Heading back to SD this morning. Here are some pics for you guys. More later, when I get my keyboard re-charged. But the pics speak for themselves.
Flying B Ranch, ID
- Thread starter Bonejour
- Start date
Heading back to SD this morning. Here are some pics for you guys. More later, when I get my keyboard re-charged. But the pics speak for themselves.
Haha yes to all the above. Thanks gentlemen. Here is the story:
A few years ago, my two brothers and I got to thinking about traveling to hunt and fish, as a way to see more of the country and sample the way folks harvest wild things for food. We’ve talked about Africa and South America, but there are so many different opportunities in the USA that I don’t expect we’ll ever have to go overseas.
We’ve fished lake trout and northern pike at a fly-in camp in the Northwest Territories of Canada, floated and fished the Kenai River shore for salmon on the, dragged halibut up from 300 feet deep in Prince William Sound, trolled tuna off Virginia Beach and San Diego, and hunted elk and mule deer in Colorado. Bob is very good at finding interesting places with good guides and comfortable accommodations that allow us to spend time together and be comfortable when we are done hunting for the day.
This year Bob really outdid himself. The Flying B Ranch in Kamiah (pronounced KAM-ee-eye), ID was the Orvis Wingshooting Lodge of the Year in 2014. And from what we saw, they are not resting on their laurels. They have a spectacular group of dogs and guides, and thousands of acres of canyon bottom and slopes to hunt. It’s an impressive ranch: beautiful lodge with lots of comfortable gathering spaces, full bar, comfortable rooms, outstanding food, terrific staff. Of all the places we’ve visited for hunting and fishing, I believe that this was the most complete package.
The wing shooting was as challenging as we could have hoped for, despite the fact that the birds are raised for release. There is a fair amount of pressure from predators as well as hunters, so I guess the birds become wary and wily or they just don’t survive. Sometimes they’d hold till you practically stepped on them; other times they’d take off before the dogs could reach them; sometimes you could tell they were running ahead of the dogs in the chest-high grass and the dogs just couldn’t zero in on them. The birds were healthy, flew fast and strong, and if you didn’t hit them hard they just kept flying. They really didn’t go down easily without a direct hit, and if you did knock them down but not out, the dogs had trouble finding them.
There were other several groups there with us, ranging in size from 2 to 4 people. We arrived just before lunch on Wednesday. After check-in and a lunch of pheasant lasagna, we headed out for some practice on sporting clays. Some of the guests had either brought their shotguns or had them shipped via UPS, but the Ranch has a variety of Orvis guns available for use and provided all the ammunition.
I won’t go into the menus but the fowl and wild game was some of the best I’ve had. We never had a bad meal, and every day from 6 to 7 there were cocktails and appetizers like bear sausage, deep fried pheasant, boar ribs, or pheasant poppers.
Wednesday morning we headed out to the “bottom”, which was a wide field of “intermediate” wheat grass (about chest high) with a pair of dogs (a GSP and an English pointer). After lunch, we went up into the hills with another team of 3 GSPs to hunt for chukar and pheasant. There were coveys of Hungarian partridge throughout the ranch, but they they tended to concentrate in cuts and narrow draws.
The second day we went steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River. We floated the river, trolling crankbaits downstream with Rich (our guide) at the oars working the water. He is an expert waterman as well as their director of wingshooting, and put us on some nice fish. At this time of year, it is easy to come away with nothing after a day on the river; but we hooked about 10 fish and landed 7 or so. All catch and release at this time of year. Frankly, I lost count of how many fish we brought in. They are big and, especially the B run fish, which are bigger and older than the A run fish, fight hard. We were using braided line and medium power gear so there was little chance of breaking a line, but one of those fish fought so hard that the barbless 2/0 hook opened up. We landed that fish but failed to notice the straightened hook, so the next fish, a smaller one, spat the hook as Bob was bringing him in. The weather on the river varied a lot, with sun, rain and wind at intervals. It was good to have excellent gear that kept us warm and dry when the wind and rain started.
I do have to mention lunch on the boat, which was a real treat: Rich and the cook, Ryan, had set up racks of ribs that had been cooked ahead of time, and frozen for lunch on the river. Rich used a small camp stove, zip lock bag and boiling water to heat them up. I was expecting sandwiches or a shore lunch; this was quite a surprise. And I have never had better sauce than the Kansas City sauce on those ribs.
Saturday we were back working the hills, and got our share of Huns, chukar and pheasant. There was a hawk flushing the birds from the hillside above us, and once we figured this out and kept our eyes open, we were able to intercept a few as they tried to reach refuge in the creek bottom below us. After lunch we were back at it down in the creek bottoms below where we’d been in the morning.
Sunday morning we were up and on our way back to Boise, but most folks flew into and out of Lewiston and there is a free shuttle that makes that 90 minute run as needed. This was a spectacular trip. We’ll definitely go back. We are thinking of the horse packing elk trip in 2019. We’ll see; personally, I wouldn’t mind going back in 2018 as well, to do more bird hunting. I should mention one caveat though. This was rugged terrain and it was challenging. There was no one in camp who wasn’t fit, though some clients who have been going for over 20 years are reaching advanced ages. Even though the Flying B can adjust for older and less mobile clients, if you can’t climb, you won’t get nearly as much out of the Flying B Ranch as it can offer. So if you go, train beforehand and bring your sturdiest boots.
A few years ago, my two brothers and I got to thinking about traveling to hunt and fish, as a way to see more of the country and sample the way folks harvest wild things for food. We’ve talked about Africa and South America, but there are so many different opportunities in the USA that I don’t expect we’ll ever have to go overseas.
We’ve fished lake trout and northern pike at a fly-in camp in the Northwest Territories of Canada, floated and fished the Kenai River shore for salmon on the, dragged halibut up from 300 feet deep in Prince William Sound, trolled tuna off Virginia Beach and San Diego, and hunted elk and mule deer in Colorado. Bob is very good at finding interesting places with good guides and comfortable accommodations that allow us to spend time together and be comfortable when we are done hunting for the day.
This year Bob really outdid himself. The Flying B Ranch in Kamiah (pronounced KAM-ee-eye), ID was the Orvis Wingshooting Lodge of the Year in 2014. And from what we saw, they are not resting on their laurels. They have a spectacular group of dogs and guides, and thousands of acres of canyon bottom and slopes to hunt. It’s an impressive ranch: beautiful lodge with lots of comfortable gathering spaces, full bar, comfortable rooms, outstanding food, terrific staff. Of all the places we’ve visited for hunting and fishing, I believe that this was the most complete package.
The wing shooting was as challenging as we could have hoped for, despite the fact that the birds are raised for release. There is a fair amount of pressure from predators as well as hunters, so I guess the birds become wary and wily or they just don’t survive. Sometimes they’d hold till you practically stepped on them; other times they’d take off before the dogs could reach them; sometimes you could tell they were running ahead of the dogs in the chest-high grass and the dogs just couldn’t zero in on them. The birds were healthy, flew fast and strong, and if you didn’t hit them hard they just kept flying. They really didn’t go down easily without a direct hit, and if you did knock them down but not out, the dogs had trouble finding them.
There were other several groups there with us, ranging in size from 2 to 4 people. We arrived just before lunch on Wednesday. After check-in and a lunch of pheasant lasagna, we headed out for some practice on sporting clays. Some of the guests had either brought their shotguns or had them shipped via UPS, but the Ranch has a variety of Orvis guns available for use and provided all the ammunition.
I won’t go into the menus but the fowl and wild game was some of the best I’ve had. We never had a bad meal, and every day from 6 to 7 there were cocktails and appetizers like bear sausage, deep fried pheasant, boar ribs, or pheasant poppers.
Wednesday morning we headed out to the “bottom”, which was a wide field of “intermediate” wheat grass (about chest high) with a pair of dogs (a GSP and an English pointer). After lunch, we went up into the hills with another team of 3 GSPs to hunt for chukar and pheasant. There were coveys of Hungarian partridge throughout the ranch, but they they tended to concentrate in cuts and narrow draws.
The second day we went steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River. We floated the river, trolling crankbaits downstream with Rich (our guide) at the oars working the water. He is an expert waterman as well as their director of wingshooting, and put us on some nice fish. At this time of year, it is easy to come away with nothing after a day on the river; but we hooked about 10 fish and landed 7 or so. All catch and release at this time of year. Frankly, I lost count of how many fish we brought in. They are big and, especially the B run fish, which are bigger and older than the A run fish, fight hard. We were using braided line and medium power gear so there was little chance of breaking a line, but one of those fish fought so hard that the barbless 2/0 hook opened up. We landed that fish but failed to notice the straightened hook, so the next fish, a smaller one, spat the hook as Bob was bringing him in. The weather on the river varied a lot, with sun, rain and wind at intervals. It was good to have excellent gear that kept us warm and dry when the wind and rain started.
I do have to mention lunch on the boat, which was a real treat: Rich and the cook, Ryan, had set up racks of ribs that had been cooked ahead of time, and frozen for lunch on the river. Rich used a small camp stove, zip lock bag and boiling water to heat them up. I was expecting sandwiches or a shore lunch; this was quite a surprise. And I have never had better sauce than the Kansas City sauce on those ribs.
Saturday we were back working the hills, and got our share of Huns, chukar and pheasant. There was a hawk flushing the birds from the hillside above us, and once we figured this out and kept our eyes open, we were able to intercept a few as they tried to reach refuge in the creek bottom below us. After lunch we were back at it down in the creek bottoms below where we’d been in the morning.
Sunday morning we were up and on our way back to Boise, but most folks flew into and out of Lewiston and there is a free shuttle that makes that 90 minute run as needed. This was a spectacular trip. We’ll definitely go back. We are thinking of the horse packing elk trip in 2019. We’ll see; personally, I wouldn’t mind going back in 2018 as well, to do more bird hunting. I should mention one caveat though. This was rugged terrain and it was challenging. There was no one in camp who wasn’t fit, though some clients who have been going for over 20 years are reaching advanced ages. Even though the Flying B can adjust for older and less mobile clients, if you can’t climb, you won’t get nearly as much out of the Flying B Ranch as it can offer. So if you go, train beforehand and bring your sturdiest boots.
