Pg Tako?

[lightmag]

what was your expirence with the blackwater /Tako area this november for deer?

I found the deer to be in specific areas/pockets and not a lot of movement? saw an average 3x3, and a few does. Hunted reasonably hard, lots of miles on the legs thru cuts, tree lines and fir ridges, didn't even jump one from it's bed? the snow was loud this year for the most part so 'sneaking' was extremely hard, but even so between all the walking and quadding i feel i should have had more deer, specifically buck encounters.

I'm no expert on big mulie's, but i'm no rookie either. Also found that with the evening/night snow fall morning activity became almost non existant, with all sightings and movement being mostly in the afternoon.

Any thoughts, expirences or theory's are welcome, basically i'm at at a loss for ideas on what these deer do!!

lightmag.

[jml11]

I didn't see a speck of deer this past weekend, not even any fresh sign and very little recent sign for that matter. These areas are typically realtively abundant in both mulies and whitetails but they were apparently not around this year...so it wasn't just specific to the Tako!

[lightmag]

I didn't see a speck of deer this past weekend, not even any fresh sign and very little recent sign for that matter. These areas are typically realtively abundant in both mulies and whitetails but they were apparently not around this year...so it wasn't just specific to the Tako!

I hear you, i hit the west lake area a few times too, nothing, zero for sign, old or new???

where did they go? the numbers seem way down to me.

End of Woodpecker (off the mt mack) is way down too, they usually winter there too and hardly anything has moved in as of Nov 20th??

[tinhorse]

did you try down the high profit off the tako? We have always seen deer down there.

[thetackdriver]

I hunted the Tako pretty hard these last couple weeks . Put quite a few kms on my boots with very little success. Deer activity seemed to be almost nothing. Did manage to spook one legal buck out of his bed on the second to last day but didnt manage to get a shot because of the thick timber. Wat i did seem to find a lot of though were wolf tracks. Could be a reason for the lack of deer being seen??

[lightmag]

did you try down the high profit off the tako? We have always seen deer down there.


not sure where that is, we were near the front and then at the back and a buddy was in the middle, is that a marked road?

[Ride]

I found all the areas around prince to be very quiet this year. Winter hasn't really showed up anywhere yet that i have found. Even last week there was not a lot of snow high up. With the most recent storms last week i finally saw some evidence of the deer showing up. Deer respond to many things that could cause them to move out of areas for certain times. Habitat quality, predators, etc. Maybe this year they are just in harder to get to areas.

Even my kootenay trip we found it hard to find good numbers of deer. All our traditional hot spots just weren't producing. Hard to say what may be affecting them. Some guys whacked and stacked and others eat tag soup. Mmmmm tag soup.....

[kootenayelkslayer]

Just wolves and poachers down the Tako. The deer don't stand a chance!

[billjc33]

I think the population has been hit pretty hard with the increase in the wolf and cougar population, aswell, it is a very popular place for people to take their kids for the open doe youth season. The does used to run freely and you could almost walk right up to them, now there pushed farther into the bush and are a little bit more skeptical about walking out into a clearing. Where the does are hiding the bucks will be but some of those spots along the river are pretty difficult to get to.

[PGK]

Lots of cat tracks, big wolf tracks. Not so many bucks. I saw deer, but nothing bigger than a small 3pt.

[kootenayelkslayer]

Lots of cat tracks, big wolf tracks. Not so many bucks. I saw deer, but nothing bigger than a small 3pt.

Have you looked at your quote lately?? It's pretty classy.

[ROEBUCK]

i live in mudd river area !
and there is a significant drop in deer numbers around here this season, hardly any does ,let alone bucks,only 2 deer on my property all year so far, were last year there were deer here every day

[lightmag]

i live in mudd river area !
and there is a significant drop in deer numbers around here this season, hardly any does ,let alone bucks,only 2 deer on my property all year so far, were last year there were deer here every day


I was wondering about mud river, never made it out that way this year, sounds like it would have been a waste of time, lol..

So where are the deer? Even heard lots of reports that Hixon area and white's landing numbers seemed to be down?

I think the "youth" doe season is partially responsible as i've heard of hunters taking 3-4 "youth" hunters out and then they do the shooting!!! wish these guys would get caught!

So between youths shooting doe's, adults abusing the youth season, and the new 10 day Doe season on or within 2 miles of private property have really helped dimish the deer population the last few years!! throw in Wolves, cats and ethical hunters and there are the reasons! Doe's should be LEH so they can control the numbers, they have no idea and no control over it right now!!

just my 2 cents.

[ROEBUCK]

personally i think its the deep snow the past couple of winters up here, that has affected the deer the most,around my place for 3 months last year there was 3 feet of snow, the deer cant move in that ,lots of winter kill around last year!!

[redcomet]

I found all the areas around prince to be very quiet this year. Winter hasn't really showed up anywhere yet that i have found. Even last week there was not a lot of snow high up. With the most recent storms last week i finally saw some evidence of the deer showing up. Deer respond to many things that could cause them to move out of areas for certain times. Habitat quality, predators, etc. Maybe this year they are just in harder to get to areas.

Even my kootenay trip we found it hard to find good numbers of deer. All our traditional hot spots just weren't producing. Hard to say what may be affecting them. Some guys whacked and stacked and others eat tag soup. Mmmmm tag soup.....

I agree, I just got back from a couple week trip to the Kootenays, and in the areas where whitetails are usually in good numbers there was very little activity. I thought that there was an unusal amount of roadhunters and thought the pressure was really affecting things (only 1 set of wolf tracks for the entire trip, but obviously where's the 1 there's more; no cougar sign on the trip). Then a shift in the weather (the high country had lots of snow, but less than a couple inches down low), and after a snowy day and a couple more inches of snow down low and 'wham', there was deer sign everywhere overnight. After seeing only a deer or two a day, I shot a 4x4 in the middle of the day after seeing several deer that day! The mule deer were also sparse until the deep snow hit the high country on the last week of the season in the Kootenays.

[muleychaser]

I think what we were talking about holds some truth. These last 2 winters have been hard on the deer plain and simple. I was talking to a guy that has hunted deer for over 40 years tonight and even he said this is the first year in 15 years he has not put a buck down and he hunted reigoins 5 and 7.

[killman]

I also agree, We have had a ton of snow the last two years. That and high wolf pop. due to the high deer pop with did have. Plus this year we have had a unseasonably warm weather and little snow.

[tinhorse]

not sure where that is, we were near the front and then at the back and a buddy was in the middle, is that a marked road?

It was about 8 km i believe off the blackwater. It winds right down to the river. When i hunted it last (5 years ago) it had a sign and lots of new blocks. A friend took a nice 5 x5 off it. Might be deactivated now?? But should still be good. Lots of nice rolling hill blocks and old growth fir ridges right abouve the river. Found some monster sheds there as well. Also elk in the area now.