west side draw tag

[300winmag]

I was told the other day that all of the west side will go to  spike only with draw tags for branch bull. He said it will probably go into affect in the next 3 years. Kind of sucks I remember when they did the spike only hunt about 10 years ago and it sucks watching a really nice bull walk and have to shoot the next stupid spike that came up the hill.So I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

[SilkWWU]

I was told the other day that all of the west side will go to  spike only with draw tags for branch bull. He said it will probably go into affect in the next 3 years. Kind of sucks I remember when they did the spike only hunt about 10 years ago and it sucks watching a really nice bull walk and have to shoot the next stupid spike that came up the hill.So I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Would definetely improve big bulls in the area.    Though I question your "informant"

[littlebuf]

don't see a reason why they would do this. elk success on the west side is so low already it would just make it non existant if it were draw only 

[300winmag]

My informant is a gamewarden here on the west side.And he never said why they wanted to do this . The bulls here in the willapa hills have come along way in the last ten years with the 3 pt restriction and there is some really nice ones but as for draw tag calibur I would have to question that.The kill ratio may be low here but if you know how to hunt this area there are alot of nice bulls to be taken.

[elksnout]

You've got to be kidding !! No fricken way !! 

[bobcat]

They made the west side spike only a few years back, the same year the eastside went to spike only, I believe. Then they changed it back to 3 point minimum the next year after all the complaints they got. So I see no reason why they might not try doing it again. If it's better for the elk herds, why not?

[shoot-em-dead]

It would be better for revenue. Just think of how many more people would be applying for hunts. And the auction tag would have world class bulls in more than just the blues.

[elksnout]

My memory isn't the best but I do not remember the west side going all out spike only. I do remember going to game department meetings when they talked about it. It seems all you ever here on this site is how the eastsiders complain about all the hunting pressure on too few spikes... So the west side has been branched only all these years and suddenly we have a problem ? Go figure.

[bobcat]

Yeah, well my memory is apparently worse than yours. The eastside went to spike only in '93. (I went and looked at all my old regulation pamphlets.) The westside never did. I think what I was thinking of is a few years ago when the DFW was coming up with a new three year hunting season proposal, they had eastern AND western Washington as spike only for elk. Enough hunters complained about it that it got changed back to 3 point minimum at the last minute.

[Bigshooter]

Bobcat if you have all the pamphlets look at 96 or 97 maybe 98.  It was spike only on the westside one of those years.

[bobcat]

So I'm not crazy? I thought I looked at all the pamplets back to 1993. Must have missed one. But I'll look again. I've got every pamphlet back to about 1983.

[rackattack]

I want to say it was 97, that the westside switched from any bull to spike.  It wasn't all the units though, because I remember having to let a nice 5pt walk in the Lewis River unit, and then let a spike walk that same day in the Souixon.  That was a rough day.

[rackattack]

Back to the original topic of this post, it wouldn't surprise me if they go spike only on the westside.  Could be why they had no late archery bull hunts in the Winston and Ryderwood units this year.  Maybe they are trying to get those bull population up before they make the switch.

[WDFW-SUX]

 

There is absolutely NO reason for that type of regulation on the westside..

[nwhunter]

I doubt that will happen in the next two years if ever. If they were going to switch you would think that they would have done it last year when they implemented the new changes for the next three years. Spike only for sportsmen hunters and any elk for natives is not a combo that will work well on the westside.nwhunter