Got out there and never heard a single bugle.
Overnight I’d hear activity but as soon as the light hit everything was silent.
Hang on, those two things don't add up. If you're hearing activity at night, those elk don't vanish come daybreak. Hearing elk before daylight still means you're on elk, and that's 90% of the battle. I hunt a lot of elk that will go wild all night and shut up almost the second it's shooting light, but it's very rare that they're completely silent all day. It's really, really easy to miss though.
A few things can happen that you'll need to figure out. First is, how far are they moving between night and day? Did they actually stop calling at daybreak or did they just push up the hill or across the drainage, and you lost them? Elk can call a lot when they're out feeding at night, and the bull has to run around tending his cows. Same when they're moving up a hill and he's tending the back of the herd like a border collie. Don't expect to call them in, even if they're really responsive, just focus on tailing them and watching the wind.
They tend to shut up hard once they hit a bedding area, but he'll almost always let off one or two bugles from his bed by late morning. It's rarely in response to anything, and if he does "respond" to your location bugle it might take 10 to 30 minutes before you get a weak answer. The only way to catch these is either pure dumb luck, or to stay on them from daybreak, figure out roughly where they're bedded, and then lurk quietly nearby for a few hours. Even calves and cows will stand up out of their beds periodically and chatter, walk around, snack, and make enough noise to give their position away.
My simple plan as of now is if I don’t hear anything, keep walking
That's always a good start. If you're in good shape, you can always just cover ground and wait until you find the elk that are fired up and responsive. Personally, I don't like leaving elk to find other elk, not without feeling like I gave it a full attempt first. If you're on elk before first light, I would really focus on those.
Tracking the herd is even a better start than just leaving for new elk. They were there, they went somewhere, you can follow tracks and catch up. Figure out what bedding cover is like in this area and you can start to have some idea where they might be going. From there, you've got all day to work potential areas. It gets easier if you start to really learn one area and know where they might be headed.
If you're hunting OTC tags on public land, I don't think you can afford to be picky and leave a herd of elk just because they're mostly quiet during the day. That's the vast majority of elk I encounter, until you catch them on a lucky day where a cow is in heat and they're all going nuts.
