2014 Year and Report

March 5, 2015

Hello You All,

We are winding up our 2015 Show season with one last trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota next weekend. I would like to thank those of you who stopped by our booth in Puyallup, WA, and at SCI in Las Vegas. It was very busy at both shows, some of you who did visit I never had much of a chance to visit, so I apologies. I hope we get to see you again next year.

I would like to give a summary on how our season went this past year, the highs and the lows. We started the year off with my annual trip to New Zealand. I accompanied old friend and client Allen Steel and his Son Casey. I chose Scott Thompson again to take my hunters, since 2013 was unforgettable. And this was a great choice, Alan took a Free Range Gold Stag on the 2nd day, Casey took his Free Range Gold Stag on the 3rd day. Casey took a respectable Bull Tahr on the 5th day and Alan and I both took very good Fallow Bucks to end this hunt, totally unbelievable.
I was unable to stay for my second hunt with Dairen Stewart, another client/friend of mine, and I really missed the boat on this hunt, Dairen took a Free Range Gold Stag, a huge Bull Tahr, a Monster Fallow Deer and a Chamois. 4 for 4. Thank you Scott for taking such good care of my friends and providing such a lifetime experience for us all. We will be back.

We did a Spring Grizzly Hunt with my good friend Peter Vittoratos and his son Constantine. This was a good time and we did hunt for 4 out of 10 days for grizzly , we had one over top of our tracks for 3 of those days but could not get the timing down, we spent the last 5 –days of the hunt trying to get Constantine a black bear, and after 1 stalk where Constantine’s cell phone prevented us from sealing the deal, and after the second stalk on a Monster Black Bear where it turned out to be his lucky day on a missed shot, we finished up and Constantine took a very respectable Color Phase bear on the evening of the last day.

Our spring bear hunt was phenomenal as usual and the majority of our bears were in the 7 foot class. With 13 bears taken for 9 hunters, it was an exciting season for Sabrina and I.

Major General Doug Pearson, who purchased this donated hunt at the SCI Convention Auction, started our season off with 2 Nice Black Bears at 6 ft. 7 in & 6 ft. 8 in. He is coming back this spring to try to get that color phase bear.

Camille Bomboy, the young lady that was mauled by a sow black bear near her home in 2013, and who we donated this hunt with the help from Michael Deming from Sportsman’s News Magazine who footed the expenses, on her last day after many stalks and near misses took a gorgeous 6 ft. 6 in bear, you can see this on video on our website, was truly one of our most rewarding hunts.

Michael Deming who was here to video this hunt also brought his 12 year old daughter Taylor, who took another of those bears that surprised us at being a huge 6 ft. 10 in squared bear. A great first bear, for a young hunter.

We had the Double Tap Ammunition boys up, Mike McNett (Owner) and Shain Adair (custom rifle maker) took 4 bears. This was the first hunt for the .26 Nosler calibers, and it proved to put all doubts aside as one of the next great Big Game Cartridges on the North American Continent. Shain took the first 6 ft. bear at over 500 yards, the 2nd bear he took at 150 yards was a whopping 7 ft. 1 in long by 7ft 7 in wide Monster, and the 26 Nosler “Crushed” this bear in his tracks. Mike took his first Bear with a .375 his caliber of choice, 6ft 8 in squared, then his 2nd a beautiful color phase bear that surprised us at being 6ft 11 in squared. Again over 300 yards with the 26 Nosler.

We wound up the season with 4 hunters. Longtime client and close friend David Rutledge brought his Daughter in law Amy and her 13 year old son Shane, and Tommy Jeter who brought his 13 year old nephew William. Along with Old timer Leon Bernard who is another part of our hunting family. We had a great week.

Shane and Will started the week off with a bear each, 7 ft. 1 in, and 7 ft. respectfully. Both huge bears for young hunters. Leon took 2 color phase bears, the first 6 ft. 3 in, and the second bear, the biggest of the season a Monster 7ft 3 in x 7ft 3 in golden bear. Leon finally got his bear, now he has to come back for that Black bear. And not to forget Amy who took another 7 ft. 2 in squared bear, this was one of those amazing hunts I will never forget. A great spring season

Our fall was kind of one those run your tail off seasons. Mountain Caribou/Moose was as always spectacular with 2 very nice Caribou and 1 huge moose taken. Norm Colman and Caleb Harrison taking the Caribou and Patrick taking the moose. Bill Vaganus had a chance at a good bull Caribou on the first night but passed it up and then had a shot at a good bull moose but missed went home with memories that haunt you forever.

We did our first Elk hunt in a new lease and a new hunt for Itcha Mountain Outfitters, we had Robert and Bryan Hammond up on this hunt. With lots of bugling and action, 4 and 5 point bulls coming in, and 70 degree weather, we did not get a 6-point bull to come into us. But the action was definitely good and there is potential to explore this hunt more in the future.

Upper Camp was again incredibly awesome to hunt, Al Wakefield, Jay Putra and Jack Bauer all 3 took home very good moose, with Jack Bauer leading the way with a high 48” trophy.

Paula Schaner and Cody Vukasin both had a good hunt, with Paula taking a fine trophy and Cody passing up many bulls for that 1 special bull that we didn’t find.

Our late season hunt in the new area north of us proved to be a challenge, for 8 hunters we took 4 bulls and only 2 out of the new area. This area has a good population of moose but they are road wary, so this summer we will be spending some time cutting trails to get off the beaten path, and give it another go. Marty Stephan, Paul Dalporto, Fred Carl and Jim Heisler all took home good respectable bulls on this hunt.

Cat season was unbelievable, Kevin Obrien was back to try his luck on that Cougar hunt, and on the first morning within 10 minutes we had a fresh track, it took all day and half the next to tree this lion for Kevin but we did, and only 15 minutes from home. A couple of days later we treed a nice Lynx for Kevin, so he had a double header. Between hunts Michael took the dogs for a run and killed a huge lynx. Then When Bruce McKimmy and Jesse Shannon arrived we treed another Monster Lynx for Bruce and chased lynx every day for Jesse but did not fill his tag, the next hunt with Rob Brunmeir and Jayne Novotny, again we ran the dogs at least once every day and once chased 3 lynx in one day but never got one treed. Snow conditions were perfect for Kevin and Bruce but continually got worse for Jesse and Rob.

All in all it was another incredible year of Big Game Hunting for us at Itcha Mountain Outfitters and Many thanks to all of our hunters and now new friends, special appreciation to our long time repeat family hunters, we could not do this without you.

NOW:

This leads me into the next part of the update, For those of you who are thinking about that particular hunting trip you want to do, or for those of you who haven’t quite made up your minds, I want to let you all know what we have left available for 2015 & 2016, and then to let you know what exciting Hunts we will have for 2017.

For 2015 I have a few unexpected openings due to some cancellations for Trophy Spring Black Bear. May 18th to 22nd and June 8th to 12th. You all know the quality of Bears that we have, so if you want to partake in an exciting spring hunt after a long winter this is the hunt that will do it. You can book this hunt for 30% off the listed price, which is attached.

I have no wilderness horseback hunts for Caribou/Moose at Itcha Lake, nor do I have any Rut Hunts left. I do however have an opening on my late season hunt. October 28th to November 3rd is open for 4 hunters, in the new area which I am positive will be more successful this fall. $5499.00 each, all inclusive is the price for this hunt as we will be cutting trail and exploring hiding spots.

Only 3 openings for Lynx in Late November and December for $3950.00 each for a 2 on 1 or $4950.00 for a 1 on 1, you can add a cougar for the price of the tag and $3000.00 trophy fee.

For 2016, I have 2 spots for Caribou/Moose in September. I may have a spot for 4 hunters on a wilderness Moose Rut Hunt, as the hunters that have signed up for this hunt has not sent deposits to seal the deal. I will not hold this spot so the first hunters that pay the deposit will take this spot. You all know the saying “Money Talks Bull S__t walks” will win this spot. I have 1 spot for 4 hunters on the late season, Oct 31st to Nov 6th. $5499.00 each, all inclusive for this hunt.

Cat season is wide open.

New Zealand Super Gold Stag is available for 2016, not to mention Another Man’s Hunt with Scott Thompson. Great Prices and a Hunt to Remember are available. Join me on this once and a lifetime experience in April/May.

For 2017: We will not be hunting Caribou/Moose in the Itcha’s, I am shutting this down until further notice. Instead I have leased an area that has Unlimited Mountain Goat Tags, combo that up with incredible Canadian Moose and you have another Hunt of a Lifetime in the making. To make this even better I have 1 Mountain Grizzly tag available for Bruins that will push the 9 foot mark, and many 7foot Blacks meandering around this area as well.
Call or email for more info on this hunt.

Some of you I have not seen on my travels south of the border the last few years, I have not heard from you either. Please call or email me to let me know you are still on the up and up. If you want to book a hunt or just want to shoot the sh_t, we can do this to. It would be nice to hear from you.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and good hunting where ever you go.

Stewart
itchamtn.com