Idaho 2018/19 winter

[idahohikker]

Yeah, surveys were bad. Success rates were bad. That '17 winner was nasty. This one is looking up a little bit. I'm thinking about average to slightly above average fawn survival and not enough winter to hurt older deer, unlike '17.

 

[robby denning]

I can’t speak for all, but for some of the eastern Idaho units the recommendation to cut either sex hunts came from the Biologists after aerial surveys were complete.

For The Upper Snake Region to recommend these changes it must have been pretty bad.

Also these counts were done before the winter really turned nasty....

Yes you’re right. And only two years late


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[downthepipe]

I work for the state. The trouble in working in government is your damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If you make decisions without science (cut tags without completed studies) you are criticized for not having science to back up your anecdotal evidence or your emotions. If you take action after having some science but it takes two years, you didn’t use common sense and you are slow to the ballgame. Tough deal.

 

[FlyGuy]

No,from feeding that morning,they are pretty tame right now.

Is that a collar on that cow, front right of the bottom photo?


You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[IdahoElk]

Is that a collar on that cow, front right of the bottom photo?


You can’t cheat the mountain

Yeah, F&G collars some cows every few years to monitor their movement,It's truly amazing the ground they can cover in a few days,some of these Elk are 30 miles away from here in the summer.

 

[Mike 338]

Where I keep my mules, every winter we commonly have over 100+ elk come down and eat the hay in the horse feeders. Hardly any this year. Not gonna read to much into it. They had plenty of time to migrate down. I'd think that they'd be here if they were able.

 

[Robert W]

Very interesting..thanks for sharing this.

 

[idahohikker]

http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID37/3557.html

Bleak report coming out of Sun Valley area.

 

[downthepipe]

Now we have the delicate dance of wanting some snow to melt, but slowly........

 

[Broomd]

Wife and I went down to the lake for some ice fishing today. We've been watching five does fighting through this last month of deep snow and cold temps.
Two were dead today that weren't yesterday; three left.
My opinion is purely anecdotal, but I suspect that we'll lose 15% to 20% of the whitetail deer herd--mostly fawns and smaller deer--due to this last tough stretch of Winter. Overall half the deer we are seeing are in really tough shape. My winterkill estimation may be substantially low, too.

Warmer temps are coming this week but these last cold nights and remaining deep, crusty snow are wreaking havoc on starving, weak deer right at the finish line.
Sad scenario.

 

[bluetick78]

I feel the same way about where we'll be when winter finally ends across the state. In the valleys, it has been nice for the last few days, but it's still very much winter if you gain any elevation. I've been watching 2 different herds on private land. One herd had 19 deer in January, the other had 11. Now we have 8 and 6 respectively. All the casualties have been in the last 10 days. There is a good chance, in East Idaho at least, that we will have less deer this fall than we had in '17. The F&G will try to church it up and tell sportsmen that the deer are just "high and scattered", but I believe they are in real trouble.

 

[BeaverHunter]

I talked to a buddy of mine that is a biologist in the Idaho Falls office. He thinks this years winter is going to be almost as bad as 2 years ago for the fawn survival. That will make 2 out of the last 3 that have been rough. He said this warm up that’s happening is too little too late.

 

[Casual Poacher]

I talked to a buddy of mine that is a biologist in the Idaho Falls office. He thinks this years winter is going to be almost as bad as 2 years ago for the fawn survival. That will make 2 out of the last 3 that have been rough. He said this warm up that’s happening is too little too late.

Only the strong survive.

 

[Broomd]

I talked to a buddy of mine that is a biologist in the Idaho Falls office. He thinks this years winter is going to be almost as bad as 2 years ago for the fawn survival. That will make 2 out of the last 3 that have been rough. He said this warm up that’s happening is too little too late.

Yep, I'd say based on what we're seeing he is 100% correct. Too little too late.
Unfortunately this kill won't stop many from planning a deer hunt in the hard-hit areas.

F&G would never sacrifice revenue for the sake of the herd.

 

[jlaner0408]

I feel the same way about where we'll be when winter finally ends across the state. In the valleys, it has been nice for the last few days, but it's still very much winter if you gain any elevation. I've been watching 2 different herds on private land. One herd had 19 deer in January, the other had 11. Now we have 8 and 6 respectively. All the casualties have been in the last 10 days. There is a good chance, in East Idaho at least, that we will have less deer this fall than we had in '17. The F&G will try to church it up and tell sportsmen that the deer are just "high and scattered", but I believe they are in real trouble.

As someone who wasn’t here for the ‘17 winter and didn’t experience the winter kill first hand, I think this fall might be more about chasing bulls and looking for the elusive 200” Robby Denning type buck in Eastern Idaho rather than just going after a mature 3+ year old. It’s always great to just be out there looking for them, but it makes you really think twice about pulling triggers when the herd is hanging in such a delicate balance.

 

[Idahohillboy]

The three states that currently seem to have the best deer herds are Co, Nv, and now Ut (can’t believe I just wrote that) and they all manage hunters with some type of cap per unit or zone.


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I wish Idaho would do this??? Idfag where ya at this would make hunting so less crowded as well.

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[Idahohillboy]

Fyi for what its worth. Wood River Valley has the highest recorded snowfall since 1967 when they began recording it for Feb and March. So.. 49, 36, 48, 43 and other surounding units are going to he hit hard. Sad because there are so few good bucks up there compared to 4 or 5 years ago I spend about 20 days or more in the field there during archery and general rifle.

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[pumatom]

Tons of snow still on the ground
Very grim ahead for the deer herd

 

[idelkslayer]

https://idfg.idaho.gov/press/most-r...-elk-calves-survived-unusually-snowy-february

IDFG has published some preliminary winter kill data. So far the winter kill is not as bad as 2016/17 but it is only March and the toughest couple months are just starting. Hopefully the mild early winter allowed the deer to hang on to more of their fat reserves to see them through the end of winter and early spring.

 

[robby denning]

https://idfg.idaho.gov/press/most-r...-elk-calves-survived-unusually-snowy-february

IDFG has published some preliminary winter kill data. So far the winter kill is not as bad as 2016/17 but it is only March and the toughest couple months are just starting. Hopefully the mild early winter allowed the deer to hang on to more of their fat reserves to see them through the end of winter and early spring.

Thanks for the link. better than what we've been hearing, until I got to this part: “But if for some reason we get a weather system that is cloudy, cold, and wet, and we don’t get that spring green up on south-facing slopes, we could be in for some additional mortality,” Meints said.

and then checked the weather and we're heading back into the storms for another week. Getting dicey