snow pack levell in 4-38

[gutpile]

Anybody know the snow level in 4-38 ?

[Everett]

I haven't been up there this winter but all of the kootenay snow pack is really thin this this year in some areas only %25 of normal.

[boxhitch]

http://bcrfc.env.gov.bc.ca/bulletins/watersupply/current.htm

(http://bcrfc.env.gov.bc.ca/bulletins/watersupply/current.htm)Table 1 - BC Snow Basin Indices – March 1, 2015



Basin

% of Normal
Basin


% of Normal


Upper Fraser West


142
Boundary


75


Upper Fraser East


98
Similkameen


89


Nechako


105
South Coast


15


Middle Fraser


84
Vancouver Island


21


Lower Fraser


28
Central Coast


93


North Thompson


96
Skagit


27


South Thompson


91
Peace


95


Upper Columbia


91
Skeena-Nass


92


West Kootenay


83
Stikine


70


East Kootenay


76
Liard


83


Okanagan


85
Northwest


78



(http://bcrfc.env.gov.bc.ca/bulletins/watersupply/current.htm)

[M.Dean]

Anybody know the snow level in 4-38 ? Nope. Where's 4-38?

[GoatGuy]

Boars will be out now, as always.

[gutpile]

Boars being out now ? I think it would still be to early !

[Everett]

Boars being out now ? I think it would still be to early !

You always see some big Boars out first week April the problem is accessing them in most years. Not going much of an issue this year as we have lost half our snow pack in the last 2 weeks in the southern east kootenays. I tilled my garden two weeks ago and have hops and garlic coming up and will have to mow the lawn in a week or so.

[GoatGuy]

Boars being out now ? I think it would still be to early !

They're always out in April - this year is going earlier than normal.

We are usually done hunting 4-38 by May long.

Access is always an issue, just depends on how many miles you want to put on the snowshoes.

[204rug.ftw]

drove as far as the downie loop a few days ago, no snow left on the ground in most places down near the lake, still lots of snow up in the mountains though. south facing slides are starting to clear up I imagine they will be greeining up soon. tangiers is clearing up still lots of snow in there too though

[gutpile]

Thanks ftw
thats good information !

[Seeker]

Drove the East side of Kinbasket to Chatter creek and there was not a lot of snow(Area 4-40, just around the corner from 4-38. Still enough to limit access, especially in shaded draws and the north faces, but only for a few more weeks a best. It will definatley be earlier this year than it normally is.

[gutpile]

How's 4-38 doing ?

[Liveforthehunt]

Access is bad this year not from snow but last year there was a bad mudslide limited access and another fsr I know of another mud slide the first few kms up a friend tried walking through it and sank knee to waste high in mud with damn near a river running underneath it. Still snow in the trees and anywhere you start climbing up lots of snow .... guys with there sleds still out and about up there. You have to remember it snowed a skiff in vernon Thursday night and a few inches up silver star could be a couple fresh ft out that way .... wait till mid end of may when it starts to green up

[gutpile]

Doesn't sound very good !

[revarchery]

Went out yesterday, not too many roads opened up yet. It's still freezing here in Revelstoke at night, or really close. Snow hasn't melted a whole lot on the roads in the bush. It won't be as early as everyone says here. I had some friends out from Tuesday until Sunday, no bears. The slides that are opened up haven't greened up yet. I'm heading out on May 8 for 10 days, it should be better by then.

[GoatGuy]

My buddy saw bears out north of Revy at the end of March.

The boars will be out, just need to know where to look. Low as possible, close to the lake, south/west facing.

Early April from that country a number of years ago ---- the bears were out.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_2526.JPG

[604redneck]

Any updates on this?

[sheep hunter]

There is a picture floating around of a good bear shot in 4.38 last week.

[GoatGuy]

With the spring we're having people showing up on the long weekend are going to find a pile of the slides leafed out making the bears really tough to spot and nearly impossible to stalk.

[Liveforthehunt]

With the spring we're having people showing up on the long weekend are going to find a pile of the slides leafed out making the bears really tough to spot and nearly impossible to stalk.

You are bang on goat guy out there today and slides are filling up in a hurry snow pack as we all know is way down... probably a month early this year. Very dry up there for this time of year and the grizz population is going into a downward spiral in the region due to mostly the ridiculous amount of draws they give in an area that is starting to get sensitive.

[Liveforthehunt]

Any updates from your hunt ?

[boxhitch]

.......the grizz population is going into a downward spiral in the region due to mostly the ridiculous amount of draws they give in an area that is starting to get sensitive.What has the harvest been ?
Good to get the predator numbers down to save the caribou

[.264winmag]

Lots of grizz hunters/tags but not lots of punched tags doesn't mean gloom for the population? Are there some harvest numbers I don't know about?

[yama49]

There is a picture floating around of a good bear shot in 4.38 last week.

just under 8' real nice loking boar......

[Liveforthehunt]

The caribou population is a lost cause in the area the grizz and wolves will get them all sooner or later. The issue is inexperienced hunters shooting sows and young boars. I'll give you a small taste I'm sorry I don't have anything on paper but I spoke with the local CO saying the pops are down substancially in the past 10 years in the regions that have been heavily studied up towards golden as well. Last year he said he had 2 reports of hunters killing sows with cubs who reported themselves that's 6 bears right there. I saw one other sow shot around 5 footer just on the few weekends I spent out that way camping and hunting. That's only the ones I personally know about. Idno maybe one bad year of stupidity but curious to know how often that crap happens. If that happened every year for the next few years I can see an issue occurring. But heck I guess who cares anyways we probably won't be able to hunt them much longer if the tree huggers get their way. Another moratorium.

[.264winmag]

So this is golden area where the reports are from? 4-40, 4-38, 4-37? There's no CO in Revy so I assume it's the golden CO? Too bad to hear those type of reports. Those three areas are also huge, with very limited access. Hopefully there's more bears than we think! I've been fortunate enough to see quite a few in that area over the years. Last encounter was in 4-33 three years ago, twins that just left home were foraging and wrestling. Very cool to watch. I've seen two right close to Cherryville now!

[GoatGuy]

The caribou population is a lost cause in the area the grizz and wolves will get them all sooner or later. The issue is inexperienced hunters shooting sows and young boars. I'll give you a small taste I'm sorry I don't have anything on paper but I spoke with the local CO saying the pops are down substancially in the past 10 years in the regions that have been heavily studied up towards golden as well. Last year he said he had 2 reports of hunters killing sows with cubs who reported themselves that's 6 bears right there. I saw one other sow shot around 5 footer just on the few weekends I spent out that way camping and hunting. That's only the ones I personally know about. Idno maybe one bad year of stupidity but curious to know how often that crap happens. If that happened every year for the next few years I can see an issue occurring. But heck I guess who cares anyways we probably won't be able to hunt them much longer if the tree huggers get their way. Another moratorium.
Not the way grizzly bear hunting/management works. There's nothing wrong with a few females being harvested either.

[Liveforthehunt]

So this is golden area where the reports are from? 4-40, 4-38, 4-37? There's no CO in Revy so I assume it's the golden CO? Too bad to hear those type of reports. Those three areas are also huge, with very limited access. Hopefully there's more bears than we think! I've been fortunate enough to see quite a few in that area over the years. Last encounter was in 4-33 three years ago, twins that just left home were foraging and wrestling. Very cool to watch. I've seen two right close to Cherryville now!
I actually saw 2 full grown grizz both monsters in the hills near Cherryville. I also get a few on my cams set up in that area every year now. Definetly more of em around this area I have no doubt a few sows can be harvested but with cubs only a few months old that has to have a slight impact on pops... yes it was 4-38 the CO was actually out of the shuswap. 4-33 has some nice bears too !

[GoatGuy]

This is an old review, but it talks about the situation you are referring to:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/gbear_critique1.pdf

Also we know that sow survival is higher than the old model assumed. To say the grizzly bear population is 'spiraling' in that are due to hunting is pretty out there. To say there's something wrong with shooting a few sows and young boars is also way out there.

The average age of grizzly bear harvested in BC is actually increasing - not to mention 4-38 is part of the caribou recovery plans and we should be targeting lower density grizzly populations...... but we aren't.

[Fisher-Dude]

Residents killed 21 sows over 20 years 1993 - 2012 in the whole MU. There's been basically no increase in the female % of harvest in the past 5 years compared to the past 20.

Don't think that's going to spiral that population. 75%+ of that area is basically inaccessible. Lots of unhunted brood stock. One sow a year in that area won't change much of anything.

[Liveforthehunt]

I'm sorry lol all you guys can refer to is shit on the Internet that who knows how accurate it is. Let's just keep it simple as this I have taken a grizz or few and so have some people I know in the surrounding regions. Access is somewhat limited but there is still alot of access. When a guy 10 years ago and 20 years ago will not mention relation tells me and shows me vids and pictures of seeing up to 10 grizz a day on a 22km horse trail has depleted into lucky if you see one in a week. I would say there are a few less grizz around. Maybe they migrated out of the area many possibilities never sayed anything close to extinct maybe the word spiral was a bit over exaggerated but down quite a bit would not be an understatement. FD do you honestly get off your computer and outside I'm starting to think you honestly just use the net for information no first hand experience whatsoever. Do you even know what a grizz looks like .:shock:

[GoatGuy]

I'm sorry lol all you guys can refer to is shit on the Internet that who knows how accurate it is. Let's just keep it simple as this I have taken a grizz or few and so have some people I know in the surrounding regions. Access is somewhat limited but there is still alot of access. When a guy 10 years ago and 20 years ago will not mention relation tells me and shows me vids and pictures of seeing up to 10 grizz a day on a 22km horse trail has depleted into lucky if you see one in a week. I would say there are a few less grizz around. Maybe they migrated out of the area many possibilities never sayed anything close to extinct maybe the word spiral was a bit over exaggerated but down quite a bit would not be an understatement. FD do you honestly get off your computer and outside I'm starting to think you honestly just use the net for information no first hand experience whatsoever. Do you even know what a grizz looks like .:shock:

Seen a few dead bears in there as well. Can't say there's ever been a shortage of bears, usually it's the weather that kills the hunting. Had some great days there.... even in the last 5 years. Things have certainly moved around due to changes in mining activity/access, but still seems to be plenty of bears.

Grizz59 would be a good source for a 'historical report'. Lots of bears with collars in that part of the world and plenty of research as well.

[Liveforthehunt]

Seen a few dead bears in there as well. Can't say there's ever been a shortage of bears, usually it's the weather that kills the hunting. Had some great days there.... even in the last 5 years. Things have certainly moved around due to changes in mining activity/access, but still seems to be plenty of bears.

Grizz59 would be a good source for a 'historical report'. Lots of bears with collars in that part of the world and plenty of research as well.

Interesting I'll look into that thx

[Stone Sheep Steve]

As GG said timing is everything with grizz hunting.
Over the past few years we seem to have seen fewer bears overall(different MU). But the last time we were in there we saw 8 different grizz in one day..... on the same slide!!!..... plus a carcass that was shot two days earlier...plus two more 2 kms up the valley.

[gutpile]

Any updates from your hunt ?yha , im up here right now and sure
has greened up here fast !

[GoatGuy]

yha , im up here right now and sure
has greened up here fast !

May long weekend is usually too late for especially on a year like this year.

If you're willing to hike try up sorcercer creek on the downey, the back end of stitt creek might be ok and the backend of laforme although there's lots of access. Laforme splits and one for takes off southeast (unroaded) and it's a good bet. Make sure you know where the park boundary is.

Most of the good grizz spots will already be leafed out.

[.264winmag]

Ahhh stitt creek... Been up there without a paddle and two moose down across it lmao