Idaho's new deer Regs

[TheTone]

Moosie asked me to start a new post for this so here goes.

What are everyones thoughts about the elimination of the clearwater deer tag, but replacement with a whitetail tag? Personally as a Clearwater region resident I hate it with a passion, no more muleys for me :MAD Seems to me the only people it even really affects are those of us who bought a clearwater tag in the first place, those living outside the clearwter region still can hunt whitetails and muleys on the same tag, but we can't. I really like how IDFG's polls showed people didn't want this and it was voted down last fall in commission, but this winter the commission went through with it anyways.

 

[SageGhost]

gees... last time i took a drive up highway 95, i counted over 300 deer between new meadows and grangeville, i gave up counting about half way there.. sounds like you guys are getting the boot...

 

[A-con]

SageGhost, 300 deer ? Whitetails or Mulys ?

 

[BigHornRam]

Last season I bought a non resident Clearwater tag and hunted mulies in unit 17. What does this change mean to me? I will not buy a non res Idaho license to hunt whitetail but will go back to hunt mulies again.

 

[Ten Bears]

Anybody seen how the seasons are gonna be set up? We had a early view of how the panhandle was gonna try to do it at the last sportsmans breakfast. Aren't they gonna have a regular deer tag in the clearwater too? We're gonna get a whitetail tag or a regular tag depending on what you want to hunt.

 

[JohnSWA]

Wow, that sucks! The last two years I bought a Clearwater tag, but I hunt up north in Potlatch with my inlaws in 8A? I think. I've only seen White Tail and that's all I've hunted up here anyway, but it would sure suck to see a nice mulie and not be allowed to take a shot at it!

 

[Ithaca 37]

Starting in 1986 the F&G scheduled a late season whitetail hunt in the Clearwater Region units that did not already have one. Hunters from all over Idaho started going there for the hunt if they had not already filled their tag somewhere else---either with a mulie or whitetail. The crybabies in the Clearwater Region didn't like having hunters from elsewhere in Idaho coming there and started whining about it constantly, and that's all they've ever done since 1986. Finally , about 10 years ago, the F&G created the Clearwater tag to try to pacify the crybabies. There was never any biological reason for it, it was just because of political pressure by the Clearwater Region crybabies who didn't like the idea of hunters from elsewhere in Idaho coming to Region Two and shooting what the locals considered "their" deer. At the same time the F&G had to start increasing the number of doe permits in Region Two because they had way too many deer there (especially according to the ranchers and farmers who were always bitching about too many deer and, idiotically, too many hunters).

The best solution to the whole thing would be to let everyone buy at least one general deer tag and hunt in any open unit in Idaho as long as they want until they fill the tag. The crybabies in the Clearwater Region created the problem. If they don't like all the tinkering the F&G has had to do to try to straighten out the mess the crybabies created it's too bad. I certainly have no sympathy for them. I used to go to Orofinp every year to whitetail hunt and friends from North Idaho or East Idaho would come to hunt with me for a few days. After the Clearwater Tag was created the friends from other parts of the state had to make a choice wether to hunt in their home areas or restrict themselves to the Clearwater Region, so we didn't have our get togethers anymore.

The other thing the locals always bitch and whine about in the Clearwater Region is the poor economy and how broke they all are. They must be too stupid to realize how much $ those hunters from other parts of Idaho spend to stimulate the local economy while they hunt there. See how stupid they are? They bitch about the economy, but they don't want hunters from elsewhere coming there and spending $ on food, gas, motels etc... Just my little group used to spend at least a thousand bucks a week in Orofino. And I always noticed that the locals who bitched about being broke always seemed to have enough money to buy a couple sixpacks of beer and drive around road hunting all day with their ATV in the back of the truck.

 

[JohnSWA]

No kidding about the road hunting! I never saw so many road hunters in all my life! I'm not the most experienced hunter, but you won't catch me cruising the roads looking for deer. I don't know about the whole Clearwater region, but I've seen plenty of deer in the northern zone for the last two years(my experience on Clearwater). Shot my first Buck last year in 8A! A very proud moment for this hunter! I love your state and am glad to help with the economy when I can. It's true, times are tough in the northern part, but life is what you make of it and if it's not working for you...only you can make the change!

 

[Idaho Ron]

37, I am glad you posted that. I used to go north to hunt late as well. It pissed me off that I could not go there any more. I found other hunting and quit giving them my money. They do like the welfare money southern Idaho provides. Ron

 

[GatoMan]

I hunted orofino this last fall and I don't think theres still any lack of out of state hunters, I had 2 from oregon in my group and while staying at the konkoville motel it was packed every nite from rigs from montana to california, az all over. Few times we ate out at the pizza place and mexican resturant it was full of hunters.

 

[Ithaca 37]

Gato, That's not the issue. The issue is the whiner locals in the Clearwater Region have been trying to restrict other hunters from hunting there ever since the initial changes were made in 1986. And there's no doubt the Clearwater Tag was created solely to try to keep hunters from going there in the late season. So you saw other hunters there?! Big deal. I hunt there every year and very rarely ever see another hunter where I hunt----not even one a year, but I'm usually at least a quarter mile from a road. And they still have plenty of available doe tags to try to thin out the herds. Anyone who knows anything about deer management could see there was a huge overpopulation of deer around Orofino, Kamiah, etc in the last ten years. That's one reason so many died off in the EHD epedemic two years ago-----thousands of them---and there are still too many in lots of areas.

But the local babies would rather have huge die offs than let hunters from other parts of Idaho or other states hunt there.

 

[Ten Bears]

Does anybody know how the seasons are going to look in the clearwater region, or o we have to listen to IT babble? I've hunted there a few times in the past, but deer hunting is deer hunting around here, and their where ya find'em.

 

[GatoMan]

Ithaca your whining cause you got left out and saying the tag was created by the crybaby locals to do away with non-resident hunters..... I am saying I did'nt see any effect of it while I was up there, nor in grangeville there was tons of hunters everywhere I went from all over the country, to many hunters really, few times I felt nervous walking around, sounded like a war going on not a hunt.

 

[TheTone]

At the meeting I went to on wednesday, deer seasons were proposed to be the same, except for a longer antlerless season in either 11 or 11A, can't remember off the top of my head.

Ithica is right, the clearwater tag was solely implimented to try and keep people from southern Idaho from coming up after deer seasons ended down there. Fish and Game will tell you that. I guess now we're dealing with further implications of that.

 

[Ithaca 37]

Gato, I didn't get left out. I've been hunting in the late whitetail hunt in Region Two every year since it was created in 1986. Other people got excluded, though. Try getting off the roads if you're seeing other hunters.

You said, "I am saying I did'nt see any effect of it while I was up there, nor in grangeville there was tons of hunters everywhere I went from all over the country"

How would you know what the effect was unless you'd been hunting there for at least a few years? It's not just non-residents that aren't there as much, it's Idaho residents from other regions who aren't there as much.

Gato, do you actually think there are as many hunters in the late whitetail hunts in Region Two as there were before the Clearwater tag was created? Do you think the Clearwater Tag had no effect at all?

The Tone seems to understand what's happened up there, even if Gato doesn't.

 

[huntinfool]

Well I have to agree with Ithaca on this and I grew up in Elk City, there are way to many deer up there and not nearly enough hunters. The deer are over populated almost to the extreme.The local population of people have whinned to much and to often and have created a mess that they expect someone else to fix for them.To me the logical FIX is to open deer season up to all who wish to hunt whitetail or mulies
and if the population or the whitetail deer are still out of controll open up some deprivation hunts to help lower the population so that desease does not come back and possible spread farther south or more north. Just a few thoughts from one thatgrew up in that area and has lots of family that agree with me on this.

 

[Moosie]

Tone, Good topic, I'm up to my Ears in other stuff but I did ask you to post so I'll reply.

Personaly I think it's better. My understanding of the "clear water tag" is all the Locals strong armed the Local F&G rep and Strong armed him to get their way. They said to many deer were being killed by people from "the south" Which means people like me in the NAmpa Boise area.

Funny thing is, A guy could strum up a conversation with a local hunter up there and they talk about party hunting. you know, the kind were everybody in the Family buys a tag and one guy fills it They sure didn't like us coming up spending money and hunting hard in "the north" because we killed all the deer by taking one, and then they wipe out 1/2 dozen with out even blinking.

I'm not pointing fingers or blaming any one but to make things fair I like the new proposal. I was contacted Early on in the White tail initiative and didn't follow it to much. I personally don't hunt them and soon enough I will be able to hunt them here in Boise.

The problem I see is alot of people (Yes, even the Northerners) don't know a White tail from a muledeer. I know guys that can't tell a Elk from a deer or moose..... I think thats gunna be the biggest issue.

The truth of the matter is, anyone could Buy a 2nd tag and wack a whitey and a muledeer..... and still can.

 

[TheTone]

If I can spare the money I may buy an extra tag to get a chance at a muley. I found a great place to bowhunt muleys last fall, but those plans may be gone now.

If the real reason to do this is based on the biology of seperate managment for muleys and whitetails why is the clearwater region still singled out? Why not just a muley or whitetail tag and thats it? It should take alot of the pressure off the muleys that live in the clearwater area as I would bet most people here will buy whitetail tags.

Party hunting and inability to identify species are seperate issues and are a couple things that don't look good for hunters. Party hunting is poaching, plain and simple and not knowing what you are hunting is just lack of intelligence/education.

 

[Moosie]

If the real reason to do this is based on the biology of seperate managment for muleys and whitetails why is the clearwater region still singled out?

I don't get this Question ? The Clearwater region Isn't singled out any more... is it ?

 

[TheTone]

To some extent yes, the general tag ends your whitetail and muley season up here on November 3rd, later in some backcountry units. But then whitetail season continues to run until december 1 in the clearwater if you have a whitetail tag. Basically a general tag gets you a muley and whitetail archery hunt in september, whitetails and muleys with a gun through october and early november and thats its. A whitetail tag gets you whitetail only archery, and then a whitetail rifle season from October 10 through December 1, but only in the clearwater.