My 2022 summer/fall

[Naches Sportsman]

2022 has been an adventurous year for me. The year started off with me working in 40 below temperatures watching fireworks being lit off by Alaskans ringing in the new year while I was out freezing my ass off loading planes for the next day’s flights to remote Alaskan villages. A rotator cuff injury up in Alaska forced me to come back down in late February to rehab and get myself ready for my normal job to start in March. Late March and April arrives and I quickly get in shape while still nursing my bum shoulder. I had two goals for this summer while I quickly relearned the area I was to work in. The first goal was harvesting a mature mule deer out of Northern Idaho  and the second goal was to get myself an opportunity to shoot a bull elk out of a zone that has seen a sharp decline from predators and loss of habitat for elk for a herd that is sitting about 15% of what numbers it used to hold.

As the snow came off of the high country, which seemed like a long time for it to ever come off, I was out climbing hills and hiking whenever I got tired of fly fishing an awesome cutthroat and bull trout fishery that I am fortunate to have out my summer office back door. Scouting trips turned up a lot of mule deer and elk sign and I was thoroughly impressed with the fawn and calf recruitment that I saw. I didn’t see a single wolf until an early mid June day while driving down river for work. Once Memorial Day hit, it feels like summer was a blur. Another summer that I really didn’t get to “enjoy”. I didn’t have 2 day weekends except for the times I was required to take mandatory days off as I hit my work limits. 6-13 day weeks were the norm and some of my “weekends” were spent assisting the public with Medicals and SAR’s as the nearest help is 1.5 hours away. I can honestly say outside of work, I was able to scout 2 days this summer in areas I wanted to check out. A lot of my scouting missions occurred on my weekly evening beer run into the closest town in another state.

September arrived and the daylight started to dwindle. I was often working dawn to dusk as the woods were dry as a bone until September 21st. As September came, so did the rut. A couple of workers and I often spent many mornings and nights practicing our calling and getting out on UTVs as often as we could to take advantage on an awesome grouse year. Awesome doesn’t describe exactly how many grouse I have seen this year. It truly has been the best year I’ve ever seen for grouse numbers anywhere I have worked or lived. Many dinners cooked on the bbq consisted of that evenings grouse that we harvested. We saw a few elk and bulls here and there, but not the numbers that were here 25 years ago as the old timers told us many stories around the campfire of them watching elk herds come down the ridges morning and evening to get to the river. On those same ridges, we saw 100 elk all summer long and a few mule deer here and there accompanied by the black bears.

Late September arrived and my pre season scouting plans were eliminated with having to go up North for work and not retuning until October 9th. Between September and then, I didn’t get a chance to keep tabs on the bulls I was watching in September and those bulls quickly disappeared with wolves retuning to the area. I didn’t see a single fresh elk track along the river or up in the aspens on the mtn the elk were hanging out at. I wasn’t disappointed and kept my head up knowing these elk are truly smarter than I will ever be.

Opening day arrived and I had 3 paid admin days off to hunt before I had to take some annual off for a wedding and to go back to WA to help with apple harvest. I hunted hard those 3 days turning up a lot of mule deer, but was holding out for a 4 point or better buck. I saw elk all 3 days, but with the weather in the mid 60s and the lows getting into the mid 40s, I made the decision not to pursue any bulls unless they were a mile or less from a road. This country will eat a man alive if you don’t have goats, horses, or mules to get an elk out in those temps. I was able to make it back over on the 22nd and 23rd to look for mule deer and elk and ended up seeing more bears (11) and wolves (3) than I did elk. I didn’t get a shot opportunity on the wolves. Again, I was unable to turn up a 4 point or better mule deer buck. The next weekend arrived and I set out Saturday to hunt hard one final day going back into areas I knew that elk might be pushed in with the foot of heavy snow up high. I had one opportunity in the morning, but the cows wouldn’t get out of the way to present a shot opportunity in the 6 point bull that was with them. Mid day came and I needed a rest after climbing 2000 feet that morning so went and glassed areas in the snow looking for mule deer. Nothing was moving. I hit another area right before dark after cutting fresh elk tracks on the road and quickly gained 1500 feet in elevation in less than 30 minutes. Daylight was dwindling, but the elk were talking. I found myself on a hillside with another 6 cows and a bull, but didn’t feel comfortable taking a shot. I walked back to my truck and made the 2.5 hour drive back to my place in town reflecting on another elk season gone in this zone, but thinking about all the close encounters I had and the successfulness of even getting close to elk in this country. Many people get tags for here and don’t see a single elk all season.

The night arrived and since I had the general deer tag, I was debating on whether or not I would continue to hold out for a Northern Idaho mulie, or take the drive out to my white tail honey hole in the morning. My alarms started going off the next morning around 0400. I continued to hit snooze until my 0500 when I said to myself “you won’t shoot a deer unless you get out and hunt.” I got out of bed and decided I’d be perfectly fine with taking a white tail buck as I didn’t want to drive up north. I made it to my parking spot at 0615 and didn’t quite make it to my stump before daylight aooroached. Right at shooting light, a shooter white tail buck appeared but he saw me and quickly ducked into the edge of the commercial thin unit. I continued to make my way up the road running into does and fawns until I got to my stump. As I was sitting on my stump, I checked in with a few buddies and a hunt wa buddy. I texted the hunt wa buddy and said “I don’t know how you can white tail hunt as I don’t have the patience for it.” 5 minutes after I texted him, I decided to leave the stump and walk into an old burn unit where I had a camera for 4 years. As I was working my way up, I bumped a doe and 2 fawns. I continued working my way up to a rock and once I was at the rock, I saw a white tail buck cruising on the tail of that doe. I immediately saw the antlers and said I’m taking him. 1 shot with the .243 later, I texted a few buddies and the hunt wa member saying “buck down”. After about 5 minutes I paced my distance from the shot to the deer and the shot came out to 61 yards. I wasn’t too sure what kind of a buck I shot until I got up to him and was happy as he’s my best white tail out of this state in the 5 years I’ve hunted here.

Deer and elk season may be over, but I filled one goal in getting encounters at elk. I come away happy knowing I gave ‘er hell in the 6 days I had to hunt for mule deer and shot a nice white tail buck. My Mule deer goal will carry into next year. This hunting season allowed me to increase my knowledge of what critters live in the area I work and got some good intel for biologists I stay in contact with. There is not much information one can get from IDFG and other bios as I never ever saw any of them on the ground or any of their trucks in the unit I hunted for elk and deer.

Take aways from the zone/unit I work in and hunted:

1.) many non residents buy this tag and don’t do their homework thinking it’s an easy area. They’re wrong
2.) many hunters will come up to you since it’s apparent you work out there and ask what areas they should hit up for elk.-sorry that’s like asking if they can have rights to your significant other.
3.)very few people actually get off the roads and hunt hard in this zone.
4.)non residents and residents come out here and aren’t prepared for the weather (SAR was called for one bear hunter)
5.) there are dead zones in this unit
6.) bios don’t know if this unit was affected by Ehd last year as they never surveyed for it
7.) the guys who have all season to hunt and do their homework are successful for elk-usually the same camps
8.) you need to be able to hunt consecutive days to be able to keep track of the elk in this unit as they’re constantly  the move
9.) IDFG gives out way too many moose tags for this zone as I really didn’t see many moose or moose sign this year (seen about 4 dozen moose and only 1 shooter bull)
10.) in my opinion, in the unit I hunted this year in this zone, I think there’s a 3:2 mule deer to white tail ratio. The other unit I’ve mostly just seen white tail.
11.) more elk around the burn scars than in the untreated areas.


I put all my cameras out and if I can find means to get out there, I plan on trapping this winter when I’m laid off. There’s still wolves running around even though the wolf numbers aren’t as high as they used to be.

If you recognize this area, don’t say a word on here about it. My beer is always cold if any of you come fly fishing up here next year.


Attached in multiple posts are the photos I’m willing to share from a few of my highlights from the summer and my deer

[Naches Sportsman]

Steeper then it looks and in my opinion a lot harder to hunt and hike around in than southern Idaho due to the vegetation type.

[Naches Sportsman]

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[Naches Sportsman]

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[Naches Sportsman]

Couple other critters I saw while hunting this year.

[Naches Sportsman]

Winter really started to settle in up high and the best thing about fishing out here is you can have tight lines about all time time. Even in the fall.

[Naches Sportsman]

Another angle of the buck. He’s got more mass and a rack than the pictures do justice.

[redi]

Wow! Great write up and photos. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

[Dan-o]

Wow! Great write up and photos. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

X2

Exactly that!

[Naches Sportsman]

I did forget to mention that I talked to someone most folks have seen in some popular movies, a few retired athletes, and a person very popular in the fishing/hunting social media industry. All were a pleasure to meet and drink beer as well as give them some intel on fly fishing!

[Mfowl]

Nice post and buck! Thanks for sharing!

[bobcat]

Very nice buck! Congratulations!

[jackelope]

Great write up and nice buck. Thanks for sharing.

[hike2hunt]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. You sound like a true conservationists. Good luck and tight lines.

[Naches Sportsman]

Very nice buck! Congratulations!

@bobcat thanks for fixing my pictures. Screen shotted all of them since I keep my GPS on my phone on all the time for mapping purposes and didn’t want to share the locations.