Be ready for fall’s big-game seasons: Hunting success hinges on preparation
How to tune up you and your gear for bear, elk, and deer
By Tom Ryle/WDFW
Regular walking and hiking with a pack can help tune your body for hunting season. (Tom Ryle/WDFW)
With physical exercise comes exertion, which requires that you are consuming high-quality fuel and enough water. Eating a healthy diet will help you perform best in the field and help keep your senses sharp. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has excellent resources to explore. Personally, I’m not a fan of fancy exercise-oriented drinks and powders. I prefer straight-up water because it’s what your body needs and does the job naturally.
It’s difficult to explain in words, but there’s a mental transformation that occurs once you get into a regular exercise routine. Yes, exercise produces endorphins, or “feel-good” chemicals in your brain, and it increases your heart rate, which then triggers norepinephrine, a chemical that might help the brain deal with stress more effectively. Those things are fantastic, but I’m referring to the positive motivation that comes from sticking to a routine and knowing that you’re doing the work that will pay off in the fall. That is what drives most of my summer/pre-season workouts. Invest now, reward later. Keep at it!
Now, I’m not a health care professional, so be sure to consult with yours before beginning any exercise routine or incorporating dietary changes. These topics are unique to each individual and should be addressed accordingly. The information I’m offering here can serve to initiate those conversations and develop a plan that is right for you.
Summer is the time to run through your gear to ensure everything is in order. The author used a hot summer day to apply seam sealant and a fresh waterproofing treatment. (Tom Ryle/WDFW)
Depending on the style of hunting you’ll be doing, you might need to set up your tent and ensure your seams are still sealed well with a lawn sprinkler or ensure the furnace in your camper still fires up without issue. There are countless details to cover, so this is a perfect time to get it done. For me, it’s always enjoyable to daydream about the upcoming season while sorting and prepping gear.
Arrows need to be assembled, treestands and climbing/safety gear need to be inspected, I might need to pick up a new water filter for my pack, double check the condition of my boot laces, pick up a few new elk calls, fix that strap on my pack that broke last year, invest in a better sleeping pad … the list goes on.
If you hunt from pop-up blinds, remember to practice shooting from a seated position. Practicing shooting from the blind is the next step as the season approaches. (Tom Ryle/WDFW)
Which brings me to my first tip: Use a variety of resources. Sharing your ideas with other hunters can lead to general locations or tips about who might have more helpful information. Hunting forums can be helpful to review as well but understand that popping into a forum and asking for hunting location information is generally not recommended. Talking with WDFW staff is also a good bet. It’s best to have some specific questions ready to help them help you. For example, asking a biologist where to hunt elk isn’t the best approach. Inquiring about elk numbers and/or bull-to-cow ratios in a specific region or drainage is much more specific and will lead to better insights.
Much of Western Washington and large tracks of timberlands in Northeast Washington are owned by private timber companies. In the last decade or so, these timber companies have reduced public access to their lands, which can be confusing for hunters. It’s best to search public records and/or apps such as onXhunt to view landowner information so you can contact them directly to learn about their access policies.
Digital tools
There are a growing number of digital resources and apps available to hunters today. Exploring free trials and choosing the one(s) that work best for you is a good investment. The three big players that offer some amazing features at your fingertips are onXhunt, HuntStand, and GoHunt Maps.
Old standbys such as Google Earth and its dynamic 3D-mapping experience are invaluable in exploring topography and access. By doing a lot of the preliminary legwork from the comfort of home, you can formulate a plan to put boots on the ground and see the area firsthand.
WDFW resources
- Hunting prospects: To help hunters prepare for a successful hunting season, wildlife biologists consult their local sources and contribute their personal observations about hunting prospects throughout the state.
- Hunt Planner: We have recently upgraded and relaunched our Hunt Planner tool with new features, improved functionality, and a more intuitive design. Review harvest statistics and trends alongside hunting opportunities.
Summer scouting can lead to clues that help you refine your fall hunting strategies. Finding a hefty, matched set of shed antlers tells you where this blacktail buck spent the fall and winter. (Tom Ryle/WDFW)
Locating valuable information such as these old elk wallows can help you pinpoint where to find rutting bulls in September. (Tom Ryle/WDFW)
If you’re reading the printed Washington Big Game Hunting Regulations pamphlet, which can also be downloaded as a PDF, you’ll find more information on bear season on page 68, more on deer season on page 22, and more on elk season on page 46.
Don’t forget!
Hunter education is required for anyone born after Jan. 1, 1972. These courses fill fast as hunting seasons get closer. WDFW offers fully in-person hunter education courses as well as hybrid courses that combine online and in-person learning. Washington’s certification is accepted in all 50 states.
Begin with bears
We’ll dive into specific early season hunting tactics in our next Hunting Highlight feature here, but to get you started on bears, here are a few tips that can help put a bruin in your sights:
- First, consult the regulations linked to above before bear hunting in Washington. There are a few restricted game management units (GMUs) and a required bear identification test to complete before hunting in other specific GMUs. Know before you go.
- Bears feed throughout the day and will consume a variety of food sources including insects, grasses, skunk cabbage roots, nuts, fruit, carrion, and most notably as of this writing – berries! Find ripe blueberry, salmonberry, huckleberry, or blackberry patches, and you’ll likely find a bear. Key places to search are open alpine hillsides, clearcuts, creek bottoms, riparian zones, and along logging roads adjacent to clearcuts where blackberries thrive in the summer sunlight.
- Unless they are actively feeding, bears tend to be moving constantly in search of food. Spend time watching clearcuts early and late in the day, searching for black blobs that appear out of place or to be moving.
- Female bears, called sows, often have their spring cubs in tow, so a common best practice used by experienced bear hunters is to hold off on shooting until you can verify that no cubs are trailing behind their mother. Often, they tend to lag behind, so exercise patience before shooting. If you notice the bear pausing to look back where it just came from, that’s a good indication it’s a sow with cubs. When in doubt, don’t shoot.
- Bears can be called into view using distress calls simulating an injured fawn or calf elk. There are plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating the calls and how bears typically respond. Use caution if using this technique and it’s recommended to employ this tactic with two people for safety reasons.
For more on big-game hunting, check back here for new articles and be sure to read our past how-to articles using the “Previous hunting highlights” link below. Good luck in the field this season from WDFW!
Fall bear season is upon us. Hunting near primary food sources such as ripe blackberries can help put a bear in your sights. (Tom Ryle/WDFW)
