Yakima Elk Herd article in the yakima paper today- Link

[kirkl]

Heres an article from the newpaper today basically saying the harvest was way DOWN last year so they should be bumping up antlerless permits way up and some gmus for bulls.

http://sportsyakima.com/2011/02/elk-count-shows-strength-in-numbers/

[Woodchuck]

Between this and the new colockum elk pics, looks like that area will be the hotspot.

[BIGINNER]

Between this and the new colockum elk pics, looks like that area will be the hotspot.

HEY!!!    YOUR NAME....  ITS.... DIFFERENT     

the article forgot to mention that all the elk migrated there to escape bigfoot

[Woodchuck]

  It's a nickname that was hung on me years ago, sounds more original than my e-mail address

[400out]

  I don't trust strangers! I was just getting to like that Jim guy! Anyways welcome to the site 


As for the article I will wait to see the number in the regs this year before I get excited.  I see the article as a attempt at dousing a fire 

[D-Rock425]

Sounds like good news

[dreamingbig]

In the draft that is being presented this weekend at the wdfw meeting they are not recommending any increases to permit levels in the Yakima herd.  Harvest is down for obvious reasons... they made some drastic changes to early archery elk and have cut bull permits for the past 4-5 years.

[Woodchuck]

I don't trust strangers! I was just getting to like that Jim guy! Anyways welcome to the site 


As for the article I will wait to see the number in the regs this year before I get excited.  I see the article as a attempt at dousing a fire 

I am way more trustworthy than that Jim guy  

[jstone]

Smoke Screen

[Elkaholic daWg]

Smoke Screen

 For this maybe........




“I’m still trying to figure out what happened (with the low antlerless harvest),” Bernatowicz said. “I look at two things — hunter success rate and permit success rate. This year, just looking at the raw report, it looks like the number of people who didn’t hunt their permit went way up. When I look at that, I ask why?

“Last year for the first time you could apply for and get drawn for multiple permits. You could only shoot one elk, but you could possibly have been drawn for a branch-antler permit and an antlerless permit. The hunter success rate really wasn’t that low. But when you look at the permit success rate — total harvest based on the number of permits — that was really low.”






 I brought this up in Leavenworth last spring at the meeting the NEW system was approved at.

Everyone going to the Spokane meeting needs to jump on this and beotch about the shortcomings of Wares new system. Maybe they could draw alternates  so one could only keep the draw they wanted most and let someone else have the other. Or they Could DUMP it all together . FAT CHANCE of that!

[Killmore]

Smoke screen probably,,I can not beleive that theres over 10,000 head in the yakima herd .Add up how many elk show up at the feed station,then what percentage dont show and i bet you are not close to that number. But it does help sale more elk tags!!

[Alchase]

Heres an article from the newpaper today basically saying the harvest was way DOWN last year so they should be bumping up antlerless permits way up and some gmus for bulls.

http://sportsyakima.com/2011/02/elk-count-shows-strength-in-numbers/

"Comments waiting for moderation" ya right 

[Viszla]

Smoke screen probably,,I can not beleive that theres over 10,000 head in the yakima herd .Add up how many elk show up at the feed station,then what percentage dont show and i bet you are not close to that number. But it does help sale more elk tags!!

I agree.  I haven't seen any signs of the elk herd growing over in that area.

[Killmore]

For being more elk in the herd, the feed truck goes by my house every morning on the way to Robinson canyon, and the truck has less hay on it now then previous years.

[RUTNBULL1]

Low harvest, huh. Maybe because less elk to harvest for us during our season, it seems to me I keep hearing they have a great harvest from December thru March, but not by any of us!

[Killmore]

Has anyone ever added up how many elk show up to the feed stations?  Then the next question is, do we know what percentage don't show up? But 10,550 head!!!

[frostman]

Would it be wrong to suggest that a social animal like elk realize that the crazy MF's who come to the woods every breeding season are mostly trying to kill the male yearlings and are "teaching" them earlier to take deep daylight cover in inpenetrable places and stay low?

It sounds like very many of the permit applicants decided too much work to drive around in a warm pick up truck and see no elk.

[Alchase]

That paper will not post comments on that article 
I guess second amendment does not cover comments about the article.

[rosscrazyelk]

Wow. You hear that hunting will be better in the yakima this year. I think everyone should hunt there..

[Elkaholic daWg]

 Actually that was just the hunters reporting "on time " and  the wording was "hunted their permit", not success rate, so the actual animals harvested (Legally) might be even lower.

[Killmore]

Beings the herd is 1000 over there ideal number, maybe they should keep cutting back on the permits so they can feed the wolfs when they start to show up at the feed station every winter. Correct me if I'm wrong but the department feeds like 3000 head at all the feed stations so they are saying that about 7500 head don't show. That is hard for me to believe. How could they possible count those numbers outside the feed stations? I would guess that permit holders success is so low that they only will tell us there's more elk so they can keep the permit sells up..

[dreamingbig]

All this talk of the herd over management goals has led to an additional 450 cow permits for modern firearm.  Sadly Bumping is still spike only for archery (ridiculous if you ask me).  See link.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2011/03/mar0511_17a_deer_elk.pdf

[Moose Master]

Greeting everyone,  How would someone go about talking with the state employee that was quoted in the article?  If someone could help me in this I would greatly appreciate it.

[bobcat]

I've talked to him a couple times on the phone, and corresponded through email as well. He was really helpful to me and seemed more than willing to share his knowledge.

Try this:  http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/contact/edirectory/?f=&l=bernatowicz

By the way, he goes by "Bernie"

[rjn cajun]

Here`s an idea why don`t they push the season back to where it used to be. It used to open on the 5th of November no matter what day of the week it was. I`ve hunted there for 24 years. Every year you get a local herd that stays behind the migratory the rest go up. Those are the spikes and cows takin on opening days. Harvest rate there depends on the snow and ya`ll know as well as I do that rarely happens. Some years it`s 10 degrees and no snow and others it`s 70 and no snow. That one week makes a huge difference. Just my 

[colockumelk]

Bernie is a really great Guy. When I wrote my paper on the Colockum he was a huge help. @Cajun. They have the season. Early to keep the success rate around 10%. This is how they regulate the harvest and keep the elk at their levels. If they pushed the season later then success rates would go up and the herd would see a rapid decline.

Like I tell people. The WDFW has only two options for management. Either regulate hunting number's ( ie permit only) or have short crappy seasons. Washington has too many hunters nd not enough elk and land. We can't have a general season and quality hunting too.

[norsepeak]

we used to have very high quality elk hunting around here during the general season and at that time there where way more hunters than there are today....the difference?  Back then the biologists were hunters, you could actually hunt predators (read hounds), and everything wasn't so driven by the almighty dollar (read general fund  )

[coachcw]

From What I saw more of the low land elk where higher last year . maybe this was a good reason why the harvest was lowwer . The number of big bulls I saw this year was down from last and the number of rag horns where up. I'd like to see the bull tags lowwerd and the cow tags stay the same for a couple of years and possibly move the cow season a week or two later to bump the harvest up. 

[rjn cajun]

Clockum Elk I understand and know why they do it but it still drives me nuts. Up there I and most of the long time camps feel they don`t want any sucess rates. Remember when the road washed out. Instead of spending our money on it they just close it down. Make up an excuse that it`s a fish berring stream. It`s dry 9 months out of the year. The holes in the fence same thing they used to fix them. We fix them now. Sorry for the venting just seems like it get`s worse every year. I better find a new place to hunt this year if they raise any of the tag #. I can`t imagine how many hunters will be in there. There were more last year opening weekend then I have ever seen. Maybe the blues. Wait no elk there.

[colockumelk]

rjn cajun don't worry about venting i do it all the time. i just misinterpreted your post as you didn't know why they set the seasons like they do.  Alot of people don't know why.  So sorry about that.

Norsepeak I couldn't agree more.  I think the rapid increase in predators has a direct impact on herd numbers.  And anyone that doesn't agree is "naive" at best.  Also I think road access in alot of areas has a HUGE impact as well.  Every single study done on road access impact on elk herds has shown that road access has a HUGE impact as well.  I think the biggest impact in this regards is it gives poachers etc more access at bulls when they are wintering.  I also think that poaching has gone up, not down. 

[gasman]

Yeah, I miss the days of any bull, and Nov. start of modern season. 
Yeah, it was kinda screwed up that you had to wait 3 days if you put in foe cow tags but it's OK, we managed.

Wasn't the reason to going to spike only because of the big winter kill back in the 90's. I believe it as suppose to be a temp restriction of 6 years to build the herd up, but then they started making money hand over fist with the bull permits and could not stand to see the money loss. I remember taking with Berrie and Peter Forbs one time and both were recommending to lift the spike only restriction but the commission rejected it. the elk numbers were higher then, then before the winter kill. the goal was reached,but No, they were not going to allow it.

Still have just as many roads now as we did then  (at least in the Little Naches are)

More poaching, I believe so 

[Elkaholic daWg]

Yeah, I miss the days of any bull, and Nov. start of modern season. 
Yeah, it was kinda screwed up that you had to wait 3 days if you put in foe cow tags but it's OK, we managed.

Wasn't the reason to going to spike only because of the big winter kill back in the 90's. I believe it as suppose to be a temp restriction of 6 years to build the herd up, but then they started making money hand over fist with the bull permits and could not stand to see the money loss. I remember taking with Berrie and Peter Forbs one time and both were recommending to lift the spike only restriction but the commission rejected it. the elk numbers were higher then, then before the winter kill. the goal was reached,but No, they were not going to allow it.

Still have just as many roads now as we did then  (at least in the Little Naches are)

More poaching, I believe so 

 Me too on the any bull, start of the season. Can anyone remember any tax or fee this  state has ceded, since the ORIGINAL 520 toll ended in the '70's Hell they're trying to keep the taxes that built the stadiums after they are paid off.

[Glockster]

Yeah, I miss the days of any bull, and Nov. start of modern season. 
Yeah, it was kinda screwed up that you had to wait 3 days if you put in foe cow tags but it's OK, we managed.

Wasn't the reason to going to spike only because of the big winter kill back in the 90's. I believe it as suppose to be a temp restriction of 6 years to build the herd up, but then they started making money hand over fist with the bull permits and could not stand to see the money loss. I remember taking with Berrie and Peter Forbs one time and both were recommending to lift the spike only restriction but the commission rejected it. the elk numbers were higher then, then before the winter kill. the goal was reached,but No, they were not going to allow it.

Still have just as many roads now as we did then  (at least in the Little Naches are)

More poaching, I believe so 

Ding ding ding.  We have a winner!  ~It went to spike only and the early start/shorter excuse for an elk season for the same reason all of EWA went to 3pt on muledeer:  the killer winter was the first excuse, then the excuse evolved into "quality" hunt management ., from there to 'herd health'....and soon it will go to wolf health.

[johnsc6]

 

[Kowsrule30]

This is all way too much for me..... I feel like I wanna cry.....     

[jryoung]

Me too on the any bull, start of the season. Can anyone remember any tax or fee this  state has ceded, since the ORIGINAL 520 toll ended in the '70's Hell they're trying to keep the taxes that built the stadiums after they are paid off.

Initiative 695 in 2000 ($30 Car Tabs), I know there aren't a lot of example, but there is at least one. 

[338_Thumper]

I've hunted Little Natches for 25 years plus - When they put in the Spike law it was because of the low big bull count for breeding . Back then there was a lot of clear cuts and yes a lot of big bulls were harvested - But now it has grown up and it is like hunting in Western Washington - Lots of brush and very few clearcuts - Escapement is really high now because of it - Also if you stop by any of the camps and the average age is 50 plus so going back to any bull now I think would not hurt the big bull ratio. Most of the Lead Cows and Big Bulls are pretty smart over there and when the traffic starts getting heavy they know when to hit the heavy brush - Plus a lot of the old timers just can't get back into the heavy and deep canyons like they used too and it is a lot of work for just a spike. I know a lot of them who are hunting out of state now because of it. I hope to go to Colorado this year or next year for sure - Waiting to get drawn for a Big Bull tag is slim and I want to be able to go after a Big bull while i am still able to go deep and dive into those canyons !

[jstone]

Ya i would like to go out of state to, but until this economy gets better i am stuck givibg my money to this F...ed up State