I would like to be writing about the big bull that I my buddy Mike Lince shot on his first elk hunt , but there is a reason why it is called hunting and not getting. Mike is the lucky guy I know with ZERO points who drew a Dayton any bull permit. When we talked to the other guys that we saw in the unit well let me just say the look on their face showed the disbelieve. Most of them like me had been putting in for more then 10 years.

Mike and I had a tight schedule we would be going over the day before the opener and picking up my fifth wheel at Lyon’s Ferry Marine on Thursday night and then moving it on Friday up to The Last Resort. Lyon’s Ferry is where the Snake River Hunting Club all started in 1996. Back then it was operated by our good friends Rod and Sharon Bailey. I had meet Rod through the some Navy work I was doing and he invited me over to hunt with him. The Marine was the place I looked forward to going each and every fall because of the friendly atmosphere and the welcome that not only we received but everyone did. After Rod and Sharon moved on to try other things it just was not the same. Then two years ago l Jim & Angela took over running the Marine and I can honestly say it feels like the welcome mat is always out at Lyon’s Ferry. They have re-modeled the store and restaurant and hired a friendly staff to help them.

So we moved from the Marine up to The Last Resort. Now this is Jim and Angela ‘s other place and is managed by Angela’s mother Phyllis. It is just south of the Dayton unit we would be hunting in and it also has a meat locker it case you get lucky. Again they have a full service store and more important a gas pump that has diesel.

So once the Fifth wheel was in place it was off to a afternoon hunt. Now we where going up a back way into the unit and picking up the Skyline road about have way up into the unit. From here we headed south toward Godman. Anyway of the side roads are good to try for elk but I was going to the area of the 160. I had seen a nice bull here the week before. We parked and headed down a nice little side trial and it was not more then a hour into the hunt before we saw the big bull I saw the week before. I turned and told Mike “I know where we will be tomorrow ".

The next morning found us on the trail of the big bull. As the sun came up it became more obvious that the big one had moved on. About 8 o’clock across the the draw we spoted a real decent 350 plus class bull and made a plan to go after hi. We got back to the truck and drove back around to a small camp ground and started up into the area we thought the bull would be in. After about a hour of going slow and making our way into the area I hit the cow call real soft and less then 20 yards away up stands the bull. I am waiting for the boom to follow but Mike is trying to get his rifle off his shoulder and the big guy is just not waiting around for it. Lesson to Mike always be ready. The rest of the week we where into bulls but nothing close enough for the muzzle loaders. On the last day we did find two smaller 5x5 but they were just south of the unit by 200 yards.

Mike did get his fall turkey on the last day of the season and his now hooked on the Blue Mountains and elk hunting.

I did use my Montana Decoy’s on this hunt. I was very careful because there where cow permits at the same time and wanted to keep it safe. I want to thank John for returning my Miss September decoy I lost on the trail one day and I hope he filled his tag. To all the hunters I meet over there thanks for sharing the info and the taking the time to talk hunting. Derek looking forward to hunting with you in the future.

Steve

HUNT OFTEN AND HUNT SAFE