Bob
Range Creek Border:
southwest border- I-70 & state hiway 6, southeast border- green river.
Just to clarify- UDWR sets the sheep hunt boundary (don't ask the BLM), stop by the DWR- Price Office and they can help you out. Also talk to the DWR sheep biologists (in Price), they manage these sheep units, they are very helpful..
Range Creek Unit: its kinda interesting the mid-area or "Range Creek Canyon" doesn't hold many sheep at least during the rut. Even after DWR mid-river sheep re-locations, the sheep eventually wandered back to their original winter range.
After plotting the numbers, you will see that there are three main bighorn concentrations:
1) I call "Lower Triangle"- Price River (both sides), Green River (west side), Elliott Mtn & book cliffs.
85+ % of sheep are killed here, probably because it holds 70% of the sheep herd, sheep routinely cross over form the rattlesnake.
2) Sunnyside- Horse Canyon, Lila Canyon, working south.
3) Nine Mile Creek
nothing- mid river
My vote (for obvious reasons) FLOAT THE RIVER. See post mentioned above. Note- this does require a River Permit issued by the BLM (with fees) and if you do take an outboard, it needs to be registered with state of UT with placard & coastguard required gear. Also one can NOT run upriver anywhere on the Green River, paddle or outboard. For example- one cannot run upriver from Nefertiti (end of road) to Coal Creek. I would one done this in a heart beat, had it not been prohibited.
Upriver Lure- no people, no people, big sheep.
The 3 bigger bighorns I saw were all on the Indian side of the river. One was a monster (possibly a montana breaks holdover??), the second a semi-monster (leftside horn broomed back 6-7 inches). He was a loner and on the move, scent was in the air with constant lip curls (or was he just sticking his tongue out at me???). He was directly across river from camp and at the top of shear cliffs. I glassed him closely from the groover location at camp after breakfast, before I headed out for the morning. I (half-jokingly) told my buddy to watch him, he'll come down to water and keep track of where he goes. Sure enough, an hour later he's walking on the opposite bank, still lip curling (sticking tongue out at us) and heading downriver. My buddy follows him, til he gets ledged out, but never sees him cross. Hindsight, I should not have been in such a big hurry that morning, I was just so pumped (we were seeing lots). But in my book, this ram was a shooter (I liked the look, one horn broomed). The third ram was Mr Horny.
I did have a plan for trying to lure a bighorn across the river, but never did try it out. This included pop-up decoys and calling. I think it would have worked during the bighorn pre-rut period (the technique sure works great on elk).
good luck
raftfreak
