A successful fishing trip - 10 mountain whitefish, 2 elk

On December 28 I headed up the Blackfoot River to go fishing for mountain whitefish.  Shortly after it got light, as I was driving by the Clearwater Game Range I came across two dead elk by the road.



I stopped to check them out.  They had been skidded out past the shoulder of the road by the impact of whatever hit them.  I'm sure the impact was big; hitting a deer is bad enough.  They were still very warm and didn’t have any snow on them.  There weren’t any human tracks leading over to them, so I was the first person to stop to look at them.  The elk on the north side of the highway was a spike.



The elk on the south side of the highway was a cow.



The 2013 Montana Legislature enacted “An Act to permit Rednecks to take away and eat roadkilled animals.”  That isn’t the actual title of the bill, but you get the idea.  See http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/licenses/all/salvagePermit/ . I have a friend who has already picked up and processed two roadkilled deer.  I had a plastic tarp and some rubber gloves with me, so I was prepared to pick up roadkill.  And I decided I wanted to take one of those elk home.

However, the elk were big, and there was no way I could get even one of them into the back of my SUV by myself.  Particularly since the roadkill law prohibits the gutting of roadkilled animals along a road.  You have to take them away in un-gutted condition, which adds a lot of weight in the case of an elk.

Fortunately, the guy with whom I was going to go fishing lived only about 8 miles away.  I called him, asked him if he wanted one of the elk, and asked him if he’d help me carry off the elk.  He was up for it, and had a visitor staying with him who could come along to help with the lifting.  So I stood by the road, trying to look like the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to try to take an elk from, waiting for my roadside assistance.

A highway patrolmen came by to check out the elk.  He said the elk had been hit by a pickup less than an hour earlier, and the pickup was now disabled.  I asked him to inquire if the driver wanted one or both of the elk.  He checked, and the driver didn’t want them.  Possibly because he no longer had any way to transport them.

My friend showed up with his visitor in a medium-sized pickup.  We attached ratchet straps to the neck and front feet of the spike and started dragging and heaving it up onto the tailgate.  It was difficult.  I once got a cow elk into the back of my SUV by myself by tying it to a toboggan, backing the SUV up to a road cut, and using a game cart as a ramp.  We didn’t have any of those tools or advantages.  The elk transportation process was proceeding slowly and with much effort.



Then a tourist from Pennsylvania with two kids pulled over to check out the excitement.  With their help we heaved both elk into the pickup.









Then we took the elk back to my friend’s house and gutted and skinned them.



Not wanting to offend the delicate sensibilities of all of the catch-and-release fishermen who belong to the forum, I have not included pictures of us whacking up the elk, sliding the gut piles down the embankment, etc. 

You often can’t tell how bad a road-killed animal has been hit until you skin it.  Both elk looked pretty good after we skinned them, but we’ll lose some meat which was damaged.  I took the cow, and my friend took the spike.  I cut the cow in half so I could move it more easily, and we loaded it in my SUV.

Then we went fishing, which was our original plan.  I caught 10 mountain whitefish.  I’m currently smoking the whitefish and processing the elk. 

I want Oregon to instill that law , problem is in Tillamook county it would be a lot of rednecks intentionally hitting them. Nice day for you indeed.

Now that's a great day fishin! 

You left out the good parts.show the pics Arizona has/had the same law,not sure if its still in the books.I think its a good thing if someone is willing to chance it.way to go.

Transporting an elk is the good part.  When you go elk hunting, the fun really starts when you have an elk on the ground.  When a friend shoots an elk, I don't care too much about the hunt, the stalk, and the shot.  I want to know how they got it out of the woods. 

It looks like life doesn't grind to a halt out there in winter. Nice report.

I was going to go steelhead fishing yesterday but decided to stay home when I heard it was going to get down to 30 degrees. I like those kids standing around in T-shirts!

Man Pete, I gotta say, I enjoy the heck out of your posts. You must get as much as anyone on this forum. You always seem to have some kind of adventure. This one was hilarious, and I love your matter of fact description. "Possibly because he no longer had any way to transport them." haha!

Glad to see the winter isn't slowing you down. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us. One thing I've learned over the last two years is that it's not always easy or convenient or on my mind to pull out a camera to document something cool, but in the end that's what makes the difference between a decent story and a great post. Keep it up in 2015!

In other news, I've got to get out of the city. Yaktastic, you have any need for a pencil-pushing desk jockey?

In other news, I've got to get out of the city. Yaktastic, you have any need for a pencil-pushing desk jockey?

Plenty of open space here. You just think we have these great fishing opportunities here

Polyangler likes this!

Pennsylvania had a similar law (at least when I lived there).  Growing up there, we always had deer in the freezer from roadkill.  We used to clobber them all the time... and no, it wasn't intentional... at least not all the time... 

Pennsylvania had a similar law (at least when I lived there).  Growing up there, we always had deer in the freezer from roadkill.  We used to clobber them all the time... and no, it wasn't intentional... at least not all the time... 

Intentionally clobbering deer with your vehicle is not an economically viable way to get meat.  Bullets are cheaper than cars.  For example, my wife hit a deer last year, and while the damage didn't look very serious, the repair bill was $4,000.  You can buy a lot of bullets, or a lot of grocery store meat, with $4,000.  On the other hand, damage to other people's cars doesn't cost you anything.  So I look for deer which other people whacked with their cars.

Pennsylvania had a similar law (at least when I lived there).  Growing up there, we always had deer in the freezer from roadkill.  We used to clobber them all the time... and no, it wasn't intentional... at least not all the time... 

Intentionally clobbering deer with your vehicle is not an economically viable way to get meat.  Bullets are cheaper than cars.  For example, my wife hit a deer last year, and while the damage didn't look very serious, the repair bill was $4,000.  You can buy a lot of bullets, or a lot of grocery store meat, with $4,000.  On the other hand, damage to other people's cars don't cost you anything.  So look for deer which other people whacked with their cars.

I was j/k about hitting them intentionally.  I never hit one intentionally.  All of mine were by accident, but I did have a lot of accidents and I never really did any repair afterwards unless it was to make the car driveable.  We didn't waste time or money on cosmetics because chances are you were going to hit another.  They were everywhere on the roads where I grew up.  There were two types of drivers where I grew up, those that have hit deer and those who have not hit deer... yet.

BTW... pmmpete, that was a good fishing trip.   

A couple years ago while out deer hunting, a buck was hit and killed 30yrds behind my truck (parked on the side of the highway).   I ended up getting a smaller buck but had to leave the road killed deer lay there to rot.  I would have been happy to take the other home even if half the meat was unusable.

Plenty of stories I've heard of the sheriff heading out after checking out the road to "call the debris removal crew" and then being "shocked, shocked I tell you," when there wasn't any carcass to clean up a few hours later when they came back.