Post by: 6x6rack on January 26, 2011, 02:54:18 PM
I have heard the elk are far and few between up there but when you find them it can be a good hunt. Anyone have any ideas or want to go on a scouting trip in a couple months once the snow melts? I know they have been hammered with snow up there this winter which wont help already hard to find herds but...I think I will take a peek.
I drove over to CleElum today and no one has seen elk down low for a couple weeks. I was surprised to see the fields almost empty of snow and just a touch on the higher hillsides. If this holds it will make shed hunting this year very interesting!
Post by: vandeman17 on January 26, 2011, 03:01:28 PM
Post by: Schwag173 on January 26, 2011, 09:30:28 PM
Post by: coachcw on January 27, 2011, 07:29:36 AM
Post by: True Sportsman on January 27, 2011, 10:03:07 AM
Post by: bearpaw on January 27, 2011, 02:06:10 PM
Plan a few scouting trips. Look at lots of ground. Know the difference between moose rubs/tracks and elk rubs/tracks. Even with a lot of planning you are going to have to get lucky...
I will echo this.... watch out for the moose sign, lots of guys waste time with moose sign. :twocents:
Post by: buck man on January 27, 2011, 08:01:33 PM
Post by: Elkslayer on January 27, 2011, 09:00:40 PM
Post by: huntnnw on January 28, 2011, 06:45:55 PM
Post by: go4itlab on January 30, 2011, 05:50:09 PM
Post by: TeacherMan on January 30, 2011, 06:03:52 PM
The only thing you will accomplish with scouting after the snow melts is, seeing the area, roads and terrain. I will gurantee any elk you find or sign will be long gone come Sept. The best thing you can do is find areas on maps you want to hunt, come over look them over. Then come hunting season be here atleast 2 days before it opens and scout, you find elk sign u gotta shot to be in them. These elk move alot, once pressured they move and most herds are 4-7 elk during the rut in NE corner
good info, but don't waist your time, no elk in that corner ;)
Post by: fightfire75 on February 02, 2011, 12:11:10 PM
Post by: Shed Stud on February 02, 2011, 04:09:50 PM
Post by: TeacherMan on February 02, 2011, 05:01:14 PM
I live in the NE and Last year our herd was dismantled. I mean ppl shot all the bulls.. I only heard of on cow being taking. Thanks to the WSFW the elk herd will be gone. gave over 30 special tags to a high end farmer. That all they can do is shot and let lay... So hunt somewhere else I do I go 5 hours to hunt.
what do you mean let lay??? More info please
Post by: huntnnw on February 02, 2011, 11:28:11 PM
Post by: hoyt2002 on February 02, 2011, 11:33:32 PM
Post by: millertime89 on February 07, 2011, 10:37:04 AM
Yep, no elk left in N/E Corner! :'( Now the wolves are starting to in on the last few remaining. I heard there are quite a few down in the blues though!
There's no elk in the Blues! :)
Post by: high country on February 11, 2011, 04:32:49 PM
Post by: dscubame on February 11, 2011, 06:16:07 PM
Post by: Tman on February 11, 2011, 06:29:29 PM
NE corner holds NO ELK, they went the way of the BLUES.....Ziltch
I'm with dsc on this one, if you want to see elk on the eastside... The blues is the place or go to the westside, heard theres lots in winston.
Post by: Sneaky on February 11, 2011, 06:43:58 PM
I live in the NE and Last year our herd was dismantled. I mean ppl shot all the bulls.. I only heard of on cow being taking. Thanks to the WSFW the elk herd will be gone. gave over 30 special tags to a high end farmer. That all they can do is shot and let lay... So hunt somewhere else I do I go 5 hours to hunt.
what do you mean let lay??? More info please
I have heard of orchardists who have permits to kill and let lay the deer that are damaging their crop. The idea is that the rotten smell with act as a deer-repellent... In my opinion the same objective could be accomplished with gut piles and leftovers from the local meat market!
Post by: 6x6rack on February 14, 2011, 11:54:07 AM
I suppose a turkey hunt is in store with afternoons spent looking for last years rubs. If I can find those then Topo and Sat. photo's should fill in the blanks until Aug game cams take over. Never too early to start looking for next years opening morning draw!
Whats this about the landowner cow tag masacre? I haven't heard anything about that, and seein' as WDFW spent over $300,000 to transplant elk from Hanford over there just 4 years ago I cant believe they would go decimate the herd as it's just getting started? Details please!
Post by: frostman on February 14, 2011, 09:23:29 PM
Post by: CAMPMEAT on February 14, 2011, 09:31:10 PM
I hope I have everybody straightened out now.
Post by: high country on February 15, 2011, 05:00:42 AM
Post by: Skyvalhunter on February 15, 2011, 05:32:31 AM
Post by: Shed Stud on February 15, 2011, 08:23:49 AM
This BS is all hear-say,WDFW does not give out tags to "kill and let lay" damage hunt or not. If you hear or see this sort of BS going on, CALL IT IN! Sounds like there might be some rouge farmers doing whatever they please. This will stop if there is any truth to these statments.I live in the NE and Last year our herd was dismantled. I mean ppl shot all the bulls.. I only heard of on cow being taking. Thanks to the WSFW the elk herd will be gone. gave over 30 special tags to a high end farmer. That all they can do is shot and let lay... So hunt somewhere else I do I go 5 hours to hunt.
what do you mean let lay??? More info please
I have heard of orchardists who have permits to kill and let lay the deer that are damaging their crop. The idea is that the rotten smell with act as a deer-repellent... In my opinion the same objective could be accomplished with gut piles and leftovers from the local meat market!
Post by: bearpaw on February 15, 2011, 09:30:56 AM
This BS is all hear-say,WDFW does not give out tags to "kill and let lay" damage hunt or not. If you hear or see this sort of BS going on, CALL IT IN! Sounds like there might be some rouge farmers doing whatever they please. This will stop if there is any truth to these statments.I live in the NE and Last year our herd was dismantled. I mean ppl shot all the bulls.. I only heard of on cow being taking. Thanks to the WSFW the elk herd will be gone. gave over 30 special tags to a high end farmer. That all they can do is shot and let lay... So hunt somewhere else I do I go 5 hours to hunt.
what do you mean let lay??? More info please
I have heard of orchardists who have permits to kill and let lay the deer that are damaging their crop. The idea is that the rotten smell with act as a deer-repellent... In my opinion the same objective could be accomplished with gut piles and leftovers from the local meat market!
I have not heard of these exact scenarios either, but I do personally know farmers who do get depredation permits for deer eating their crops and they can give these to whomever they want who is a licensed hunter with a deer tag. I know for a fact that some elk depredation permits are given out too, but don't know how many. But all these depredation tags must be used by licensed hunters and the meat must be utilized.
If I am not mistaken when wild animals are destroying your property you can shoot to protect your property and call the WDFW to come and get them. If you are an unlicensed hunter or without a depredation permit if out of season, you cannot do anything with the animal, the WDFW will dispose them, but I would imagine you had better be ready to prove the damage and that you have tried to deter the damage. I have heard a few rumours and seen news reports of a few instances where this has happened through the years, but I don't think its a regularly occuring scenario. We have had woodpeckers causing damage to our house, we asked and were told to shoot them if the problem persisted, but we can't do anything with them.
It's a tough issue because some of these farmers are losing 20%-40% of their alfalfa crops when deer numbers are up. In many cases the deer live on neighboring property where the owner does not allow hunting, the deer come and eat the crops at night when they can't be hunted on the property suffering the damage. Yes there are cases where it seems like the landowner should allow hunting if they are having damage and getting payments for crop damage from the WDFW, but how would you like the state telling you that you have to allow hunters on your property. So the WDFW makes payments for crop damage and they issue depredation permits which must be used by licensed hunters. There may be some other things about these programs I don't know and obviously the system isn't perfect, but it helps deal with crop damage problems.
NE Elk Hunting
There are elk here in every GMU but there is a huge amount of country for them to hide in, so everyone guards their honey holes closely. There are a lot of areas with no elk at all, you will need to cover a lot of ground to locate elk and as others have said, you need to scout right before season. Because these elk can really hide in all this country, there are some big bulls if you can find them. To be honest, I think we have more moose than elk in many areas. :twocents:
Northeast Elk Management & Politics
Many farmers do not want any elk here in Northeast WA and the WDFW wants to maintain NE WA as primary whitetail range. Many of our GMU's are either-sex elk units for these reasons. Many local hunters are pissed that the WDFW keeps allowing unlimited cow elk hunting. We could have awesome elk hunting here by now if the WDFW wasn't allowing every elk seen to be shot for the last 30+ years. Mostly due to public pressure from hunters, the WDFW has began to manage a few units with bull-only seasons (including the unit where the elk were transplanted from hanford), and in spite of either-sex hunting the elk numbers are slowly increasing in most other GMU's too. :twocents:
Post by: huntnnw on February 16, 2011, 08:26:40 PM
Post by: smartazz171 on March 02, 2011, 03:02:53 PM
Post by: KimberRich on March 02, 2011, 03:16:32 PM
Post by: Machias on March 02, 2011, 03:21:46 PM
Post by: BeeMan on March 02, 2011, 09:32:49 PM
I know several guys who regularly hunt Elk in the N/E year after year and eat there tags every year!
Your chances for a successful hunt are better in other places.....
Post by: huntnnw on March 03, 2011, 10:30:48 PM
Post by: high country on March 04, 2011, 07:50:59 AM
There has been a few threads on this topic over the years and more than once someone says "know the difference between moose and elk sign/rubs". Which seems to be great advice but not being an experienced Moose hunter, what is the main difference in the sign? Rub height on the tree? Turd shape/size? I can see where it would be easy to get mixed up.Track shape is the first dead giveaway....moose are quite pointed. Droppings can very from one animal to the next in regards to size and shape with elk being able to get mistaken for deer and moose at times....but, moose live on brush....and their turds are just oversized wood pellets in content. Rubs will leave behind hair, moose are nearly jet black, elk can be dark too but almost always a shade of brown.