Deer Hunting 2024

November 2024

The last time my dad and I had hunted together was 2021 when we both had moose tags. My dad was now retired and it was time to once again start logging some serious father son time in the woods. This years deer hunt would hopefully be the start of some great trips together again.

The in-laws had drawn some mule deer tags in the area and they were extra excited to chase big mule deer bucks. My dad and I grabbed general whitetail tags, for the area held both species. 

Rick, Trevor and Alex started their hunt a few days earlier than my dad and I. By the end of the third day, both Alex and Rick had harvested their deer.

My dad and I arrived in camp, regretful we had missed out on the experience of the 2 bucks already harvested. However, with more snow in the forecast and the rut just starting, we were optimistic the hunting would only get better. 

My first morning found me walking the edge of a canyon; the same edge I harvested my last whitetail buck. It turned into an extremely productive morning with many deer spotted, gobbling flocks of turkeys, a bobcat, a pass on a medium sized buck and another buck giving me the slip. Hopefully I wouldn't regret passing on the first buck this early in the trip, but I was after a quality deer and that buck just didn't get me that excited.

(bobcat in center)

I also found a promising scrape where I set a trail camera to see what other deer were in the area. 

That evening, my dad and I watched a large open area. 45 minutes before dark, we saw the movement of some running deer. Our binoculars were up immediately, spotting a large buck chasing a doe. This doe must have been in heat because more bucks started to show up. One of the bucks was an absolute giant! Knowing we had little time, I told my dad we needed to go after them. We crept our way from bush to bush, trying to stay undetected to cut the distance. We reached a spot where I feared any further movement would spook all the deer. In my haste to cut the distance, I had left my rangefinder behind. I guessed we were 350 yards from the big buck. My dad was having a difficult time seeing and differentiating the deer, even in his scope. I didn't think we could get any closer and darkness was quickly approaching so I got comfortable for a shot. I centered on the giant buck and took my shot. BOOOOM! The deer disappeared. Did I drop him? Then he appeared again, coming out from behind a nearby bush. BOOOOM! I shot again, and the buck just stood there. BOOOOM! He walked a little further away. BOOOOM! Where were my shots landing? I was disgusted. My gun was now empty, and I had also forgotten any extra shells back with my rangefinder. Was this even the same buck? Another nice buck appeared. It had turned into chaos. My dad handed me his gun but I knew the whole scenario was just bad. There were several nice bucks chasing the same doe in the same clump of bushes. Had I dropped the first big buck? I didn't want to risk shooting 2 deer so I handed my dads rifle back to him. I needed to make sure I didn't have a dead deer over there. We started walking towards the area and most of the deer just stood staring at us. This was when I learned one of the many lessons this chain of events would teach me; a doe in heat will make even the wariest bucks, downright stupid. The bucks all looked at each other, daring one another to leave this doe. They were absolutely twitter-patted. It was obvious now, we could have closed a lot more distance on these deer because they were so distracted by the doe. We reached the clump of bushes where there MIGHT be a dead deer. No blood or any evidence my shots had hit any deer to be found. I felt sick for squandering a prime opportunity at a really giant deer. So many lessons learned: always keep your rangefinder on you, always carry spare shells, practice shooting your rifle at further distances and rutted up deer will allow you to get closer than you think. I was shooting my .243; a newer gun for me and a rifle I had never practiced shooting more than 200 yards. Had I bumped the scope? Either way, I was glad I had brought another rifle; my trusty 30-06; a gun I have practiced out to further ranges. Disgusted in myself, we went back to camp.  

The following morning we decided to repeat the same productive walk along the canyon edge I had done previously. Excited to show my dad lots of great country, we set off early and were into deer in no time. We slowly crept along the top, peering ahead and down into the many cuts, ridges and small benches. Whitetail deer are nearly impossible to sneak up on, and this morning was no exception. No matter how slow we walked and intently scanned with our eyes, deer would suddenly show in front of us, already spooked from our presence. Regardless, we pushed on, hoping to luck out. 

We were nearly 2/3 of the way to the end of our walk when I looked ahead and spotted a deer. Luckily the deer was still a few hundred yards away and hadn't noticed us yet. To the naked eye it appeared to be a small buck. My binoculars confirmed this so we started our stalk. We closed the distance to 200 yards from the deer where a large rock made a great gun rest. My dad settled in for the shot. BOOOOM! The deer jolted and hunched and then took off running, quickly disappearing from view. 

The shot appeared to be lethal but we still waited 30 minutes before approaching the area. The deer had been standing in 10-20 inch tall, tan grass. It took a while to find where the deer had been standing when hit but we eventually did and there was a small amount of blood.

We followed the small blood trail through the grass but it wasn't easy. Several times we lost the trail and I had to nearly crawl on my hands and knees to pick it back up. The deer also went a different direction than I had previously thought. I lost the trail again and started to get discouraged. Then I nearly stepped on the deer. I was absolutely amazed the deer had been laying in this grass right by us for some time and was nearly invisible.  

It had been numerous years since my dad had harvested a deer. We celebrated and thanked the Lord for this deer and its sacrifice. We decided to gut the deer and do the old fashioned drag, pulling it a quarter mile over to a road where we could get the truck. 

The next morning I decided to still hunt through a thick stand of timber on "elf-toe ridge". I was creeping through a dark stand of timber with little undergrowth when I spotted movement just ahead. I caught the glimpse of some deer legs underneath a horizontal downed tree. Then I saw the tops of some antlers. Perfect! Only 40 yards ahead of me was a nice buck who had no idea I was there. The deer was walking from right to left and was about to step out from behind a tree. This was it! CLICK!!! I released the safety of my rifle, which decided to make the loudest noise a safety has ever made. The deer bolted like I had just slapped it in the butt. Just like that, I went from thinking I had a nice buck in the bag to shock and amazement. I continued on my trek through the woods cursing my bad luck. I found a good scrape in an area where a ground blind setup could work. I made a mental note and headed back to camp. 

That evening I checked the camera I had set on the first scrape I had found and sure enough, there were some bucks in the area checking it.  

The next couple days blurred together as I tried morning walks and evening sits. 

I did have a small buck come in on one of my evening sits in the blind. It would have been an easy shot but he was quite small and just didn't get me excited.

A little more snow also showed up. One evening, Trevor was out very late, which we hoped meant he had shot a deer. Sure enough he had. He was now done with his hunt. I was the only one left to fill a deer tag.

After nearly 6 days of hunting for me and 4 out of the 5 tags filled, it was time to head home. I had had my opportunities for sure and felt semi-sick about a couple of them. That's just the way it goes sometimes. I vowed to be better prepared with my newer rifle the next time I chose to use it, and always have my range finder on me. Some valuable lessons learned. It was still fun to chase deer for several days and I couldn't wait to redeem myself the next year. 

Fathers Day Walleye

Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir, June 2025

Catching a walleye on a fly rod had always been on my fishing bucket list. Idaho has a couple of bodies of water where walleye reside, with Salmon Falls being one of the most well known. Late spring of 2025 we finally made it happen. 

Research had shown that mid-June was a decent time to try. So Father's Day weekend, Katie, my dad and I found ourselves pitching our tents at Salmon Falls, eager to give Idaho walleye a try.

We launched the boat and zipped over to the first chunky rock bank we saw. Katie and I started with a balanced leech under a strike indicator while my dad threw a spinning rod with a lure. I was getting ready to make my first cast when Katie's bobber sank and she set the hook. 

"That was fast." I scoffed. "Let's see what ya caught."

The fish stayed fairly deep but didn't pull or fight very hard.

"It's fighting different." Katie added. "Maybe..."

She heaved harder on the rod and the fish rose toward the surface of the water.

"It's a walleye! It's a walleye!" I shouted in amazement while scrambling for the net.

We scooped the 20 inch fish into the net, just amazed at how quickly we had caught a walleye; Katie's very first cast. I just shook my head; leave it to Katie.

We kept the fish, not knowing how many more we'd find. Walleye are obviously one of the most highly prized eating fish, so coming home from this trip with some to eat was another goal. 

We continued working the rocky bank and started catching gobs of decent smallmouth bass. As fun as these were to catch, we really wanted walleye. My dad found the next walleye; a small one but still the target species. This one ate a small swim bait. 

That first fishing session resulted in Katie's first walleye, countless smallmouth and one other walleye my dad caught. Not a bad start.

The next day, my dad and I tried an early morning session, only to find lots more smallmouth and no walleye. When Katie was ready, we headed out again. This time we'd cruise much further up the lake into some different water. We tried a few places along the way and caught many more smallmouth.

We finally made it 3/4 of the way up the lake where we found a few more boats and a much shallower, flatter, muddy bottom. I began to use my electronics to detect the schools of fish. 

 

We all began to catch small walleye on a regular basis, including my first on a fly rod. All seemed to be in the 9-11 inch range, making it hard to put some in the live well, but we slowly added a couple of the larger ones.

It was fun to finally find some walleye we could catch on a regular basis. The giant Katie had caught the first day on the first cast seemed to be an anomaly. 

That evening, Katie and I went out again and found a few more walleye in the back of a cove.

The last morning we headed up the lake again in search of more walleye. The small fish we had cleaned so far seemed to have a decent amount of meat, so maybe we shouldn't be too picky on the size. We tried a slightly different spot adjacent to deeper water and found the walleye once again. They would come through in schools, indicated by the fish finder. I anchored the boat and would call out the school as they passed by the back of the boat. Many times, an indicator would drop on command when a school would cruise by. 

The occasional smallmouth was also never far away and always eager to eat a balanced leech. 

By 2 pm it was time to pack up and head home. We had all caught our first walleye on a fly, albeit mostly small, but walleye none the less. Katie's first fish was the largest walleye we saw and subsequent efforts on rocky banks only resulted in loads of 12-15 inch smallmouth. It seemed the schools of small walleye preferred the muddy bottoms found at the upper end of the lake. Maybe next year they will be bigger?

My dad had a wonderful time and was very impressed with the reservoir and its campground. 

A blue racer snake

Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir did not disappoint and we will surely be back for more walleye on the fly rod. 

 

North for Northerns

North Idaho and Montana 2025

Just like last year, Katie and I drove north in early May, hoping to repeat and fine-tune the big pike catching we did the previous year. This time, we'd start in Montana and work our way south as the trip progressed. The first day of driving was long, and by dark we had a very temporary road-side camp set up in the first fishing location. 

The first lake we tried, we had only fished one other time, producing incredible pike fishing in 2023. However, the lake level was lower than we wanted and the spot we had caught pike last time was only 2-3 feet deep and muddy. We had a couple pike encounters at the boat-side and landed a few smallies though. We explored a couple other areas of the lake and had a good time on our first day on the water.

Setting up camp in a new location, we settled in for several days of fishing on one of our favorite pieces of water, as well as a new one. We decided to head to the new spot first. We launched the boat and immediately drifted into water that just screamed pike. Even though I had other spots further away I wanted to check out, we couldn't pass up the water my gut was telling me we should try. 

With the boat ramp only 50 yards away, we began casting and immediately were into pike. 

After several pike, we left that area and began to explore. The water looked good in some other places, but after several hours and very little pike action, we returned to the spot near the boat ramp. Fishing picked up again and we finished the day with many more pike!

The spot didn't produce any giants, but respectable and spunky fish. The next couple days we fished some familiar spots. Fishing was decent and several more pike were landed.

 

We landed a decent number of medium-sized pike the first few days, but the big girls eluded us. We saw a couple but they didn't want to play. We relocated camp back to Idaho and further south for the next segment of our trip.

The next lake we tried had very clear water and excellent weed beds. You could see down nearly 15 feet and several times we could see huge pike following our flies. We didn't hook up with any of the giants, but we caught a few smaller pike and some nice crappie and bluegill.

We moved camp once again and settled into one of our favorite areas, where lots of different lakes could be accessed by boat. 

The next few days were filled with lots of fun outings on the water and some nice bike rides. 

We found lots of nice crappie too!

The water was a few degrees warmer than the previous year, and it seemed to make all the difference in not finding big pike. Pike were caught here and there on the usual streamers, but oddly enough, the largest pike were caught on our balanced minnows while crappie fishing. 

The balanced minnow seems to catch everything that swims!

We also caught quite few really nice smallmouth bass!

We decided to continue south on our journey towards home and stop at one last spot; a world renowned smallmouth fishery. We had never fished here and figured it was worth a try. We zipped up the lake to the first point and began fishing with... you guessed it: balanced flies. It took Katie all of 5 minutes to hook into a giant smallmouth. She lost the fish but it gave us lots of optimism for the day and half to come. That first evening we caught 2 giants and lots of small bass.  

We fished most of the next day and caught babies on nearly every cast with the occasional toad mixed in. This was a great last stop on our trip! Katie even caught a few slimy trout. 

The annual pike trip up north had come to a close. Another successful year with lots of fish and lots of fun. We're still chasing that 40 inch pike so stayed tuned for 2026!