How do you guys feel about this last minute wolf season planned for this month? I think its going to be a mess! I will take my preference point and hope they still have a season this fall!

It's important to get a harvest in before they put the wolves back on the endangered species list. I have no interest in participating. However, I do feel we need a cull of the wolf population and I support those that choose to attempt to harvest a wolf.

I think we would all be better off waiting till Nov 4th to start hunting and trapping.

I live right in the heavy wolf population area. I don’t have any preference points and I think I would have a hard time drawing a permit next fall if they have a season then. I am going to put in for this short season knowing my odds of connecting will be lower than if I was trapping them next fall but at least I might get a chance harvest one.

I think your odds will be pretty much the same.
The chest freezers will open up a few wolves will be killed by either hunting or trapping. The quota will be either filled or reduced so next Nov the season will still only be about 5 days long.

How long did the last wolf season last. Marshrat should be able to dig up that information.

Its just a bit of a short notice for me. I was planning more for the November season. I think your right Beav. The last season was pretty short if I remember right. It will be interesting to see how many are taken next week and by what method to harvest.

Can they be trapped as well, or just hunted?

Well the coyote trapping season ended on the 15th. So If they have wolf trapping and hunting season your going to have to release any incidental coyotes. Just another reason to wait till next Nov.

I just heard about that from a friend of mine who lives back there. You can hunt, or trap, hounds and electronic calls are allowed hunting. Not sure how it works, but from the sounds of it, if you guys draw a tag for this spring season you probably can't get one for the fall season? I'd be worried they will shut the season down again before the fall season if I was you guys. After all they've shut it down on you guys before.

As much as I would love to trap and keep a wolf, I am not going after them for a week in Feb.

Perhaps one of you can explain to me? Why is the WDNR opposed and filed a lawsuit to stop this season? What is the reasoning.

Have they had the drawing yet?

You should know if you got lucky Monday morning if you check your Go Wild account.

wolf harvest

Depended on zone. Some took a couple days and others took over a month. Not really a true comparison. I would look at success rate for late season bobcat hunters since methods have a better chance of being similar.

I think they updated gowild at midnight. Showing I still have a preference point so I didn't draw.

Remember it wasn't the rank and file members of the department that was opposed to holding a season. It was Tony Evers administration that was opposed so it came down through DNR Secretary's office. The only wolf they want killed are by the feds in depredation claims. And that is only because public opinion is so overwhelming.

My nephew drew a tag, couple dog groups running this morning around here in Western Taylor County.

Were any wolves trapped that anyone knows about

I know a friend of mine from back there sent me pictures of ones some people he knew got. 3 trapped and 3 with hounds.

The talk is a majority were taken with hounds and we went over the quota. I had a lot of hound hunter traffic in my area and seen 2 that had been taken with hounds. Hopefully they don't shut us down this November and we will still have an opportunity to trap in November. It would be nice also to see the season split up maybe so trappers and hound hunters are not pursuing animals on the same days. We'll see.

Don't know if this will work but here is one trappers take on the Wisconsin wolf season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFjBQUBCY2M

Wolves usually run in packs thus running them with hounds appears to be a good way to get your hounds killed.

Doesn't seem like It's a problem In WI.

The bear hunters in Wisconsin get plenty killed by wolves. From what I understand talking to houndmen back there, the hunters with coyote dogs try to turn on single wolves. Since most of the country is roaded up real well they look for a single wolf inside a loop of roads and turn on it and then try and get in front of them and shoot the wolf before it leaves the loop to possibly get with a pack. Apparently seems to work.

Wolf/dog incidents happen much more frequently during bear season for a couple of reasons. First, the mere number of dogs in the field. Bear training season and actual bear seasons bring out virtualy every houndsman in the state during a three month period.

And probably the main reason is the fact that the training and actual bear seasons happen at a time of year that wolves are most protective of their territory. Wolves are very territorial during their denning season and when their pups are younger. They are teaching their pups to hunt and do not tolerate dogs or other K9’s in their core areas. Some packs are worse than others.

The data shows that trappers accounted for 5% of the harvest or about 10-11 wolves with hound hunters getting 86%. During the fall seasons the trappers did far better then the hunters did. We will see how the powers that be plan out the future seasons, quotas and other issues.

Bryce

Bryce, I know you stated the facts...but I just want to point out that this season was an anomaly with regard to the exaggerated harvest to hound hunting. With the current season structure, most seasons don’t work that way. There are a lot of trappers up in arms over this unusual season and it’s likely to bite us if we plan to push the issue.

100%. But maybe they want to split into two seasons and then watch both user groups vote against each other like they did for bobcat. That was awesome.

They need to split the tags and split the season so everyone has a fair shot at taking a wolf.

Maybe you should be happy you're getting some of them killed and quit trying to backstab your allies. You do realize that the people drawing this stuff up don't want any wolf season, right? They love it when you fight amongst yourselves and will jump at any chance to take any opportunity away from you.

I know out west the wolf was one of the greatest menders of fences between houndmen and trappers. It has been a long time tactic of antis to pit one group of outdoorsmen against another and traditionally houndmen and trappers have been both the smallest and easiest to target groups but also two that don't generally care for each other and were easy to pit against each other. People like me that both hound hunted and trapped were a very distinct minority. The wolf out here changed all that and drew the two groups together into a unified front. The antis would love a chance to divide the two, don't let them do that in Wisconsin.

So your saying the trapper should just bend over and take In the shorts. What's wrong with splitting the season and the tags It's not like we are asking for all the tags. And If your going to call that backstabbing then your way off base.

I am not opposed to working with hound hunters if they push the issue but there is no reason for trappers to push.

It would be like having deer hunting shut for years and then getting ok to allow deer huntung again the saturday before Thanksgiving. Sure gun hunters would have a record season, but bow hunters wouldnt want to throw out past season framework just because of one odd season. I can see why gun hunters might though. Lol

I stated the facts that came about with the situation and time frame we were given. What attempts will there be to harvest the stated quotas with some what equal opportunities for different harvest method spokesperson getting a voice. These results to me show that wolves can be efficiently and effectively harvested. Now we will see where the lobbying efforts and groups go with this. Diving up limited resources is frequently a messy process.

Bryce

Yes I would call actively advocating for taking tags and season away from other users is backstabbing.

I'm not in Wisconsin but of the one group I know of (simply because a friend of mine who lives in Wisconsin was sending me updates and pictures each time his friends got a wolf) they were both trapping and running hounds, and managed to catch 3 with traps and 3 with hounds. However from what I am hearing this season the weather played a factor and favored the houndmen. Good fresh snow for the houndmen to find traps and hunt in, while a large majority of the trappers are not real experienced at wolf trapping in the snow and keeping sets working while not spooking wolves. Also the very short season did not allow time for the wolves to return to where there was fresh sign if you set on fresh sign. And short notice of having a season did not give trappers a lot of time to scout areas in order to note sign of where wolves should be in a couple weeks. From what I understand in the past most seasons have been early fall, with limited snow and better trapping conditions. . . with the opposite results for who harvested the majority of the wolves.

What you should be up in arms over and complaining about are ridiculously low quotas. When the quotas in the entire state are almost doubled in two days it is extremely obvious that you have plenty of wolves and the quotas are ridiculously low.

Aargh! find tracks! not "find traps"

I really should learn to reread before hitting post

2014-15 HARVEST

2013-14 HARVEST

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Wildlifehabitat/wolf/documents/Seasonreport1213.pdf

Take a look at the previous 3 years. Trappers accounted for a low of 50% up to 80% for the previous three seasons. Sure we gave up two + weeks by moving the season back to the first Saturday in November, but it won't have a measurable difference in my opinion of shifting harvest. Harvest will shift when conditions shift as season goes on or when we increase quota or pressure zones.

So again there are no reasons for trappers to push for changing anything at this point IMO.

I am sincerely proud that so many WI hunters and trappers participated in such a short notice season in February. To the West of WI we would be happy to have any type of season at all no matter if it was a combined trapping/hunting season or a split season. I think the three day harvest proves that their are far more wolves around than the estimated totals claim their are. Hopefully the state uses the funds from all of the wolf tag sales appropriately. I wonder how many people in MN have hounds that are capable of running wolves if it was miraculously possible in the future.

If nothing changes, in 2021 our season will start on Nov 6. Not many dog hunters will be running that early. They need snow to run canines. Another factor is that this year was the perfect storm. A fresh layer of snow blanketed northern Wisconsin the night before season. They couldn't have had better conditions and mopped up because of it. Unless the DNR sets a season structure like we have for bobcat, the trappers will have better representation moving forward.

So If you can run dogs on bear during times of no snow what's stopping you from running wolves?
Trail cams on bait piles and the road system that you can read from your truck seat or living room will let you know when and where to drop your dogs.
When you can charge $1000.00 of dollars to kill a wolf It will happen.

I will turn off all the media outlets as the screaming will be loud if we have a hound season for wolves during the week or two of the major rut for whitetails. Could get noisy and ugly for sure. If the landscape is laden with large footholds that will make things even loader in my opinion. Let us hope we can develop a season and keep all of our outdoor users at least tolerating each other.

Bryce

Here is one a friend got the other day. Too bad it had a collar on

December 1. Maybe snow maybe not. Trapper would be prepared if they knew it was coming

And you don't think the landscape Is already filled with large foot holds that are targeting coyotes.

He's probably thinking Mb750's,No.9's,etc.,much bigger steel than coyote

Lots of northern coyote trappers are using 650s and 750s for coyotes and are catching and holding wolves In those traps.

MB650 yes, don't know about the Duke650 ( 7+ width along the hinge?); 750's not till Dec1 for land sets; no #9 at all, max jaw spread is 8"

I held 3 of 4 wolves last year in two coil MB 550s. I think the 4th would have held if I would have had shock springs on the chain, I watched it pull out. Might be different in deep snow, but if I draw a tag I am not changing my traps that I have out during the coyote season.

lots of wolves held in 2 coil Bridger #3....friend had one in a Duke #3 that pulled out as he drove up

I'd be willing to bet no dog hunters will be running wolves that early. You cannot use dogs to pursue wolf until the Monday following gun deer season. Trappers and predator callers have the first month of season all to themselves.

Not this season as trapping was over. Sure there are traps out the other times but not this year and in the past we did not have hounds hunting wolves so we don't really know the impact of that. I don't think traps on the landscape is a big of an issue as when the hunt or season is set so it minimizes the conflicts with other users.

Bryce

Conflict? We addressed that last time when we moved the season back to start the first Saturday in November.

Getting dog running earlier will be a tough hill to climb. IMO, too many stakeholders pushing against it. That's why it was allowed in December. It will be interesting to see the data from this year as they will come under extra scrutiny.

Frankly I believe legislators want to keep a longer season to ensure we get the harvest. In the past we had zones that kept open until December. As we put more pressure on population more zones stay open longer. Like anything the first 10-20% of the population is easy to harvest. Gets harder the more that percentage goes up. We need 40% to reduce population slightly.

Spot on!

What we need to remember is the ultimate goal is to control wolf numbers anyway in Idaho it is so look at things long and hard before acting. Just my two cents in Idaho we have houndsmen on our board and we look at them as allies.