Spot and stalk in the north Okanagan

[Shea]

Hey all,

I recently moved to Coldstream and I was hoping some locals could point me in the direction of some open hunting grounds in the general area. I went and checked out king Edward lake and oyama lake last weekend. Spent a day hiking off quad trails. Got a couple grouse and a hare, saw some old sign but I'm not too familiar with hunting cut blocks and not too fond of sitting in a blind either. Had some good success and ton of fun in the past hunting sage brush, spot and stalking muley with my bow. Can't seem to find any good crown sage brush around here. Turtle mountain looks like a muley goldmine but it's all private or reservation as far as I can tell. Any general tips in where I can find somewhere with some decent visibility?

[wrenchhead]

Not really any crown land sage brush hunting around vernon....have to go north or south a couple hours to get into it. Any forest service road out of vernon holds deer though, just a matter of putting in the time scouting.

[Shea]

Yea that's what I figured. I'd settle for some sparse timber. Evwrywhere I was hiking I'd spook something before I'd ever get a shot off.

[GEF]

Yea that's what I figured. I'd settle for some sparse timber. Evwrywhere I was hiking I'd spook something before I'd ever get a shot off.
Slow your pace down than if you think you are going slow enough than slow it down again.
Sounds like you are into the animals .
You can spot and stock clear cuts .Work your way around the perimeter just in side the tree line tree line ,spot the other tree lines inside the timber .As you walk the perimeter make note of travel areas and revisit the clear cut and spot those travel areas from a distance.

[mike31154]

Been in Vernon 15 years now but only 4th season hunting. Spend a lot of time outdoors & have explored extensively. Never heard of sage brush hunting until you mentioned it. I can vouch that there is none of that in the immediate area as wrenchhead has already mentioned. One of the pros of living in this area is that you have access to 3 regions within relatively short drive. Couple hours at the most to get to bordering MU3 & 4. Although most of the GOS fare is similar, there are some variances that can extend what's available in 8.

Oyama is closest of the areas I often hunt. I've traveled King Ed, but that seems to get a lot more traffic & pressure. I should do more overnighters since there's a decent rec site at the lake, just before the private resort. Plenty to explore from there but because it's close I generally make it a 1 day or 1/2 day hunt. In past seasons I've spotted mule deer doe & yearling, another hunter's harvest remains of a whitetail & often come across animals crossing the road on the way home in the dark. The area definitely holds deer, but I've been unable to bag one to date. I've done a lot of hiking in there, often using the Okanagan High Rim trail where it intersects the Oyama FSR, somewhere around Km 9. You mention Turtle mountain, is there one I don't know about outside town? If you're talking about the one in town, well yeah, private land and it probably is a muley gold mine, so is my yard, but can't hunt the townies for obvious reasons.

The other 2 areas I'm familiar with are 8-13 up in the Monashees & 3-26 off Chase/Falkland road. 8-13 borders 4-14 to the east. Closest I came to harvesting an animal my 1st season. On the drive out, still legal light a buck was just crossing the road to enter a cut block. Pretty sure it was a whitetail. I got out, rifle out of the back, loaded it up with shells & stalked the bugger down the cut block in my shirtsleeves. Had him in the scope once, but wasn't sure of a clean kill so let it slide. Chase/Falkland I drive past Pillar Lake, exit on Moser Rd & continue past all the private land to north of Miller Lake. Promising area there & always plenty of sign, but other than on the way out on private land, I haven't spotted a deer in the woods there. I did come across 2 massive bull moose a couple years ago, but didn't have a tag & it's usually spike only there anyhow.

Other than cut blocks, most of the areas become thick in a hurry once you start hiking. It is what it is. Last couple seasons I've noted much more sign of wolf 8-13 & 3-26. Not so much around Oyama, too close to civilization I reckon.

8-13 red line at the right (east) is 4-14
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Oyama
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Chase/Falkland
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Best of luck to you, from a fellow North Okanagener yet to harvest a deer! Did get a moose last year with a couple buddies on a shared LEH south of Vanderhoof.

[Shea]

Thanka for all the tips. Spent the last few weeks scouting around king eddy. Found a really good spot, tons of fresh sign. Deer/maybe moose are coming down a hill across a decommissioned trail and into a draw full of thick bush and some marshy like conditions. So I setup a ground blind and waited and waited some more. Didn't end up seeing anything, should I be rattling? Calling? Any advice? Especially on trying to get a moose. Not a fan of ambush hunting but I'm guessing thats really the only way to hunt this kind of terrain?

[mike31154]

I was up in one of my spots last week to take advantage of the WT antlerless season. Saw a few deer tracks but something larger showed up just as I was about to pack it in, Moose! A cow, calf & what looked to be a spiker bull. Just caught a glimpse in the woods across the creek from a stand I was in. Thought they were gone but 10 minutes later they popped out at the lake to feed 170 meters from the stand. On a whim I held the phone camera to the eyepiece of my cheap spotting scope & got some closeups! Since it was a long hike back I climbed down & decided to see how close I could get before they spooked. Got to within about 60 meters of the cow, calf off to the left & the spike bull appeared to have departed the scene. Even after seeing me & hearing me grunt, the cow just stared then continued feeding. After a few moments of admiring the beast, I headed into the woods to hook up to my track back to the truck. Last thing I needed was to get charged by an angry cow & not being able to legally shoot. I love this country!

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Typical of previous hunting escapades, the day would not have been complete without a couple near misses on the highway on my way home, Whitetail! Bitches!

Spike-fork moose opens today and here I am on the couch/keyboard...… To be honest, I didn't get the best look at his rack, but one side looked like it disqualified the young feller as a spike. Would have been a stretch for me solo to retrieve something that size from that spot too.

I hunted around King Eddy my 1st season 4 years ago. I avoid that area now, seems like a lot more pressure than the Oyama area that I still check out when I don't wish to drive too far.

[xlcc]

Nice pictures