White Tails in the Yakima River Canyon?

[boneaddict]

I've seen them there for two years now.  THey are most certainly there just on the Eburg side of the canyon.  I also hear of them in the gap, down here but haven't seen them yet.

[banannaclip]

they breed like rats,carry deaseses easy

[30.06]

Can't stand whitetails, state needs to have a limit of two per person, month season, ten dollar tags. They are going to ruin what is left of the mule deer herds.

[antlerbolic_bearoids]

I've heard of them being seen along the river behind the water treatment plant in Yakima.  A former baseball coach of mine has several pictures of a doe and twin fawns from three or four years ago.  I haven't seen or heard of them in the canyon though. 

[CSOUTFITTERS]

I hope more show up!!!!!!     (i hear the pot stirring)   The muleys are in such bad shape south of I-90 (e burg to yak)  that F&W shouldnt allow a season to hunt the does or bucks.   Units 340 and 342 get hammered during all general seasons and every small 3 pt gets smoked before they can mature.  The only hope of getting good genetics in the yak canyon are the bucks coming over from the firing center or the bucks coming down from the higher country. 

Whitetails in the ellenburg area would thrive.  With the private land and farm fields it wouldnt take long to produce some 150 class whitetail bucks.  They would also populate like crazy!    I agree with trying to keep them out of the trophy muley units, but in a place where the muleys are struggling someting needs to be done to either bring them back or introduce something else that might do better (whiteys).


 

[Austrian Hunter]

I have seen WT in Union Gap, driving on I-82 right by the mall exit in that field. 

[bankwalker]

seen 7 deer just south of ellensburg today. one of which looked very much like a whitetail doe. didnt good a good look at the tail though. but the head and body shape was completely different then the other 6...

[klickriverchromer]

I hope more show up!!!!!!     (i hear the pot stirring)   The muleys are in such bad shape south of I-90 (e burg to yak)  that F&W shouldnt allow a season to hunt the does or bucks.   Units 340 and 342 get hammered during all general seasons and every small 3 pt gets smoked before they can mature.  The only hope of getting good genetics in the yak canyon are the bucks coming over from the firing center or the bucks coming down from the higher country.
 

They really screwed up like always changing the L.T. to general..  No surprise there though, the game dept. is a big joke in this state.. Not new news to any

[buckmaster_wa]

I hope more show up!!!!!!     (i hear the pot stirring)   The muleys are in such bad shape south of I-90 (e burg to yak)  that F&W shouldnt allow a season to hunt the does or bucks.   Units 340 and 342 get hammered during all general seasons and every small 3 pt gets smoked before they can mature.  The only hope of getting good genetics in the yak canyon are the bucks coming over from the firing center or the bucks coming down from the higher country.
 

They really screwed up like always changing the L.T. to general..  No surprise there though, the game dept. is a big joke in this state.. Not new news to any

Yeah back when 342 was permit only there were quite a few really nice bucks up in the L.T Murray. Theres still a few up there but they are few and far between. When it was permit only though you could go see 10-20 good bucks in a day. Thats the WDFW for you though. They gotta screw everything up.

[colockumelk]

It's not the WDFW fault that they re-opened up GMU 342.  Alot of times they actually DO listen to us and do bow to public pressure.  This is one of those instances.  Unfortunately what is popular isn't alway the right thing to do.  The WDFW got a ton of hate mail from the masses complaining about taking opportunity away, can't road hunt anymore blah, blah, blah so the WDFW did what the majority wanted which was to keep GMU 342 general season.  I'm telling you sometimes we are our own worse enemy.   

[banannaclip]

yeah they put 5.00 dollar tags out no limit on a seasons take for those lousey white tails that way the hounds will eat well and we can make pipes out of the antlers

[luvtohnt]

I hope more show up!!!!!!     (i hear the pot stirring)   The muleys are in such bad shape south of I-90 (e burg to yak)  that F&W shouldnt allow a season to hunt the does or bucks.   Units 340 and 342 get hammered during all general seasons and every small 3 pt gets smoked before they can mature.  The only hope of getting good genetics in the yak canyon are the bucks coming over from the firing center or the bucks coming down from the higher country. 

White tails being in the LT Murray would totally eliminate the mule deer population. 342 needs to go back to permit only, but untill people quite being selfish and start thinking about the wildlife nothing is going to change. We already have great white tail spots in this state, with plenty of deer, what we need is to better manage the mule deer populations in this state. That would include a bounty on white tails in Kittitas county!!

It's not the WDFW fault that they re-opened up GMU 342.  Alot of times they actually DO listen to us and do bow to public pressure.  This is one of those instances.  Unfortunately what is popular isn't alway the right thing to do.  The WDFW got a ton of hate mail from the masses complaining about taking opportunity away, can't road hunt anymore blah, blah, blah so the WDFW did what the majority wanted which was to keep GMU 342 general season.  I'm telling you sometimes we are our own worse enemy.

Great point.

Brandon

[colockumelk]

It's not the WDFW fault that they re-opened up GMU 342.  Alot of times they actually DO listen to us and do bow to public pressure.  This is one of those instances.  Unfortunately what is popular isn't alway the right thing to do.  The WDFW got a ton of hate mail from the masses complaining about taking opportunity away, can't road hunt anymore blah, blah, blah so the WDFW did what the majority wanted which was to keep GMU 342 general season.  I'm telling you sometimes we are our own worse enemy.   

Actually I guess in a way it is the WDFW fault. Since they are the leadership its their responsibility to manage the herds.  Hunters will always want more opportunity and hunters will usually be biased and selfish. You can't expect all hunters to know the situation and the "bigger picture."  That's the job of the WDFW.  I just wish sometimes the WDFW in instances like the Mule Deer herds of Yakima and Kittitas would tell us all to F'ck OFF!!!  They are going to do right by the Mule Deer herds and build them back up.  But then again the right thing to do isn't always popular and in this case wont sell as many tags.  In regards to GMU 342 once again we shot ourselves in the foot. 

[sako223]

WDFW bios admitted that three point minimum in wide open units like 342 was not as effective because they can be spotted naked eye and pursued heavily.  It was closed for a while.
Three things have saved it from wipeout, steep ground(yakima canyon), private property, fencing.
Clemen was set up as a trophy unit for several years and attracted poachers plus tribal hunting. They reopened it for basically one good year and now it is poor again. Essentially years of wasted time on experimental seasons.
I think in the open units the whitetails will stay around the brushy bottoms.
A recent study shows cougar predation on muley fawns increases with whitetails present. Haven't figured out how they got that but remember reading it.
Still don't have the recipe for disaster at YTC

[ribka]

I guess I am biased because I live on 342. I personally think this unit has the potential to put out some really nice bucks. I see 1-2 bruisers every year. But, too many roads and too many lazy road hunters. There is poaching year round because all of of the road access throughout the unit and 346 too. I really wish they would gate all of the roads of and have walk-in only and change back to a permit only or make it an archery only unit. The tribe is up here every weekend shooting elk and deer too. This state will never learn.

I saw a WT by Wenas Lake last Oct.