. If you do some sniffing around and find a draw where the elk are calving you will find a bunch of bears. Now with the wolves competing with the bears and cougars those elk are taking a beating.
Worse thing that ever happened was the Seattlites voting away our hound hunting.

[Timberstalker]

To the guys that think the blues shouldnt be an otc spring bear tag, i have grown up in the blues my whole life born and raised there. Something needs to be done and killing more bears would be a good start. Cougars are number one priority but bears need to taken out. If you look at the new proposed elk tags you will see they are taking away 35 quality bull tags and completely eliminating cow tags. So the predator control hunters can do the better.

Trophyhunt i have followed your post for years cause you like to talk about the blues. You dont want it to be a otc for spring bear but if my memory serves me right, and i might be off so sorry if i am, you complained how long it takes to get drawn for an elk tag there. Which i do believe you got drawn a couple years ago.  But now with 35 tags getting eliminated it is going to be impossible to get drawn for a tag. Like i have said i grew up in the blues and my dream is to shoot a blues bull bit i realize that will probably never happen.

But if they opened up spring bear otc maybe it would help the elk population there. Because we all know wdfw isnt going to do a damn thing about the cougar and wolves

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The cats and wolves are doing significantly more damage than the bears are...


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The bears are clubbing calves in the spring.

[SilkOnTheDrySide]

To the guys that think the blues shouldnt be an otc spring bear tag, i have grown up in the blues my whole life born and raised there. Something needs to be done and killing more bears would be a good start. Cougars are number one priority but bears need to taken out. If you look at the new proposed elk tags you will see they are taking away 35 quality bull tags and completely eliminating cow tags. So the predator control hunters can do the better.

Trophyhunt i have followed your post for years cause you like to talk about the blues. You dont want it to be a otc for spring bear but if my memory serves me right, and i might be off so sorry if i am, you complained how long it takes to get drawn for an elk tag there. Which i do believe you got drawn a couple years ago.  But now with 35 tags getting eliminated it is going to be impossible to get drawn for a tag. Like i have said i grew up in the blues and my dream is to shoot a blues bull bit i realize that will probably never happen.

But if they opened up spring bear otc maybe it would help the elk population there. Because we all know wdfw isnt going to do a damn thing about the cougar and wolves

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The cats and wolves are doing significantly more damage than the bears are...


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The bears are clubbing calves in the spring.

I am aware, but I still don’t think that justifies opening up the spring season there.  I’d be much more supportive of opening more spring units to draw, and bumping the blues season back 15-30 days.

I also continue to not understand why, if people are so concerned about the bear population decimating the elk herds, they don’t go out in the fall and kill them. 

I’m not sure I have anything more to add to this conversation without repeating myself. 🤷‍♂️ Good luck on your spring draws!


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[trophyhunt]

To the guys that think the blues shouldnt be an otc spring bear tag, i have grown up in the blues my whole life born and raised there. Something needs to be done and killing more bears would be a good start. Cougars are number one priority but bears need to taken out. If you look at the new proposed elk tags you will see they are taking away 35 quality bull tags and completely eliminating cow tags. So the predator control hunters can do the better.

Trophyhunt i have followed your post for years cause you like to talk about the blues. You dont want it to be a otc for spring bear but if my memory serves me right, and i might be off so sorry if i am, you complained how long it takes to get drawn for an elk tag there. Which i do believe you got drawn a couple years ago.  But now with 35 tags getting eliminated it is going to be impossible to get drawn for a tag. Like i have said i grew up in the blues and my dream is to shoot a blues bull bit i realize that will probably never happen.

But if they opened up spring bear otc maybe it would help the elk population there. Because we all know wdfw isnt going to do a damn thing about the cougar and wolves

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My thoughts are this on otc spring bear.  We have had spring bear in the blues now for what 18-20 years?  Before that, there was no spring bear hunts.  Elk in the blues hit their peak prob 8-10 years ago?  All approx guesses here,  I’d say the wolves have made a huge impact, more than the bears who at least get hunted.  If I believed the elk herds would bounce back to early 2000 numbers w otc spring bear, I’d be good with that. But I’m just not convinced it would.  Emac, your making me feel guilty for passing up a bear 2 years ago in the blues, I was hoping my dad would get it!     I think the elk are suffering from all angles, poaching, unmanageable native hunting, wolves, cats and bears.  Maybe a few more tags for bear in the blues would help? But I don’t believe it will come close to solving our problem.  I do feel with the more cover on the westside that we could easily have otc spring bear on the westside.  Spring time in the mountains is special, especially in the blues hunting bears, I’d hate to see it look like some park in Seattle on a Saturday.  And yes eMac, I drew spring bear 2 years ago, still waiting for elk....

[emac]

To the guys that think the blues shouldnt be an otc spring bear tag, i have grown up in the blues my whole life born and raised there. Something needs to be done and killing more bears would be a good start. Cougars are number one priority but bears need to taken out. If you look at the new proposed elk tags you will see they are taking away 35 quality bull tags and completely eliminating cow tags. So the predator control hunters can do the better.

Trophyhunt i have followed your post for years cause you like to talk about the blues. You dont want it to be a otc for spring bear but if my memory serves me right, and i might be off so sorry if i am, you complained how long it takes to get drawn for an elk tag there. Which i do believe you got drawn a couple years ago.  But now with 35 tags getting eliminated it is going to be impossible to get drawn for a tag. Like i have said i grew up in the blues and my dream is to shoot a blues bull bit i realize that will probably never happen.

But if they opened up spring bear otc maybe it would help the elk population there. Because we all know wdfw isnt going to do a damn thing about the cougar and wolves

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My thoughts are this on otc spring bear.  We have had spring bear in the blues now for what 18-20 years?  Before that, there was no spring bear hunts.  Elk in the blues hit their peak prob 8-10 years ago?  All approx guesses here,  I’d say the wolves have made a huge impact, more than the bears who at least get hunted.  If I believed the elk herds would bounce back to early 2000 numbers w otc spring bear, I’d be good with that. But I’m just not convinced it would.  Emac, your making me feel guilty for passing up a bear 2 years ago in the blues, I was hoping my dad would get it!     I think the elk are suffering from all angles, poaching, unmanageable native hunting, wolves, cats and bears.  Maybe a few more tags for bear in the blues would help? But I don’t believe it will come close to solving our problem.  I do feel with the more cover on the westside that we could easily have otc spring bear on the westside.  Spring time in the mountains is special, especially in the blues hunting bears, I’d hate to see it look like some park in Seattle on a Saturday.  And yes eMac, I drew spring bear 2 years ago, still waiting for elk....

You are right i stand correct on the quality elk tag. Not trying to make you feel guilty, i think i drew the same year as you and was unable to connect also. So i know what unit you are mostly referring to and i would be for that unit staying draw but open the other units around it to otc.  There are enough bears to go around.  I personally don't think you would see a huge amount of people hunting in the spring. Sure you would have your die hards and your weekend warriors but for the most part i think you would have people throwing a rifle in and driving the roads hoping to see one. Kinda like how most people hunt them during the fall.

And yes you are correct that there are a lot of other factors in the declining elk populations, but most of those factors are out of our control and we really cant do anything about them.

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[Jonathan_S]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

[trophyhunt]

  how nice would it be for Wdfw to bring back hounds and baiting for cats and bears!  Seems to me they could fight the law w our predator issues that we have to manage elk/deer.  That would surely help!

[ne kid]

I am putting in for the first time after last year watching 3 bear kill 4 fawns in a two day period. Otc should happen in the Northeast, and be allowed a spring and fall bear. Don't underestimate the amount of fawns and elk calves killed by bear. The state either don't care or want to kill off our ungulate population. Never seen anything like this in the area I'm from. Mule deer in my yard year round deer huddled up in the middle of fields or as close to houses as possible, but we don't have a predator problem? I'm no expert but my dad has lived there for 72 years and never seen it like this before.

[snake]

It is sad to me that there are members of the hunting community and this forum that are so out of touch with the state of predator population in our state that they would disagree on an OTC season.  Same goes for statements about the legality of carrying a rifle in the hills.

[bornhunter]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

Sounds like you would give good advice on which unit to put in for spring bear? I was thinking 105 or 108?

[Jonathan_S]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

Sounds like you would give good advice on which unit to put in for spring bear? I was thinking 105 or 108?

I've not had the opportunity to hunt spring bear in WA.  Drew in 2012 and ended up having to leave the country for work.  Now I've got 6 points so maybe this year.

108 and 105 are good units for people who know the areas.  If I were coming from Lewis County, I'd just buy a $40 ID reduced tag and hunt there.

[Karl Blanchard]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

Literally!!!! Oh that gave me a good laugh..... at your expense

[Jonathan_S]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

Literally!!!! Oh that gave me a good laugh..... at your expense

Was hoping one of you clowns would see that 

[bornhunter]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

Sounds like you would give good advice on which unit to put in for spring bear? I was thinking 105 or 108?

I've not had the opportunity to hunt spring bear in WA.  Drew in 2012 and ended up having to leave the country for work.  Now I've got 6 points so maybe this year.

108 and 105 are good units for people who know the areas.  If I were coming from Lewis County, I'd just buy a $40 ID reduced tag and hunt there.

Good idea.

[BULLBLASTER]

I, like some others, just don't give a crap about a quality bear hunt experience in Washington. 

This coming from a guy who takes a bear on average every year and who enjoys shooting and eating them.  Hell last year I couldn't keep them off me.  Literally 

Literally!!!! Oh that gave me a good laugh..... at your expense

Was hoping one of you clowns would see that