Back from Idaho 20a

[Bisley45]

I wish I would have listened to all the folks about the lack of game in that country. Holy mackerel we flew in and hunted 6 days. In that six days we saw 6 whitetail deer and 1 red fox. We cut elk tracks in the snow twice. No rubs, no mule deer, no bears, saw some wolf tracks,.....Big, beautiful, and empty..

 

[AaronMColeman]

What a bummer. It's so hard to know what is good and what isn't. Even living inside a nice unit, knowing the terrain well, there are days I see absolutely nothing. 6 days is a long time, but sometimes things will move around and pretty much nothing will hit a spot for a week or more. Sorry you struck out, but the country is beautiful.

 

[idahohikker]

I wish I would have listened to all the folks about the lack of game in that country. Holy mackerel we flew in and hunted 6 days. In that six days we saw 6 whitetail deer and 1 red fox. We cut elk tracks in the snow twice. No rubs, no mule deer, no bears, saw some wolf tracks,.....Big, beautiful, and empty..

Hahahaha I’m hearing this constantly this year. Same as last year and the year before. The part that’s hilarious to me is that nonresidents keep thinking it’s different than what’s presented by locals over and over. We’re not trying to trick you. It’s just really hard back there and most kills come from outfitters.

Really empty country is right.

Also, I do honestly feel for you because it is rough on the head to go a week busting your tail in rough country and see nothing.

 

[Bisley45]

Except for a couple bits, I enjoyed my trip. The scenery was breath taking, it's a cool feeling being that far away from civilization.
I think any elk that might have been there may have moved down to the river. we had 3 nights below 20 and one of those was likely in single digits. The first night was a 3" snow the forth night was a 12" snow. That was pretty rough without a hot tent setup. I learned a lot.

 

[mitchellbk]

It’s cool you still enjoyed it. I hope to someday fly into those roadless areas and experience that country to see the other half of Idaho. Post some pics!

 

[Bisley45]

 

[GregB]

Except for a couple bits, I enjoyed my trip. The scenery was breath taking, it's a cool feeling being that far away from civilization.
I think any elk that might have been there may have moved down to the river. we had 3 nights below 20 and one of those was likely in single digits. The first night was a 3" snow the forth night was a 12" snow. That was pretty rough without a hot tent setup. I learned a lot.

It takes several feet of snow to get the big bulls to move down lower.

 

[Selway]

It's always amazing to me how much non resident pressure the Frank and Selway get. I mean I get wanting to see that incredible country, but my god is it low odds of success in there.

 

[idahohikker]

Except for a couple bits, I enjoyed my trip. The scenery was breath taking, it's a cool feeling being that far away from civilization.
I think any elk that might have been there may have moved down to the river. we had 3 nights below 20 and one of those was likely in single digits. The first night was a 3" snow the forth night was a 12" snow. That was pretty rough without a hot tent setup. I learned a lot.

Here’s the crazy part. The big bulls hardly move down. They’re thousands of feet above the rivers in mid November after lots of snow. I found the elk higher than I expected and it’s common with guys I’ve talked to. Bios sees them at 8,000 feet in January on wind swept ridges. The elk back there are darn tough and the country makes it hard for lots of animals to survive. Constant predator threats. Weak habitat productivity. It’s rough.

I’m glad you had a good experience on the whole.

A spring predator hunt would be a hoot and should be more popular than the fall deer and elk hunts since the game numbers are relatively low and the predator numbers are pretty darn high.

 

[Bisley45]

 

[Bisley45]

 

[Bisley45]

 

[Bisley45]

Here’s the crazy part. The big bulls hardly move down. They’re thousands of feet above the rivers in mid November after lots of snow. I found the elk higher than I expected and it’s common with guys I’ve talked to. Bios sees them at 8,000 feet in January on wind swept ridges. The elk back there are darn tough and the country makes it hard for lots of animals to survive. Constant predator threats. Weak habitat productivity. It’s rough.

I’m glad you had a good experience on the whole.

A spring predator hunt would be a hoot and should be more popular than the fall deer and elk hunts since the game numbers are relatively low and the predator numbers are pretty darn high.

Interesting, we were typically hunting at 7000-8000. It was pretty surreal to hunt that long with out seeing anything. The Whitetails and fox were down below 6500.

 

[dittydogood]

I wish I would have listened to all the folks about the lack of game in that country. Holy mackerel we flew in and hunted 6 days. In that six days we saw 6 whitetail deer and 1 red fox. We cut elk tracks in the snow twice. No rubs, no mule deer, no bears, saw some wolf tracks,.....Big, beautiful, and empty..

Same covered 72 miles in 6 days, flew into cold meadows, great experiencing the landscape and enjoyed the views but it rained on us 5 days/nights. Saw two mule deer, and two birds( some sort of mountain poultry I’m not familiar with) it’s hard to stay motivated but we hunted hard and all we can do is learn going forward.


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[dittydogood]

It's always amazing to me how much non resident pressure the Frank and Selway get. I mean I get wanting to see that incredible country, but my god is it low odds of success in there.

Two factors that reeled me in were otc tag ability, and statistical data. 80 some bulls harvested outta 280 some tags. Found out outfitters run the gambit there and unless you have a horse flown in, it’s gunna be a lot of hard miles


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[idahohikker]

Two factors that reeled me in were otc tag ability, and statistical data. 80 some bulls harvested outta 280 some tags. Found out outfitters run the gambit there and unless you have a horse flown in, it’s gunna be a lot of hard miles


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Did you guys read where I’ve posted that there’s 9 outfitters in unit 27. That’s pretty unheard of. Explains why the numbers are so skewed.

 

[CubsFan04]

I wish harvest reports could be broken out by public/private and/or outfitter.

 

[jmez]

Except for a couple bits, I enjoyed my trip. The scenery was breath taking, it's a cool feeling being that far away from civilization.
I think any elk that might have been there may have moved down to the river. we had 3 nights below 20 and one of those was likely in single digits. The first night was a 3" snow the forth night was a 12" snow. That was pretty rough without a hot tent setup. I learned a lot.

That is just getting down to reasonable temperatures for an elk.

 

[Luckyrxc]

Thanks for sharing the pics of your hunt!

 

[Farrisryan3]

I know how I feel. Omw home now from a elk hunt in unit 10. Hunted 8 days without seeing a elk. Seen moose but no elk.


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