Abbotsford-Chiliwack area

[ratherbefishin]

My son[non hunter] lives in Yarrow-between Chiliwack and Abbotsford and I am thinking of going over for a weekend the end of October or early November]the blacktail rut should be on].Is there any decent place close by to go for a hunt?There is lots of farm land in the valley-there should be a few deer around,but not being there makes it hard to do some scouting.I was thinking about the hills above the valley, there should be some logging roads or cuts to hunt.Also-is it worth taking a .22 to look for a grouse or two?

[BearSniper]

Hey Ratherbefishin.........

If your son is in Yarrow he's right up against Vedder mountain(hill)

Go east to the vedder mountain fsr, near Cultus lake, and you can hunt up there. Close to Yarrow & Chilliwack is far too much developement

Also, you have the Chilliwack lake road at your doorstep which gives access to many good logging roads in the east valley. Some of the forest in there is real thick west coast heavy timber, like the Island, good for deer.

A guy at work reminded me that 3 years ago a boone and crocket record blacktail was taken out of the Chilliwack river valley. You can go as far east as Chilliwack lake (60km) and it gets pretty wild in there.

Get a mapbook and also check google earth. A word of warning though, some roads are well used by 4x4 er's and moto crossers. So a few roads are gated- don't be afraid to walk a few of these gated ones. Ya take the .22, theres grouse as well

Good luck8-)

[ratherbefishin]

thanks-I like to walk the logging roads,especially if they are not active.Not sure when the peak rut is over there-its the last week of October on the Island.With all the farm land in the valley-wondered about hunting adjacent areas

[lapadat]

There are very few deer #'s in and near farmland in the fraser valley and the few that are around are mainly in archery only areas.

I think that Oct is still to early to be seeing signs of rut in valley BT's......but you never know.

Good luck.

If you ask T-Bone really nicely he may lead you to a book Blacktail :)

[ratherbefishin]

its funny-on the Island ,the Blacktail rut is in full swing the 3rd week of October,but I am told it is later on the mainland-not sure why.I'm really surprised to hear there are few deer near the farmland-over here thats where they mainly are.I see all that corn in the FV-and thought there would be large numbers of deer

[harder rd]

you will do better with a fishing rod around yarrow. there are a few local deer, but they live mostly in pepoles back yards. If you are up to it there are lots of high mountain areas that you can hike into . As for the rut not for some time yet.