Decisions

It's that time of year again for submitting applications for the fall controlled hunts.  An added bonus this year though is that my daughter is also putting in.  The other night we sat down and went over harvest statistics, drawing odds, and regulations.  We narrowed it down to a few different units for both elk and deer.  As you can see from the pictures she was really deep in thought on narrowing down her final decision.

We finally were able to make a decision though and she put in for a youth elk hunt, and a trophy deer hunt.

She is really excited about this fall, and I hope she is lucky enough to draw one of her tags.  Even if she doesn't though, there is plenty of hunting opportunities for her on general season tags.  Not to mention bird hunting this fall.  We'll be hitting the trap club early before the fall upland game season starts.  Besides my oldest daughter, my 10 year old daughter will also be able to hunt birds...so I will be one busy dad this coming fall!

Spring fishing

Last weekend was our first spring fishing trip of the year.  As usual for our first trip we headed up to Horsethief Reservoir, which is a nice little lake just east of Cascade, Idaho.  The fishing was good, and more importantly the kids had a great time.  The weather has sent us with our tail between our legs more then once while we've been fishing here, but we lucked out this time and only had a few scattered showers.

Also some good news was that the dock was out.  The shoreline isn't too bad, but the kids have a lot easier time fishing from the dock.  Usually we catch at least one brown trout while spring fishing but not this time, all rainbows.  Fish and Game was scheduled to stock the lake with 20,000 catchable trout the next day, so that was one reason why we went the day before.  I like my trout to be pink...not white.  It was a good trip, and we all had fun.

Spring bear finale

If you've been reading along on my blog I mentioned a few months ago that I was lucky enough to draw a spring controlled hunt bear tag here in Idaho.  This is the first time I've solely went after a bear, and I was doing it in country I was totally unfamiliar with.  My control hunt started on April 1st, but I didn't get up into the woods till the 22nd.  Which when I got up there still seemed like it was a bit early as there was still quite a bit of snow up at the higher elevations, 5500+.  I took my 10 year old daughter with me the first time as I was basically just scouting the areas and getting a feel for the road systems up there, and how far I could go up before snow stopped me.  She was quite a trooper battling through the snow patches, and putting the smack down on the ticks she got on her, which are starting to be plentiful.  They were on us, and on our gear.  But we were able to come home without any stragglers.

This last Sunday I asked my 11 year old (almost 12) if she wanted to go with me, and that was a no brainer, she loves to get out in the woods with the old man.  We went farther north then the previous weekend and scouted a few areas, and finally decided on a drainage that looked good.  It didn't take long to run into elk, mule deer, and lots of turkey sign (I may have to head back to this area in the next few weeks and see if I can call in a nice tom).  We found a nice bear rub too were he (or she) had worked a tree over pretty good.  We found a few good vantage points and did some glassing for a few hours.  No bears, but plenty of other critters.  Bull elk, and muley bucks were just starting to get their growth, and from 500+ yards away they had no idea we were there.  We watched 6 herds of elk on open hillsides that were miles away across the canyon.

My daughter was really excited at how much she could see glassing that we could not see with the naked eye.  The woods are alive with a lot of animals, if you look hard enough.  She devoted a lot of time on the binos looking for Yogi, but nothing was happening, no sign of him.

It was pretty relaxing glassing and sitting in the sun with no noise but the wind blowing, the birds chirping, and the drumming of rough grouse.  Which is pretty loud, and quite amazing to listen too.  I'll have to keep this area in mind come grouse season.

Evening was rolling around so we decided we'd better start heading back out of the woods.  It was around 7pm when we saw this brute running full bore out of the woods across a clearing.  We were able to intercept him about the time he settled down and started his head back down to feed.  I put a solid hit on him in the shoulder and saw him buckle, yet he still turned around and started heading back from where he had come from...I led him right on his chest at 100 yards and put another one into him that sent him rolling...tough critters.  It's truly amazing when a hunt comes together and is successful, which it was on many fronts on this day when I was able to have my daughter along with me for it.  We walked up on him and were taken back at how cool these guys are.  He was a nice boar with a white patch on his chest.  My daughter was a great help with skinning and quartering him out, and we were able to get off the mountain and back to the car by 930pm, and back to home a little after midnight.

I took the meat into the butcher today to have some summer sausage made.  I'm looking forward to getting it back, and I know my kiddos will love it cause that's how they roll.  I'll probably just have the hide tanned and the skull bleached.  Rugs are a pricey item, I think I'll wait for that 6 footer before I consider doing that.  What a great adventure this was, and can't wait for the next one.