I am looking at heading to the Winston Creek area for deer this Friday. I have not been in this area for about 10 years or more.

Does anyone have any reports? I also need to know how I can access the woods around there. The roads I used to take off the main road has been closed and I need another way in. Can anyone help?

You can email me if you want to be discete. Thanks in advance,

Scott

Good luck. Last year a lot of that area was sold by Longview Fiber to another company that i think is called Hampton. They locked up lots of my favorite areas as did weyerhauser in some of the adjacent areas. You can bike, walk or horse into most of these areas but vehicles are prohibited. That was last year.

Haven't checked it out this year so I'd be curious to hear what others know this year.

That's what I was afraid of.

Will scout it out Friday and if I can access anywhere, I will hunt the weekend. If not I will go elsewheres....... Thanks for the info.

Anyone else know anything??

DeKuma,
I seem to be having the same problem, alot of the areas that I have been at have been shut down to hunting. No Trespassing signs have been put up all over. I was going to check out Courgar rd near Satsop but a friend said don't bother because of the logging they put up no Trespassing signs all over. Searching for ideas, can use any help. Looking to hook up or get information if possible. Good Luck.

Bump..........

Anyone???

Well first DeKuma... good luck! Things are so dry out there that you need to find the watering holes... we saw (during archery season) that the animals had all changed their normal patterns... so look for the water!!

If you want to go down to the Winston Creek area and are willing to walk (in and out - with an animal)... I would suggest that you head south past Winston on the Salmon Creek Rd until the 3000 road (about the 3rd left) take this road to "Camp 9" it is a main (dirt road) intersection, take a right stay on that road (stay to the left), you will come to a gate. Park and start walking... you are in a animal rich area... You will be walking into the Devils Creek drainage. If you go about 1.5 to 2 miles you will be right down in the creek bottoms.

Keep your eyes open! Good Animal NUMBERS!

Good Luck!

I have had several long (sometimes heated) conversations with Weyerhaeuser and WDFW people regarding gate closure. I always question and point out the stupidity of blaming hunters (of any type/method) for the major trash problem. I ask and say that in all the time that I spend out in the woods that I have never seen hunters with refrigerators, satellite dishes, cars, TV's in the back of their trucks just looking for someplace to dump them on there land.

One positive aspect to the closures is it does reduce the number of hunters in an area. It reduces the cases of stocking up on an deer or herd of elk and then have 5 trucks come driving (like a bat out of hell) down yelling and running at the animals that you have been stocking all morning.

Sorry about the rant... GOOD LUCK ... Let me know how it goes.

Shoot Straight!

I am in no way opposed to walking into an area. If it increases animal numbers and decreases human numbers, I am for it.

Thanks Wabohunter for the info, I will let you know how it goes.

As for the continuous closures, I could not agree with you more! It is getting to be of epidemic proportions as of late. Seems that we will not have any public lands left if things continue on this trend.

Scott

Scott ... we have started to be discouraged by not knowing from season to season where to scout and then add the weather (fire danger closure) to tough...

We have started talking to private land owners (farmers, orchards, etc.) this takes some getting use to, talking to a stranger, but if you don't take the rejection personal it is not to bad...

The other thing that we as sportsmen need to do is to get involved ,go to meetings (as time permits - were all busy) and talk to the timber companys about solutions to the litter problems, i.e. user group clean-up days for access permits.

It is really hard to figure out how, where, and when to hunt or fish...

Again Good Luck!
:p

Try west of there in the Ryderwood unit. Most of the properties were open as of last weekend. We saw only 1 doe, 1 Camel, no sh!t, and two bears for the past two weekends, but we did see a fair amount of grouse.

Take exit 59 from I-5 and head west. About 3 miles outside of the first town you will hit the first open roads. Lots of territory. If you see a beige F-150 4-door with a big kid driving and a little kid hunting, that'll be me and my nephew.

Best of luck. The conditions have been horrible.

Andy

Thanks Andy, I may check that out as well.

Blue Explorer, Superman emblems on rear.

My dad spent 3 days in there this week behind the gates with a weyhouser foreman, didn't see a deer. He said that there were numerous elk 10-12 miles in though.

Welcome willametteriveroutlaw...

So what's the weather like in Salem? I have family down there... Have you all had any rain or is it like up Seattle way... DRY...?

I am sad to report that after three days spent b/w Winston and Packwood areas, I saw only one monster buck, but unfortunately, it was dark when I saw him.

It was not too dry, but the deer, elk and bear were almost non existent. We did manage a few grouse, but other than that, nothing. Not an animal in site. I only heard of one animal coming out of there all weekend.

Thanks to all those who supplied information, it was invaluable in helping me get around.

I will be taking the weekend off next week, then off to Mount Spokane for a crack and Whities............... Gotta love late buck seasons.

Scott

WAbow, It sooooooooo frieken dry right now, elk season was a complete bust and deer is shaping up to be that way soon. We need rain, BAD. On a good note though, the Geese are here in a big way.

anyone no a good rain dance
I'm goin to Riffe Lake tomorrow a place called vashon meadows(?) right near a small pond that I know of right near fireroad 2788 I think

I'll let you know what happens

Saw lots of duck and goose around the Winston area in several of the marsh areas and ponds, unfortunately, I have never hunted them, so they were safe. There is a large pond of of Longbell road that has tons, but not sure how to access the area. I spotted it from the mountain tops and followed the roads, but could not gain access except through private property. I am sure there is acess somewhere, since most of it is on timber company lands.............

Some of my own thoughts.......

Like everyone else, I am frustrated by gate closures into areas I highly value but..............I also understand the private timber companies point of view.

I have a good friend who works for weyerhauser and some of the stories he's shared regarding vandalsim are downright vulgar.
To put it in a nutshell, weyerhauser (and other companies) were patient as long as they were able to be and, believe it or not, they don't enjoy gating their land and have done it as a last desperate measure. Put yourself in their shoes.........Having to hire 24 hr. guards to watch equipment, $100,000 losses to machinery in a weekend.The list goes on.

I don't believe hunters do most of this but I do believe that some hunters AND THEIR FRIENDS trash the land the rest of the year. How many of us have come across white scum 4-wheeling in the boonies, target practicing, partying? Only to drive on by and not report what we saw? I'm guilty.

I do like the fact that gated roads reduce poaching though.

As far as the dry weather and low harvest of animals to date........I say bringon late blacktail season!! By then we should have rain with good numbers of animals available.......can't wait!

eric

aaaaaaaaamen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will agree with you somewhat… but… I do understand that the private land owners have a big problem but I also know that they (Weyerhaeuser and others) limit their options on how to potentially solve some of this problem…

I as well am a close friend with a Weyerhaeuser employee (actually regional manager of two tree farms in Washington) and I also sat with several others to discuss this issue. Since Weyerhaeuser is a major corporation they don't necessarily want the entire problem solve. There are benefits to being able to right off damaged equipment and devalued land, yearly (taxes). The other thing is that since they rely on the local communities for employees they don't want to “stir the pot” with the locals or for that matter their own employee's.

I gave several specific examples with of situations that I knew of with possible solutions and they refused to comment or resolve the issues, remember I am not an employee so they could play dumb.

The first example was that, YES hunters (using this term very loosely) were damaging local forests and roadways with their 4-wheelers and littering. I photographed and reported the situation. Well guess what Weyerhaeuser didn't want to “stir the pot” with the LOCAL hunters that were doing this. The incident that I reports had a Quad trail, with trees cut, ditches filled, etc. right out to a skidder landing with a fire ring and log benches made… oh did I mention that the trail went right to the backyard of a local???

The second example was, seeing a logging truck “in bound” with this, must have been some kind of new logging equipment strapped to the truck . This big kinda rusty/white box (refrigerator) but you know what when we saw the truck on the “out bound” he just had logs. Hmmmm, so where do you suppose that refrigerator went? YES I gave the truck number (yes yellow and green) and road number to my friend, but there was no discipline. Hmmmm.

Now when I gave possible clean-up solutions they were also rejected. Example, user group (i.e. clubs, or individuals) that would be willing to go pickup and dispose of trash for access for hunting and camping, they said NO. I wonder why?

I also ask if they would be reporting the decrease or increase of trash and vandalism after the gate closure, they said yes to the stockholders but this was company information and that it may not be made public? Hmmmm… .

Sorry… but some how this things don't add up and it is a company and they don't owe me anything…. But the Truth would be nice?

Rant, Rant, Rant

I second that Wabo!!!
How many empty oil containers have you found lying around the choke line landings?
How many oil boxes? Pop cans? Almost all of this stuff can be found all over the place, especially if the are is actviely being timbered. You would think that they would clean up when they moved out, but not a chance. Far easier to blame others than clean it up on their dime!

Just my two bits!

Check out Grass Mountain in Palmer sometime. Not only is it completey stripped, hence the name, but there is tons of "logger trash" left every where!