Any area 169 hunters out there?

[Huskie]

I'm wondering what everyone else is seeing as they scout their hunting spots in area 169. From what I've been seeing they (DNR) made the right call by going to Bucks Only this year. Not much on the game camera and very little sign in the woods also. Between the wolves and the past two winters I'm going into the season with little optimism, but it only takes a buck or two to make my party of 4 happy campers!!! I would expect a drop in hunters there as well. It will probably be one of those years when you will have to be satisfied with the hunting experience and the camp comraderie, but life is good with that too!!! Anyone else??

[smurfy]

169?? think that's the area my brother hunts. isn't that like the talmoon bigfork wirt Effie area???

I have spent a lot of time up in that area, mainly grand rapids area, we actually have a cabin by spring lake, and although I agree the deer population is down I have seen more deer then expected.

[Bear55]

Yep can't say the population isn't down, down a fair bit from 2-3 years back but there are still deer to be had, those northern deer are survivors.

[Lunker]

I hunted that area for many years, this will be the 3rd year out of the zone. While it will go through the ups and downs with the northern zones due to predation and winters, I felt that during down years it always held stronger than some of the other zones, not sure why or if its even true, but Like back in the late 90s when the whole north went bucks only again, I always saw good numbers of deer in 169. Hope it's still that way. I do miss hunting that area.

[riverkid21]

Our family has been hunting this area since the early 60's with myself being a part of the last 15 years. We hunt with a party of around 10 and quantity of deer is never something we worry about. I think the best the group has ever done is 6 deer and that was back before I was alive. While numbers are usually small, the size of the deer is not. The bodies on some of the deer we've shot are incredible. We've had some success the last few years with limited activity in the woods or on the cameras. We tend to do better 3rd weekend than 1st weekend. Regardless - this year we've seen more activity than ever... both in deer sign in the woods and on the cameras. I've never been more excited to get into the woods, even with the expected low harvest numbers this year. Good luck to those headed out!

[Huskie]

Four of us hunted our normal area in 169, in the Northome, Alvwwod, Dora Lake triangle. We only saw one deer, a heavy 8 pointer that we harvested. Between last year and this year we have not seen a doe and we put in 2 1/2 days of stand hunting each year. My camera was messed up so I couldn't tell if there were any deer around in the pre season. It will be pretty tough to rebuild the deer herd with few does. I've never seen so many wolf tracks however, couple that with the last two winters and it should come as no surprise.

[Pinusbanksiana]

Hunted hard 4 days, saw one fawn. The snow helped show us that deer are indeed in the area, just not in front of us. I counted about 10 shots all day.

[Coldtrack]

Huskie, I live and process deer over in Squaw Lake rite near there and this has been the slowest I have ever had it in 8 years of processing here!!!

[coletrickle26]

3 of us hunted 169 between Marcell and Big Fork on public. My 5th year hunting the area with two buddies and his father (who didn't hunt this year) and our harvest has certainly declined with no deer during rifle season between us last year. We have hunted hard for 2 1/2 days so far this year.

I did have a wolf encounter that was following a Doe on Saturday at 2:00 pm about 20 yards in front of my stand. It was pretty eery and something I have never encountered. The wolf returned about 25 minutes later on its own, retracing the trail he was following the Doe on earlier and scurried through the woods after abandoning the chase. He/she had its nose on the trail and didn't even know I was sitting on a dead fall until I stood up and yelled as it was headed toward me. At that point it stopped and turned around scurrying off. Certainly Kept me on the edge of my seat the rest of the afternoon.

I remained optimistic as there was fresh sign all over the woods in front of me, scrapes, rubs heavily used trails but didn't see anything the rest of the day or Monday. I did see a few does throughout the weekend. Buddy saw 2 does a wolf and a 6pt he was unable to get a ethical shot at through thick brush. Still had a nice enjoyable hunt but made me realize the wolf activity is prominent in the area. Regardless, Very few shots heard throughout the weekend in the area we hunted.