No. Idaho Hunting
10-23-2015, 09:36 AM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Idaho
Posts: 11,703
No. Idaho Hunting
Not so good right now - anyway nothing like I would expect it to be this time of the year.
We are really warm and really dry. It is like walking on pop corn and the streams and water draws that you would expect to be moist are a dry. Then to make matters a little bit worse because of the lack of a freezing temperatures and the lack of wide spread water sources 'Blue Tongue" disease is attacking the whitetail causing a die off. And of course the area I am in is one of the hardest hit.
The rifle season opened 10/10 around here but I still use a ML during this season. But because of the weather and the fact that I can not hunt elk until December I did not start the season on the 10th. Finally on Thursday 10-22 I decided I might take a small walking trip to the woods in search of a whitetail with 'headgear'.
I went to an area that I have hunted for many years and normally has a good supply of whitetail along wit a few elk. Walked out my normal path along a ridge top then back under the ridge on the north side and along a normally wet draw below me. I thought for sure that I might jump something or bust something especially with the noise I was making walking.
But, it was an afternoon hunt so the walk really was nothing more than to get me to a saddle where I could sit and wait for the setting sun and hope that the deer might move across the ridge top in front of me or the open CRP field behind me. This is or their normal pattern.
Here is a couple pics showing the ambush point with the open ridge top in front of me. Plus my view of the CRP field.
In the normal situation animals cross these two area to access water - without water it isn't happening. But at least I got out for awhile and really enjoyed the time in the woods...
We are really warm and really dry. It is like walking on pop corn and the streams and water draws that you would expect to be moist are a dry. Then to make matters a little bit worse because of the lack of a freezing temperatures and the lack of wide spread water sources 'Blue Tongue" disease is attacking the whitetail causing a die off. And of course the area I am in is one of the hardest hit.
The rifle season opened 10/10 around here but I still use a ML during this season. But because of the weather and the fact that I can not hunt elk until December I did not start the season on the 10th. Finally on Thursday 10-22 I decided I might take a small walking trip to the woods in search of a whitetail with 'headgear'.
I went to an area that I have hunted for many years and normally has a good supply of whitetail along wit a few elk. Walked out my normal path along a ridge top then back under the ridge on the north side and along a normally wet draw below me. I thought for sure that I might jump something or bust something especially with the noise I was making walking.
But, it was an afternoon hunt so the walk really was nothing more than to get me to a saddle where I could sit and wait for the setting sun and hope that the deer might move across the ridge top in front of me or the open CRP field behind me. This is or their normal pattern.
Here is a couple pics showing the ambush point with the open ridge top in front of me. Plus my view of the CRP field.
In the normal situation animals cross these two area to access water - without water it isn't happening. But at least I got out for awhile and really enjoyed the time in the woods...
10-23-2015, 02:50 PM
#2
Spike
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 81
Dang buddy, I sure am sorry to hear that. We have the opposite problem here in the Southeast. I think that we went through 11 days of rain causing severe flooding and disease carrying mosquitoes in huge number to breed on the stagnate water. I wish you the best this season. BTW, that knight sure looks familiar.
10-24-2015, 04:13 PM
#7
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: River Ridge, LA (Suburb of New Orleans)
Posts: 10,917
We had a long hot dry spell down here in Louisiana also. I usually plant my food plots around the end of September. But at that time we'd had no rain for three weeks, so I delayed putting seed in the ground until there was a pretty sure rain forecast. Putting seed in dry ground without rain shortly after will almost guarantee the turkeys, crows and doves will wipe out your seedbed. Well, we still haven't had any rain. At last, there's a 90% chance of rain tomorrow and pretty high chances for the next few days after that. Got the seed down today with fingers crossed. Our season opens Nov. 14th., so there's plenty of time for good growth if the rains come as expected.
10-24-2015, 05:07 PM
#8
Banned
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: idaho
Posts: 2,773
I was hunting mulies in 39 today and the cooler weather last couple days has finally got them to start moving towards winter grounds. seen a lot of dead deer hanging in camps today, though I did not score. saw lots of deer ,just no decent bucks
