Busy opening day

By JIM MANN/The Daily Inter Lake

Living up to its reputation as the busiest day of the five-week rifle season, opening day generated 2,958 hunters through six check stations around Northwest Montana, well above last year's opening-day count of 2,649.

Eight percent of hunters had game, almost identical to last year's success rate of 8.1 percent. Hunters checked 185 whitetail deer, slightly fewer than last year. There were 21 mule deer and 30 elk, both counts ahead of last year's.

Tim Thier, a state wildlife biologist who spent the day at the Olney check station, predicts the harvest will pick up as the season progresses.

"I think the whitetail populations are as high or higher than they've ever been," he said. "There's plenty of deer to go around, that's for sure."

Thier said one of the highlights of the day was when a brother and sister came through the check station with their parents.

As youth hunters, the siblings had each bagged a cow elk.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens reported a quiet day in terms of enforcement issues.

"Our wardens checked some whitetail bucks and a few elk, and we found very few hunting violations," Warden Captain Lee Anderson said.

The check station on U.S. 2 just west of Kalispell was the busiest, with 1,214 hunters stopping with 70 whitetail deer, nine mule deer and 15 elk.

The Olney check station had the highest percentage of hunters with game: 47 whitetails, three mule deer and three elk for an 11.5 percent success rate.

The Canoe Gulch check station outside Libby was busy, with 306 hunters stopping compared to last year's 115. They checked 10 whitetails, four mule deer and four elk.

The Swan Valley check station near Ferndale had 420 hunters, compared to last year's 327, with 30 whitetails and one elk.

The North Fork check station had 254 hunters, compared to last year's 262, with the lowest hunter success rate in the region, 3.1 percent. Three whitetails, one mule deer and four elk were checked.

The Thompson Falls check station had 302 hunters with 25 whitetails, four mule deer and three elk.

Hunters are reminded that either-sex whitetail hunting continues in Northwest Montana through Nov. 4 and resumes on the last four days of the season. Mule deer hunting is buck-only all season, and elk hunting is limited to brow-tined bulls.

However, hunters ages 12-15 who have completed hunter education courses can harvest antlerless whitetail deer and antlerless elk all season in most of the region's hunting districts.