Newsletter 20 2-26-2008Howdy, Well, I can begin to see the light at the end of this winter's tunnel of darkness! We did have an actual winter this year with some pretty impressive snow accumulation but it came late enough that I don't expect it to significantly harm the game populations. I've finished up lion season since I last wrote and we wound up taking 6 lions for 7 hunters here in Idaho, one of which is an apparent Boone & Crockett qualifier. It will get officially scored in just a few weeks but with 5/16" of room to spare in its green score it should be no problem to make the book. I wish we could have been 100% on the lion hunts but the one unsuccessful hunter did get to see several lions in trees and he also took a nice bobcat. We treed a fairly small lion early in the hunt that he chose to pass on and then on another day we treed two small kittens that we were unaware were in the area. So he did at least have some excitement. I managed to get a bobcat myself on the last day of the season as well. I've updated the website with all of this year's cat pictures, they're all on page 14 of the photo gallery.
Here's a quick rundown on hunt availability for the next year: - Spring bear '08 is fully booked. - Still looking for a couple '08 elk hunters. - Could take a couple mule deer hunters in early November. - The last week of November (Thanksgiving) is booked for whitetails but there are still some openings the week prior which is also a good time. - Cat hunts for next winter are mostly booked but I will take up to 2 more lion hunters in January 2009.
Well that's about all I've got to report for now. Bear season is just around the corner so I'll probably be back in touch after that with some results for you. Hope all's well and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Clint Gray |
Newsletter 19 1-8-2008Howdy and Happy New Year! I figure I'm a little overdue on an update so here goes: The moose hunts went very well with both of our hunters taking nice mature bulls after looking over quite a few others. One of them took a nice 44" bull on the first day and then stuck around and took a nice chocolate bear too. It'll be time to apply for moose tags again in just a few months so if you're interested let me know. The deer season was brutally slow. Little or no snow and a gigantic bright moon with clear skies during the peak of the rut combined to make the whitetail hunting extremely frustrating. There were clearly a lot of extremely nice bucks out there but they were spread out and very nocturnal. If there's a silver lining to this year's miserable season it's that most of the mature bucks survived it and will be around next year. We had some excellent hunters in camp this year and over half of them have rebooked for next year despite the lack of deer cooperation this year. I appreciate their positive attitudes and faith and look forward to seeing them well rewarded with massive bucks next November! We had our first elk hunter in December. He came for the late archery season and Dan guided him while I was guiding lion hunters. He saw a big group of elk early in his hunt and also had a close encounter with a nice 5x5 bull but unfortunately went home empty-handed. There is a late archery whitetail season that runs concurrently with the elk season and he nearly connected with a very nice whitetail buck as well. What's archery hunting without a lot of close call stories! That December archery season for either deer or elk is really a prime opportunity that I haven't done much with in the past. I'm normally busy guiding lion hunters then but since Dan started doing an excellent job of guiding deer, elk and bear hunters for me the last couple years I would encourage you to strongly consider a hunt at that time. By then the deer are usually pushed out of the high country, concentrated fairly well, and they've let their guard down and seem less wary. We saw a lot of extremely nice bucks during this season. It also seems like we're seeing more and better mule deer bucks every year. In the past I've not been very encouraging to those of you who have expressed interest in mule deer but I'm changing my tune a little now. It would still be a physically demanding hunt and you still wouldn't see lots of deer, but if you are in good physical condition I think you'd have a reasonable chance of tagging a good buck. I'm about halfway through the lion season now and so far it couldn't have gone better. We had a group of 3 hunters (father and 2 sons) in December and all 3 took nice lions. I've had one more hunter since then and he also took a darn big tom. I have 3 more lion hunters still coming this winter. I'm hoping to get a few elk hunters booked for the coming fall. Dan and I have some good spots scouted out and we're looking forward to putting hunters on some bulls. If you're feeling lucky give us a try and we'll do our best to put a bull in your sites. Otherwise all's well here. Cherry and the kids are doing great. The kids are feeling pretty sorry for themselves because they had to start back to school yesterday but Cherry doesn't seem too sad about it! Jake got his first buck this year as well as filling an extra doe tag. Today I got the website updated with pictures from the moose, deer and lion hunts just mentioned. The new pictures are all on page 14 of the photo gallery. Hope you're all having a great winter and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Clint Gray Moose 2008Hello, Tomorrow (April 1) marks the beginning of the application period for an Idaho moose tag. You have until April 30th to complete the application. Last year was the first with the new 2-week season format. It really had no affect on us other than complicating the application process as we normally plan the moose hunts for 1 week anyway. Here's a table showing the units and seasons available in my guiding territory and the odds of drawing a bull tag for each based on last year's applicants. The hunts in unit 2 are also in my territory but I didn't include that information because the odds of drawing a tag are worse and I don't think the hunting is as good.
As you can see the odds for the earliest hunt are generally fairly high but I would advise avoiding that hunt. Generally it is still quite warm at that time, all the leaves are on the brush, there's little to no chance of snow on the ground, and there's little rut activity. The next 2 hunts (9/15-9/28 and 10/1-10/15) had the lowest odds and this is probably due to people trying to hunt the rut. These would be the best two hunts for someone interested in a rut hunt. The rut hunts are exciting but most of the leaves are still on and there's not a great chance of having snow to help so visibility is still limited. Grunting in a bull is a thrill but it's also time-consuming and it's not unusual to invest a couple hours or more calling in a bull only to find out that it's a little fella. You should have the opportunity to look over the most moose, and consequently have the best odds of taking a true trophy, if you draw a tag for one of the last 3 hunts. The rut will be mostly over but that's more than compensated for by the improved visibility. Almost all of my whitetail hunts take place during the last moose season offered so that can make it logistically difficult for me to guide moose hunters at that time so I'd suggest applying for either the 10/15-10/28 season or the 11/1-11/14 season. If you just like the sounds of the latest season or if it's the only one that would work with your schedule then go ahead and apply, we can make it work. All 3 areas are excellent moose areas. We live in Area 1-2 and 1-4 begins just 100 yards from here so they are the simplest to hunt logistically. They give the most tags for 1-1 and it's only about a 45 minute drive. If I were applying for a tag myself I would be equally happy with a tag in any of these areas. If you want to apply for a cow tag your choices are much simpler: Area 1-1, hunt #3126 had drawing odds of 16% last year and is the hunt I would suggest. Area 2, hunt #3127 had drawing odds of 14%. As far as the mechanics of applying for a tag go, you must first purchase an Idaho hunting license and then you can apply for the tag. The following link will take you to a page with the application worksheet as well as links to purchase the hunting license: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/ch/apply.cfm The application deadline is April 30th. Results of the draw will be out by at least June 10th, and usually it's considerably earlier than that. Let me know if you have any questions and Good Luck! Clint Gray Newsletter 18 10-7-2007Hello, Hope you've already got a good hunt or two under your belt this fall. It's starting to look like hunting season around here with the trees changing color and snow in the high country. We had an early moose hunter and he took a nice 44" bull the first day out and then stuck around for a few days and tagged a bear too. I've been keeping an eye on the pool of nonresident deer tags and they're really disappearing fast now. If you want to hunt deer in Idaho this fall you'd better get your tag purchased immediately. It may already be too late as Fish and Game always has a bit of lag time before getting their website updated with the current information. Assuming you can still get a tag I do still have good dates available in November. Clint Gray Newsletter 17 9-13-2007Hello, I just wanted to drop a quick note to remind everyone that deer tags are still available for nonresidents in Idaho...but they may not be for much longer. They've opened up the pool of nonresident tags to anyone wishing to purchase a second deer tag and they're starting to go fast so if you'd like to hunt deer in Idaho this fall it's probably a good time to get yourself a tag nailed down. I've still got a few excellent rut-hunt dates open to help you put that tag to good use as well! Wish you all a fun and successful fall. Sincerely, Clint Gray
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