Central Idaho ramble....what did I do wrong?

[Jesse Jaymes]

Inquiring if I could get any feedback? I've been a north Idaho hunter for a few years. I threw a dart and wanted to see some new country. Drove down to look over Units 36A, 36B, 28, 21A and 21.

I was up on a knob and looking over several miles of beautiful country in 36A before sun up. I've great optics, and generally a very accomplished Glasser. I was up at 7400ft. Up and a little away from the UTV crowds. Could glass older burns, drainages with great cover and running water in the bottom.....NOT A DEER. Not a living critter. Saw minimal to no deer signs. A few cow elk tracks. And rabbit schitt.

Looked over a fair bit of range in unit 30 where the desert meets the mountains.....antelope, but not one deer.

Looked over some Unit 21A at dark...not a deer up top that wasnt in the creek floor private lands.

Glassed some beautiful 7400ft country in 28 from before sun up until 10AM. Floored I didn't see a thing.

Ran down the river road to Corn Creek.......glassed many spots on both sides. An evening and a morning. Saw plenty of sheep, and elk were not too hard to find. But I didn't glass a deer. Just a few "Apple Feeders" does on the main road around the private.

Not at all saying there arent deer there. Sure there are plenty. I've never been to any of those units during the season. Seen tons of mulies along 93 just driving in the Spring. I honestly thought I would see hundreds of does over a week. Even just out the window. Not so much.

I really enjoy glassing and seeing game. Even if it's miles away and does. Just makes me want to ramble further and longer. The weather was amazing. The people I met around Challis, Salmon, North Fork and across the middle were great folks. But I was incredibly unimpressed with the mule deer I didn't see.

What was I NOT doing? Are the mulies all way up high in the timber at 8,000ft?

You can't blame it all on the Smoke, the Moon and the warm Weather. The deer had to have been somewhere.

Any critique of what I did incorrect?

I will say that I am floored by the UTV crowd. EVERYONE has one. They're all over. And once general Elk opened concurrently....wow! The people were THICK. If I chose to do it next year, aside from doing more research, I would be in somewhere before the season and hunt specifically for Mulies before general elk. I would guess that I could have gone much higher and got on some trails and crossed paths with deer. But I prefer spot and stalk and glassing, rather than a random still hunt encounter....I can do that here during the WT rut. Not the experience I am wanting.

 

[Customweld]

Some of the Central Idaho units have the best looking habitat to our eye. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. CI has historically poor nutrition and even worse growing seasons. Wished I had a better answer for you, but animal concentration there is pretty low.

 

[PathFinder]

Central Idaho has a lot working against it, despite some beautiful country.
1. Rough winters for a lot of herds, less than ideal winter ground for much of it.
2. IDFG refuses to limit resident tags, manage by unit, and practice science over opinion and revenue.
3. They're dealing with a non-native apex predator that deer herds in many areas don't have to.

It can be good there if the region gets close to a decade of good conditions. One bad year will ruin that. I spent five years or so and killed some ok deer in central ID, but you couldn't pay me to hunt there now.

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

Both good tips/knowledge. Thank you.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

Get a bear and lion tag when you go. You’ll have much better luck with those, and you’ll do central Idaho a small favor in the process.

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

I considered blowing the call after glassing a few places......decided to hit the trail and explore more country rather than homestead. Next time for sure.

 

[mtnwrunner]

It's been a strange year.
Driest I've ever seen it and the moon didn't help.
Brother and I spent 9 days backpacking our normal locations.
Did not see the normal animals we do and saw the most people EVER.
That being said he did pass up a few bucks but nothing like it usually is.

Randy

 

[Calbuck]

I hunted a little south of you and experienced the same exact phenomena. I saw the elk, saw the antelope and the mountain goats. I saw a few (very few) does and a couple bucks before season opened. On opening morning, I was on a ridge at 9000' before the sun came up. Glassed up NO deer. At that elevation, the temp was easily in the mid 40s that morning. Just poor conditions for a poor herd in the area. And the crowds all said "were just looking for a 2 point"..that's the mentality in that area. I'll be pulling stakes and hunting elsewhere from now on. Now elk?? Hell yes if I can draw the tag!

 

[pingpong7]

I agree with what has been mentioned. CI is losing its glammer for deer it once had. The secret is out and everyone wants to shoot dinks. Not an ideal combo. I spent time up there the last several days and was not able to turn up much of anything. I will be moving areas as well next year.

 

[Idaho_Potato]

I just got home a few hours ago from hunting that area as well, general deer tag. Exact same experience. I was hunting the highest country that looked like it had feed and timber. Hiked up to around 8,000 at first light and glassed up to 9,000+. Sat all day and then glassed the same areas at dusk. My guess was weather as well. 20's in the morning but mid day had to be in the 70's. Unreasonably warm.

Saw one doe and fawn in 4 days of hard hunting. That's it. I heard a couple of shots from guys hunting out of a side by side. Avoided the areas with roads up high for that reason.

One morning I hiked up a huge drainage with no roads, probably a 2 hour hike in the dark, about 4 miles up and 2k elevation gain. Surprised the shit out of me when some guy pops out of the aspens below me and kills a 6 point bull that had been bugling his ass off. His lady friend then pops out behind him with 2 horses and they packed off the mountain. Thought about going down to say hi but didn't see the need to interrupt his awesome draw hunt. They left rice crispie treats with a nice note when they passed my camp on the way out. If you are reading this, congrats on the bull dude

 

[littlebigtine]

Central Idaho has a lot working against it, despite some beautiful country.
1. Rough winters for a lot of herds, less than ideal winter ground for much of it.
2. IDFG refuses to limit resident tags, manage by unit, and practice science over opinion and revenue.
3. They're dealing with a non-native apex predator that deer herds in many areas don't have to.

It can be good there if the region gets close to a decade of good conditions. One bad year will ruin that. I spent five years or so and killed some ok deer in central ID, but you couldn't pay me to hunt there now.

how do we change fish and games loose perspective on general season in idaho. i am all for opportunity, but never in spite of a herds health. i would like to see more limits or tagouts put in place and it seems like everybody i talk to in central idaho feels the same. it certainly does not seem democratic ( calm down everbody i am not talking about donkeys)

 

[Customweld]

how do we change fish and games loose perspective on general season in idaho. i am all for opportunity, but never in spite of a herds health. i would like to see more limits or tagouts put in place and it seems like everybody i talk to in central idaho feels the same. it certainly does not seem democratic ( calm down everbody i am not talking about donkeys)

Every couple of years IFG puts out a survey asking hunters what they prefer. Every time, the same consensus is opportunity over quality. I think we forget that we on these forums are a small minority of the actual hunter numbers. I don’t know what the actual number is, but a lot of folks apparently don’t really mind the lower deer numbers so long as they get to go every year. There are so many facets to the declining mule deer herd. Hunting mortality is obviously a factor, but the carrying capacity and overall habitat health is the number one factor in herd health. I've said it before. We could completely close down hunting for 5 -10 years and one bad winter kill will set that all back.

 

[87TT]

Idaho DFG does what the majority of IDAHO residents want.

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

Is it a $$$ thing? Is it a "Rights" thing? Meaning a Tradition. It's what families Do each and every year?

I don't mean to come off as a Cry Baby. I'm not that spun up over it. As I said...I wanted to ramble, see new country. Enjoy the adventure and dirt bagging in my truck. I got all that. But I am overall simply floored at lack of mule deer. Kinda disturbing. But I have no base line to compare.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

I went last week for 3-4 days. Not your GMUs.

1/2 moon phase, hot: 20 minutes before sunrise 57 degrees, NO snow on the mountains, wolf in an adjacent drainage that we heard howling on the way out.

Everything working against good hunting conditions.

We went to 3-4 different spots that I picked. All good deer country. Had my 10x42 nocs and my big spotter 20-60x80. I glassed 2 mule deer doe and came across one buck when hiking a ridge but he was a small 3x3 maybe 2.5 year old? That's all I saw. Not true, I did come across 3-4 WTD when hiking to our first location but I don't have a WTD tag so not counting that.

Headed back out this coming week. Weather coming in. Weather should be much cooler. Hopefully some snow up high. New moon. Conditions seem much more favorable.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Is it a $$$ thing? Is it a "Rights" thing? Meaning a Tradition. It's what families Do each and every year?

I don't mean to come off as a Cry Baby. I'm not that spun up over it. As I said...I wanted to ramble, see new country. Enjoy the adventure and dirt bagging in my truck. I got all that. But I am overall simply floored at lack of mule deer. Kinda disturbing. But I have no base line to compare.

BUT, with the right weather conditions and getting closer to the rut that can change in a hurry.

 

[Customweld]

Is it a $$$ thing? Is it a "Rights" thing? Meaning a Tradition. It's what families Do each and every year?

I don't mean to come off as a Cry Baby. I'm not that spun up over it. As I said...I wanted to ramble, see new country. Enjoy the adventure and dirt bagging in my truck. I got all that. But I am overall simply floored at lack of mule deer. Kinda disturbing. But I have no base line to compare.

I don't think it's a money thing. I know people like to bash on IFG as being a bunch of money grubbers, but I don't think there are any nefarious motives to get rich selling deer tags. Don't get me wrong, I think there is plenty that they get wrong but in the end, they are beholden to the legislature. Who are in turn beholden (supposedly) to us.
I will give you my experience (as limited as it may be). My family had a lodge in Big Creek (Edwardsburg). My Great Uncle had one of the outfitter businesses based out of Cold Meadows and Cabin Creek. I spent a big portion of my youth )early to mid '80s) in the MF zones and in the FCW. The deer population was always low in those units. Sure, there were some in there but not to what people envision with a 180 class buck hiding behind every tree.

 

[Customweld]

I went last week for 3-4 days. Not your GMUs.

1/2 moon phase, hot: 20 minutes before sunrise 57 degrees, NO snow on the mountains, wolf in an adjacent drainage that we heard howling on the way out.

Everything working against good hunting conditions.

We went to 3-4 different spots that I picked. All good deer country. Had my 10x42 nocs and my big spotter 20-60x80. I glassed 2 mule deer doe and came across one buck when hiking a ridge but he was a small 3x3 maybe 2.5 year old? That's all I saw. Not true, I did come across 3-4 WTD when hiking to our first location but I don't have a WTD tag so not counting that.

Headed back out this coming week. Weather coming in. Weather should be much cooler. Hopefully some snow up high. New moon. Conditions seem much more favorable.

In some units, you can hang a regular deer tag on a wt as long as general season is open .

 

[IDMNT17]

CI just has a lot going against it these days. Boom of more resident hunters. Harsh winters or drought conditions. More development on wintering habitat. More options to take deer, youth hunts, extra youth tags, antlerless, and 2000 either sex tags right in the heart of the migration corridor. All that being said there are still mature bucks out there, but I highly doubt it will return to the days old.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

In some units, you can hang a regular deer tag on a wt as long as general season is open .

True. Mine is MD only.