Frequently Asked Questions

A: 

Yes, Native Americans have a tribal hunting season that is longer than the season established by the State of Idaho. It commonly goes from August through the end of December. They are allowed to hunt on unoccupied federal public lands outside the of the reservation boundaries which does take in at least, portions of IDFG Regions 4, 5, 6, and 7. These hunting rights were established by the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868.

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That area is a little tough to hunt because in many places it is a very narrow strip of land between the road and river.  You can hunt on private land along the river with permission from the landowner or along any public land that is open. We emphasize safety and respect for property.  Also, it is very important to have the ability to retrieve ducks (boat or retriever, or both), and remember it is illegal for you to have your dog retrieve down birds on private property that you do not have permission to access.  You can access the water along that stretch of road by public boat launches.   Not sure we are following your question about the Roswell March WMA. The road runs east and west.  The ponds on the south side of Hwy 18 are public and managed by IDFG (with hunt days of Thurs/Fri/Sat only) and upland portion of Roswell can be hunted 7 days/week.  The ponds north of Hwy 18 are private.  Here is a link to a map of the area.  https://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/docs/wma/RoswellMarshWHA.pdf  

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On page 47 of the furbearer regulations in the section entitled "removing trapped animals of another" it states: No person shall remove wildlife from the trap or snare of another except licensed trappers with written permission from the owner.  In other words, so long as your name or your son's name (if he is licensed) is on the trap, and you both have written permission for each other to check the traps, then you are legal.  Please carry the permission with your license in case you are checked by an officer.

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There is not a simple answer to this question.  First off, spring flow conditions for smolts in the lower Snake River comes from several drainages including the Salmon (Clearwater, upper Snake, and Imnaha are the other large contributors).  Second, the flow amounts smolts encounter on their outmigration are not solely determined by snowpack amount, but also how fast the snowpack melts (the shape of the runoff).  A large snowpack that melts too early doesn't help smolts get to the ocean. A maximum "flush" would occur with a very large snowpack that came off (melted) quickly.  This would not be best for smolt survival because flows would be so high that there would be too much spill over the dams and gas super-saturation would do more harm than the benefits of high flow.  If looking at just snowpack, more is better up to some limit or extreme. There will always be some drier years. As long as we don't see more of those but rather we can hover around the "average" years the smolts have a good chance of surviving to the ocean.  

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I totally sympathize with the frustration of finding an elk caught in a fence.  I have removed some over the years while on patrol and had to put some out of their misery as well.  It would be lawful to take the elk only if you have a valid tag for the area, the elk season is open.  There could also be a need for permission if it is on private land.  I know that does not address the fact the animal was suffering.  It is an unfortunate reality that these circumstances arise and I can't advise you to do something that could get you in trouble.  The best advise I can give is to travel to the next available cell service and call the local Sheriff's Office.  They can contact Idaho Department of Fish and Game and work through solving the problem with the hope that someone is close by to respond and put the elk down as soon as possible.

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Idaho code 36-1101(b)1 states: It is unlawful to hunt any of the game animals or game birds of this state from or by the use of any motorized vehicle except as provided by commission rule;  There is an exception for holders of a valid Hadicapped Person's Motor Vehicle Hunting Permit who may shoot from a motorized vehicle as long as the vehicle is not in motion and not on a public roadway.  Hunters may not violate motorized travel plans, these can be found online or at your local Forest Service or BLM office.     

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Thanks for your question about the upcoming changes to the trout possession limit. When the new fishing rules take effect in 2016, anglers will be able to have 3 daily bag limits in possession, whereas before it was just one. This usually meant fisherman traveling for the weekend or on vacation were only able to bring home one limit of trout (usually 6). IDFG received lots of public comment from anglers that were unhappy with the one-day possession limit rule, since they could only bring back 6 trout, despite being away fishing for several days. This does not change the daily bag limit, which is still 6. So anglers are still limited to harvesting only one limit per day. There was also interest to make trout possession limits consistent with the salmon/steelhead fishing rules to reduce confusion. During June - August 2015, IDFG asked for public input on this change with several options. Several statewide and local press releases were issued announcing the online fishing rule survey at the IDFG website. Public open house meetings were held at the Pocatello Southeast Region office (and all other offices). Also, since this change required amending the IDAPA code, proposed changes were also published in the administrative bulletin. I understand that you must feel frustrated that you didn't get a chance to comment. Despite advertising the open houses and the online survey that was available for several weeks, we don't always reach everyone. We recognize that reduced stocking at Blackfoot Reservoir has resulted in a decreases in catch rates. Restoring stocking numbers at Blackfoot Reservoir is a high priority. However, if we are unable to get back to stocking 80,000 catchable-sized rainbow trout in Blackfoot Reservoir, a reduction in the daily bag will be considered. We would be happy to talk to you more about this change or Blackfoot Reservoir specifically, so please feel free to contact us. Here's our information:   Dave Teuscher - Southeast Regional Fish Manager david.teuscher@idfg.idaho.gov (208)236-1262   Martin Koenig - Sportfishing Program Coordinator 208-287-2774 martin.koenig@idfg.idaho.gov  

A: 

Road killed big game animals may only be used as bait for wolf trapping.  No other animals may be baited with road killed big game.

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In addition to a license and elk tag, you must purchase an archery permit for an archery only season.  In order to purchase an archery permit, you would need to complete an Idaho Bowhunter Affidavit form.  http://www.fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/licenses/huntBowAffidavit.pdf  On this form you can provide either an archery education certification number or archery experience information.

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June 1948 was the first printing.

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Hi, Basically, we use radio-collared individuals, DNA surveys, and direct observations to document as many wolf packs as we can.  Then, during mid-winter, we fly the radio-collared packs and directly observe the number of wovles in those packs.  Multiplying the number of packs documented times the average number of wolves per pack gives us the number of wolves in documented packs.  From prior research, we also know that there is an additional 10-15% of wovles that are not associated with a pack, so an additional 12.5% is added to give us the number of wolves in documented packs (only).  An important fact - this is not the same as an estimate of the number of wolves in Idaho (as is widely reported), because it does not include any methodology to account for packs that exist, but were not documented.  Thus, it is useful for telling us if we are near or well-above the minimum recovery standard (150 wolves), but it is biased lower than the true population.  Further, changes from year to year don't necessarily reflect changes to the wolf popualtion because the number is affected by how much effort is available to document the number of occupied packs.