Blue Tongue

[Seabass]

We have had 2 bouts of  blue tongue in 6 years. The department sucks…for sure…just like the rest of Washington’s worthless bureaucrats. They suck enough that I moved to ID after being being a lifelong (47 years) WA resident. That said, they can’t stop blue tongue. The NE would have been pretty good for the next few years had we not had the drought that always brings blue tongue. There were a lot of 3-4 y/o bucks running around last winter.

[TriggerMike]

So, is it even worth the drive to hunt the late hunt this year in 121/117? Asking for opinions either way.

[hunter399]

So, is it even worth the drive to hunt the late hunt this year in 121/117? Asking for opinions either way.

Totally up too you.
Some areas got hit pretty hard,other areas don't seem so bad.And some areas are hammered dog 💩 ,before bluetongue.
So really it just depends on the area ,how well it was doing before bluetongue. But I will just come out and say it ,if you haven't taged out ,then you really have nothing to lose.
This is coming from a dry sider ,see how nice I am.

I guess what I'm saying is ,if you have areas that had a ton of deer last year then your ok,if your areas didn't have Alot of deer last year,they didn't get any better that's for sure

[Machias]

I'm seeing ZERO deer activity, nada, none, zilch.

Two questions for you guys, how many years (Understanding there are a LOT of variables) do you think it takes for them to recover in the hardest hit areas?

Do you think any of the larger bucks that survived will have to spend more time looking this year, i.e. travel more and spend more time in daylight looking for does?

[jrebel]

So, is it even worth the drive to hunt the late hunt this year in 121/117? Asking for opinions either way.

No one else is gonna stop hunting….why should you?   Point being, one person staying home isn’t gonna change the course of what’s happened.   

Blue tongue has happened before and it will happen again.  The deer will recover and people will continue to hunt. 

I personally believe you should come over and hunt and if your lucky….whack a cougar.  They are a far more prolific killer than blue tongue and are killing 365 days a year….year after year.   

[buckfvr]

Each night Im home on the binos I will see 12+ does and up to 6 bucks from spike to 9pt.  Im just under 2500' ele.  Just looked at pics from 2 cams up the hill and there are 8ish bucks I can tell, the 9 being the biggest so far. Since traveling bucks during rut usually account for the bigger bucks here, its still up in the air as to what will show besides the ones I know.  I dont know anyone who wont hunt because of blue tongue.  It is what it is, so get out there and get above 2200ish ft (in the fog) and give'r hell.

[PA BEN]

Very low numbers so far. I'm seeing 6 to 8 deer in our field when we should have up to 50.

[Seabass]

So, is it even worth the drive to hunt the late hunt this year in 121/117? Asking for opinions either way.

No one else is gonna stop hunting….why should you?   Point being, one person staying home isn’t gonna change the course of what’s happened.   

Blue tongue has happened before and it will happen again.  The deer will recover and people will continue to hunt. 

You would have to be here to believe how bad it is. Come over and you can see for yourself.

I personally believe you should come over and hunt and if your lucky….whack a cougar.  They are a far more prolific killer than blue tongue and are killing 365 days a year….year after year.

[Seabass]

Come over for a weekend and you can see how bad it is for yourself.

[fishngamereaper]

We found several in just 5 days of hunting in Idaho. Sad to see.

On average it takes 3-5 years for area's to recover fully.

[jrebel]

Come over for a weekend and you can see how bad it is for yourself.

I've got property over there and will be hunting this week.  We have not seen the impact others are saying they have.  Clearly some areas were hit harder than others......so give it a go and see what happens. 

All this doom and gloom is killing me.  Some act like blue tongue has never affected the area before.  If more people were as vocal about cats as they are about blue tongue....maybe we could all make progress on protecting our deer herds. 

[snake]

I would agree with the 3-5 year recovery period.  In my experience, whitetail are like cockroaches. The only 2 things that will be left after a nuclear war.  They recover pretty quick. My Washington spot wasn't hit too hard. It has a fair amount of running water year round so that might have helped.

[bearpaw]

I'm seeing ZERO deer activity, nada, none, zilch.

Two questions for you guys, how many years (Understanding there are a LOT of variables) do you think it takes for them to recover in the hardest hit areas?

Do you think any of the larger bucks that survived will have to spend more time looking this year, i.e. travel more and spend more time in daylight looking for does?

I think how long it takes to recover depends on three primary variables:

1. The winter severity we have following a die off
2. The seasons WDFW gives hunters after a die off
3. The predator foot print in a given area

It was looking a lot better this summer than the last few years, but we had not completely recovered from the last big die off several years ago. 

[buckfvr]

Hearing of a couple ( state bios ) candid conversations, second hand, the last die of a few years back doesnt even come close to this year and this year was the worse they have ever seen by far.