Stay on good terms with the farmers by respecting their land -- and they'll give you the opportunity to hunt again, year after year.

WEST SLOPE BLACKTAILS
One of my favorite back-up options is the late hunt for western Washington black-tailed deer. There's plenty of state and federal land to go around in the GMUs involved.

Anyone with a valid rifle tag can participate in this mid-November prospect, which includes all 500 and 600 series GMUs, as well as GMUs 407, 454, and 466.

Units are open for the taking of any buck, with the exception of units 636 (Skokomish), 654 (Mashel), and 681 (Bear River), which have a 2-point minimum restriction.

They don't call blacktails "the ghosts of the coast" for nothing. November is a foggy time of year on the west slope, and the blacktails can pretty much go underground during foul weather. When it's bad, you won't see blacktails out in the open; you have to beat the brush for them.

Old growth, or large second-growth woods sheltered from wind, will be the place to search for deer until the weather improves.

Want to bag two deer? You can! The WDFW has a second-deer tag draw for Shaw, Lopez, Orcas, Decatur, Blakely, Cypress, San Juan, and Guemes islands. Chances of drawing a tag are very high.

Watch for the snow line to come down, and hit the forested hills hard. Hunt by tracking the edges of the snow line, and you'll have a chance at catching an older buck moving down out of the Cascades.

The blacktail rut will be in full swing now -- a huge advantage for hunters. Deer will be milling around as a rule, and you'll have a better chance of seeing quality bucks when they let down their guard for mating.

When the weather improves, hunting the alder flats along river bottoms is as good a bet as any. After the leaves have fallen from the brush and deciduous trees, you'll see a lot more blacktails moving than you otherwise might. Taking a stand on a ridge high above the flats lets you survey the bottoms with authority.

SAN JUAN BLACKTAILS
The word isn't completely out on hunting blacktails in the San Juan Islands, but there's a buzz in the air.

There is a firearm restriction for Islands GMU 410. So trade your centerfire rifle for a good shotgun, and you're set for this either-sex hunt.

Access to huntable land in the San Juans can be simplified by taking a scouting trip. Some small parcels of Washington Department of Natural Resources land are open to public hunting, but they can be elbow-to-elbow with hunters, and downright dangerous at times.

Hop the ferry to the Orcas, Lopez or San Juan islands, and take a slow drive across the countryside. There are old farms all over the islands where the deer come in at night, wreaking havoc on apple orchards, vegetable crops and flower gardens. The folks who own places like these are the ones you'll want to get to know. Look for old farmhouses surrounded by acres of meadows and timbered slopes, rather than newly constructed vacation properties.

One old-timer I met on Orcas Island was so fed up with deer cleaning him out that he told me to shoot all the deer I wanted, and gave me a free lifetime pass to hunt deer off his land any time the season was open.

Cypress Island is the wildest of the San Juans, reminiscent of islands in southeast Alaska. Cypress contains mostly undeveloped forest owned by the DNR. There is no ferry service, but this is an awesome back-up hunt if you have a boat able to make the trip from Anacortes.

A dozen or so DNR mooring buoys are located in Eagle Harbor, on the east shore of the island. A circuit of trails provides access to some deep woods. During daylight hours, it's best to hunt the timbered areas. The deer tend to be on the small side, but each year, some real stocky bucks with surprising racks are taken. Salal, sword fern, and oceanspray provide deep cover for the blacktails, whose travel patterns seem to be on a tight radius. Once you find tracks, rubs and scrapes, hunt the surrounding area. These island deer are homebodies.

Want to bag two deer? You can! The WDFW has a second-deer tag draw for Shaw, Lopez, Orcas, Decatur, Blakely, Cypress, San Juan, and Guemes islands, which could make your ferry trip much more worthwhile. Chances of drawing a tag are very high. In 2006, there were more tags than applicants for most of the hunts. So for now, getting that second tag is a near shoo-in.