Idaho Elk, Mule Deer and Black Bear Blog

Got Tags?

Thu, 28 May 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Here we are knocking on the tail end of big game application season 2026. Have you drawn a tag yet? To be fair, there is one week left on Idaho’s 2026 big game application season and there may be some states that haven’t drawn yet, but we are getting down to the short rows of needing to make plans if we intend to hunt fall of 2026.

Idaho has a great system where outfitters have allocated tags for hunters who choose to hunt with an Idaho outfitter. Sadly, I can hear it now, “I don’t need no stinking outfitter to hunt.” Well, maybe you don’t, but have you considered a DIY drop camp type hunt? Some outfitters offer those and they come with tags for the species you are after. We happen to be one of those outfitters and actually have a few tags remaining for the 2026 Idaho elk and deer hunting season.

Or maybe a fully guided hunt where camp is set, guides are ready, a cook is in camp and if you are lucky in harvesting what you are pursuing, someone else packs your game out. Really doesn’t sound that bad now, does it?

Now please don’t take this wrong but tags don’t equate to dead animals. They only equate to the opportunity to get off the couch and into the woods this fall and pursue your choice of elk, deer, bear and/or wolf on your own terms. This Central Idaho country is NOT for the faint of heart, so if it has been a while since you have ridden a horse, seen the inside of a gym or actually pushed away from the all you can eat buffet early, this may not be the country for you, but there is still time to join that gym, get in a walking routine with your wife (or girlfriend as long as your wife doesn’t know about her), start riding a horse with that friend that keeps inviting you to or simply ride that stationary bike and read up on world news or watch your favorite hunting podcasts. Either way, there is still time to be able to take advantage of one of falls oldest traditions of being outside and exploring the woods with family and friends rather than counting your points and hoping that “next year” you will draw a tag.

So, contact us today to book your 2026 Idaho hunting experience or contact any Idaho outfitter in an area you have always wanted to explore, but as our friends at Nike used to say, “Just do it”.

Happy hunting and remember to take a kid along!

George

Spring Bear Hunt Drop Camps Available

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 01:51:00 GMT

We are only 2 short months away from the “official” opening day of most of Idaho’s spring bear hunting seasons. I say “official” because in normal years, our area, although open to hunt, is normally not accessible yet due to deep snow conditions. Obviously, this year is shaping up to be different and even though it has been a mild winter, I still bet that cabin fever has set in for many.

This year you may want to consider a spring bear hunt drop camp for your cure to cabin fever. You can shake out those cobwebs by hunting at your own pace, pursue (almost) every predator Idaho has to offer using your preferred method of hunting including calls, bait (we will preset for you), or spot and stalk for bear, coyote, fox, mountain lion and wolf.

Our spring bear hunt drop camps consist of packing you and your gear into a preset camp with tent, cots, pads, wood burning stove, cooking and eating utensils and packing out of you and your game from camp. We will preset some baits within walking distance of your specific camp site and show you where they are when we pack you in.

All you need to bring is your personal gear, food and the desire to do your part to protect elk and deer numbers in Idaho! Contact us for more info or questions on the possibility of a spring bear hunt drop camp and best of luck in the other draws!

Happy hunting!

George

Spring Bear Hunt Drop Camp

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

If I haven’t made it clear that I think Idaho is THE best place to hunt, then I suppose you haven’t read enough of our blogs. Predator hunting in Idaho tops them all!

In Idaho, you can hunt wolves, bears, mountain lions, coyotes and foxes all at the same time by either spot and stalk or electronic calls method clear up until June 30 each year. To increase your odds for bear, you can even hunt them over bait. Idaho is becoming one of the last places left where you can legally hunt bears over bait. It has been proven repeatedly that it is the best way to hunt bears AND protect their young. Spring sows almost always, when showing up at a bait, have this year’s cubs in such close contact with them that it is very hard to mistake her for a dry sow.

All that to say, that if you are an avid predator hunter or simply want your chance at a wolf, maybe an Idaho spring bear hunt drop camp may be your best option. You can hunt at your own pace during the day then sit a preset bear bait in the evening to increase your odds of success.

Our Idaho spring bear hunt drop camps consist of us packing you and your gear into a preset backcountry wall tent camp. It has cots with pads, woodburning stove and all cooking and eating utensils. We will preset some bear bait sites that we have used for years and show them to you before we ride back to the trailhead. We pick you, your gear and your game up on a predetermined date and take you back to the trailhead.

All this is available in the months of May and June. For the truly adventurous, you may consider a late April approach. It is up to you. All tags are over the counter (OTC) so obtaining a tag is no problem. If this sounds like the perfect adventure for curing that cabin fever brought on by winter turning to spring, contact us for your back country Idaho spring bear drop camp today!

With Idaho’s large percentage of color phase black bears, open wolf and mountain lion season, ability to hunt spot and stalk, using electronic calls and bait for bears, what are you waiting for? Get out and enjoy YOUR public lands and remember to take a kid with you!

Spring Bear Drop Camps

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:34:39 GMT

With Idaho’s 2021 spring bear season beginning this week, we are grateful that we are pretty much booked up on our guided hunts, but new for 2021, we are offering spring bear drop camps for those DIY hunters who to prefer the challenge of hunting on their own and more of the spot and stalk element of bear hunting.

This is a more affordable option over guiding, puts you in charge of your own schedule and may just be the ticket for that pent up wintertime cabin fever!

We will pack you into a back country camp, drop you off, show you a couple of pre-baited sites you can sit in the evenings and leave you to your own hunting experience. We will then come pick you up at a predetermined time and hope to hear tall tales of faraway places and hopefully be able to congratulate on a well-placed shot on an Idaho bear!

For more info on this new option from Wild Idaho outfitters and Castle Creek Outfitters this year, contact us!

Best of luck with spring bear hunts this year and remember to get out and enjoy YOUR public lands!

Castle Creek Outfitters Welcomes Joe Cavanaugh: Our New Blog Writer

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 05:00:00 GMT

If you hadn’t already noticed, Joe’s been writing our blogs since the January 31st post. Cavanaugh comes to us with a wide range of experience in the outdoors, and he’s also a graduate of Boise State University, with a BA in English/writing. He worked professionally as a copywriter for Bass Pro Shops before joining us, and his book The Jungle Hunter was published by Safari Press in 2000 (now out of print). Cavanaugh started guiding big game hunts in Idaho in 2013, and he will be guiding for Castle Creek Outfitters and Wild Idaho Outfitters this year, full time.

Cavanaugh’s hunting experience started in the north woods of Minnesota, hunting whitetail bucks and black bear. At the age of 20, he traveled to Central America where local hunters introduced him to hunting in the jungle. He expanded his range to the jungles of South America, where he organized a series of DIY hunting trips, always in the company of local market hunters, Indians, or cowboys, into some of the largest expanses of wilderness left on Earth. These DIY hunts resulted in taking 3 jaguars, numerous tapirs, all 3 species of peccary, 5 species of South American deer, water buffalo, and numerous species of birds and medium-size game that most people would only see in zoos.

During the 1980s, Cavanaugh embedded with the Guatemalan Army as a photojournalist in the mountains of Quiche province. He also lived in an Indian village in Eastern Bolivia for 3 years, where he fished for the local market; and later he worked as a fishing guide in the same area. In Bolivia he survived a severe case of malaria, which took him 10 years to recover from. The bushcraft and survival skills Cavanaugh has picked up along the way would be difficult to match.

Joe Cavanaugh did not grow-up hunting the West—he came here as an adult and started from scratch. Since then he’s learned the terrain, the habitats of our game animals, and the license/tag process. George McQuiston, owner of Wild Idaho Outfitters and co-owner of Castle Creek Outfitters, met Cavanaugh in a remote corner of the Frank Church Wilderness, where he had backpacked in all alone and shot a bull. We’re sure Cavanaugh’s insight on going West and learning to hunt new species in new habitats will be beneficial to all our readers. Cavanaugh offers practical advice, based on years of hands-on experience. He values woodsmanship and an understanding of nature over high-tech equipment. Castle Creek Outfitters hopes you enjoy reading Cavanaugh’s blog posts, and that his advice helps you enhance your hunting success.

Good hunting,
Castle Creek staff

Trail Conditioning: Physical Prep for Big Game Hunting

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 22:35:52 GMT

Spring is here, and it’s time to step out of the gym and walk trails that match real-world hunting conditions. Or better yet, walk off-trail. Exercising on a treadmill or elliptical offers an effective method of strengthening leg muscles and enhancing cardio endurance, though these machines will never replicate the walking conditions you’ll encounter in the wilderness.

Whether you walk foot trails, horse trails, game trails or off-trail, the Earth’s surface where you step is not flat. Increase the grade on your treadmill, you say? I’m not referring to grade or slope. Backcountry trails are full of rocks roots, and logs. Whether or not the trail you follow goes uphill, downhill, or across level ground, your boot soles contact uneven ground, or relatively even spots amongst the rumble which you have chosen to plant your foot. Therefore, balance, agility, and keen eye-to-foot coordination are essential for maintaining an upright position as you walk and search for game. You can read a book or watch a movie when walking on a treadmill—not so on a mountain trail. Try it and you’ll soon be flat on your face. To condition yourself for walking on uneven terrain, you must exercise on uneven terrain. Practice on spending minimal time with your eyes focused on the trail, as you’ll see more game while hunting if you know where your feet are without having to look down every step. Like a wide receiver knows where his feet are as he searches for the ball.

It’s always best to wear hunting boot when exercising on trails to fully duplicate hunting conditions. This gets leg muscles accustomed to lifting full boot-weight, which syncs with eye-to-foot coordination so boots clear obstacles. Wearing hunting boots when exercising also develops calluses in the right spots. Get out there and toughen up.

Good hunting,

Joe Cavanaugh

Got Tags?

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 18:35:00 GMT

It seems these days that the first, and often times largest, obstacle to hunting elk out west is first getting a tag. Well, thanks to bad planning on our part, we find ourselves with 4 extra tags to hunt in a unit that sold out in only 3 days for residents and months ago for nonresidents.

We know all the results of the draws are out for the west and finding someone with actual tags and openings to be able to hunt, and at a discounted rate, is nearly impossible so we believe these will go fast: we have exactly 4 tags left for elk in area 28 in central Idaho and we are even discounting this hunt opportunity.

Our regular price on drop camps is $2250, but if you can act now and I do mean NOW as this offer ends July 29, 2019, we will offer drop camp hunts for only $1495 per person. Obviously tax, license and tags are not included at that price.

Drop camp hunts are the ideal way to hunt elk out west for the experienced DIY hunter who simply needs A) tags, B) an amazing piece of real estate to hunt and C) a nice horseback ride to said location!

If you like the idea of getting out this fall and actually being able to hunt verses sofa surfing waiting for another year of trying to draw a hunt, but a DIY hunt is not exactly your cup of tea, contact us about a guided hunt. We do have room for either a guided or drop camp hunt, but regardless of type of hunt, remember there are only 4 tags available, so act fast!

To be clear we don’t/CAN'T mark up the tags, so the tag price is simply what you would pay IDFG if you were purchasing them yourselves. We simply need to use our allocated tags to preserve them for future use. These tags go into the general pool on July 31 and there is probably already a waiting list as long as your arm to obtain any leftovers.

So, if you haven’t made concrete hunting plans for this fall and can find 3 of your closest friends who can actually make a decision before this coming weekend, contact us about saving you a spot to hunt elk in Idaho’s famous Salmon River Mountains. Remember, if you can’t think of 3 friends right away, you might try Facebook as you know that your FB friends are your real friends! LOL

Best of luck in the woods this year!