2011 Montana mountain goat

[mdunc8]

I finally got a chance to do some scouting for my upcoming mountain goat hunt. A buddy and I packed about 12 miles in to get a lay of the land, do a little fishing, and hopefully find some goats. It's been close to 10 years and one unnerving bear counter since I've been in these mountains.

It didn't take long before we spotted a group of nannies and kids across the basin. By the time we made it to camp, we had spotted 22 goats including a few nice billies (I think).

We spent the morning fishing before getting packed up and hiking out. On the way out of the basin above the lake, we caught two billies making their way towards us. We hunkered down behind a few rocks while they fed our direction. I'm sure this won't happen once hunting season rolls around, but I could have hit them with a rock by the time they got to us. Pretty neat to see those critters at such a close distance.

We ended up seeing 12 goats on the way out. Not bad for the first trip.

I was planning on making another trip to the southern end of the unit, but with all the goats we ran into this weekend, it might be a waste of time.

 

[grizzly5028]

cool pics and nice fish

 

[elk_hunter]

WOW! Outstanding pics and nice fish!

 

[mixedbag]

sounds like a good start to your hunt planning.Fishing doesn't look too bad either

 

[cur dog]

Awsome country!

 

[Hem]

Great to see a fish pic,given the rather miserable river fishing.Looks like you had a fun trip.

 

[mtlion]

Nice work...looks like one of those billies has your name on it!!

 

[DavidKeenan]

Great pics. Good luck and I would try the southern route out also for plan B. Seems like it gets used a lot.

 

[mtmiller]

Awesome country.

 

[Goldtip]

Great looking country and nice fish. Can't wait to read the story once you get hunting.

 

[Big Fin]

Very cool, Dunc. Hope your hunt is equally enjoyable.

 

[WOODSAZ]

Awesome pics and great fish! Looking forward to future posts. This is one of my bucket list hunts for sure!

Jay

 

[DreaminofMT6X6s]

Oh man oh man! That's gonna be an AWESOME hunt! Good luck and great job picking that unit!

 

[BillyGoat]

I was planning on making another trip to the southern end of the unit, but with all the goats we ran into this weekend, it might be a waste of time.

It's never a waste of time in the mountains -- especially with scenery and fishing like that.

Good luck on the hunt!

 

[Carrion Carrier]

Awesome! Beautiful Yellowstone cutt. So jealous

 

[Drake4]

Great pics! Hopefully the rest of your scouting efforts are equally as successful.

 

[Oak]

Good looking country. Still lots of snow. I think you need to make another trip or two, at least to share some more photos.

 

[highmountian]

Outstanding country you are in, great fish too! Very cool.

 

[theat]

Beautifull country up there isnt it? I have spent anywhere from a week to a month in there every year for the last eight years chasing goats and sheep. I drew a goat tag there 8 years ago and killed my billie below the peak in your third pic right at the seam between the cliffs and the big snow field below them.

Thats a great tag to have but the goats do tend to get pushed around quite a bit with the high number of goat and elk hunters. The area you were in always seems to hold a lot of goats during the summer but many of them will head a few miles to the west out of that unit once fall arives. You should still be able to find goats there but probably not as many as you saw on this trip.

Also expect there to be other goat hunters camped just over the pass and along the ridge you took to get to the lake, at least during the first week or two of the season.

If you have the time I would also recommend taking the southern route over B...... Pass. I like that area better as it is not burned over and also holds quite a few goats.

Good Luck!

 

[MHMT]

Very cool. I've been in those mountains once so far this summer. Didn't see any goats, but was probably in the wrong area. Planning a second longer trip here in a bit.