Idaho Unit 1 Goat

[maverick2]

Do any of gentlemen have any recent experience chasing goats in Unit 1? I drew that tag this year and know my way around the western half of the unit (from hunting moose and knocking around Priest Lake for 40 yrs) but don't have a lot of familiarity with the eastern half where the goats tend to reside. The rain has chased me inside for the night, so thought I'd start the research process.

 

[Idaho Brad]

First off, congrats on beating some pretty tough odds. Second, If you hunt Scotchman Peak you can tag out with a knife.
Literally krinkle a bag of chips and they will be on you like ticks. I'm not sure if the south end of LPO is in unit 1 or not, but
take a boat from bayview and glass the south end of the lake and there are a lot of goats. Early in the fall they should be closer to the lake.
When we fish in the dead of winter they have moved up a bit. I would focus on Scotchman Peak, especially if taking one with archery tackle is
something you wanted to do. Look out for the " Friends of Scotchman Peak". I have heard they harass hunters, but that is hearsay. I know some of their members put in for the goat tag in an effort to keep it out of our hands. Good luck.

 

[maverick2]

First off, congrats on beating some pretty tough odds. Second, If you hunt Scotchman Peak you can tag out with a knife.
Literally krinkle a bag of chips and they will be on you like ticks. I'm not sure if the south end of LPO is in unit 1 or not, but
take a boat from bayview and glass the south end of the lake and there are a lot of goats. Early in the fall they should be closer to the lake.
When we fish in the dead of winter they have moved up a bit. I would focus on Scotchman Peak, especially if taking one with archery tackle is
something you wanted to do. Look out for the " Friends of Scotchman Peak". I have heard they harass hunters, but that is hearsay. I know some of their members put in for the goat tag in an effort to keep it out of our hands. Good luck.

Thanks -- I'll probably stay away from Scotchman Peak because of the tourist factor, hassle, etc... The unit encompasses everything north of the Clark Fork River, lake, and Pend Oreille River, so Bayview is out. I know there are some goats on the east side of Priest I can scout, so will probably search that option out first for a nice billie.

 

[coop2424]

I have glassed them up above lions head up by the water rockslides... Was like 3-4 years ago but assume they are still in there... I believe it is lion creek you take up and there is a landing up top you can see on google earth.. We were glassing there up on the rocks and there was 4-5 the day we were in there..

 

[Sam Millard]

There are goats in every drainage I've been in north of the lake, east side. Other side of the crest as well.

 

[CabinetGoat]

You can access the back of Scotchman with the Morris Creek trail - not a hard hike, gets you to the base of the cliffs behind Scotchman and peaks north of Scotchman - no tourists on this side. The tough part will be figuring out how to climb up the cliffs,avalanche chutes, but you might get close to a billy from below. You could go up the Scotchman trail during the week and probably see no tourists and then cut into the west fork of Blue Creek just below the peak and hunt some of the rock immediately north of Scotchman. Last year, most of the goats in the greater area were clustered around the peak, to lick legs and eat PowerBars. There is a big effort this year, to reduce that. Not much else in the Idaho Cabinets - there are some goat areas farther north, but they hang mostly on the MT side and access from Idaho is very tough. Otherwise, talk to the IDFG CO's at Sandpoint (Matt Haag) and Priest Lake (Rob Souma) for advice in the Selkirks. Years ago I ran into a number of goats in the Beehive/Little Harrison Lakes area. Easiest access is the area on both sides of the lake, north of Bayview - not typical goat country, btu there are some nice billies there. If you have any other questions on the greater Scotchman country, I can help.

 

[maverick2]

Made a scouting trip this AM -- hit the Lions Creek area and got up near Abandon Mtn. Found 3 nannie/kid pairs, and 1 billie. First couple pix show some of the country, and the next couple show the few decent pics of the billie I was able to get with my camera and spotter. This billie gave me a long time to look and study him, and it's quite apparent to me now that I need to figure out a decent way to distinguish a "shooter" billie from a non-shooter, because as it stands right now I haven't got it. (And maybe that will come as I get to see a bunch of goats.) At one point he did stand up and I got a good look at him next to the nannie in the lower left of the first pic, and he was noticeably bigger and heavier muscled. Thoughts on this billie, and any simple way to judge size?






View attachment 38525

 

[Broomd]

Congrats on a great tag!

That last picture looks like a decent billy. It's a bit unusual to have a quality billy with nannies and kids this time of year, but wildlife is unpredictable. It is what it is.

He has a decent sized head on him....long face. it would be great to see better pics. He might well be a shooter. Keep an eye on him for sure.

 

[maverick2]

Here's the billie I found this am. What a tank! He wasn't nearly as patient or photogenic (and a bit further away) but gave me enough of a look from all angles to realize he's bigger in all aspects than the one from yesterday AM. Have been playing around with a couple different spotters to see what I like/dislike for this kind of hunting/terrain, so will make a decision shortly and pick up a phoneskope to take try to improve my picture taking ability. In the meantime, I apologize for the picture quality.

[URL=http://s870.photobucket.com/user/maverick_2/media/SANY0264.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://s870.photobucket.com/user/maverick_2/media/SANY0267.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[Broomd]

Photos won't open...

 

[maverick2]

Hmmm. Went to plan b. Photos seem less clear this way though...

 

[Broomd]

He doesn't look like an old timer with as large as his ears are in proportion to his head....his face isn't long either.

Great looking billy though, awesome to be able to scout and take some pics.