Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Idaho license system

Hunting in Idaho is kind of a bummer.

But man…..

No limit on catfish, and 5 lines for ice fishing is pretty fun!

That's why they had to put a quote on non-res tags. We were being overrun.

Yea,then ID sent them to Colorado. We are past being overrun

Idaho has been a [bleep] for quite some time. I remember growing up in the 90s there’d be lines of headlights for miles on opening morning in many areas.

Just like anywhere else though, proper planning and work can get you away from the crowds and into some pretty good hunting. It is no better or worse than Colorado’s general seasons, IMO. The draw odds may actually be worse in fact for a lot of the good hunts.

Idaho has 2 units that are well known for their mule deer. 54 is known for having lots of them, 45 is known having some real trophies. Tags in both are by lottery and the odds of getting one are about 1%. Non-res can get a max of 10% in either unit.

I shot my first deer in unit 54, back when it was an open archery season. A spike at 10 yards with my bow. 1996 I think?

Unit 45 is where a lot of magazine pictures of mule deer come from and where pretty much every Idaho deer supertag holder flocks to. I used to hunt the hell out of chukar there and my god we'd jump some huge bucks out of those lava/basalt canyons near King Hill. Some of them had to have been 210" + typicals. You may as well have been sheep hunting though, as far as the terrain goes.

South central and south western Idaho actually has quite a bit of water but it's all in those deep canyons. Deer go up and down those walls like goats. A minister I used to know would get his son a youth tag in 54. They'd hunt Rock Creek canyon. They'd climb to top the top of that beast to hunt the rim rocks and he got really nice bucks 3 years in a row. They earned them, though. Now days getting a tag there is close to impossible.

Girlfriend and I are looking at moving to Idaho. I’ll check online but what is there for over the counter tags? Or is it all draw? For residents…

There are over the counter tags for residents and those zones are over run by rigs from Washington and California. Lol

deer: OTC tags available all over the state. Some units are draw where there are too many hunters. Also, in general, whitetails are found in the north, mulies in the south. There's lots of overlap.
elk: in general, northern ID is OTC, southern ID is draw. There are many exceptions.

Okay thank you for that bit of info. Most of the work I can find is near Boise but I’ll travel up north a little if need be. I assume the issues here are about “desirable” areas?

The real deal is elk tags.

Deer tag OTC run statewide mostly.

But they have diced up elk hunting ad nausea

Sounds like time to raise the price on NR tags

Hunting out of state is close to becoming a rich man's game. Keep the tag prices down so the common man has some chance of hunting, too.

It is a rich man’s game. That’s why I don’t do it. Only so much resource to go around.

If you choose to go out of state I’m sorry but it should cost you a little

Idaho is far from what it used to be. Lotta folks purchasing tags trying to live a dream that used to be. Price increases are nothing more than Idaho admitting your hunting experience is going to be tough. Making you think twice about coming back. You're far better off giving it a try somewhere else. Unless your rich than go ahead donate...