DIY in Frank Church

[rj5942]

Hello everybody. I am in a group of 4 first time elk hunters heading in to the Middlefork unit in Idaho this fall for a DIY backpack hunt. I am looking for some helpful tips and really any information on hunting this area. Information is pretty limited on the web about this area....other than the wolves ate all the elk. We plan on hunting the southern end of the unit due to very limited road access.

 

[rj5942]

Some additional information about our plan that may help.

• We plan on hiking in a few miles from the truck set up camp and hunt from there out
• Going in mid September with rifles
• We understand this is steep rugged country and have already started conditioning
• We understand there is under objective population with high predation

Thanks for any help.

 

[cowboystl1]

Hunt the slide areas stay mid to low part of the mountain until you have located your elk and then make the best wind approach to them as you can they are quiet because of the wolves so keep the talking low. good optics in the afternoon you can get higher and glass. when you think you fit enough your not be prepared to put on the miles and then prepare for more try and stick to game trails and pack trails to hunt the brush is to harsh to bust all day

 

[rj5942]

Thanks for the advice! We picked a area that has a couple long north/south drainages with lots of cuts and slides coming into them. Since they wont be too vocal what do you suggest for locating them the easiest/fastest? Lots of boots on the ground? We'll have a day and a half before hand to scout and glass and 6 days to hunt. Coming from Pennsylvania we wont be able to get out there before the season....so its been a lot of topo maps and google earth.

 

[cowboystl1]

glassing bugleing is the only way i know to locate them its hard hunt and a gear testing area. work up the drainage in the morning low and down the drainage high in the evening.

 

[ribo451]

Like he said, if there are lots of wolves they might not talk at all. The areas I hunt with wolves seem to have elk that are real quite. They are still there though. I cover as much ground as possible looking for sign. They might not talk but they still leave tracks.

 

[rj5942]

I talked to a few outfitters and they all said the wolves were at their worst 4-5 years ago but it is getting better. One said that the wolf numbers are up but the packs are more dispersed and have gone into other areas. Does this sound about right? Have you guys had any success? Thanks again

 

[cowboystl1]

last year we hunted for 8 days and saw 2 whitetail deer some bear tracks but not many herd one bugle but he was leaving the county. we found some sign but very little we did find a bunch of wolf sign tracks every day fresh wolf poop etc. the local out fitter said wolves are on the decline because they are running out of food(elk, moose, bear) and have been struggling all the big game numbers are down. this was an area we have hunted on and off for 10 years and when we started you would see bear every day and be in elk every trip deer would come into camp now nothing. im done with northern Idaho in general at least for ten years im buying points in other states and am going to Colorado and such till it gets better. Aside from a couple draws that im not very hopeful on im taking the year off of elk and getting ducks in a row for hunts next year. last Septembers hunt was tough and very sad, we eventually wound up talking to a conservation agent over the elk and he said in the winter when snow was on he would see thousands of elk in the bottoms of drainages  now he only sees pockets of hundreds.