Ed-
I can share some related experience with you as I archery hunted unit 410 (2002-2005), before moving on to better places. As you know, there are some big bulls in 410, 620 ish units along the river for sure. There are tons of people, especially in the earlier part of the season. I used to meet many people camping on the South side who were going across the river in their boat to hunt the 620 unit(s), so the apparent lack of campers on the North side is misleading as many camp in 410/700 and go across to hunt. From what I have been told and seen glassin across, many of the elk, just like 410 are down by the river in the willows, so going in deep from the river could be a flawed strategy as you may walk past most of the herd, however this varies depending on the weather. In 02', 03' many of the elk on both sides were in the willows along the river, in 04' the elk were more spread out in the coulees and 05' the elk were more spread out again, but I saw alot less elk in 05' in general and only a few bulls. However, in 05' I hunted late, the first week in October and I got killed by the weather. It rained and snowed for three days and I got stuck Monday-Thursday, 7 miles from camp and slept in my vehicle with only water and jerky. The risk on the later part of the season is the mud and in less you have experienced this mud, words can do it no justice. Also, the elk by October will be unbelievably spooky, vey spooky, must more noticable than my previous 3 years when I was there in mid-September fightin the heat and hunting with a bunch of other folks. But. going in October, there will be alot less people than early in the season for sure, but the elk will have been dogged big time by October.
I know this is not what you want to hear, but thought I would share my experience in the area and from other hunters hunting 620 unit(s). Also, no one mentioned it, but there were some big outfitter camps in 620/621 area, but I can not guess to how many people are in these camps or if they are even still setting up there???
Recommend you talk with the biologist if you have not already. Also, if you get good, cool, dry weather in October, I believe you could get on a good bull or two. If it rains, you will have the worst hunt of your life, because boat or no boat, you can not keep the gumbo mud off your boats and trying to work the coulees with 10 pounds of gumbo mud on each boat will test your resolve like no hunt before. Guess like most hunts anywhere, weather is always key and I think I hit a year in 05' where all the rain at one time was very rare for this part of Montana. Just bad timing, it happens to us all sooner or later.
Best of luck to you. With a little luck from the weather, you may find a nice bull or two. I have since switched to wilderness elk hunting and these units are the furtherest away from a wilderness type elk hunt out there. Again, best of luck.
Regards,
JL
