2002 success rates and opportunities

 

We started our season off with fishing trips. We took one high mountain lake trip and several trips on Big Creek.  Everyone had fun and caught lots of fish.  Like last year, the salmon runs were really good again this year.

Cast, Blast, & Bear Hunt

Our cast and blast trips started on Aug. 30.  We had 5 hunters all together.  One hunter was mainly hunting for bear and he shot a six footer opening day.  A father and son were also looking mostly for bear and they also shot a five footer on opening day.  Along with the bear they collected, they missed several other larger bears and two of them were chocolate colored, 300 pound boars.  It was just a prime example of bear fever.  We had a husband and wife come.  The husband drew a moose tag so moose was his goal.  He shot a 40” bull the second day. He also passed up a 6 foot cinnamon colored boar on opening day.   His wife was there mostly for birds and she shot her limit two days in a row.  Overall, the cast and blast hunts were a lot of fun and very successful.

combination hunts

The elk and deer season started off hot and never slowed down.

first hunt- We had four guided hunters and three drop campers.  The four guided hunters shot a six point and a five point.  They missed a huge six point and three five points.  The three drop campers got some bugling and shot a buck. 

second hunt- We had six guided hunters and they shot six bulls, one black bear, and passed up several other bears.  They also had an opportunity to shoot a 28” buck.

third hunt- We had five guided hunters and three drop campers.  One guided hunter cancelled. The four remaining guided hunters shot two, six point bulls and a five point bull.  The three drop campers did not get anything.

fourth hunt- We had six hunters.  Two hunters were from Germany and they shot a spike bull (He thought he was helping the herd by culling out a small elk.) and a five point bull.  They also shot a four point buck.  The other four hunters shot a five point bull and a four point buck.  They also missed another bull and passed up some other elk.  All four hunters had opportunities to pull the trigger but two of them chose not to.

fifth hunt- Nobody booked so we all took a week off.  I drew a goat tag and filled it within five hours of driving away from our house.  It was kind of disappointing to collect my once in a lifetime goat on the first day but I won’t complain.

sixth hunt- We had six guided hunters and one of them cancelled.  Two of the hunters were a father and son.  They shot two nice bucks and a six point bull.  The other three missed several times at elk and deer.  They killed a 163 B&C buck (My wife woke him up so he could shoot the buck in the corral.) and a three point buck.  They also missed two bulls.  Two of the three hunters were sick while they were there and did not get to hunt all the time.

seventh hunt- We had five guided hunters.  One hunter shot a six point bull and a 25” buck and his hunting partner shot a cow and a very nice 26” buck.  The other three hunters shot a four point, five point, and six point bull.  They also shot three respectable mule deer bucks.

last hunt- We had five guided hunters.  One hunter was by himself.  He shot a 6x7 bull.  He chose to go home early after his tremendous elk.  He has been hunting in the Frank Church since the early 70’s and this was one of the largest elk he had ever taken.  The other four hunters shot a five point bull and four good mule deer.  One of the four hunters missed two bulls but ended his hunt by shooting a good mountain lion. 

All in all, we had a tremendous season.  Only one hunter out of 34 did not get an opportunity to shoot at something.  The bugle season was the best I have ever seen.  The 2000 burns are really helping out the wildlife population.  The mule deer hunting was also the best I have ever seen.  In the eighties, the deer hunting was good.  It seems with time, a person’s memory has a way of either embellishing or discriminating against hunts in the past.  After looking through the old photo albums, the bucks we took this year are good as but probably better than the majority of the bucks taken 20 years ago.  We took nine bucks that scored between 160 and 183 B&C.  As smooth as the season went ‘01, it was even better in ‘02.