I agree with slee %100 on putting a special youth season the weekend prior to the season. The purpose is to give them a good time and good chance. I can' t imagine why an end of season date is even suggested... makes no sense. The other point is initiatives use to manage wildlife needs to go. The majority of the public does not hunt, and few of them don' t even use the outdoors - why should they have a say on how to go about managing wildlife?

Nice to be here - thanks for the welcome.

Wash, it' s only your icq that hassles mine! Everybody else' s be' s nice. Been adequate, I guess, except for about a dozen colds since Christmas.

Wayne, look out. I' ll probably show up unannounced most any time.

Good to meet you, tiggeer. Been through Ione on occasion, but not for many years.

Wash, I' m trying to get Wayne committed (no, not that kind of committed) to the 3D shoot at Christina Lake May 11. Start working on him.

Wayne haven' t you shot up there once already????

Hey Wash....C2 took me through it once....I sucked....[&o]

hey guys how are things going?? Not much going on here, duck and goose season just closed, been seeing lots f swans flying around along with a lot of pheasants, mainly all roosters thoug, to bad the season closed on the 1st, anyways, might be coming back this summer, the way the airlines prices are going it woould only cost about 1,00 dollars for all of us to fly back, my uncle is coming over the end of march, looking foward to that, you guys got any snow?? We got dumped on a couple of weeks ago, man was it fun.

Well I' ve officially caught the turkey bug. Been playin' with my calls, browsing for deals on new gear, etc., etc. I' m heading out first thing in the morning with my topo map, my new Vail Tree Farm map, and a strong desire to find some turkey sign deep in from Johnson Creek. It' d be awesome if I could hear some gobbles, but I ain' t couting on it. Still early, but you never know when a tom will get frisky. I' ve also got my cougar tag , so I' ll take the shotgun and some slugs just in case I get lucky enough to spot one, or maybe a yote. Mainly I just want to get out of the house and in the woods, so it' s a great excuse.

Have a safe and fun scouting trip! Noting goingon here, bought a shotgun reloader and will start reloading my shells, for this coming season, plus need to learn how to do it.

Slee....Have you figured out what date' s your gonna be over here hunting yet..??...These Tom' s are sure strutting heavy in the morning' s now....The wife had to stop her car headed down the mountian last week, till they got out of the way....they were in no hurry. Have a feeling this season' s gonna be alot like last

I think my dad and I are going over sometime this season and will probably hunt near the small town of Hunters. It' s along the eastern edge of Lake Roosevelt. Where all in Eastern Wa do you guys hunt?

Wayne, it' s looking like May 8-12. The last weekend, just like last year. People weren' t happy with the way the birds did last year, but I gotta tell ya, it doesn' t get much better than chasing vocal toms every day. Sure makes life a lot easier, and makes it easier to roll out at 4am for that morning hike when you can hear ' em hammerin at daylight.

My scouting trip was a COMPLETE waste of time, except that I got some great exercise and learned the lay of the land a little more. I even had a brief encounter with a doe this morning. I logged 10+ miles today, and didn' t see the first turd, track, or feather. I had about 8 guys come riding past me on a pipeline on quads and bikes in the Vail Tree Farm though. Pissed me off. They did acknowledge the fact that they screwed me up, but I didn' t even get into it with them. Now I don' t have anything against riding quads and bikes. I grew up riding ATVs on our hunting place. But everybody knows that you can' t ride ATVs and dirt bikes on Weyerhaeuser land. It says so on every gate around, but I guess these guys couldn' t read. I even left there and went to another spot up the road, and had guys riding in there too. I didn' t even bother hiking further in to a spot that I really wanted to check out because I could hear the quads over there too. So much for actually seeing birds mid day in grass patches and clearings. Wayne, I hope you won' t be like that when you start riding yours around. As my hunting partner and I always say about bad fishing and hunting trips, I just weeded out a few more spots today.[:@]