15 Years - Chiwawa 2024

[hunter_sean08]

Well after 15 years, I finally drew the quality buck modern firearm hunt I always wanted - Chiwawa. I was shocked when I initially saw I had drawn my 2nd choice hunt - Alta, and to be honest, while I was initially bummed it wasn't 245, I was pretty darn fired up for the hunt after a couple of days of e-scouting and talking to some folks on here. Imagine my further shock when I got the WDFW email yesterday saying their system had been messed up. I fully anticipated my tag had gone poof into the wind. But when I saw the green "Selected" next to Chiwawa instead of Alta, the adrenaline was cranking all over again.

My family has had a cabin on the south shore of Lake Wenatchee for nearly 90 years. The western portion of the unit is well-known to me and I know what the country is capable of producing. I've often dreamed what a rut/migratory hunt would look like in some of our old haunts. Now I'll hopefully see that dream come to fruition.

That said, the Chiwawa is a huge unit. And I know some of the pumpkin patch general season locales in the central and eastern portions of the unit will be awfully tempting to hunt with dramatically less pressure on the landscape. I'll want to be tactical in my approach. It's easy to want to set up camp at our cabin, but that would put me nearly 2 hours from climbing the slopes of Tyee Ridge if I decided to head that way. My in-laws live in East Wenatchee, so that would likely be my base camp-east if I decided to focus on that side of the unit. I also have a trailer if I decide I want to cut my commute.

To say I'm fired up is an understatement. I know the deer populations have been on the decline, and I've seen it with my own eyes, but I will still take this opportunity as a blessing and put the effort in that this hunt deserves. The genetics are there, and there are some truly beautiful deer in the Wenatchee/Entiat herds.

Despite knowing this unit very well, I'm always open to advice or suggestions, especially from past tag holders. Just when I think I've got an area dialed, I learn something new.

I can't wait to get over there in a few weeks. The Chiwawa holds a special place in my heart. I'll plan to post updates when I can. If anything, there will be a nice write-up at the very end- big buck, small buck, or no buck at all.

Happy hunting all!

[NOCK NOCK]

Congrats, and great post.

I spend a bit of time in that unit and had an archery permit years ago when deer were more plentiful. Yes, the herds are certainly hurting, but still some good ones here and there.
I'll keep an eye out for ya, if I see something special (multi permit this year) I'll let ya know.

[hunter_sean08]

I appreciate that. Best of luck to you this season! 

[Rainier10]

My first deer was 29 years ago in the west side of that unit. A few years ago I had a tag for Chiwawa and entiat late rifle. We saw a nice bull moose in that hunt. Looking forward to your write up. The initial post is great. Best of luck to you. Enjoy the ride.

[CamoDup]

Congrats on the tag. I drew it back in 2013 and had an awesome hunt. It is a fun tag to have if you get the weather, which I did in '13. It snowed about a foot where I was hunting and there were new bucks to look at everyday. I think I killed mine on the 8th day. I couldn't hold out anymore.

At the time I never thought I'd be able to pass up a legal buck in Washington but on that hunt I got to do it multiple times. Good luck!!

[hunter_sean08]

My first deer was 29 years ago in the west side of that unit. A few years ago I had a tag for Chiwawa and entiat late rifle. We saw a nice bull moose in that hunt. Looking forward to your write up. The initial post is great. Best of luck to you. Enjoy the ride.

Pretty cool. I saw a cow with a calf on the road up to French Corral from Ardenvoir probably 8 years ago. The year before we had a mating bull and a cow on the west end of the unit along the border with the Mission GMU. Pretty sure the bull got poached right after deer season which was a huge bummer. So cool seeing them up close.

I’ve read your thread on that hunt a few times. Always enjoy reading your stories. Hopefully I can have a good story of my own on this hunt.


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[hunter_sean08]

Congrats on the tag. I drew it back in 2013 and had an awesome hunt. It is a fun tag to have if you get the weather, which I did in '13. It snowed about a foot where I was hunting and there were new bucks to look at everyday. I think I killed mine on the 8th day. I couldn't hold out anymore.

At the time I never thought I'd be able to pass up a legal buck in Washington but on that hunt I got to do it multiple times. Good luck!!

This is what I’m hoping for. To be honest, a foot of snow makes me nervous on some of those roads, but I’ll make it work . Already have 4 sets of icebreakers ready to go.

[hunter_sean08]

Update - my scouting has been minimal this summer with 2 toddlers, wife to keep happy, new house, work, Rotary presidency, and a full throttle salmon season (didn't mention this before, but of course luck would have me draw in one of the busiest years of my life). I'm not too concerned as I know the unit well and know it will be quite a bit different come November than what I'm used to in October. I've got a couple of spots nailed down that I'll be frequenting for sure and a few more I want to check out before everything gets going. I was over there a couple of weekends ago, but it was mostly a family trip with just a little bit of road running around the lake.

My plan right now is to hopefully get over there one more weekend in September, maybe pick up a couple grouse, and just add a couple more good glassing vantage points to my hitlist before hunting season kicks into high gear. Come October, I'll be hunting muzzy elk out west. Sadly, the season butts right up against the general deer season, and with days off piling up, I need to save the bulk of them for November. I'll probably hunt the second weekend of modern plus the last two days of the season and use those days as an excuse to scout with a rifle in my hands more than anything else. On 11/1 I'm planning to head over to Wenatchee with my family as my wife's sister has her baby shower on the 2nd. That's a great excuse for me to hunt the first weekend and get a good feel for road conditions at least on the east side of the unit. And if I see a good buck, well I guess that might have to be the end of it! If my tag is unpunched, I'll head home, work the 4th-8th, and then race back over for the second weekend and hunt the season out through the 20th.

These are just my plans on paper right now. There's a lot that could change between now and then, but I'm getting excited nonetheless. Feels good to be putting a plan together.

[actionshooter]

 Congrats on that tag!
 I killed my 1st buck in that unit when I was 19... back in the early 90s there was an early November Muzzleloader hunt that landed right about the rut.... I was insane and to this day, not sure why WDFW did it.

[hunter_sean08]

Congrats on that tag!
 I killed my 1st buck in that unit when I was 19... back in the early 90s there was an early November Muzzleloader hunt that landed right about the rut.... I was insane and to this day, not sure why WDFW did it.

I know. My parents used to go over there in the 90’s and stay at our cabin at the lake after the water had been turned off for the season. Dad used to say it was like “shooting fish in a barrel.” All he had to do was find a trail in the snow and wait and it wouldn’t take long for one to come trotting through. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think they allowed antlerless harvest during that season as well? Talk about insanity.


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[Brotherman]

I had 20 acres and a cabin on Pole Ridge and dropped my fair share of bucks up there. Be on the watch as there are lots of bear and cougars up there. Head up towards Dirty Face. It is a little rough, but they are in there! Congrats on the tag!!

[actionshooter]

Congrats on that tag!
 I killed my 1st buck in that unit when I was 19... back in the early 90s there was an early November Muzzleloader hunt that landed right about the rut.... I was insane and to this day, not sure why WDFW did it.

I know. My parents used to go over there in the 90’s and stay at our cabin at the lake after the water had been turned off for the season. Dad used to say it was like “shooting fish in a barrel.” All he had to do was find a trail in the snow and wait and it wouldn’t take long for one to come trotting through. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think they allowed antlerless harvest during that season as well? Talk about insanity.


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 I don't remember if does were allowed, but it was before the 3pt minimum, One of the guys in our camp killed a 29" 3x4 the 2nd year we hunted it... and I shot a 2x2 because I was a dumb kid   

[Skyvalhunter]

There used to be a doe permit draw for the Chiwawa as I drew it when I was a kid. It's an interesting unit and know it quite well. Pray for snow as the lack of it last year spread out the migration. Being a large portion heavily timbered makes spot and stalk more difficult as opposed to sitting on the migration routes. Not the deer numbers as there used to be but still some wall hangers there. Good luck and look forward hearing about your hunt.

[hunter_sean08]

I had 20 acres and a cabin on Pole Ridge and dropped my fair share of bucks up there. Be on the watch as there are lots of bear and cougars up there. Head up towards Dirty Face. It is a little rough, but they are in there! Congrats on the tag!!

Thank you. Been a couple of years since I went up on Pole Ridge. I've seen a couple dandies up there in years past. It was a pretty fun hunt when Dirtyface burned. Last time I tried to get up to that landing below the mountain, the road was pretty overgrown on both sides with buckbrush. Think my 4Runner is still mad at me! There was always a wall tent camp just down ridge from there. Think they just called themselves "Dirtyface Camp". They were packing out a couple decent bucks the first time we ran into them years ago. Speaking of predators up there, my parents had a close encounter with a mama bear and her cubs up that way during the late muzzleloader season back in the 90's. Dad loves to bring up that story in camp just about every season.

[bigmacc]

Congratulations on the tag, it’s “one of those “😉 I personally don’t know much about the unit but I worked with a gal, yep a gal that grew up in the area. We swapped stories, she brought pictures, I brought pictures…. Man, I’ll tell ya she and her family had some monsters come out of that turf, 1970-2000.👍 Before my dad passed I brought them together and we looked at nothing but photo albums for hours, she also brought some pics from family members in Saskatchewan, we brought some from Alaska.

Sorry, you’re gonna do fine. Theres still some big animals in there, she’s 74 and killed a big fella in there last year. Once again, congrats, keep that adrenaline pumping!😆😆