littlebighorn
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We hunted our arses off today for a cow and covered a good part of the unit without seeing a single one! But we did see big bulls...go figure!
Diamond Fork Cow hunt
- Thread starter littlebighorn
- Start date
T
Tyson112
Guest
I have the same tag. I have seen 12 bulls and ton of deer and a few good bucks but no cows anywhere to be found. I have hunted from diamond fork to tie fork and both weekends and during the week and can't turn them up anywhere.
goofyelk
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I live 15 minutes from sheep creek..
Third year in a row this hunt looks like a total bust!
Last years hunt success was about %5.
Was a darn good cow hunt in 2008/09....
Last year a few moved in for the later hunt after it snowed.
The elk herd (cows) in Diamond/The waters/Tie fork, are GONE..
Third year in a row this hunt looks like a total bust!
Last years hunt success was about %5.
Was a darn good cow hunt in 2008/09....
Last year a few moved in for the later hunt after it snowed.
The elk herd (cows) in Diamond/The waters/Tie fork, are GONE..
llamapacker
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My neighbor called Thanksgiving afternoon and had a cow down far from the road. I offered to help pack it out on Friday, and it took most of the day. We saw another 40 head that morning while hiking in to the downed cow. I had never been in this unit before, and don't even really know where we were, but there are plenty of elk, just way back from the roads.
Bill
Bill
littlebighorn
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Bill,
PM sent
PM sent
C
Chill
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Nov-29-12 AT 11:23PM (MST)[p]llamapacker, I sent you a PM
lundellhunting7
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I was up with a buddy helping him over thanksgiving... We went everywhere from Tye fork. Up and over Tete (muddy mess) We saw everything from Bear, Moose, Deer, Bull elk. But not a cow. His dad had been seeing a bunch of cows every day in the same spot but didnt kill one because it was only him. We went to the spot and 8 Bulls where there. Kinda $hit luck i guess... As soon as there gets more snow on that hunt you will find the cows
littlebighorn
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Update,
It has been a long time since I have hunted cow elk in Utah. I have assumed finding a cow would be relatively easy, since I have seen cow elk almost daily while hunting deer this fall. Well after 4 days of hard hunting we found one lone cow in a very isolated canyon and my son punched his tag with a very long shot. It took us two days to haul it out of that nasty hole and it may be another "long time" before I hunt cow elk in Utah again.
Good luck to the other 90 or so tag holders who have probably still not connected. I would tell you right where to go to find them, but there were no other elk there. Somehow, single digit success rates on a cow hunt just don't seem right.
It has been a long time since I have hunted cow elk in Utah. I have assumed finding a cow would be relatively easy, since I have seen cow elk almost daily while hunting deer this fall. Well after 4 days of hard hunting we found one lone cow in a very isolated canyon and my son punched his tag with a very long shot. It took us two days to haul it out of that nasty hole and it may be another "long time" before I hunt cow elk in Utah again.
Good luck to the other 90 or so tag holders who have probably still not connected. I would tell you right where to go to find them, but there were no other elk there. Somehow, single digit success rates on a cow hunt just don't seem right.
goofyelk
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LBH, Tyson, CHILL..
I'm contacting as many tag holders on the South Wasatch
antler less elk hunts as possible and providing a link
to the central RAC committee E-mail.....
I would encourage each of you to e-mail ( Kris Marble ) &
the other central RAC members your findings while hunting
these units this fall/winter....
It's critical (IMHO) they know how few of cows are on these
units. Thank you in advance.
http://wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/rac-members.html
I'm contacting as many tag holders on the South Wasatch
antler less elk hunts as possible and providing a link
to the central RAC committee E-mail.....
I would encourage each of you to e-mail ( Kris Marble ) &
the other central RAC members your findings while hunting
these units this fall/winter....
It's critical (IMHO) they know how few of cows are on these
units. Thank you in advance.
http://wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/rac-members.html
Cam@strawberry
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Get used to it gents it's the name of the game on the Wasatch now....the rac doesn't care and the DNR is to lazy to change or figure out a solution......suck it up cause it isn't gonna get better
blazingsaddle
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With all due respect Blaster- I don't think you can lump the Diamond Fork antlerless hunt in with the Wasatch unit as a whole.
This hunt does not reflect the amount of cows on the Wasatch.
This hunt does not reflect the amount of cows on the Wasatch.
Cam@strawberry
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saddles, look up the success rates for the last five years, watch the subunits from top to bottom tumble, from 60, 70, even 90+% to 5-20%, there are very very few public land cows to hunt on this unit.......it is in some serious trouble and those that are really familiar with it know that very well
goofyelk
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With all due respect BlazingS...
It's not just the Diamond fork unit. The Avintaquin
and most of the Springville units are in the SAME BOAT!
Very , very few cows and not looking good for the south
Wasatch elk herd. Unless of corse, you like hunting raghorns.
Sad :-(
It's not just the Diamond fork unit. The Avintaquin
and most of the Springville units are in the SAME BOAT!
Very , very few cows and not looking good for the south
Wasatch elk herd. Unless of corse, you like hunting raghorns.
Sad :-(
blazingsaddle
Active Member
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LAST EDITED ON Dec-11-12 AT 07:11PM (MST)[p]Goofy and Blaster-
I agree parts of the unit are not what they used to be. But this does not mean the sky is falling. Who says that a cow permit has to be gimme anyway?
As to knowing the unit- I know parts of it better than most. The parts I do know, are holding more elk than ever before. So If I used your logic, then the unit is doing remarkably well, better than any year before.
I for one happen to love the tag increases on the Wasatch. It gives a lot of opportunity to many people, all the while the unit can still maintain a healthy herd of elk. There are more people for the increase in tags then against, IMO
I agree parts of the unit are not what they used to be. But this does not mean the sky is falling. Who says that a cow permit has to be gimme anyway?
As to knowing the unit- I know parts of it better than most. The parts I do know, are holding more elk than ever before. So If I used your logic, then the unit is doing remarkably well, better than any year before.
I for one happen to love the tag increases on the Wasatch. It gives a lot of opportunity to many people, all the while the unit can still maintain a healthy herd of elk. There are more people for the increase in tags then against, IMO
Trail
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This hunt has changed. There's the wolf stories that I'm starting to believe. Also to make this hunt good we need snow the more there is the easier the hunt. Either myself or friends have hunted this area nearly every year. We've noticed that it has been tougher the last two years. That being said there's plenty of elk. It's close to home for me so we drive up and look around often. I see elk including cows nearly every trip and have seen more deer then in the past. I've wondered if this is because the elk herd is smaller. A friend got one this year the second morning we went out spotted from the road, making for an easy pack out.
littlebighorn
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Trail, I have to disagree that there are "plenty of elk" if we hunted hard for four days to find one lone cow! We hunted from Soldier Summit to Diamond Fork and glassed from every high point we could find. There was a foot of snow opening day and we could find no concentrations of elk from high ground to low.
Perhaps you and your friend were lucky to find some close to the road, but our experience was flat out tough hunting! And if there are plenty of elk, how is it that the success rate the last two years went from 50-60% to 9%.
They increased the tags the last two years from 20 to 100 on this hunt and our experience suggests that this unit is in trouble for elk.
I agree Saddles that the deer on this unit look healthy and we saw lots of fawns. That is the up side. And while this area is far from the "whole" Wasatch, our hunt suggests the elk in the "Waters" are in serious trouble.
By the way, we did see fresh tracks of what definitely looked like a wolf down off the top of Teat Mt.
Perhaps you and your friend were lucky to find some close to the road, but our experience was flat out tough hunting! And if there are plenty of elk, how is it that the success rate the last two years went from 50-60% to 9%.
They increased the tags the last two years from 20 to 100 on this hunt and our experience suggests that this unit is in trouble for elk.
I agree Saddles that the deer on this unit look healthy and we saw lots of fawns. That is the up side. And while this area is far from the "whole" Wasatch, our hunt suggests the elk in the "Waters" are in serious trouble.
By the way, we did see fresh tracks of what definitely looked like a wolf down off the top of Teat Mt.
SneakAttack
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Here's just a few from the other night. 30 to 40 in this group. Saw over a 100+ last night when the clouds finally lifted in just a few minutes of glassing before dark.
goofyelk
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Sneakatack, those look like the herd on Maple, in the burn.
That's the Springville unit , NOT the Diamond fork unit!
We went up today checking the 3 day old snow for tracks,
Drove up Sheep Creek, over the waters, down Diamond.
Only 4 sets of elk tracks, all believed to be bulls..
We did however, find plenty of these all over 5th and 6th water
-next to an -06 shell
That's the Springville unit , NOT the Diamond fork unit!
We went up today checking the 3 day old snow for tracks,
Drove up Sheep Creek, over the waters, down Diamond.
Only 4 sets of elk tracks, all believed to be bulls..
We did however, find plenty of these all over 5th and 6th water
-next to an -06 shell
SneakAttack
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Good call Goofy. But the comment was made that the Springville herd was struggling just as bad. I've seen as many this year as in years past...20+ years of hunting late cows. I do agree that the waters are in bad shape...just in the last five years a big change has taken place. Looks like the hybrids are still on the loose. Good luck on your next trip.
C
Chill
Guest
SneakAttack I sent you a PM
elkassassin
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Just Keep Slaughtering the Breedin Stock Boys!
Lil Beav & His Dad knows what's goin down!
You'd have to be Blind not to see it yourselves!
Just Remember:
It's a SUPER DEAL to have a Cow Tag this Time a Year!
You KILL 2 animals with One Shot!
JFP!!!
Wisz was a Hell of a Sport this year even if He did tell the UDWR to F-Off during the Phone Call!
15" Bases?
30" 5ths?
Missing 450" Bull!
The next 4 years is Slicks Fault,again,GEEZUS!
GOOD GAWD A MIGHTY!
Lil Beav & His Dad knows what's goin down!
You'd have to be Blind not to see it yourselves!
Just Remember:
It's a SUPER DEAL to have a Cow Tag this Time a Year!
You KILL 2 animals with One Shot!
JFP!!!
Wisz was a Hell of a Sport this year even if He did tell the UDWR to F-Off during the Phone Call!
15" Bases?
30" 5ths?
Missing 450" Bull!
The next 4 years is Slicks Fault,again,GEEZUS!
GOOD GAWD A MIGHTY!
SneakAttack
Very Active Member
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Chill,
PM returned.
PM returned.
Cam@strawberry
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Not gonna get in a pissin match fellas, just simply put we see things differently.....but let me throw a few idea out there for those that are reading or interested in this....
First off just a couple of numbers I pulled off the DNR website yesterday. From 08 to 2011, I think that was the last reported year. the antlerless harvest numbers remain remarkably stable across the entire unit, hovering around 12 hundred cows.
What's awfully curious about this, and I couldn't find this number is that the cow tags offered and sold between those times fluctuates quite a bit if my mind serves me correctly, I may be wrong but for some reason I think the tag allotments went something like this 2008:3300, 09:3300, 2010:1500, 11:3300 2011 being the first year after the most recent flyover.
If you go look at the numbers 08 and 09 were fairly stable in 2010 they cut the tags in half, and the harvest showed a modest decline due to that. Nothing to write home about here is where it gets dicey. this years harvest report will tell a lot more of the story, but in 2011 the tags more than doubled, 1500 back up to 3300 however on 2/3's of the unit, the harvest dropped! the other 1/3 Wasatch west, for an increase of like a 1000 tags only killed 200 more elk.....
Now I can almost promise you its not cause the hunters or equipment are getting worse, so that leaves one option the elk weren't there.
Now saddles and sneak, I don't dispute the numbers that the DNR has posted about the unit. There may very well be 7700 head of elk on this unit, the problem is that the hunters can't access a large portion of them due to private land IE: AF canyon, Hobble creek, Reservation ridge on the south end, the avintaquin, wolf creek ranches, little pole CWMU, 3C's CWMU, and currant creek all hold large herds with large amounts of inaccessible land. So their answer in order to attempt to deal with the legislative requirements is to issue large amounts of antlerless tags on the central third of the unit year after year. So our (hunters) public land huntable elk continue to take a beating year after year while the problem goes unsolved and continues to get worse.
One other thing of note that is very very alarming to the average joe hunter that wants to hunt the Wasatch in the near future, the strawberry valley nursery's have seen a dramatic reduction in cows and calves. From what was pretty consistent from 180-220 elk in 3-4 nursery's to 40-60. The harvest data supports that it's what we have seen. The next several years will be interesting to see how the public land herd on the snatch reacts.
First off just a couple of numbers I pulled off the DNR website yesterday. From 08 to 2011, I think that was the last reported year. the antlerless harvest numbers remain remarkably stable across the entire unit, hovering around 12 hundred cows.
What's awfully curious about this, and I couldn't find this number is that the cow tags offered and sold between those times fluctuates quite a bit if my mind serves me correctly, I may be wrong but for some reason I think the tag allotments went something like this 2008:3300, 09:3300, 2010:1500, 11:3300 2011 being the first year after the most recent flyover.
If you go look at the numbers 08 and 09 were fairly stable in 2010 they cut the tags in half, and the harvest showed a modest decline due to that. Nothing to write home about here is where it gets dicey. this years harvest report will tell a lot more of the story, but in 2011 the tags more than doubled, 1500 back up to 3300 however on 2/3's of the unit, the harvest dropped! the other 1/3 Wasatch west, for an increase of like a 1000 tags only killed 200 more elk.....
Now I can almost promise you its not cause the hunters or equipment are getting worse, so that leaves one option the elk weren't there.
Now saddles and sneak, I don't dispute the numbers that the DNR has posted about the unit. There may very well be 7700 head of elk on this unit, the problem is that the hunters can't access a large portion of them due to private land IE: AF canyon, Hobble creek, Reservation ridge on the south end, the avintaquin, wolf creek ranches, little pole CWMU, 3C's CWMU, and currant creek all hold large herds with large amounts of inaccessible land. So their answer in order to attempt to deal with the legislative requirements is to issue large amounts of antlerless tags on the central third of the unit year after year. So our (hunters) public land huntable elk continue to take a beating year after year while the problem goes unsolved and continues to get worse.
One other thing of note that is very very alarming to the average joe hunter that wants to hunt the Wasatch in the near future, the strawberry valley nursery's have seen a dramatic reduction in cows and calves. From what was pretty consistent from 180-220 elk in 3-4 nursery's to 40-60. The harvest data supports that it's what we have seen. The next several years will be interesting to see how the public land herd on the snatch reacts.
bowhunt
Long Time Member
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I keep a close eye on a portion of the wasatch public land herd every winter. I have watched them for 10 years now.
I looked back at my Journal, and here is what I have seen.
3 Years ago the number of elk I viewed in 1 day peaked at 248, all cows calves and spikes.
Last year was the low at 105 viewed at the peak in 1 day.
This year they are just now starting to show up. The early indications are NOT GOOD.
This herd summers in Hobble Creek. Primarily the Left hand fork.
I will post the peak numbers probably some time in January.
The good new, deer numbers are way up.
I looked back at my Journal, and here is what I have seen.
3 Years ago the number of elk I viewed in 1 day peaked at 248, all cows calves and spikes.
Last year was the low at 105 viewed at the peak in 1 day.
This year they are just now starting to show up. The early indications are NOT GOOD.
This herd summers in Hobble Creek. Primarily the Left hand fork.
I will post the peak numbers probably some time in January.
The good new, deer numbers are way up.
elkassassin
Long Time Member
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"The Good new,deer numbers are way up"?
Wanna SPLAIN that?
You sayin a few Bucks survived the Hunts this year?
The new management surely ain't had time to show change!
Wisz was a Hell of a Sport this year even if He did tell the UDWR to F-Off during the Phone Call!
15" Bases?
30" 5ths?
Missing 450" Bull!
The next 4 years is Slicks Fault,again,GEEZUS!
GOOD GAWD A MIGHTY!
Wanna SPLAIN that?
You sayin a few Bucks survived the Hunts this year?
The new management surely ain't had time to show change!
Wisz was a Hell of a Sport this year even if He did tell the UDWR to F-Off during the Phone Call!
15" Bases?
30" 5ths?
Missing 450" Bull!
The next 4 years is Slicks Fault,again,GEEZUS!
GOOD GAWD A MIGHTY!
3
30plus
Guest
There is no doubt the elk herd from Strawberry ridge to Sp. fork canyon and hobble creek is way down. We have been fliing these drainages for over forty years every fall and winter to locate lost livestock. thru the mid nineties to mid 2000's elk could be easily found any time any snow condition. Fliing it now is a reminder of the 80's when an elk herd was the exception. There is not a quarter of the elk in Dfork as there was 8 years ago. and you are right the the dwr and the rac is not listening.
littlebighorn
Long Time Member
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I agree with bowhunt as far as deer are concerned. Almost every doe we saw had at least one fawn and many had two. They looked healthy so I am hopeful about the deer coming back some.
Mike, I thought that 270WSM was your "dog" gun? Help us out man! LOL
Mike, I thought that 270WSM was your "dog" gun? Help us out man! LOL
SneakAttack
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Bowhunt,
I sent you a PM.
I sent you a PM.
Cam@strawberry
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I was wondering where the dogs had wound up.....was up on 1st 2nd and 3rd water last week no tracks....had me slightly confused....
i'd rather have those dogs at this point than the DNR.....
i'd rather have those dogs at this point than the DNR.....
elkassassin
Long Time Member
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>I was wondering where the dogs
>had wound up.....was up on
>1st 2nd and 3rd water
>last week no tracks....had me
>slightly confused....
>
>i'd rather have those dogs at
>this point than the DNR.....
>
>
>
Hey Beav!
They'd have to beat the DWR to the Game Herds!
I don't think they have a Chance!
If I had Listened!
I wouldn't be here today Living & Dieing with the Choices I've made!
>had wound up.....was up on
>1st 2nd and 3rd water
>last week no tracks....had me
>slightly confused....
>
>i'd rather have those dogs at
>this point than the DNR.....
>
>
>
Hey Beav!
They'd have to beat the DWR to the Game Herds!
I don't think they have a Chance!
If I had Listened!
I wouldn't be here today Living & Dieing with the Choices I've made!
SneakAttack
Very Active Member
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I had the Wasatch West unit. She was dead and hanging in the shed by 11:00am. Should be some good eatin'.
My 12 year old girl has a permit for the latest round of tags that started 12/22. She turned 12 on 12/20 so I hope I can get her into some elk I went up friday just to look around, like other people on here have said seen quite a few deer and some bull elk tracks but didn't see any cows or cow elk tracks. I didn't see any wolf-hybrib-giant coyote tracks either.
