Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: D-Rock425 on December 22, 2009, 06:18:18 PM

Title: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: D-Rock425 on December 22, 2009, 06:18:18 PM: I was just wondering if anyone had any luck in the Nile or little natches units during late archery season. I shot my elk in the early hunt and couldn't go. Had some friends that hunted taneum and said it was not very productive around the elk heights area.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: gasman on December 22, 2009, 06:43:52 PM: COLD.................................

No luck at all. Seen 2 bulls, 5 point and a 3 point and several deer.

Talked with a few guys that were heading to or thinking about heading to the elk area arund Cowiche, but only heard of two elk being killed, a spike and a cow.

Most people were heading out early and by thurdsay, there was only a few camps left. The weekend warriors did not even come back in any numbers :dunno: They must have stayed home where it was warm.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: bowhuntin on December 22, 2009, 07:06:43 PM: I didn't have any luck the two weekends we hunted in there. Saw lots of does and a couple cows. A camp down low had a spike hanging. I know there was a good size herd of elk hanging around in there but were gone by the weekend of the opener. Was a zoo opening weekend like usual, but like gasman said not to bad the following weekend just real cold.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: yajsab on December 23, 2009, 09:10:18 AM: Cold and nothing. Lots of people though.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: huntergreg on December 23, 2009, 09:53:42 AM: We saw 3 cows up on Rock creek rd. in the little naches and one really nice 4x4 buck. couldn't get a shot at him. He was standing behind a lot of thick brush. lots of does and fawns up there. We headed over into the cowiche unit and saw a herd of 13 the last day of the season. and another herd of 5 2 days before the last day. It was a good late season saw lots of animals.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: YellowDog on December 23, 2009, 02:25:12 PM: I remember up until about 3 years ago that seeing anywhere from 20-80 head of elk a day in the late season in the Cowichee was common. Haven't realy been back in there since the boundaries changed.

The Nile was not very productive this year. We saw a few tracks, nothing fresh, one hanging the last day of the season. Lots of hunters though. Cramming all the archery hunters into a few units is not conducive to a quality hunt. Seems they keep taking more and more areas and units away from the archery hunters. Some years (not this year) you can't really even get into the open units due to heavy snow fall so everyone gets concentrated into small areas. :twocents:
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: huntergreg on December 23, 2009, 04:17:04 PM: I was talking to the owner of Grizzley Archery in Yakima and he said he herd that there was 90 some elk taken in the Nile in the early season. He was trying to get as many people to go to the wdfw meeting they were going to have in Selah. I guess they were going to change the archery season in the Nile and surrounding units maybe to change it to spike only next year. But I am not positive about any of it.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: bowhuntin on December 23, 2009, 04:57:50 PM: Quote from: huntergreg on December 23, 2009, 04:17:04 PM
I was talking to the owner of Grizzley Archery in Yakima and he said he herd that there was 90 some elk taken in the Nile in the early season. He was trying to get as many people to go to the wdfw meeting they were going to have in Selah. I guess they were going to change the archery season in the Nile and surrounding units maybe to change it to spike only next year. But I am not positive about any of it.

I find that hard to believe. There isn't nearly even as many hunters in the early season in there. Most of the successful people that I know that harvest animals in the Nile live up there as residents. And if they were worried about over harvesting of animals in one unit like the Nile, then maybe they should open up more units to hunt like the Little Naches. The nile is a really small area with to many roads anyway. Road hunters paradise.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: coachcw on December 23, 2009, 06:01:26 PM: saw a real nice buck in rock creek . 123 yards heavy 4 ,25 or so
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: YellowDog on December 23, 2009, 10:51:02 PM: I was in the Nile for 8 days camped during the early season. Last year we had elk bugling at night just up the hill from camp several nights. We saw lots of elk and were close to gettng shots several times. This year, my brother saw one spike at 100 yards and one small group of cows at first light, and I got into one herd of bulls and cows down in a hell hole of a canyon one morning. I talked to a lot of other hunters in the area. Based on what they were experiencing, the stories they were hearing, and the experience we had, I too would be surprised if anywhere near 90 elk were taken in that unit during the early season. There were a lot of hunters in there with very little success that I could see. I did not see one elk hanging in the early season, the elk were tight lipped and holed up in the deep canyons where they were difficult to get to and most people wouldn't even try to get to because even if there were elk there, it was tough to get in without making noise (rocks, etc) or getting winded.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: huntergreg on December 24, 2009, 09:55:17 AM: It might have been 90 some in all with rifle, archery and muzzy. im not sure. I talked to him just before late archery.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: jdb on December 24, 2009, 11:19:36 AM: Quote from: huntergreg on December 23, 2009, 04:17:04 PM
I was talking to the owner of Grizzley Archery in Yakima and he said he herd that there was 90 some elk taken in the Nile in the early season. He was trying to get as many people to go to the wdfw meeting they were going to have in Selah. I guess they were going to change the archery season in the Nile and surrounding units maybe to change it to spike only next year. But I am not positive about any of it.
when is this meeting in selah?
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: huntergreg on December 24, 2009, 01:22:42 PM: It was around the end of November beginning of Dec. Next time I go down and talk to Mike I will have to ask what happened at the meeting. He said he was going to go.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: bowhuntin on December 24, 2009, 01:47:52 PM: Quote from: huntergreg on December 24, 2009, 09:55:17 AM
It might have been 90 some in all with rifle, archery and muzzy. im not sure. I talked to him just before late archery.

I went back and looked at the harvest reports for elk in that unit going back to 2003. 90 elk between all three user groups seems to be about the average taken out of that unit each year. The last couple years it has only been in the 70s and other years around 100. Seems pretty normal to me, not sure why they would go to the game department to suggest that archery go to spike only.
Title: Re: late archery in nile or little naches. how was it?
Post by: D-Rock425 on December 27, 2009, 07:27:25 PM: I can account for 1 elk shot in the Nile during archery season. I shot a cow on Sept 11 but that was the only elk taken out of are camp of 4 guys. the camp next to us had 3 hunters no elk for them.