WITH MODERN FIREARM deer season getting underway Saturday, Oct. 12, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has released its annual season prospective for the state’s multiple hunting districts.
Here on the North Olympic Peninsula there are two hunting districts. District 15 is comprised of East Jefferson, Kitsap and Mason counties and District 16 includes all of Clallam County, and vast sections of west Jefferson County.
Overlap
District 16 also includes a couple of Game Management Units (621-Olympic and 624-Coyle) that extend into District 15 in east Jefferson County to make things nice and confusing for hunters and outdoor reporters alike.
Both districts reflected a general statewide rise in harvested bucks in 2018 after a poor 2017 hunting season across Washington.
District 16 saw a total of 967 bucks taken, 867 in recreational hunting and another 100 by tribal hunters — a rise from 872 total (775/97) in 2017, but still down from 963 total in 2016.
Buck harvest within District 16 GMUs is highest on the eastern half and lower as one goes further west. The four GMUs with the lowest buck harvest are Clearwater, Goodman, Dickey and Hoko, the four most westerly GMUs in the district.
Higher deer populations or higher hunter pressure could be the answers for those higher harvest numbers. There are so many deer in the Port Angeles and Sequim area that Deer Area 6020 was added to allow for doe harvest north of U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and the eastern Miller Peninsula near the eastern Clallam County/Jefferson County line.
Much of this area is private property and there are firearm restrictions with no hunting for centerfire or rimfire rifles.
District 15 numbers provided in the prospective are given in graph form, so the 2,040 buck total is an estimate and not broken down in specific numbers for recreational or tribal hunters.
Olympic GMU 621 and Coyle GMU 624 each totaled harvests of more than 200 bucks in 2018.
Statewide, the 2018 buck harvest was 18,071 bucks of all deer species — up nearly 1,000 whitetails, blacktails (the only deer species on the North Olympic Peninsula) and mule deers over 2017’s 20-year low harvest.
The key to a successful harvest is securing the appropriate permission to hunt on private land and scouting the area prior to the hunting season. Hunters who intend to target deer in developed areas would be well advised to check with local jurisdictions regarding firearm restrictions.
Prospects for all of the state’s hunting districts is available at wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/locations/prospects.
Comment on rules in PT
Fish and Wildlife employees will accept public comment on simplifying fishing rules for shellfish, marine and forage fish at a meeting Tuesday in Port Townsend.
The meeting will be held at the department’s office at Point Hudson Marina, 375 Hudson Street in Port Townsend from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
These proposals continue the rule simplification process that began in 2017 with updates to sport regulations for freshwater species.
One of the changes proposed would align bottomfish regulations east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line with regulations west of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line in Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay).
Other items among this year’s proposals: changes to daily limits, size limits, and areas for scallops, urchins and sea cucumbers and numerous clarifications and updates to language for existing regulations.
The full list of proposed changes is available at tinyurl.com/PDN-ProposedRules19.
The public can comment on the proposed rules through Oct. 17.
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission also will hear testimony on these proposals during its Oct. 18-19 meeting in Olympia.
For more information, visit wdfw.wa.gov/about/commission.
Coho reminder
The final days of the saltwater salmon season in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound are operating under a one hatchery coho daily limit as part of a two salmon overall daily limit (release all chinook, chum and wild coho).
This includes Marine areas 5 (Sekiu), 6 (Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca) and 9 (Admiralty Inlet), all of which close to salmon retention at 11:59 p.m. Monday.
Long Beach dig
A three-day razor clam dig will be held at Long Beach on morning low tides from Friday through Sunday.
• Friday: 5:52 a.m. -0.9, Long Beach
• Saturday: 6:36 a.m. -0.8, Long Beach
• Sunday: 7:19 a.m. -0.6, Long Beach
No digging is allowed after noon.
Under state law, diggers at open beaches can take 15 razor clams per day and are required to keep the first 15 they dig. Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container.
All diggers age 15 or older must have an applicable 2019-20 fishing license to harvest razor clams on any beach. Licenses, ranging from a three-day razor clam license to an annual combination fishing license, are available at fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov and from license vendors around the state.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
