Don't be confused by the fairly parallel names, Mah Hah Adventures and Mah Hah Outdoors, in recent…read moreyears they are all part of the same operation. I fished with Steve Flemming numerous times in the old days when he owned and ran the Mah Hah bass fishing operation on the John Day. World-class bass fishing. No kidding, that good. Flemming sold his fishing operation to John W., a large ranch operation near mile 144 on the John Day River. Among other things, John and his crew run a big game, waterfowl, upland bird outfitter operation on his system of large properties alongside the John Day River. There are multiple tens of thousands of acres of private land, with many more thousands of acres of BLM in-holdings unaccessible to the public, with parts of the main ranch immediately adjacent to the sprawling Spring Basin Wilderness and Sutton Mountain Wilderness areas. This is not a hunted out area and the adjacent unrelated ranches do not allow public hunting. On the ranch and on adjacent ranches, lush alfalfa fields line the John Day River and the Mah Hah ranch system owned by John has miles of some of the best steelhead (and bass) fishing on the river. I've taken my sons on several big game hunts with John. 100% success, but naturally YMMV. This is not a rough-it operation. Modern ranch houses, extensively remodeled and updated form the basis of operations. Meals and amenities are outstanding. The country is rugged, varying from 1,500 feet in elevation to about 4,000 feet. Older hunters with "shorter legs" can hunt the river bottoms and thoroughly enjoy themselves and have excellent success, while fit younger hunters can enjoy the challenging, isolated terrain which is in great abundance. I've had multiple Mah Hah guides over the years, and all have been top notch, seasoned people I'd live to hunt and share a meal with again. Over the years I've also had both bad guides and bad outfitters in other operations and know the difference. The ranch has a walk-in cooler and game care after the hunt is excellent. Need taxidermy or meat processing? They've got you covered. Mah Hah takes a limited number of guests for each hunting season. This is the opposite of a volume-driven operation. Everything is managed for quality of total experience. John loves ranching, the land, big game hunting, fishing and football. I love big game hunting, so it is a plus there aren't any cattle on John's land (not over-grazed by cattle). The bottomlands have lush cover for ducks and upland game hunting. In addition to guys like me who just like to take themselves and their sons hunting, Mah Hah would be an excellent choice for a small, corporate retreat exclusive to your group that can be hosted privately in one of the ranch's several ranch houses, whether a steelhead or bass float trip that, according to time of year could be combined with bird shooting, or a big game hunt. Pricing is reasonable, but the high quality of the arrangements and outright fun of the experience is disproportionate to the cost. This is not an advertisement, I'm not related, and this description is almost certainly the only review I have written for someone in the last 20 years.
A few days ago I got home from a successful Mah Hah mule deer hunt. When I first arrived at the ranch I noticed behind the main ranch house a new jeep trail leading 600-800 or more yards up the mountain. My first thought was the guy on the bulldozer must have been insane. First, he did a terrible job. Even I could've done a better job on the dozer than that catskinner. Second, it more or less went straight up the mountain, a new bright, wide scar reaching to the top of the rimrock at just impossible angles. No way, I thought, could the ranch's Polaris side-by-sides traverse that road, up or down, but it looked wide enough for my pick-up with room to spare. Puzzled, I called it out to John since I couldn't figure out how or why this would have been built. John said around 500 head of elk recently "bulldozed" that trail. I've got elk on my own property at home but have never anywhere seen something like that. There's bound to be bull or two in there somewhere. Mah Hah has more than just world class bass fishing. You might go for the fishing, or the hunting, but I think you've find the total end-to-end experience with enjoyable people is the best and most memorable part.
