2025 Big Game Rules are out!

[SWHUNTER]

How in gods green earth do they think the goose prairie archery hunting gmu can only handle 2 archery bulls to be taken. Do the bios even do anything or are they still blaming covid? I do believe they have caught the stupid.

It makes no sense.

[goldenhtr]

How in gods green earth do they think the goose prairie archery hunting gmu can only handle 2 archery bulls to be taken. Do the bios even do anything or are they still blaming covid? I do believe they have caught the stupid.

Well Muzzy gets (1)

[str8meat]

Yes I see that, I do believe the department of fish and wildlife hates the entire muzzleloader season.

[dreamingbig]

Where have you all been?  I have been talking the Yakima permit decline for the past 5 years.  It isn’t just this year.  Archery could get 50 permits easy for most of the units.  The biologists have stated the herd size is larger now than it was when they were giving north of a 100.

I would like a 1v1 for 4 hours with the department and hear how they have arrived at the permit levels for quality elk in the Yakima units for all weapon types.  I don’t think it is based on science but rather politics at this point.

Let’s keep emailing them, calling them and posting here (little value but at least it gets the word out) and maybe they finally pull their head out.  Maybe…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fishngamereaper]

Quality elk tags have become oil tags
The reductions make no sense to guys that spend time in the woods...
I don't think the State really cares though... they'll still get their thousands of apps for a handful of tags. The money is still coming in without having to provide equal access to the resource.

[CarbonHunter]

Where have you all been?  I have been talking the Yakima permit decline for the past 5 years.  It isn’t just this year.  Archery could get 50 permits easy for most of the units.  The biologists have stated the herd size is larger now than it was when they were giving north of a 100.

I would like a 1v1 for 4 hours with the department and hear how they have arrived at the permit levels for quality elk in the Yakima units for all weapon types.  I don’t think it is based on science but rather politics at this point.

Let’s keep emailing them, calling them and posting here (little value but at least it gets the word out) and maybe they finally pull their head out.  Maybe…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The reason for the reduction in quality tags about 5 years ago was because they saw a 50% reduction in mature bulls in the herd in one year. Poaching? Tribal hunting? I never saw if they actually figured out why.

So even though the herd is healthy and that is why you are seeing hundreds of cow tags again I haven’t seen numbers to suggest the mature bulls numbers have recovered.

[Ghost Hunter]

Yes I see that, I do believe the department of fish and wildlife hates the entire muzzleloader season.

Gave them a lot of love last year.      

[dreamingbig]

Where have you all been?  I have been talking the Yakima permit decline for the past 5 years.  It isn’t just this year.  Archery could get 50 permits easy for most of the units.  The biologists have stated the herd size is larger now than it was when they were giving north of a 100.

I would like a 1v1 for 4 hours with the department and hear how they have arrived at the permit levels for quality elk in the Yakima units for all weapon types.  I don’t think it is based on science but rather politics at this point.

Let’s keep emailing them, calling them and posting here (little value but at least it gets the word out) and maybe they finally pull their head out.  Maybe…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The reason for the reduction in quality tags about 5 years ago was because they saw a 50% reduction in mature bulls in the herd in one year. Poaching? Tribal hunting? I never saw if they actually figured out why.

So even though the herd is healthy and that is why you are seeing hundreds of cow tags again I haven’t seen numbers to suggest the mature bulls numbers have recovered.

Trail cameras would suggest there are more than enough.

That survey was done on a  low snow year with all the bulls back up high already.  Duh.

50 archery elk permits is not hundreds but maybe you were adding all user groups together.

I will say one benefit of turning these units into OIL permits is that the age class is WAY up.  I have seen the evidence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CarbonHunter]

Where have you all been?  I have been talking the Yakima permit decline for the past 5 years.  It isn’t just this year.  Archery could get 50 permits easy for most of the units.  The biologists have stated the herd size is larger now than it was when they were giving north of a 100.

I would like a 1v1 for 4 hours with the department and hear how they have arrived at the permit levels for quality elk in the Yakima units for all weapon types.  I don’t think it is based on science but rather politics at this point.

Let’s keep emailing them, calling them and posting here (little value but at least it gets the word out) and maybe they finally pull their head out.  Maybe…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The reason for the reduction in quality tags about 5 years ago was because they saw a 50% reduction in mature bulls in the herd in one year. Poaching? Tribal hunting? I never saw if they actually figured out why.

So even though the herd is healthy and that is why you are seeing hundreds of cow tags again I haven’t seen numbers to suggest the mature bulls numbers have recovered.

Trail cameras would suggest there are more than enough.

That survey was done on a  low snow year with all the bulls back up high already.  Duh.

50 archery elk permits is not hundreds but maybe you were adding all user groups together.

I will say one benefit of turning these units into OIL permits is that the age class is WAY up.  I have seen the evidence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes talking all weapons. There are 250 rifle 346 cow tags and the most I ever remember was 400 from years ago.

The archery cow season should just be opened back up given the numbers because if I remember right the harvest numbers for umtanum was around 60 cows each year when it was open season for archery. You can also see the decline in archery hunting for the Yakima area since they removed the open cow season. That is also affecting how many tags are available to archery hunters.

Keep in mind that the mature bulls numbers dropped from around 800 to 400 in one year. If the poaching or tribal hunting is still occurring at that rate it will take a long time to get back to a number near 8% of the herd being mature bulls. The bios are being pretty quiet about the situation with mature bulls.

[Mtnwalker]

Where have you all been?  I have been talking the Yakima permit decline for the past 5 years.  It isn’t just this year.  Archery could get 50 permits easy for most of the units.  The biologists have stated the herd size is larger now than it was when they were giving north of a 100.

I would like a 1v1 for 4 hours with the department and hear how they have arrived at the permit levels for quality elk in the Yakima units for all weapon types.  I don’t think it is based on science but rather politics at this point.

Let’s keep emailing them, calling them and posting here (little value but at least it gets the word out) and maybe they finally pull their head out.  Maybe…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The reason for the reduction in quality tags about 5 years ago was because they saw a 50% reduction in mature bulls in the herd in one year. Poaching? Tribal hunting? I never saw if they actually figured out why.

So even though the herd is healthy and that is why you are seeing hundreds of cow tags again I haven’t seen numbers to suggest the mature bulls numbers have recovered.

Trail cameras would suggest there are more than enough.

That survey was done on a  low snow year with all the bulls back up high already.  Duh.

50 archery elk permits is not hundreds but maybe you were adding all user groups together.

I will say one benefit of turning these units into OIL permits is that the age class is WAY up.  I have seen the evidence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes talking all weapons. There are 250 rifle 346 cow tags and the most I ever remember was 400 from years ago.

The archery cow season should just be opened back up given the numbers because if I remember right the harvest numbers for umtanum was around 60 cows each year when it was open season for archery. You can also see the decline in archery hunting for the Yakima area since they removed the open cow season. That is also affecting how many tags are available to archery hunters.

Keep in mind that the mature bulls numbers dropped from around 800 to 400 in one year. If the poaching or tribal hunting is still occurring at that rate it will take a long time to get back to a number near 8% of the herd being mature bulls. The bios are being pretty quiet about the situation with mature bulls.

Where are you finding the data on mature bulls?

[CarbonHunter]

Where have you all been?  I have been talking the Yakima permit decline for the past 5 years.  It isn’t just this year.  Archery could get 50 permits easy for most of the units.  The biologists have stated the herd size is larger now than it was when they were giving north of a 100.

I would like a 1v1 for 4 hours with the department and hear how they have arrived at the permit levels for quality elk in the Yakima units for all weapon types.  I don’t think it is based on science but rather politics at this point.

Let’s keep emailing them, calling them and posting here (little value but at least it gets the word out) and maybe they finally pull their head out.  Maybe…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The reason for the reduction in quality tags about 5 years ago was because they saw a 50% reduction in mature bulls in the herd in one year. Poaching? Tribal hunting? I never saw if they actually figured out why.

So even though the herd is healthy and that is why you are seeing hundreds of cow tags again I haven’t seen numbers to suggest the mature bulls numbers have recovered.

Trail cameras would suggest there are more than enough.

That survey was done on a  low snow year with all the bulls back up high already.  Duh.

50 archery elk permits is not hundreds but maybe you were adding all user groups together.

I will say one benefit of turning these units into OIL permits is that the age class is WAY up.  I have seen the evidence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes talking all weapons. There are 250 rifle 346 cow tags and the most I ever remember was 400 from years ago.

The archery cow season should just be opened back up given the numbers because if I remember right the harvest numbers for umtanum was around 60 cows each year when it was open season for archery. You can also see the decline in archery hunting for the Yakima area since they removed the open cow season. That is also affecting how many tags are available to archery hunters.

Keep in mind that the mature bulls numbers dropped from around 800 to 400 in one year. If the poaching or tribal hunting is still occurring at that rate it will take a long time to get back to a number near 8% of the herd being mature bulls. The bios are being pretty quiet about the situation with mature bulls.

Where are you finding the data on mature bulls?

There was an article posted about 5 years ago when they first lowered the quota for bull permits. I haven’t seen any updates since then but that is the reason for the low quality tags.

[Karl Blanchard]

The permit numbers are an absolute insult and completely unwarranted imo.  Hell they didn't even count elk during covid but continued with this silliness.  Count the feed lots and call it good. Nevermind the hundreds of bulls that don't come down at all

Remember too folks, they gave out additional tags last year due to their draw screw up. Those chickens were most certainly going to come home to roost and they did. There is no free lunch.

[Mtnwalker]

The permit numbers are an absolute insult and completely unwarranted imo.  Hell they didn't even count elk during covid but continued with this silliness.  Count the feed lots and call it good. Nevermind the hundreds of bulls that don't come down at all

Remember too folks, they gave out additional tags last year due to their draw screw up. Those chickens were most certainly going to come home to roost and they did. There is no free lunch.

This is what I was getting at. They don't fly on light winter years so they rely on feed lot counts for mature bulls. Yet on light winter years mature bulls are less likely to come down to the feed areas. They even self admit that their counts were inaccurate the year the major reductions began (see below). Also, there were tons of mature bulls at the feed lots this year despite the light weather yet they still had to go and shave an already miniscule number of tags down even lower. It is completely unjustifiable IMO

[Karl Blanchard]

It's frustrating for sure.  Elk herds are bursting at the seams but we still don't get tags.  You can't bank animals. That's not how that works. Use em or lose em.  If bull numbers were a real issue we wouldn't be seeing herd growth. That's how that works.  It's just perplexing how we can have hundreds of bull tags for a single unit for years with lower elk numbers than we have now but now that the herd is bigger than it's ever been we can only spare single digit permits.  If it wasn't so insulting it would be laughable.

[Dhoey07]

I think they would rather have landowner/elk conflict than make hunters happy.