Hunting pressure around Vernon/Lumby/Cherryville/Sugar Lake

[Taylor329]

My family has recently gained a retirement property in the area mentioned in the thread title, so I'll likely be using it as a hunting base or starting point. Never hunted around these parts before, so I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on what the pressure is like? Are there any places to avoid, or maybe places I should try looking? I've been doing some Google Earth-ing and I like the look of it all, I just don't want to be glassing up hunters left and right if I can avoid it.

Not picky on species, hunt with a bow or rifle, willing to hike, etc.

Any information is appreciated!

[wifigary]

Stay away from any recreation site. Further east you go (Lumby and further) you'll mostly find higher whitetail populations. Closer to vernon and the Aberdeen Plateau down to Winfield, you're more likely to get Muleys. Bear are abundant, I can easily find those 15 minutes from home.

I mostly quad hunt for bear, and I'll use it also to get to some deer spots to sit and wait. Spent three seasons now just learning the lay of the land and what roads and shortcuts to take between the surrounding major fsr routes.
Look me up come September and I'm sure we can find something with horns.

It gets pretty busy on the weekends, I've had success on an "after work head up XX road" hunt often during the weekdays, and bagged a deer at 6am before work one day and had to call in "sick".

[Salty]

Like anywhere in the Okanagan within an hour of a bigger town there's deer but the pressure's pretty high. There's a lot yarded up type deer on private land there which is interesting but no good to you unless you can gain access. Maybe the property you'll be based out of will have opportunities? I have a friend in the area so I've been through several times over about 15 years its nice country all right just get away from the crowds somewhere away from main roads find some sign and start learning the area and you should get some opportunity.

[saskbooknut]

When I lived in Vernon, we would get as high as we could on a logging road and glass the opposite mountain for short routes to the alpine ridges.
Lots of other hunters in the logging slash, but few on the ridges where you had to climb a bit.
I raced more than one Mule deer buck down towards the truck on a wet grass slide slope.

[bcfirefly]

Hunting sucks around those parts! nothing to see here!
As mentioned, if you go a bit farther afield you'll be beyond the majority of folks. If you get off the road and use your feet you only need to go about 100 meters from a main FSR. I have actually had my best success just off the road out of sight but there is not much fun in that. PM if you want some specific areas to start you off otherwise best of luck! Its a beautiful part of BC just minutes from the Okanagan.

[finngun]

Biggest wolf ever seen was in lumby. Really huge boy,,I,guess?.

[wrenchhead]

Muley numbers in the tank like lots of other parts of the province, but white tails and moose seem to be doing well. Like anywhere else farther off the road you get, the less the pressure.

[steve-r]

We camped at the Sugar Lk rec site last week of October last year. No one else there. Gate was open.
Lots of logging between Sugar and Mabel lk., north of Sugar lk, and east of Sugar lk.
Take a Resource Road radio - lots of logging trucks. Roads closed for logging operations. Too much thick brush everywhere else to make it huntable.
Saw fresh grz tracks in the snow up higher, wolf tracks and scat. No deer. One set of moose tracks, but not fresh.
local FN band conducted their annual group hunt between Mabel and Sugar earlier in October, so maybe that had some effect on game numbers.
we moved over the the Kettle valley, lots of logging at the east end, lots of camps, no deer hanging. Spooked A couple WT does . No tracks above snowline.

went thru a game check on the highway at Sugar lk rd at the General Store, and the CO's had zero reports of game tagged in the prior week. Saw lots of does and small bucks in the farm fields at the side of the highway.
Those deer know where it is safe.
invested 8 days, lots of gas, lots of miles on the sxs and truck, lots of hiking, but no results....maybe the game got more active after we left, and others hopefully did well but will be going elsewhere this year.

[RadHimself]

WOLVES!!!!!!!

and lots of them

logging has completely opened the area up, everything that was there is pressured not just by wolves but by CONSTANT UTV traffic and cars... from one end of the valley to the other

[Tuffcity]

Upper end of Sugar used to be very productive for us. End of September wasn't bad, October sucked, and Grey Cup weekend was always a producer. We have a family cabin on Sugar so had a warm place to stay and dry out at the end of each day.

I found the trick to hunting that area was to find a small clearing about 100 yds off the road and stand hunt. That upper Shuswap River valley is interior rainforest and thick in most places but a bit of poking around pays dividends! Lots of vehicle traffic but almost nobody got out of the truck or off the quad and most deer trails ran parallel to the roads. Late in November it didn't seem to matter what time of day you'd see bucks moving. Sadly my favorite spot is now a log yard. We hunted there every November from 2009 until we moved and every year produced good bucks except 2015/16. About 2014 the wolves really started to move in and the decrease in deer was noticeable. I'm sure there are still a few big guys kicking around, you just might have to work a bit harder for 'em.

The couple of pics from the glory years...

https://i.imgur.com/VG7eJKb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/h2E7nT1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/N2NwCIn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vLerjV6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qQf4wtS.jpg

[Bugle M In]

I have seen some decent bucks (MD) come out of there over the past 10 years or so.
They are there.
Good old days, you will see some in the BC books that came from the Lumby country and surrounding areas, both WT and MD.
One thing everyone has to remember, the seasons were open a lot longer back then, so any big bucks by the end of December were down and there was way more snow back then.
Plus, many of those bucks were taken on "private farm land".

The bucks I have seen of late were taken around Nov long weekend.
You will have to hike and get off the roads.
Wolves are not helping for sure.
Lots of areas were wolves are coming into the past 5 or 6 years now that never had them before, so its only going to get worse.

[Taylor329]

Wow! Didn't expect to get such an awesome group of responses to this thread. Usually anyone asking about location information is ignored or given short form answers, so I thought i was taking a shot in the dark here. Thanks everyone for being so forthcoming and helpful with information. I'm supposed to be in the area the first week of September, so I'll take a day or two and poke around the areas mentioned, get a lay of the land. Hopefully get lucky with the bow, if not I'll be back in October to try again.

Cheers to all!

[Bugle M In]

I used to hunt the Lightning Peaks, Mt. Sciaa area opening day alpine for MD.
Sadly, when quads came along, they went into areas they weren't supposed to be.
But a bigger problem, in my opinion, was the logging that happened, going ever higher to the alpine etc.
So much more access etc.
But worse, it seemed to "disperse the deer".
Used to hunt old burns, and lots of deer in there when there was virtually zero logging around.
But once logging happened, the deer all went their separate ways.

Again, late season hunting doesn't exist for us as it did back in the day, so less big bucks to see and pursue.
Milder these days as well and wolves, and again, I think logging benefitted them as well to move into new territory.

May want to try hitting the Monashees more?, between Sugar Lakes and Revelstoke.
Lots of high country wilderness in there to explore, if you want to put in the effort and have a good back still.

[.264winmag]

Spend the first ten days of nov and you’ll find a mature mulie, nov.15-20 you’ll find a mature WT. That’s spending the entire day in the bush, well for me anyway...