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Youth, North Bank Habitat

6K views 29 replies 15 participants last post by  hunterharry 
#1 ·
I drew a youth north bank habitat tag for the middle of november. After reading the regulations, tag holders can also hunt elk. Does anyone even know if there is any elk in there or would i be wasting my time focusing on elk? thanks hunterharry
 
#4 ·
thanks. The general 1st season coast elk tag is open. It runs Nov. 14th-17th. My deer tag is open for Nov. 14th through the 22nd. Since only deer tag holders are able to hunt elk in the management area, does anyone know where to start looking? any info is great, thanks hunterharry
 
#9 ·
I drew a youth north bank habitat tag for the middle of november. After reading the regulations, tag holders can also hunt elk. Does anyone even know if there is any elk in there or would i be wasting my time focusing on elk? thanks hunterharry
You definitely would be wasting your time focusing on elk. I have lived in the area most of my life and have seen only one elk and have heard of only a handful more. Focus on deer and if you find and elk, good for you.

If you want to find a big blacktail buck head towards the timber in the back. It's a little hike, but not many people are willing to hike that far. You can find some decent bucks closer to the river, but the back is awesome blacktail country. If you have questions send me a PM and I will try to help.
 
#12 ·
Harry,

I've never hunted the NBank area. I have hunted adjacent to it (Not this year). I've spent years in Douglas County. I think it is very unlikely you'll bump elk in the NBank habitat area. I've seen elk in a number of lowland areas in Melrose, just not that area. Maybe a quick call to the local LEO would help. I'm sure they monitor NBank pretty closely.

Now that I've said that, you probably will see elk there.

If you have $40 bucks to burn (or whatever an elk tag costs), buy one. I think you'd be better off to hunt your buck and then buy a second season elk tag and blow off mom's turkey for a few days down on the coast.

Good luck!
 
#14 ·
Ya, forget about the elk and go try to get yourself a wallhanger blacktail. Get up high and pay attention to all of the little nooks and crannies. Those bucks can hide in the smallest patches of brush or may be bedded right out in the open on a rock, you never know. I missed an absolute pig up there when I was 16 because of a malfunction with my scope. Still ended up killing a nice buck without much trouble but that day still haunts me.
 
#15 ·
I've hunted the North Bank Habitat for the last 5 years for Whitetail and Blacktail! I probrably have 60 + days in there during that time! There's good blacktails up to 130+ class if you hold out and go deep! The whitetail hunting is getting worse by the year due to overhunting. As for the elk I was in there in about 3 inches of snow last December and saw a herd of 80!! yes 80 Cows and another herd of 38 with 6 branch bulls and 1 SMOKER (300-310) 7x6!!! but I am almost positive NBank is in the general cascade unit not the coastal! Anyways good luck :)
 
#16 ·
According to the unit description, the area in the North Bank Habitat west of the powerlines is in the Melrose unit therefore would be open during the coast elk season. That would include zones 1,2 and 4. Zone 3 would be in the Indigo unit and therefore not open to elk hunting. With all the weather I might roll the dice and pick up an elk tag.
 
#19 · (Edited)
well my dad, brother and i headed to the management area early saturday morning with high hopes. We saw a some deer and a bobcat on the drive in, it was a good sign. We got to where we wanted to be at daylight, and glassed and glassed and glassed some more and didnt see a thing. We moved to another vantage point, glassed for another good 30 min, and yet again nothing. So we tried rattling, our first spot we rattled in a basket 3pt, that didnt present a shot. with a dozen more failed attempts at rattling, we still hunted and glassed some more only to see 2 small whitetail bucks. There was a bunch of sign, just no deer. We saw some elk sign and a bunch of bear sign also. On the way out with saw a bunch of deer on private property but only one legal deer in in management area for 8 hrs of hunting. We tried almost everywhere in the unit, we saw no kills either. Never hunted as hard to see as little. Anyone got any spots or tips??? thanks
 
#20 ·
Anyone got any spots or tips??? thanks

Keep hunting. You saw a legal buck your first day out, thats not something most people would complain about. The bucks are pretty stupid right now, I have seen quite a few chasing does around lately. If you had time to glass from a multiple spots and rattle in over a dozen different spots it sounds like you might want to slow it down a little. Look more closely when you are glassing and I havent rattled myself much but that sounds like a lot of different setups only part of a day that is short to begin with (you said you hunted 10 hours).
 
#26 ·
My advice would be get to know the area really well. Gather as much info as you can.. Then locate and pattern a few big bucks. After you do that relay all the info to me and let me know where the big bucks hang out, I'll be hunting there next month:D
Good luck and post pics when you fill your tag.
 
#29 ·
thanks guys, if i get back out ill let you know how we do.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, you can pm me

Ok your going to get my first post here
Go to the East end across from the little walk in park
by the river across the road you will see the talbert trail
Up the trail to the top and glass the bowl in front of you
Glass good and keep an eye out west along the fence line
seen a dandy 4x4 in there all this week with his does
If theres no action there Work your way west along that ridge top
Good Luck
 
#28 ·
Killed my buck two years ago right on the fence in the north east corner, step and a jump and he would have been safe. Try going up the fenceline on the east side starting right at the house there. Gets you above the deer and lets you glass down into several draws. Hope this helps.
 
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