Trask Elk Hunt Report

[Tacklebuster]

Me and a buddy have been hitting the trask for the "spike only" hunt pretty hard since Saturday with frusterating results. I jumped a herd on Saturday while making a drive down a steep draw. My buddy was supposed to be situated in a pocket next to Boundry Road to pick one off when they jammed through. I was driving through some pretty steep stuff when I heard the elk hit the gravel road. I heard a BOOM and anxiously waited for the smoke to clear. When I popped out on the road, I didn't find my buddy but found some lucky dude in a blue chevy that was driving down the road when I pushed the elk out in front of him. To make a long sad story short, Lucky blue chevy dude tag filled, me with nothing but wet clothes. My "buddy" decided to wander off and find a more comfortable place to sit.
We hunted the next couple of days with no sightings of elk but plenty of deer. That's just my luck, I never seem to see many deer in the trask until elk season rolls around. We saw around 10 deer including a huge 3 point on Monday. Oh well, I will be back at it at zero dark thirty in the morning with a new game plan and hopefully better end results. I need to get my elk so I can get back up to the fishery to sting some more sturgies

[Rip'N'Lips]

Tacklebuster-

If the weather comes in as expected there is a chance for some snow on the highest peaks this weekend. I would try and find some high ground realizing that the snow will push them lower. That's a pain about your buddy. It is never any fun to push an animal to an undeserving fool on the road...

We hunted the first season and had a big bull bugle at us, but never got a shot. Didn't see much for 5 days of hunting either. They seem to be real few and far between. If I was you I would go back to beating the brush. It is the only way to get something after opening day.

Good Luck...

[Tacklebuster]

Well, we did another sun up to sun down hunt today with better results. We started off the morning with a drive up an overgrown cut. No elk but the biggest black tail buck I have ever seen stepped out into the open. We stomped around the bush for another four hours or so watching deer after deer just staring at us. We saw 2 dandy bucks and probably 6 does in the four hours of bush beating. I hunt pretty hard during deer season and very rarely see 2 bucks in a season much less the bucks of the caliber we saw today.

We ended up hunting the lower river around Bear Creek Rd. where we saw a lot of sign earlier. We drove the river bank and jumped a herd of baldies. I put every animal in that herd under my Leupold microscope but couldn't put a spike one on any of them. Oh well, it was good to actually get into some for a little while.

On an unrelated note, we must have seen a hundred dead salmon lining the banks of the Nustucca. There were quite a bit of them still swimming around but most were dark as midnight. I wonder where the bears are at? It seems to me every black bear on that mountain would be at the river gorging on the salmon. I have a bear tag that could be filled under the right circumstances
I will take tomorrow off and gain about 8 pounds eating turkey and pie but plan to be hitting the brush pretty hard come Friday. Hopefully the last day will kick out something I can shoot at :grin:

[Robert]

Have they fixed the old nestucca highway yet? When I was there first elk season there was a bridge blown out just east of where the oupost used to be. The road was closed from the other diretion at elk creek. Is bear creek near bear ridge road? Thanks Robert.

[Gus Orviston]

I doubt it is open, both the elk creek bridge and Alder Glenn Bridges were being worked on. Alder Glenn is being up graded from a single to a two lane bridge and the embuttments to Elk Creek are being rebuilt. There is also a slide between the two bridges that is being fixed and the road is being resurfaced.

Yes Bear Creek and Bear Creek Ridge are both in the closure section, same goes for Hoag.

GO

[Tacklebuster]

Bear Cr. is the road after Bear Ridge road. You can get to both of those roads if you take a right at Bible Creek and go past the Sheridan scenic overlook. You will dump out on the Nestucca Rd. Take a left and it will take you to Elk Cr. which ties into Boundry which ties into Bear Cr. Speaking of the roads listed above, we ended the day seeing a nice herd.

We jumped a herd early this morning with about 15 head in it. I scoped a spike that was about 1/2 an inch to short to shoot :depressed: Almost but not quite. We hunted hard the rest of the day and saw about 20 head total today but no s*******. Looks like tag stew instead of hamburger this winter but at least I will have 2 deer to snack on :grin:

Now to my passion, sturgeon fishing. I am looking for a spot in the morning, any suggestions?

[ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Tacklebuster ]

[ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Tacklebuster ]</p>