DIY Spring Bear in Idaho - Which reduced rate unit?

My son and are planning on a DIY spring bear hunt in Idaho the first week in June. This started as a plan to scout for next fall's big elk hunt we are planning. Of course it now has a life of its own. There are units with reduced fee non-resident tags: 4, 4a, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 16, 16a, 17, 19, 20, 20a, and parts of units 21, 27, and 28. I know much of this land is in the Frank Church Wilderness and likely will be inaccessible till July. Anyone familiar with any of these areas? I need info on:

1. Weather
2. Potential access to hunting areas
3. Where to not hunt to avoid guides, hounds, or buckets of doughnut glaze and bacon fat.
4. If we need to avoid areas with guides, hounds, doughnut glaze and bacon fat.
5. Which of these units actually has a lot of bears
6. Any local legends of witches or cannibals?
7. Units where we might bump into a grizzly.
8. Other really important and obvious questions that I have not thought to ask.

I will note that we plan to fly in to Spokane and rent a truck. We can fly in to Boise or Missoula if that is better for the district we choose to hunt. However the plan is Spokane right now because flights are cheaper from Atlanta to Spokane (probably cheaper from anywhere to Spokane). Planning these hunts is really fun but also very frustrating.

Come on. I know some on this forum have experience hunting black bear in Idaho.

Hi John, I may be able to help you out a little bit.

A general statement to start based on my experience, although like most generalities there can be exceptions.
I would recommend AGAINST the following units due to access. Whether it be due to snow in the spring or just ability to get in to these units overall, some are very, very inaccessible unless you have horses or want to fly in to a backcountry landing strip.
16, 16A, 17, 19, 20, 20A, 27 These are all pretty much wilderness units.

Until mid-January this year the snow pack was well below average, but we have had a lot of snow pack accumulate in the past month or so. In the high country especially we are now above average snow pack, and it is still snowing! It is looking like a wet end to the winter and possibly a wet spring, so watch the snow pack and weather and plan accordingly.

Your choice of time to hunt is a good one. The first couple weeks of June are usually my first choice, but it does vary widely by unit. Hunting after the Memorial Day crowd has cleared out is wise.

Units 7, 9, and 21 have good bear numbers, but access in early June is likely to be limited. Roads and passes may not be open. A lot of that country is really rugged and hard to get into before July.

Units 4, 4a and 6 and 10 tend to be thick. Spot and stalk opportunities may be limited in a lot of this country, but there are a lot of bears. If you find good places to glass and also cover a lot of country until you find good amounts of sign, you could connect.

Quite a bit of the country in units 12 & 28 should be accessible in early June. I have hunted both units for bear and both have good bear populations, but I have never killed a bear in either unit. Unit 12 is the Lochsa River drainage and is quite thick down lower, toward Kooskia. The upper end is a little easier to hunt in the spring, but there will be clients with guides hunting the accessible areas over baits. That has been my experience anyway.

I don’t mean to paint a dismal picture or discourage you. Not at all! But there is a reason these units you have mentioned are reduced fee and 2 bear units. IDF&G wants more bears to be harvested. There are reasons why the harvest is low.
Most all of these units are good bear country and have a lot of bears. Getting to them and killing them... well, that is the challenge.
For someone coming from a long ways away and not having hunted these units before, you should have realistic expectations. The hunting is likely to be tough. But it is absolutely gorgeous country and you have a lot better chance of finding bear if you are there! As opposed to being at home

Everyone must start somewhere. If you look at this as a first trip, not the only trip, and pay your dues learning the country, you are very likely to get that bear eventually. First trips are sometimes great scouting trips to set up the next hunt!

I really hope this helps. For more specific info, if you have questions, send me a PM. I don’t mind sharing intel at all. But I’m not inclined to put some stuff out on a public forum for all to see. Great way to have a lot of company in your hunt.

Good luck in your planning and hunting

IdaRam said:

I may be able to help you out a little bit

Click to expand...

IdaRam, thank you. That is what I needed to know. So you will know. This is a first trip. It is also a scouting trip for fall elk. My expectation is to see beautiful country, learn about Idaho bears, to understand the challenges of hunting this country, and to share this all with my son. I want to show him how to fail. Then show him how to learn from it, figure a new plan, and keep doing that to it works. That might not mean filling a tag, but instead simply deciding on a new strategy and then executing it. Some of my most memorable hunts I came away empty handed, but I was successful late in locating the game. On hunts like that, after fighting hard for a week, just seeing a buck or gobbler, or in this case bear is a huge win. It also tends to make me want to come back and do it again. This planning is part of the process for both of us. We have a spreadsheet with numerous districts and are narrowing the options down. I will hit him with this intel and see what he thinks we should do next.

The low price tags are attractive but I will now open up to districts with the discounted tags. I have considered unit1 just because we might have a chance to see just about any animal on the continent. I am open to further info if you have it to share.

Thank you again. Others that have come from the east and attempted this please share your challenges.

IdaRam summed up a lot, PM me for a little Salmon area info.

The individual knowledge of AH members is amazing.

The cumulative knowledge of the AH community can probably get a problem fixed most anywhere in the world.

Wheels said:

The cumulative knowledge of the AH community can probably get a problem fixed most anywhere in the world.

Click to expand...

It might get us all in trouble these days.

Get in touch with Leon Brown with Clark fork outfitters. Northern idaho with some of those cheaper tag units.

cpr0312 said:

Leon Brown with Clark fork outfitters

Click to expand...

Leon looks like a great bet for the hounds. Thank you.

John Camp said:

Leon looks like a great bet for the hounds. Thank you.

Click to expand...

No doubt, he is a good houndsman! Also does well with baiting when in season

Much of your scouting for elk will be pretty much useless in many areas because the elk will be still on their transition ranges and not where they will be during the season and much of the areas will still be snowed in where you would be hunting elk. That said there are some ares that will be mostly snow free and have resident elk.

I should clarify my statement about scouting for elk. I should have said "scouting the country in preparation for an elk hunt." I first need to understand how to get around and access land.

If I were you (and, of course, I am not) I would look to lower elevations. There was tremendous snowfall in Idaho this year and there will be some access issues even in June.

If you go to the Snake River Canyon you may find that the lower elevations in the canyon are low enough, and the country isolated enough, that you can find bears in places that you have some chance of getting to. This country is rough as a cob and largely vertical. I know, I've hunted elk and chukars there many times over the years. But there are bears and they are not hunted hard in the springtime.

Maybe contact an outfitter that does 'cast and blast' float trips on the Snake River Canyon. I think that the Oregon side is actually a bit better, but there are plenty of bears in this area. I have seen up to 7 per day while elk hunting and often encounter them while bird hunting or fishing. My dogs don't point them, though.

Thanks for the help Mike. I am working with two members from Idaho that have really helped a lot. We are planning on hunting the Salmon area. The only thing I know about the Snake River Canyon (other than it is hard to jump) is that it is some rough terrain. The fact that you regularly see a bunch of bears is interesting however. The snow is an issue without a doubt. We are betting that bears will be at the snowline.