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The Fat Blob Incident
Includes 20 Full Length Feature Articles plus Bonus Bits and Short Jokes
Available Free ONLY to Team Sarcasm Members
See my hunt area on Google Earth starting from my camp at: 42° 11.620'N 114° 11.643'W
Deer Hunt 08
Opening Day: From Miserable to Moose
Southern Idaho's weathered and worn central mountain range, locally known as the South Hills, is home to a LOT of mule deer. There are those that will tell you different, claiming they don't see a thing. Old timers declare the area to be "nothing like it used to be".
Personally, I think others are crazy. I've been in the South Hills numerous times over the years. I've never gone up there without seeing deer, usually quite a few deer. Often, I'll see just as many bucks as does, too, and I mean bucks, big bucks.
I've seen large four points, six points, even bucks with large tines and 30+ inch spreads, but I've never gotten a shot at one. Hunt unit 54 covering the area of the South Hills that I'm talking about is a controlled draw only hunt. Current odds on drawing a tag run just under 18%. I had a tag back when I first got into hunting and nailed a nice 3 pointer, but I've since learned a lot more about deer and seen a lot bigger bucks than that one. I've been wanting another chance to hunt the area for years, eleven years to be exact as that's how long it's taken me to draw another tag!
Finally, this year I'm getting that chance. So, with much anticipation in mind, I headed up to my favorite hunting grounds two nights before the season opened, set up camp, and eagerly bided my time until opening morning.
Saturday, the day before the opener dawned wet, cloudy, and cool. It poured rain down on my tent all night letting me know where all its leaks and holes were located.
I planned on doing some grouse or chukar hunting while I buzzed around the area re-familiarizing myself with it's ridges and canyons. As I climbed out of my tent that morning, however, I knew the chukar hunting was out of the question. There was just enough wind and still plenty of rain to keep them in hiding. The grouse hunting was fairly dismal as well. I was able to locate a few birds here and there, but the weather had them hiding in deep cover and I was never able to get off a shot.
To be quite honest, it was a miserable day. I only saw two deer the entire day and everything I owned was wet. However, my anticipation for the opening of deer hunting the next day was still high. Wet weather meant the woods would be quiet. My footfalls would be more silent and I'd have a better chance of getting in closer to the deer.
That night in bed, I must have awakened and checked the clock a dozen times over. I didn't want to be late getting into position on opening morning. I knew of a trail that deer used to cross between canyons. I planned on still hunting into the wind following that trail which ended overlooking a deep canyon where deer also moved during first light hours.
Opening morning dawned with me working my way along that trail as planned. As I walked, I kept an eye on the open area to my left as well as the thick line of trees to my right. Suddenly, there was movement directly in front of me. I'll never get over how quickly deer can suddenly appear out of nowhere even when I am specifically looking for them.
As it turned out, I had a doe with her two spring fawns walk right up to me. I noticed them first at about 35 yards, and the doe finally noticed me after closing within 10!
I managed to fumble my camera out for a quick picture before the mama doe realized just exactly what I was and decided to high tail it up the trail with the two babies in tow.
Moving further down, the trail hits an open area as it heads down into a sagebrush covered draw. I stopped and scanned around the area. Ahead and across the draw at the edge of a large group of pines, I immediately found more deer. I watched for a while and determined there were three does, feeding just outside of the pines.
While I was encouraged at seeing five deer already, barely 15 minutes after daylight, I still hadn't seen a buck. I was determined to have patience this year, however, as I knew I was in a good area for finding good bucks.
Unfortunately, the "doe only" trend continued. I ran into another group of six does later on, and then jumped another single doe as I entered a group of thick pines a while after that.
However, things were about to change.
I snuck further through the patch of trees that I scared the single doe out of and eventually heard two other deer run off ahead of me. From past experience, I know that sometimes the deer will run out the end of these patches of trees and they can be seen as they cross the open space leading to the next thicket or draw.
As I headed out of the trees, however, I didn't see anything. I decided to wait a bit and scan the next canyon over for a while. Fortunately, I've made it a habit over the years to turn around and look behind me even back toward areas I've already been through. When I did so, I found two bucks, likely the two deer I had heard run back in the thick trees, facing right toward me.
I immediately thought I was already busted. They were looking right at me! However, my Natural Gear camo was apparently doing it's job as I realized they had no idea I was there. They had apparently heard me or smelled me, but were not sure where I was. That's why they were just standing there looking around.
As they both looked away for a moment, I crouched down and snuck to within 150 yards. That's when I run out of the low hill I was using for cover. While I was definitely close enough for a shot, I had already decided neither of these were the kind of buck I was looking for. The one to the left was a four pointer, but with short tines and not much mass. It was great to get a few pictures of them, though.
Besides, it was later in the day the real fun began.
I decided to hunt further down into the First Fork of Rock Creek canyon. I circled around the point of a long ridge and then dropped down onto a shelf that extended out toward the actual canyon bottom.
While walking along the edge of the canyon, sneaking as best I could through the trees, I heard a strange call. I turned, looked all the way across the canyon, probably a half a mile away, and saw a large, dark animal heading down hill.
