Colockum Elk Herd (UPDATED)

[groundhog]

I have been huntin the Colockum for over forty years. Twenty five years ago the hunting was not that great. We started the spike only regulations 17 years ago because the bull to cow ratio was so bad. The deer hunting was good back then(there was a general seaon) but the elk hunting was a zoo. The Colockum has issues but these are "the good old days" in my opinion when you talk about washington elk.

[winshooter88]

Twenty five years ago the elk hunting was allot better than it is now, you could hunt any bull and it was not uncommon to see herds most days during the season. Now if you see 40 elk it's a good day. There are less people that hunt now than back then but true spike hunting is hardly the good old days.

[Elkaholic daWg]

Twenty five years ago the elk hunting was allot better than it is now, you could hunt any bull and it was not uncommon to see herds most days during the season. Now if you see 40 elk it's a good day. There are less people that hunt now than back then but true spike hunting is hardly the good old days.

 45 years here,and I have to agree with this post. all DFW did as I said before is, well you know.
 2010 I saw over 300 elk in one afternoon (with a LOT of time to glass them)- FOUR bulls of any kind. raghorns


"Elkaholic I agree but what was the alternative? The bull to cow ratio was even worse. It was 2:100.  The alternative was permit only. The WDFW was between a rock and a hard place."


4 years ago CE I was against permit only, spoke in Ellensburg I would rather see it closed for a year or two, but now I surrender. seems Permit is our only answer

[colockumelk]

one in three spikes are true spikes . that why they went true spike to even further limit harvest . one fact we cant deney is that there is way to many hunters in the two units . go draw only and road clossures . limit the total harvest and manage the tribal kills aswell . without all asspects of management you cant manage the herd . if you build the bull to cow ratio back up it will only mean more bulls for the tribes to harvest !

Coach you hit the nail firmly on the head. Unless both tribal and non can be regulated then no matter what restrictions we impose on licensed hunters we are just treading water. We wont go anywhere. We have true spike only and 6 branch permits are given out every year. And still the branch bull population is falling. Why? Because the Colockum has become the trophy hunting grounds for the Yakamas. Unless they do the rigjt thing that herd is toast.

And the people who think that road closures don't help, well do some research on the affects of road density on elk populations.

[groundhog]

Twenty five years ago the elk hunting was allot better than it is now, you could hunt any bull and it was not uncommon to see herds most days during the season. Now if you see 40 elk it's a good day. There are less people that hunt now than back then but true spike hunting is hardly the good old days.


I agree the hunting was better because we could hunt any elk. When I said these are the good old days I was reffering to the general health of our elk herds. We have a lot more big old mature bulls than we did back then. Twenty five years ago a 300 inch bull was a big bull. Now a 300 inch bull is just a bull.
If we did not have the Indians hunting trophy bulls the system that we have in place would have been much more successful.
Any new system that we adopt I think will result in the elimination of our big old bulls. I hate to see them go but I guess there is no sense in growing them to old age so the Indians can shoot them in the middle of winter.

[colockumelk]

Groundhog you are correct. 25 years ago the Colockum bull to cow ratio was 2:100. Now its 5:100. Not great and there is a lot of room for improvement. The real success story is the Yakama herd. 25 years ago the bull to cow ratio was 5:100 and if a 5pt raghorn came down to the feed station it LITERALLY would make the news paper. Since it went to spike only the bull to cow ratio has tripled to 15:100 and if a 5pt raghorn comes to the feed station then no one notices.

Yes the spike only thing has worked well. It could be better that is for sure.  I wish the Yakamas would cooperate and submit harvest reports. The reason they don't is right now they can claim or pretend that tribal hunting doesn't have a negative impact on the elk and deer populations. But if they did harvest reporting then they couldn't live in denial any longer and would be pressured to change by the wdfw. Also they would get a TON of negative PR.  Even if their restrictions was one bull per person and unlimited cows that would be fine with me and would be an improvement and help out alot. Especially in the Colockum.

[stuckalot]

I think the elephant in the room in this discussion is the very real possibility that there are already over a dozen wolves in the Teanaway Pack.  I think we can close all the roads we want, and argue over seasons, and cow tags, but with a growing wolf population I believe the days of a general elk season are numbered.

[PlateauNDN]

There is more than likely more wolves then they are saying but at least with ROAD CLOSURES there would be a decrease in easy access to road hunting and harvesting of animals in winter ranges.  Solve this then move onto wolves, or both at the same time.

[buckskin]

Some of you guys are absolutely right, the game dept. can show all the graphs and numbers they want, but it comes down to the extreme over harvesting of tribal members plain and simple. When six permits total are issued for all user groups from us 97 to the Columbia river you do the math. And yes the wolves will soon be a huge contributor to the decline of all kittitas county elk herds. I would love to go to a wdfw meeting and have them show a true factual graph of the clockum bulls and quality from 1996 to current and how many tags were issued for branch bulls then and now, the graph would speak for its self, not really sure what the wdfw are managing,surely not the elk.

[colockumelk]

Well in 2003 there were 127 permits given out. Now there is 6. Starting in 2006 it has steadily dropped from 16 down to what we have now which is 6.  It's not permit hunters dropping the population of branch bulls down. Last year they shot and killed 3. 

[buckskin]

I agree with you  colockumelk, I think the best thing that could happen is to have the wdfw come out and publicly  admit the excessive over harvesting from tribal members is the number one reason we are in this current situation. I think we all realize the wdfw will not and could not be successful in litigation .I believe The wdfw would have the most impact by speaking the truth and stating the facts even though they are not proceeding with legal actions, unfortunately I don't think this will happen.

[jstone]

COLOCKUMELK..... I dont know if you did it or not but i saw on the new proposal that they have cows for the clockum on the antlerless permits?? Of course it is only for rifle or muzzy hunters. No archery?? I throw a email to them lastnight asking them why not share the wealth, we will see what they say. But this is just a pat on the back to you if they got the idea from you and all your great research   

[HairTrigger]

Well colockumelk, since your SO good with numbers, exactly how many yakamas hunt trophies in the colockum?

[bearpaw]

I think the elephant in the room in this discussion is the very real possibility that there are already over a dozen wolves in the Teanaway Pack.  I think we can close all the roads we want, and argue over seasons, and cow tags, but with a growing wolf population I believe the days of a general elk season are numbered.

We have a report in the wolf count topic of 13 wolves seen together near the pass.

[danderson]

Does the state or DOT keep track of all the road kills along I-90 , I know theres at least one or two every day in the cle elum area