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Moving to montana or idaho!

jthurs

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Jul 9, 2014
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Hey everyone. I have been planning on moving west for a long time and it is going to happen within the next 3 years. My question for everone who has hunted either of these states is where would be a good area to focus on with a fair amount of game and not a ton of people. I will be moving with my wife and 2 young daughters. My main passion is whitetails and I would like to find good whitetail hunting with respectable bucks around. I also love to fish and that would also come into the equation as I want my daughters to be able to grow up fishing with me and enjoying the outdoors. I have looked hard at fort peck area and know that the whitetail herd is down, but I know the fishing is very good, just unsure about the accessable whitetail hunting? I talked to big fin on here and he gave me some good input, I am looking for anyone else who might have a direction or area they could point out.
 
Welcome Jthurs, Where about are you moving in from?
Ft Peck area is nice. There is a lot of public land all around the Lake and BLM close by in every direction. (almost) The reservation is just to the East and Northeast. The CMR and BLM are not exactly White Tail Country. Unfortunately WT's like the CRP and River?creek areas where there's farming. Farming is private and most all are protective of their deer.
There is Block Management, A hunter that puts in his time and works at it can get into some decent WT hunting.
 
Do you need an income? Lots of places I'd love to live if I could find someone to pay me there.

If you want year around access to lots of land with whitetail you'll need to look roughly North of Salmon and west of the Continental Divide.
 
Ok thanks. I am moving from vermont and I kind of figured the access for whitetails in the area might be tuff. something about that area has my attention. seems like a paradise but I would be hard pressed to go without good access to whitetails!
 
Randy 11. my wife works in the medical field so we are pretty flexible in her occupation, I am currently and have been a carpenter for quite a while. I dont mind change and dont need to work a job that pays huge money if I am in an area I love and I can raise my family.
 
Randy 11. my wife works in the medical field so we are pretty flexible in her occupation, I am currently and have been a carpenter for quite a while. I dont mind change and dont need to work a job that pays huge money if I am in an area I love and I can raise my family.

Definitely visit that cmr/fort peck country before relocating. It's beautiful country with a lot of hunting opportunity, but it's also the most unforgiving part of the state. It's the hottest, coldest, windiest, driest, muddiest and loneliest country I've spent time in. People that call that country home are tougher then me by a long ways.
 
that is good to know and may be a deciding factor for me. I live in a brutal environment all winter long here and that is one of the things me and my wife would like to avoid. I will definately put it in my bucket list of places to visit. I have also looked alot at nw montana and northern idaho, but I am not sure the fishing for walleye, lakers, or others will compare to peck.
 
that is good to know and may be a deciding factor for me. I live in a brutal environment all winter long here and that is one of the things me and my wife would like to avoid. I will definately put it in my bucket list of places to visit. I have also looked alot at nw montana and northern idaho, but I am not sure the fishing for walleye, lakers, or others will compare to peck.

The Clearwater River has some of the best steelhead fishing you'll ever find, and Dworshak Reservoir has good smallmouth fishing. Add in a few blue ribbon cutthroat trout fisheries to boot.
 
yeah seems like with all of the looking I have done I keep hearing about how great the orofino area is. Must be a reason for it!
 
that is good to know and may be a deciding factor for me. I live in a brutal environment all winter long here and that is one of the things me and my wife would like to avoid. I will definately put it in my bucket list of places to visit. I have also looked alot at nw montana and northern idaho, but I am not sure the fishing for walleye, lakers, or others will compare to peck.

Vermont and NE Montana are two very different levels of brutal.

Montpelier, Vermont: Record high = 97°. Record low = -34°.

Glasgow, Montana: Record high = 113°. Record low = -59°.
 
I hunted and fished the Orofino area (about 20 years ago) and it had good WT and big steelhead. If you move anywhere in MT or ID you can easily go to this area (easier than from Vermont) to enjoy the
hunting and fishing.
 
Vermont and NE Montana are two very different levels of brutal.

Montpelier, Vermont: Record high = 97°. Record low = -34°.

Glasgow, Montana: Record high = 113°. Record low = -59°.

Yes I agree with this, grew up around Froid, MT and it is Brutal

I live now in SW Idaho, I don't think the weather can get any nicer than here, got a ton of biggame and upland game species too hunt and great fishing!, world class walleye's on the Columbia river not too far away, within 0-5 hrs you can do just about anything you want, and ton's of public land also.....
Matt
 
The above assessments of N.E. Montana are spot on. I'm a lifelong Glasgow resident and as I get older I am starting to realize that I live here because I don't know any better. That being said I will never leave. As to the extreme weather, Friday I pointed out to my coworkers that it was neither too hot nor too cold, not to sunny or too cloudy. There was a light breeze, but not windy and there were no bugs. Pretty sure that will be one of maybe 5 or 6 days in 2015 when you can say all those things. Usually 2 or 3 perfect days in the spring and again in the fall. In 2014 though, I killed my last mosquito in November...then it snowed.
 
Ok thanks for the replies and the heads up on the weather guys! This winter in VT has been especially brutal and we still have over 2 feet of snow on the ground and have set records for consecutive negative 20 below days with wind. I am assuming that is probably the norm out there and I may put up with it but my wife certainly will not. Is all of that part of montana consistly cold like that? I have looked at the lewistown area and also south of there, I would still be within driving distance of peck for the fishing. I am open to any and all ideas you guys have and just remembered that the seeley lake area was on my radar too.
 
Definitely visit that cmr/fort peck country before relocating. It's beautiful country with a lot of hunting opportunity, but it's also the most unforgiving part of the state. It's the hottest, coldest, windiest, driest, muddiest and loneliest country I've spent time in. People that call that country home are tougher then me by a long ways.

Randy speaks the truth. Try before you buy!
 
Lewiston, Idaho would be hard to beat. Big enough to have lots of jobs and shopping. You can play golf there 250-300 days a year. Very seldom has snow. Clearwater steelhead, chinook salmon, bass, trout.
Elk, moose, deer (muleys and whitetail) within an hour drive. Good pheasant hunting, chuckars, huns.
A 3 bedroom, 1800sqft house probably averages around $180,000 or so. Worth a look..............
 
Lewiston Idaho
Salmon idaho
Lewistown Mt
Those are a few on my list. Salmon is my favorite but might not have a good enough whitetail population especially on public.
 
Before we let you in, how do you feel about:
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# 9 Trapping
#10 Utah/Don Peay
 
The above assessments of N.E. Montana are spot on. I'm a lifelong Glasgow resident and as I get older I am starting to realize that I live here because I don't know any better. That being said I will never leave. As to the extreme weather, Friday I pointed out to my coworkers that it was neither too hot nor too cold, not to sunny or too cloudy. There was a light breeze, but not windy and there were no bugs. Pretty sure that will be one of maybe 5 or 6 days in 2015 when you can say all those things. Usually 2 or 3 perfect days in the spring and again in the fall. In 2014 though, I killed my last mosquito in November...then it snowed.

Laffin'.....Remember the winter of 2010-11?
 
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