Fall Hunting Seasons Open Soon

It still feels like summer, but the first of the regions fall hunting seasons will open in a few days. That is, if wildlife agencies don’t decide to delay the opening of seasons because of fire danger.

Both Washington and Idaho hunters will start hunting grouse and doves Sept. 1.

Several Idaho game management units will be opened to bear hunting Aug. 30. Some Washington GMUs were opened Aug. 1, but units that provide the best bear hunting, including those in the northeast and southeast corners, won’t be opened until Sept. 5.

Archers will be the first big game hunters to get a chance to tag deer. Some GMUs in both states will be opened to archers Sept. 1.

As usual, Washington’s dove season will last only 15 days. Idaho’s will end Sept. 30. Bag limits are the same for both states: 10 a day and 20 in possession after the first day.

Grouse seasons for both states will end Dec. 31. Bag limits differ. Washington’s limits are three a day and nine in possession; Idaho’s are four a day and eight in possession.

Some wildlife biologists are predicting excellent dove hunting, fair grouse hunting and good bear hunting.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife doesn’t try to assess grouse and dove populations. Biologists make educated guesses based on their travels in their districts over the summer months.

Doves have had a good nesting season, bringing off several broods over an extended period this spring and summer. Biologists and wildlife agents say they’ve seen more than enough doves for excellent hunting.

The hunters who have scouted potential hunting spots and have received permission from property owners to hunt the fields will be more successful than hunters who go out on opening morning and try to find places to hunt.

The best dove hunting in Eastern Washington will be in agricultural areas of Lincoln, Spokane, Whitman, Grant, Adams and Yakima counties. The Snake River breaks usually provide good dove hunting.

Although thousands of hunters go after doves in Eastern Washington, most of them hunt only the first day or two of a season and then either try for grouse or put their shotguns away until the general upland game bird season opens.

Most doves move out of northern Washington after the first frosty night, which usually occurs just before or after the opening of a season. Nighttime temperatures have been dropping gradually the last week or so. It’s possible that the temperature will drop below 32 degrees before the opening of the season.

In North Idaho, the best dove hunting will be in Benewah, Latah and Nez Perce counties. However, hunters will find fair to good dove populations in Kootenai and Bonner counties. Because dove hunting isn’t nearly as popular as it is in Eastern Washington and because there are fewer dove hunters, Idaho’s hunters seem to have fewer problems of finding places to hunt than those in Washington.

Washington grouse hunters won’t know until they hunt the places where they’ve had good luck in past years whether this year’s grouse population is a good one. To wildlife biologist Steve Zender of Chewelah, hunters may be disappointed.

“I haven’t been encouraged by grouse numbers that I’ve seen,” he said.

However, Zender said there are always grouse in prime habitat.

If the present weather pattern continues, he said, hunters will find blue and ruffed grouse near water. They’ll be in fairly dense cover, places they can keep cool.

“Grouse like springs, he said. “They like to eat berries, clover and dandelion.”

Ruffed grouse are common in many Eastern Washington counties. However, blue grouse can be found in good numbers in only a few. Blues do well in Ferry and Okanogan counties and in parts of the Blue Mountains.

Traditionally, Idaho hunters take most of their grouse during big game hunting seasons. Many elk and deer hunters like to supplement their camp meals with grouse.

As more people move into the Panhandle, though, the hunters among them like to hunt areas where there are large numbers of grouse. As a result, there are likely to be a few hundred grouse hunters in grouse country on the first weekend following the opening of the season.

Nearly one out of every three bears killed by hunters in Washington every year are tagged in the northeast game management units. There’s no reason why the units shouldn’t continue this year to be among the best in the state to hunt bears.

Although the bear population in the northeast units is lower this year than last, hunting should be good, Zender said.

Last year’s poor berry crop pushed bears to areas where they were more vulnerable to hunters. As a result, the population was knocked down. However, he said, this year’s bear population is a good one and he predicted hunter success will be high, with about 10 percent of the hunters tagging bruins.

High country huckleberries will be ripe and many hunters will find bears in the berry patches. The huckleberry crop is a big one this year.

In Idaho, bears will find plenty of ripe huckleberries in the high country of Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai and Shoshone counties. As usual, many hunters who know where there are big huckleberry patches will find spots overlooking the berries to watch for bears.