Free: Contests & Raffles.
So was there lots more people who put in for this tag? How is scouting going? Is the country more than you expected?
be a lot of disappointed people drawing that tag when they see that country. Pretty common theme when people draw and then see what they got themselves into
you will have a blast on the full 20 off the amount of elk you will see and bugling. It was the best elk hunt I have ever been on to this day insane amount of bugling.I dunno what your camping situation is, but there are pay showers at field springs state park
Everyone talks about wolves, cougars and Indians doing all of the damage in the blues. I have a Dayton modern rifle bull tag this year. I called and talked to Paul Wick the game biologist in the blues about the elk numbers. He says the Dayton area has half as many elk as it had two years ago. He said that the wolves, cougars, and Indians do take some animals but the massive super fast decline was not caused by them. He said it was from two terrible winters and a super dry summer last year and just about zero calf survival with minimal cows carrying calves and those that did, the calves didn't survive the winter. He said the elk in the blues that did survive were nothing but skin and bones in March. He said the fallacy that I have heard on this forum many times, "that all of the elk have left the high country and are in the lower private areas because the wolves have chased them down" isn't correct. The reason people are seeing more animals in the lower private areas is due to them getting late winter food from the hay stacks and fields where the mountain elk didn't have that opportunity and starved. Now with this said, I am not sure who is correct or if it is a combination of the both. I was told the numbers were so low on calf survival the last two years that he would be surprised if anyone at all would be able to find a year and a half old spike at all during the general seasons in most of the blues.He said that they figure 5 to 6 wolves are in and out of the Dayton area and approximately 30 cougars work the area. He said the Indians don't get to far off of the main roads but its hard to tell because they have absolutely no requirements to report their harvest numbers and they are adamant that they will never report or tell WDFW what, how many, and where they hunt and kill big game.Just my personal opinion is that, yes the two last years have had a terrible impact on the elk. Due to the lack of predator control and out of control Indian hunting, the chance of any kind of speedy recovery is hard to foresee or imagine. Sad!
