I haven’t put a post on the blog in several days because I have been in Idaho and I don’t like to advertise the fact that I’m not home. For three years I have tried to make a trip to Idaho and in 2018 and 2019 something came up to stop me. This year there was time and the weather, as far as I checked, would be good.
One of the places I hunted.
Another view.
The Snake River in the background.
June went with me nd we left our house about 5:00 am Sunday morning and drove about a 1,000 miles to Green River Wyoming before stopping for the night. I thought I would be able to get to the place I wanted to go in time to go by the Idaho Game and Fish office before they closed for the day. The office wasn’t at the address we had for them but we happened to see the sign for the office as we drove along another road.
Okay, I thought, I will buy a license and get some information about where I should hunt. There were no cars in the parking lot but I bravely donned my mask as I got to the door. Closed. Today is Columbus Day. Being a retired guy, I hardly know what day of the week it is let alone Columbus Day. I didn’t even know it was considered a holiday.
The dogs had been in their boxes for most of two days so I dropped June at the hotel and drove to where there was a lot of Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) land. Everything I had read about Idaho was just find a little canyon with a creek and trees growing along it and you will find California quail. I drove by hundreds of acres of BLM land with no changes in the landscape. Flat land with low growing shrubs. No creeks and no trees.
Finally, I just turned all 6 dogs out on some BLM land and we walked around for about an hour just to run a little energy out of them. Before I turned them out a local man and his wife stopped and talked for a few minutes. When he found out I was quail hunting he said just go into the desert, there were quail there. I thought this was the desert.
After letting the dogs run for about an hour we went back to the truck. I had a chain gang with me and some long stakes. I put the chain gang out and hooked the dogs to it after driving the stakes into the ground on each end. As I got the dog food ready for them the dogs pulled one of the stakes out of the ground. They were tangled but I got them straightened out and drove the stake into ground again.
A water fall near where I was hunting.
I went back to getting the food ready and again they were loose and tangled. I got them lined back up and the stake drove into the ground and finished getting the food ready. I passed the food out and Abby ate hers real fast and pulled one of the stakes out trying to get to Josie’s food. I straightened them out again and put Abby in her box. As each of the others finished, I put them in their box and went back to the motel.
Tuesday morning I was waiting for the Idaho Fish and Game office to open at 8:00 am. At exactly 8:00 am I walked in and asked if I could buy a license and then asked to speak with someone that knew about upland hunting in Idaho. A nice lady came out and tried to show me a couple of places to try on my Idaho Atlas.
The first one she showed me I asked if it was very large. There was a lady listening to our conversation and she shook her head no but the lady I was talking to said, “yes, it’s pretty big”.
Boss pointed it but I couldn’t get it to fly.
I drove toward where I thought she had told me and I got close. I saw a Sheriff’s officer setting in a parking lot and talked to him. I was close just needed to go a little farther in the direction I had been going.
There was a fish hatchery on this place and houses all around. I never saw a spot large enough to turn my dogs loose. As I was looking it over I met a Conservation agent, along the road. When I asked him about California quail he said I would do better at another area that was close to this one. He gave me directions.
This is the desert and there is no reason to have roads to a lot of these areas. I tried to follow his directions but that didn’t work. He had given me a brochure to the next place and I finally went all the way back to the interstate and followed the direction on the brochure. That worked, I got there.
I walked up the hill a long way thinking this was a dog on point. It wasn’t.
It was an area 2 1/2 miles long with the Snake river on one side and a large bluff on the other. The hunt able land was from a quarter of a mile wide to about a half mile. The land rose a a pretty steep angle from the river to the base of the bluff. But it was plenty of room for my dogs.
I drove all the way to the back to make sure no one else was hunting the place. I came back about midway and parked. I turned Mann, Sally and Josie out with E-collars and GPS collars.
This place has several ponds as well as some small creeks running into the Snake river. Also at the very back was a large water fall with the water going straight to the Snake river. There is also a small canal running from east to west through this area. Plenty of water for the dogs and for quail.
All the way out the wind had been in the 40 mile an hour range from the west. There were warnings along the interstate that it was unsafe for high profile, light weight vehicles. The wind was still very strong.
The first birds we had any contact with were pheasants. The season on pheasants didn’t open until Saturday, October 17. I would be on my way home. With the wind so strong and everything rattling the birds were really wild.
Another shot of the badger.
The first bird was a rooster pheasant and when I saw it Sally was right behind. I don’t know whether she tried to point it or just ran through it. Josie saw the pheasant and followed. She had been hunting but this fired her up. She and Abby are a little over a year old and haven’t had many wild bird contacts. Boss is just 7 months old. They all need wild birds.
As we hunted on down, Mann pointed along the edge of a thick thicket. He was on the east side and I was on the west. As I got close to the edge of the thicket I heard a covey of quail flush out the other side. I never saw a bird.
We went on toward the east, to the end, then started back. I had walked about 200 yards to the west when I felt the GPS handheld vibrate. Sally was on point to the east. When we had turned she hadn’t come with us. I went back to her. When I got close a single quail flushed about 40 yards from me without drawing a shot. My first glimpse of a California quail this trip.
Abby pointing a pigeon. I ran out of pictures on the first day.
We hunted around the area but didn’t find anymore quail. We hunted back to the truck. Although the dogs moved some more pheasants we never had another point. When we got to the truck I loaded the dogs.
I had three BLM maps and I wanted to find the canyon with a small creek with tall trees growing along the edge. So we drove.
I drove a long way without seeing anything resembling what I wanted. Finally, knowing I had some dogs that hadn’t been out I stopped where the map of the BLM area said there was a small lake. I turned Mann, Abby and Boss out with their GPS and e-collars on.
Mann on point with Abby honoring.
This area looked like it had been burned off and some sort of grass planted. The grass had a small seed head on it. Looked good to me. When I got to the lake it was dry and had been for many years, looked like. As we worked around a little I noticed Boss on point.
As I walked toward him he moved a short distance to the side and went back on point. There was something funny about his point. He moved several times as I walked toward him. When I got close I could see he was looking down into a dry creek. He was pointing a badger. Boss acted like he wanted to go into the dry creek and then he would back up. I took a couple of pictures of the badger and we left.
By the time we got back to the truck it was getting late. I drove to a place where I could stake the dogs out with leashes instead of using the chain gang and fed them. With a wish that the next day would not be as windy, I drove to the motel. If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.