State wildlife officials are optimistic about local prospects for the fall deer-hunting season that starts Saturday (Oct. 17).
In an overview of the hunting outlook in District 6 (Okanogan County), Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists Scott Fitkin and Jeff Heinlen said that with the exception of one game management unit (GMU), “all units in District 6 support significant numbers of deer, include large blocks of accessible public land, and offer good to excellent deer-hunting opportunity.”
Mild weather is forecast for the weekend, with highs in the 60s and overcast skies.
Lance Rider, at The Outdoorsman in Winthrop, said he expects a busy weekend in the valley with deer season opening Saturday and steelhead fishing on the Methow River opening Thursday.
“We should have plenty of hunters,” Rider said. “A lot of people who bypassed us and kept going east in the past are going to stop here.”
That’s because some traditional hunting areas in the eastern part of Okanogan County were damaged by the summer’s fires, Rider said.
District 6 includes 10 GMUs: 203 (Pasayten), 204 (Okanogan East), 209 (Wannacut), 215 (Sinlahekin), 218 (Chewuch), 224 (Pearrygin), 231 (Gardner), 233 (Pogue), 239 (Chiliwist), and 242 (Alta).
WDFW biologists will be running a biological check and information station at the Winthrop Barn both weekends of the modern firearm general deer season. Hunters are encouraged to stop and provide data whether they have harvested a deer or not.
Some other notes from the WDFW report:
• District 6 supports perhaps the largest migratory mule deer herd in the state. The district also supports significant numbers of white-tailed deer, particularly in GMU 204 and 215.
• In GMUs 224, 239 and 242, current management is intended to maintain a stable to slightly decreasing population in response to the landscape’s reduced ability to support deer in the wake of last year’s Carlton Complex Fire. The fire burned huge tracts of critical winter shrub forage.
• Despite the massive fire, district deer populations are doing well, thanks in part to greater-than-normal fall green-up and a mild winter. District 6 deer herds benefited from better-than-average mule deer fawn winter survivorship. Post-season sex ratios in December of 2014 remained good at 23 bucks per 100 does.
• GMU 209 is the driest unit overall and has the highest percentage of private land, so general season opportunities are more modest in this area.
• Mule deer are abundant throughout the county, with the highest densities occurring in the Methow Valley and along the divide between the Methow and Okanogan watersheds.
• Overall, white-tailed deer are less numerous than mule deer in Okanogan County. The largest population is in GMU 204, where white-tails comprise about half of the overall deer population. Another white-tail hotspot is the central portion of GMU 215, particularly in the Sinlahekin Valley and surrounding drainages.
• General season hunters harvested 2,780 deer from the 10 GMUs in District 6 last year, an increase of 35 percent over the 2013 season despite the disruptive effects of the Carlton Complex Fire.
• Prospects for mule deer look excellent this year. Better than average recruitment in recent years indicates a growing herd, and high buck escapement observed during surveys last winter means hunters should have good opportunities to harvest older age class bucks.
