Monday, September 29, 2008

Bugling Bulls Part 2

Over the weekend I was out chasing bulls. Action was fast and furious. In two days I saw over 68 head of elk and approximately 15 bulls. The biggest bull I saw was a whopper. I estimated him to have a B&C score of between 330 and 340. This bull had two satellite bulls near his heard that were both six points! I saw these two bulls fighting and the herd bull just sat and watched.


I got up close and personal to this herd bull, 68 yards. I could see his rack just going back and forth over some brush. I needed to close the distance but the wind and an errant cow that came up from behind me ruined that chance. I was close (125 yards) to these elk for approximately 4 hours but just didn't get a shot.

I also saw 13 deer with only one decent 4x4 this is a permit area so it was a no go on the deer. I also saw 2 moose.





Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Yaak Whitetails, 80 degrees, and the Bull and Bitterroot Rivers

Hi all I've decided to start posting again. I had take a small break from writing and am now back on it!

Over this past weekend drove up to the Yaak to scout out some Whitetails. The hot weather, over 80 degrees watching the field as the sun went down, kept the whitetails down and in heavier cover. We did manage to see some deer but not the trophy caliber that we were hoping for. So when it’s hot and the animals aren’t moving what do you do? Fish!

We went down to the lower Bull River and then hit the Bitterroot river. The Bull was low but in the lower reaches the fish though few in number did rise to hoppers. My two best fish were a cutthroat at 17 inches and a nice plump brown that went 21 inches. To tell you that I wasn’t surprised to see him come out of the depths of the Bull would be a lie. I was expecting little fish but plentiful fish. So when I saw this guy come up to gulp my hopper I was surprised to say the least.

Fishing new water can sometimes be a humbling experience. I was with a friend of mine I have known for over 20 years and hadn’t seen in probably 15 years. Way too long. But like most guys time makes no difference. Well maybe some gray hair and a few more inches around the waistline. We just picked up where we left off.

We hit the Bitterroot with the expectation of a big hatch and a cloudy day; perfect conditions. The water was very flat and glass like, leaders were long and thin. We managed to make a good day out of it with fish averaging 17-19 inches. We caught and released over a dozen fish, mostly rainbows and cutthroats. Fish were rising regularly and gulping tricos to start and then. We cast throughout the day to pods of fish most were finicky some were not. A long float with few boats on the water.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Bugling Bulls


I was out hunting public land for the opening weekend of archery season. The good news was I saw lots of elk; the bad news was I didn’t get one tagged! I did see one bull harvested, a 5x5 taken by a gentleman from Butte. According to him, “it came in on a string”, from his partners calling, “Just like Outdoor TV”.

I did see over 23 elk that weekend and of those 9 were bulls, two were over 300 points with the largest one pushing 330. This area is a general season area open to all those willing to put in some hard work and get out there and find the elk. If you look at the video I misspoke and said I saw 23 bulls I meant to say elk.

The elk were talking in the morning and in the evenings with not much in between. This should change as the month progresses.

If you don’t have a spot to go use the RAM maps to find some promising areas and take out your binoculars and spotting scopes and head to the woods. Be sure to use the elk distribution overlay Region 3 is in general over objective and has the largest herd of elk in Montana.