Plan B for Bighorn Ram

callsalot

Active Member
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My son drew the 2nd season for West John Day Bighorn Ram tag. We are planning on floating the river but am nervous of the lower than normal water flows. We are not rich and a guided hunt is not in the cards and I know much of the area is landlocked by private. Was wondering if anyone had advice as a plan B if there is not enough water to float the river.

Thanks for any help.
 
Pay a rancher for access. Once in a lifetime tag. Is worth it. If you do want to try and float pay for access to put in lower. You might have to walk it through riffles but it might be doable for a short distance
 
LAST EDITED ON Sep-26-18 AT 12:55PM (MST)[p]I'm not sure where your tag runs but there is a put in a 30-mile that cuts that float in half. Rattray ranch was letting people put in for a fee. They were looking at selling to a land conservancy and I don't know where that ended up. Haven't been out that way for awhile
 
You guys in shape? I had that tag in 2015. I ended up walking in and killing my ram. This is after I looked over 100+ sheep on the ranch I had access to, but did not find what I was looking for.

Call me if you want to discuss. Fiveothree fiveoseven 7366.

Also, as soon as the first freeze happens, the farmers quit irrigating and the river level comes up. Usually coincides with rifle deer season.

________________________________________

If Hunting and Angling Ended
There is no alternative funding system
in place to replace the potential lost
funds for conservation. If hunting and
angling end, funding for wildlife
conservation, including enforcement of
all wildlife laws, will be jeopardized.
Hunters, anglers and shooters actively
support wildlife conservation through
tangible actions such as buying licenses
and paying taxes on hunting, fishing and
shooting equipment. Why are hunters and
anglers so willing to support
conservation through their pocketbooks?
Because people place added value on ?
and are willing to pay for ? what they
can use.
 
Extra Pale,

Yes we are in pretty good shape, just got back from two weeks archery in Wyoming next to Yellowstone and pulled a lot of rough country. My son is in his early 20's and in good shape. I knew the point about the irrigation stopping on Oct 15th I believe so floating is still plan A. I'll call you because I'm interested in a walk or pack in avenue for plan B. Thank for being willing to share that.
 
Since it was my sons tag I thought he would post but he's busy looking for a job after graduating from college. I'll try to make a long story short. We decided to float even with flows around 250 to 300 and seriously I was in the river at least half a dozen times a day dragging the raft. We floated a half day before opener and saw no rams. Opening day we saw our first ram around 10:30 right off the side of the river. I guessed about 150 and we passed it being opening day. Around noon we spotted two more rams at a fair distance but they ended up be young rams. Then around 2pm we found two rams and a yew that needed a closer look. The spotting scope revealed these two were very nice and we made a plan to take the raft around the bend and hike up the opposite ridge where they couldn't see us and top the ridge within shooting distance. Once we finally reached the top one ram had disappeared but the slightly larger ram with the yew was still there at 103 yards. We really weren't planning on shooting one opening day and we were novices when it came to judging rams but this one looked to good for us to pass up. We waiting for a few minutes and the yew started to get nervous and stood up then the ram did and my son took him with a text book shot and the ram was his. We spent four more day rafting and catching bass while looking at deer and sheep and never ran into another person the entire way. To put it simply it was the type of father and son trip that will last a lifetime and was awesome. When we check the ram in at The Dalles fish and game they scored it at 166 and a half. Plenty big for us and I know my son will remember that trip for the rest of his life. I know I will. I'll try to figure out how to post a photo tomorrow. Thanks.
 
Thanks everyone if you ever draw a John Day river bighorn tag please look me up I'd be happy to share what I learned.
 
Congrats on a great experience with your son. And while there are likely a couple bigger out there, a 166 Cali is a great ram by all accounts. And you couldn't have been in any place more awesome than that canyon to experience the hunt.
 
Here are a few photo's of my sons California Bighorn. Sorry it took so long.

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Happy to do it. If your OSU92 means you graduated from Oregon state in 92 I was just two years ahead of you there. Guess I should have used OSU90.
Happy New years.
 
It does. Man, those were some pretty crappy football years. But the beer was always cold and the steelhead fishing on the Siletz and Alsea was great back then.
 
Being from the eastside of the mountains I didn't know much about Steelhead but I caught my fair share of cold ones and enjoyed my time their.

Good luck in the draws this year.
 
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