best wester state hunting opportunities
 

What is the best western state to live in for the best hunting and fishing opportunities? Then what city in that state?

thanks,

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

What are ya thinking? You going to move to a city/state that provides the best hunting and fishing? I have been looking also. I currently live just north of Seattle Wa. My wife and I are thinking about moving to Denver Co. Their we can hunt the best elk herd in the us. I just don't think the fishing is all that good in Co.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

California[8D]

but seriously, we have lots of land to hunt and great fishing (bass, trout, stripper, salmon, etc)....

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

IMO, there's ample opportunity in several western states. Depending on what kind of fishing you're looking at, pretty descent fishing in most states can be found also.
Unless you're wealthy, might have to look at job opportunity to make the final decision.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

Montana without question, or maybe Colorado.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

I think it all depends on what you want....

monster gameanimals? with poor draws?
or less hunter pressure?
or just ample game, all around, and able to draw annually?

I think all western states have their advantages vs disadvantages.
Course I'm looking at them all from the outside as a non-res, not sure the benefits of each state as a res vs non res.

AZ is tough to draw just about any tag, but if you do you have a chance at a monster/WR!
CO has more elk than any other western state, but produces less monsters than others....

I think CO is where I'd pick and just have it be my base of operations.....centrally located, could travel to just about any western state efficiently from there. Also more developed than other states, if being near a big city matters to you. Course maybe you want to get away from that. I like being near civilization most of the time though.

good luck, I think you really can't go wrong with just about any of them.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

Don't know which is best but I gotta be pretty damn close to it right here. I have excellent elk hunting less than 100 miles, two different kinds of deer and antelope less than 100 miles the other direction. Prairie dogs to shoot by the thousands, coyotes everywhere. Drawing a hunting license is a snap if you know how to work the system...I hunt deer/antelope/elk every year.
Denver, CO

Fishing is great but you have to know where. Trout, salmon, whitefish in the mountains. Warm water fish on the plains.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

It aint Colorado, we had so much snow they cut the tags by 15%. But if youre nonresident you get draw preference$ because you $pend more for tag$ than we residents do. And the DOW being totally ca$h oriented loves your greenbacks more than mine. Must be because DOW management is all PA Game Commission rejects and retirees.

Good luck anyway, have a great hunt.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

Like I said you just have to know how to work the system.

RE: best wester state hunting opportunities
 

North Central Idaho along the Clearwater river from Orofino to Kooskia. Great river, sea run steelhead and Salmon, small mouth bass, and many blue ribbon trout streams full of cut throat nearby. There are several Reservoirs for Bass and Kokanee, and the Salmon and Snake rivers are within an hour with more steelhead, salmon, bass, trout, cat fish, sturgeon.
We are next to the largest chunks of public ground in the lower 48 with Elk, Mule deer, whitetail, moose, sheep, mountain goats, cougar, black bear, turkeys, pheasants, chuckers, huns, quail, grouse, ducks, geese, and more. A couple hour drive down south gets you into antelope and sage grouse in the high deserts. It would take a lifetime to explore this area, lots of year round opportunities and lack of crowds. Big game starts in august with depredation hunts and goes to the end of December with muzzleloader hunts, so with the right tags and gear you have 1/3 of the year to big game hunt. You can add 2 more months of bear to that # in the spring, and lion in jan and feb.
Other states may be better at any one species, but none combine them all in an area along with the fishing like the Clearwater area of north central Idaho does.