Outdoors

POSTED: Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

HUNTING: Mixed hunts expected for elk

For modern firearms elk hunters choosing the eastside tag, the general season for Washington's key big game species gets started Saturday, Oct. 31 in many game management units east of the Cascades.

The Eastern Washington season is two-tiered with herd core management areas open for nine-day hunts (closing Sunday, Nov. 8) and GMUs where some elk bands present concerns open for 16-day opportunities (closing Sunday, Nov. 15).

Western Washington elk tag-holders get their days in selected westside elk domains starting Saturday, Nov. 7 for an 11-day run through Wednesday, Nov. 17.

Overall prospects for success are guarded this year with many eastside elk hunts attenuated by antler restrictions intended to improve recruitment of younger male animals into the breeding population.

Here's a look at Eastern Washington elk opportunities.

SPOKANE REGION

Despite recent improving calf survival, young-of-the-year elk numbers are still 15 percent below management goals in the region, so Blue Mountain elk hunters will be bound by spike-only bag restrictions for this fall's hunt.

With overall herd numbers down in some GMUs and snow at higher elevations, WDFW managers expect hunter success rates similar to last season.

The Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, southwest of Spokane, will be closed this fall though some of the more than 360 animals in the locale may be available to hunters who are able to gain permission to hunt private lands adjacent to the refuge.

State biologists report that in northeast GMUs, hunters will see fewer elk as a result of difficult winter conditions the past two years.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON

The two main herds in the state's midlands, the Yakima and Colockum, have both sustained declines in cow-calf and cow-bull ratios that have prompted setting spike-only bag rules for hunters in many areas.

Within the 9,200-animal Yakima herd surveyors found only 17 bulls for every 100 females and in the approximately 4,000-head Colockum herd north of Ellensburg there are only five bulls per 100 cows. Both herds were found to have below-desired calf counts.

Hunters are reminded that a new true-spike rule (standing antler beams with tines no more than four inches above the skull pedestal) now defines a legally harvestable male animal in four key Colockum GMUs. The rule is intended to improve survival of yearling animals into the breeding ranks.

Also to correct an error in the pamphlet, the West Bar GMU south of Wenatchee, actually will be closed during the general season.

Hunters who have scouted for the far-ranging, small bands and obtained permission from private landowners may have a better chance in a number of 200 game management units where 'any elk' is the legal standard.

Doug Huddle, the Herald's outdoors correspondent, is retired from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and has written a weekly column hunting and fishing column that appears Fridays. E-mail him at doug.huddle@bellinghamherald.com.