Lick creek unit 175

[Fallfever]

With the decline in elk populations and the massive wild fires that have taken place in this unit, what does the quality elk tag look like?

[Timberstalker]

As bad as I’ve seen it in 20 years of hunting the unit.

[emac]

Not worth putting in for.  You left the predators and the other predators off the list.

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[nwhunter]

Terrible.... predator issues topped off by that fire its not good.... and its a native favorite drive by to finish it off.....

[emac]

The fires helped the natives out tremendously

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[huntnnw]

we all know why the elk are plummeting in those units.. predators

[Wizekrakr]

Hunted the 175, 2022 deer and elk season. saw 1 legal buck. Saw 4 elk herds and not a single calf in those herds. Predators are a serious problem in the unit and the units around the 175.

[Fallfever]

Is it worth puting in for in the draw? A friend of mine is moving out of state and is considering dumping his points, I think he is crazy but are the opportunites still htere for a decent bull?

[Fallfever]

Looking for advice, is this hunt worth trying to draw? I believe the are holds good elk and everywhere has its challenges.  Any opinions

[andersonjk4]

All depends on what he’s looking for animal and experience wise. I’m sure there are still some decent bulls in the unit. It’s a very big unit with plenty of steep nasty areas to hold big old bulls.  But even if he has 20+ points it’s not a given he’s going to draw.

[Shawn Ryan]

Hunted 175 several years, but not post-fire. With this winter's snow, there might be good forage next fall.

Seems like this has already been said, but "dumping" points in WA is hard, given anyone's chances to draw are not much greater than 1%.

[trophyhunt]

Dumping points isn’t a real thing in Wa. Maybe when the toutle had a bunch of tags and a guy had 20+ points, but I can’t even dump my 27 points on a white river tag on the west side.  I have 26 points for cow elk and wonder if I could draw a tag!

[ACCUBOND]

All the choices fall under management.

[chukarchaser]

Any truth to the theory that the majority of large bulls in 175 during the rut head to 172 to heal up after the rut? 

[Bigtine96]

Based on what I witnessed last year I will be putting in elsewhere. Pretty sad

[emac]

Based on what I witnessed last year I will be putting in elsewhere. Pretty sad

Sums it up

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[BoomWhop]

Hunted it hard last year didn't see much. Rode the quad trails about 24 hours after a heavy rain and the lack of any tracks crossing anywhere was shocking Deer or Elk. Animal numbers just seem way down. I had extra vacation time so I was there all of Muzzy Deer and Elk and went out every day. This was my plan for my quality Elk points but not anymore. Sad

[bobdog86]

Spent better part of the day 8am until 1130pm on a marathon walk about with a buddy this week. Exploring the fire damaged terrain looking around. It took us 5 1/2 hours to hike out to our truck from the furthest part. Needless to say we scoured then main drainage we were in. I won’t divulge which one, if you would like to just pm me I will share. We glassed for hours and covered a lot of country. Here are a few take away from our trip.
- we saw 7 mule deer, 3 whitetail, 2 beautiful bears, which were eating the only elk we saw. Zero elk, - one turkey, one lone chukar trying feverishly to locate a willing mate. I now know how the dodo bird felt.
- the burn was savage, I was impressed with the resurgence of grass/food and return of wIldlife (other than big game). We saw lots of small birds, rodents, the environment was alive. The wildflowers were gorgeous and plentiful.
- Now, I won’t say there isn’t any elk in the area, as we saw plenty of fresh sign, and my buddy has seen some recently, but the shear lack of numbers was very telling.
- Lick Creek has been wounded and will take a long, long time to recover. Unfortunately, as long as the predation issue goes unaccounted for, and there will never be an effort from our state to address the Native American harvest. These two factors and the burn are gonna have a generational affect.