I went for the steelhead fishing, and came back with much more.

Mike Toalson of Meridian and I did a three-day float on the Lower Deschutes. We've both been watching the crazy dam counts at Bonneville and couldn't wait for the fish to swim all the way to Idaho.

Mike has fished the Deschutes several times, but never floated it. It's a river I've long wanted to fish, so we loaded Mike's cataraft and headed west through the windy Columbia Gorge.

Idaho Fish and Game surveys show that, after two poor hunting seasons for chukars, bird populations are on the rise.

That's good news. I didn't even see a chukar at my favorite hunting spot along the Salmon River last fall.

F&G counted nearly 900 chukars in a 12-square-mile area in August along Brownlee Reservoir. That's 73.7 chukars per square mile, double last year’s dismal count of 37.8.

When Sun Valley Resort opens this winter, it will also open a new gondola on Bald Mountain. That's pretty exciting.

The gondola terminal is at River Run Lodge and you can see the construction progress at http://www.sunvalley.com/SunValley/info/mtn.cams.aspx.

The hefty rainbow came out of the deep emerald pool and nailed the yellow stimulator without hesitation.

The fish made a run downstream peeling out line from the fly rod sending out a buzz as the reel spun like crazy.

That's what you like to see on the best drift-boat fly fishing stream in Southwest Idaho - the South Fork of the Boise River.

The drive to the Seven Devils Mountains out of Riggins is straight up. I had a four-cylinder pickup the last time we visited there and we had the camper on the truck.

We were hiking along one of the creeks in the Stanley Basin and came across the carcass of a salmon.

It really makes you think about the extremely difficult journey of Idaho's salmon. The 800-mile swim from the Pacific Ocean to the headwater streams of the Salmon River is mind boggling.

Anyway, the annual Idaho Salmon and Steelhead Days celebration is planned Sept. 9-11. It's a celebration where kids learn about the biology, history and economic and cultural significance of salmon and steelhead.

Idaho Fish and Game reported wolf tags sold so well today the computers jammed for about an hour after tags went on sale at 10 p.m.

F&G had sold about 3,500 tags by 2 p.m., averaging 875 tags per hour.

Some of the morning rush could be attributed to hunters trying to get one of the first tags issued on the historic first day of sales, but continued brisk sales seem to show hunters have lots of interest in the animals.

Tags cost of $11.50 for residents and $186 for nonresidents. A tag is good for one wolf, which may be taken in any one of the 12 wolf hunt zones in Idaho.

Pulled into the RV dump station on the way home from camping near Stanley over the weekend and someone said, "Hey, it's good you got out this weekend, the camping season is just about over."

Another guy who was waiting in line with a camp trailer, looked at me, and we both said the best season was just beginning. We both expected to be camping at least to the end of October or the beginning of November.

You'll be able to buy a wolf tag on Monday and Idaho has a hunting season that will start Sept. 1 in some parts of the state.

I'm not going to buy a wolf tag and hunt them. My reason is simple and it's a philosophy I've had most of my 48 years of hunting. I eat what I shoot, plain and simple.

The dove season opens Sept. 1 and there's a good sunflower crop, which might help hunting.

I've always found doves in patches of sunflowers.

I've seen more sunflowers in the Boise Foothills and along roadsides at low elevations. It might be because of the added moisture we had this summer. Sunflowers will pop up in dry desert areas if they have a good water supply.