A bunch of #*^@

Bait O' Eggs · 08-23-2002, 12:24 PM

Looks to me you need to either find some non state forest land or hit a new part of the state that does allow access.

The timing is a bummer. :depressed: Plenty of critters east of I-5 from your location unless you can find something closer.

tailchaser · 08-23-2002, 12:53 PM

I know lots of spots out east, but I don't like to hunt them until it's out of the 90's over there. It just throws all the time in for scouting out the friggn window if you can't find a place to go now.

tc

DRUNK COWBOY · 08-23-2002, 01:13 PM

Tailchaser,
I know of some prime elk land up west of you, neer the wilson river, and by wheeler. I no longer Bow hunt but my buddie does. He will be at one of the two places this weekend. If you need a spot drop me an e-mail

Norm · 08-23-2002, 01:56 PM

The national forests won't close, or it might be a good time for a cascade hunt. I know it's a bummer, but I've been through it many times in the north coast.
Good Luck

Ramstrong · 08-23-2002, 02:55 PM

Tailchaser,

I don't know how long you've been living in Coos Bay. But I remember when I was in High School seeing the hills out towards the millicoma on fire crossing the haynes inlet bridge, driving home at night. It was kind of eerie. I think it was in 90 or 91. Forest fires do happen in coos bay. I also remember sunset middle school burning down too. But that was arson of course.

Closures happen. I used to work for GP and it's a valid concern. However the timing is just a ******. The national forest out by powers should still be open. I know there are some good herds out that way, may be a bit of a drive for you though.

[ 08-23-2002, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: Ramstrong ]

tailchaser · 08-23-2002, 11:49 PM

Well if you haven't heard yet for the bowhunter's here in southern oregon we're taking in the shorts once again. As of midnight tonight all of the state forest lands will be closed to hunting or any travel whatsoever. I live in Coos Bay and haven't even heard of a fire around here since my lifetime, and we don't get over 80 degrees more than a couple of times a year. Where I hunt in E.Oregon it's 90+ sometimes and has been that way for months. I don't ever hear about this problem over there besides restricting off road travel. To make the salt in the wounds even better, this decision is made on the Sunday prior to every week (mostly for logging purposes). But for some reason a special session was issued on thursday night and decided that it would be closed for the weekend. We thought we would be in the clear because it didn't happen last week and this week I've had to wear a coat everywhere I go. It hasn't topped 64 degrees here all week.

Last time I checked my bow was fast but it wasn't spitting flames.

The fire crazies have won some lobbying once again.

tc

The Bad Fish · 08-24-2002, 11:38 PM

i feel your pain.. i am seriously considering giving up bow hunting because its like this every year.. im tired of donating 30 bucks for a elk tag that i cant use.. kb

THE KIWANDA KID · 08-25-2002, 05:26 PM

God forbid that someone should try to protect a whole renewable resource that is a huge factor to the economy in wich you live in. WAHHH. Get down off the cross other people need the wood!!!!Yes it's a bummer but what would you rather have? a place to hunt or an ash tray? Take a breath freind and drive a ways or stay home.

GutshotApe · 08-26-2002, 07:03 AM

Yeah, right there on the coastal strip the temp rarely gets over 65 but if you go inland just a few miles conditions are much different. Haven't you noticed the big smoke cloud to the south from the Biscuit fire? Heck, we can see it from Eugene! Its dry out there, pal. The closures are on mostly private lands - the public forests are still open for hunting. Go there.

GSApe

kodiakfisher · 08-26-2002, 02:04 PM

Lets get something straight they could have closed the woods on Sunday and made the announcement then. They didn't because they want to maximize the revenue from the sale of tags thats why they waited the day before. At least if they made the announcement we could still purchase a tag and take our chances. Making the announcement of Friday was a pretty dirty trick to say the least. They wonder why revenue is falling and tag sales are declining well they have their answer. Don't even try and say they were trying to keep them open as long as they could they could have warned on Sunday the woods are closed unless we get rain. Take a look at the forecast nope not much rain well I'm not buying my archery tag instead I think I'll buy rifle tag. Now we don't have that option.

Doug E

outdoor.spec.ops · 08-26-2002, 02:47 PM

Gutshot--

I wish it was as simple as "just going to the public forests". Much of the public lands are closed as well.

GutshotApe · 08-26-2002, 04:12 PM

I haven't been following the closures in Coos Co. closely but around here (western Lane Co.) the only closures I've heard of are on private land. And, due to the checkerboard ownership pattern, the public has access to quite a lot of land. The national forests are open and usually stay open, regardless.
Kodiakfisher is under the mistaken :whazzup: impression that there is one body ("they") who has control of land access and hunting tag sales. Not so. ODFW controls very little land (only their 12 or so WMAs) and is usually not consulted by land mgmt agencies implementing fire closures. If fire closures cause a complete or near-complete lack of hunting opportunity for a particular season the f&w commission will likely make some adjustments i.e. later special hunt, etc. At least they have in the past. But closure of land in part of a unit for part of the season is relatively common and you should plan on it when making hunt choices. Its always hot & dry in Oregon in August.

GutshotApe

tailchaser · 08-27-2002, 03:12 PM

Ok, Ok after I made this post I did some hardcore crunching on where the line was drawn in the sand for the closed areas and 1/2 of my area was open and half wasn't. This is within a mile circular drainage. So we had a tremendous weekend regardless but without doing some hardcore homework and calling a lot of people did I even find out I could hunt half of it. There were helicopters patrolling the other side, so it was serious.

As for some of the posts maybe I can clarify. ALL LANDS ARE CLOSED!! This means national forest, state, county, and private! If you get caught, it's a grand out of your wallet, and they made a lot of money (maybe trying to fund the biscuit fire??) from what I heard. What I'm troubled with is timing of this issue (friday night) and the lack of understanding of explaining it to the public that was given. It didn't help any that nowhere else on the coast except where the biscuit fire is, did they close anything. Throw in the fact that they are still allowing logging operations to go on, and it gives the impression that they're targeting hunters. Which was true. Granted there's always the idiot that smokes and throws it out the window, but should I pay for his dumbness?? Saturday morning it was so wet out I couldn't have started a fire if I wanted to. It drizzled and was cloudy all day. As of now it doesn't look good for a lot of hunters in this area. I thankfully filled my tag on sunday and will post some pics, but I'm still not impressed with the situation.

tc

DRUNK COWBOY · 08-27-2002, 03:37 PM

Tailchaser,
Did you drop that 6x7? show me the pics

GutshotApe · 08-27-2002, 04:31 PM

TC - Good for you, glad to hear you got the big one. It is very dry (except on the coastal strip). Here west of Junction City we've had thick smoke all afternoon which I thought was from field burning but I just heard on the radio there is a forest fire that broke out on High Pass Road which is about 4 miles north of my house. The wind is light to moderate out of the north so I don't know if I'll be going over to Winchester Bay tomorrow or not. May have to stay home and fight fire. :whazzup:
GSApe [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img]

Tilla · 08-27-2002, 06:56 PM

It's rained (lightly) about everyday out by Starkey /Ukiah.

GutshotApe · 08-27-2002, 07:12 PM

Just got back from short recon trip to scope out the High Pass fire. The state's helicopter made a few well placed water drops and the fire is now apparently out. Yip yip yip yahoo! :grin: Winchester Bay in the morning.

tailchaser · 08-28-2002, 06:03 AM

Yeah, I dropped the 6x7. He's quite a stud. I've got the pics on cd here and I'll try and post them. We actually got two bulls in a matter of 5 min. I called both of them in and I shot the 6x7, then a 5 pt. still wanted a piece of my cow call so my buddy took care of him at short range. However, that left the two of us to pack two elk. 14 hours later and they were finally in the cooler.

Man, it's funny how rumors begin. I've already heard how people poached two big bulls in this one area (where I was at) that was closed and the sheriff was after me. What a bunch of crap. For one I was on private land that I had permission to be that bordered Menasha. And two they said they didn't see anyone come in during the morning to hunt. That's because we were packing our butts off all night! It's funny what happens when you get a big bull, no one seems to care about it when it's a little 3 or 4 point. Anyhoo, I'll find out how to shrink the pics here quick.

tc

kodiakfisher · 08-28-2002, 03:08 PM

Tailchaser,

Congrats on the elk. I grew up in North Bend I was supposed to be hunting up by Loon Lake a guy I know has private property small acerage and we were going to be hunting from there. Well guess what it didn't work out Woods are shut down. I will be hunting 7 days from my 20 acres in Washinton Klickitat county any elk season. Leave on Friday can't wait!

Would love to hunt Coos Bay sometime I have great blacktail deer archery hunting in my area Does are pretty much a given.