Idaho (Department of Fish and Game): You can buy cougar tags over the counter or by mail in this state. After the season opens, you cannot hunt until the second day after you buy the license. You can obtain the paperwork ahead by calling Idaho Sports Licensing at the number listed below. After January 1, you will need to buy a new license and tag. Non-residents pay $226.50 for a tag, plus $101.50 for a license. If you already have an elk or deer tag, you can buy the cougar tag for only $21.
Last year there were 15,342 tags sold, including 349 to non-residents. The department estimates that 5,085 hunters actually hunted, and 732 cougars were killed. There is a quota established in some units for females, and the season closes once it has been reached. Call the Idaho Mountain Lion Harvest Information Line for the current quota status. Seasons generally start in September and run through February and March of the following year. However, the season for units 64, 65, 66, 67 and 69 ends on December 31. The top harvest units last season were 1, 2, 10 and 39. You can contact the Idaho Outfitters & Guides Association or the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Licensing Board for a list of outfitters in this state.
I can recommend the Flying B Ranch with owner Bob Burlingame. This outfit normally takes around 10 hunters per year and typically finds cats for all of them. Last year they tagged two B & C heads. One client went home without a cougar, but he turned down three separate treed cats. Burlingame hunts in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in the drainages of the Selway and Lochsa rivers, which are very rugged with limited roads. Because of the rugged and remote country, there are very large lions killed there every year.
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