Why so many spike elk tags?

TheFever

Active Member
Messages
538
Hey guys,

I'm still a rookie to most of this stuff. I've got a Spike Elk tag for this weekend and it'll be my first elk hunt ever. Looks like the weather is going to turn cold and wet.

Anyway, on to my question. What is the purpose of having the spike only tags. Is it because they're always passed up on and they need to be harvested? Are all spikes just young, or could they be a few years old but just have wacked genes?

Regardless of why, it'll be a blast. Thanks for your wisdom in my quest for knowledge. I'm sure all I'll end up seeing is huge 6X6's and have to pass them up.
 
I live in Washington state and I remember the reasoning goes something like this. Th game departments goal is to maintain a bull to cow ratio to keep the herd healthy. A mature bull is what is what is required to get the cow pregnant. The spike is not a mature bull so that makes him an oppurtunity to hunt the herd and not negatively affect the sustainability of the herd. When they instituted this they also eliminated the "any bull tag" which would allow us to hunt the big ones. They then instituted a set number of "any bull" drawing based tag sdepending on the health of the herd.

I hunt the Clockum area and this strategy has not worked, The restrictions have increased by fewer amount of "any bull tags" being available and a reduction of cow tags as well.

They have done this for about ten years in the Clockuom unit. The final answer: it is the game management strategy.
 

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