The Idaho sage grouse season opened Saturday. It has gone to a tag system (the same price as a deer tag
but they are my favorite) so I stood in line for a couple of hours in August to get tags in the area I wanted. There are only a certain number of tags sold in each area. I did a bunch of map reconnaissance and called a few land owners to get feedback and permission to hunt on their land. Many would say this is silly for a few "sage chickens" that taste more like leather than chicken, but I'm a glutton for punishment.
We had 8 tags, (one more for my daughter but a school dance/date took precedence, go figure) so we got up very early to drive to our spot for first light. We were a little late and saw about six birds off the road on the way there. That is always a good sign. With careful anticipation we rolled through the gate at the first property and parked the truck. Usually I go to Wyoming to hunt these birds since there are much higher numbers and better limits on them. This year I have to be at Cross Country races every weekend so that was out. I was bummed so this hunt had to produce.
We had to cross a good sized pasture before a creek to where the sage starts. Needless to say we were taken off guard when my Lab flushed a "thunder chicken" right out of the grass! It was quite safe since we weren't really ready for that to happen, again this was a good sign!
To make a short story long, we hunted hard, missed a lot and laughed a bunch. 11 miles later we had 6 of our 8 tags filled and had seen more birds than I have ever seen in a season, let alone a day.
After a well earned lunch of PB&J's along with Brigham City peaches we headed to our next spot to fill the tags for my youngest two boys. Their confidence was low, they had missed a lot of good opportunities. These boys can shoot skeet and have killed many other birds on the wing, but there is something unnerving about Thunder Chickens. It was rattling them. So we tried to boost their confidence with a foreboding that the hunting was never going to be that good again.
The second spot was pretty unknown to me, but the rancher was a nice guy and gave me some good intel. With an alfalfa field nearby I was hopeful. That is the only grain these birds eat. We got out, loaded the guns and sent the dogs out in front of us. Not 5 minutes in, about nine birds came up all around us. It was tough for the boys to focus on one bird, and "flock shooting" never works out. With a few holes in the sky we marveled at the opportunity. The dogs were put out that the boys didn't convert. More positive talk and we moved on. Within about 45 minutes both boys had shot their birds and both made much tougher shots than those they missed earlier in the day. As we made the walk back to the truck, the dogs continued to point, and flush many birds along the way.
It's likely we will never see the equal of this trip again in our lives. It was magical. I'm not nearly as sad about missing my Wyoming trip and can't wait to get my daughter up there asap to fill her tag.
This will be the most expensive meat we have eaten in a while, but the memories we made with my boys is totally worth it!
Till the next one..............................
