I just returned from a great hunt with JHA for Caribou. I put this hunt in the books a couple years ago wanting to get back up there as it's been a few years. Lucky for me a couple of my friends agreed to take the trip up with me as they both been wanting to make this hunt for a long time. My friend Alex and I fish yearly out of the same steelhead camp and he drove to NY from NH and my buddy Paul drove up from WV. After a nice evening at my house with a great dinner and drinks, lots of laughs we departed the next morning for Montreal which is only about a 4 hour ride. Little did we know when we booked the the trip that this would be the last fall for sport hunting caribou in the province. Most likely not open again in the foreseeable future.
Travel consisted of a three hour charter flight north to base camp then flights out to different camps via otters and beavers. Our camp was about 125 miles north east of the base camp. We lost the first day's hunt due to weather. The camp we had consisted of 6 guys unguided. I had some experience in this so I told Paul and Alex that I would play guide for the trip. We ended up with a 7th hunter in camp who was 1-1 guided, he had paid extra for a hunt that would place him in the best camp and move him however times necessary throughout the week. Very nice guy from Oregon .
Anyway we lucked out and hit it perfect. I hunted the full five days, over 60 miles total and saw well over 150 bulls despite terrible windy conditions and two days of sideways rain and fog. Alex who was rifle hunting shot a good bull the first after noon, he then proceeded to fish the rest of the week....how many pike did he catch I can't tell you ...but we fried fish till everyone was sick of eating it! Paul shot and hit a bull the second day, unfortunately his arrow hit right in the shoulder and we didn't recover the bull. We saw the bull twice more over the next four hours and after sheading the arrow he didn't look much worse for the wear. Paul had one other shot opportunity with the bow but couldn't connect and he ended up borrowing Alex's rifle the final afternoon and killed a nice wide bull with long tops. I was fortunate to arrow my bull the third day.
All the other hunters in camp where gun hunting and they connected as well. The only other bow hunter that didn't connect was the one on one guided hunter. He stuck with the bow till the plane landed to return but unfortunately he didn't score.
All in all we hit it perfect, way better then we could have hoped. The other camps pretty much struggled and were shuffled around to get them in bulls. JHA did an excellent job as always on this hunt, no small thing considering the logistics involved.
You often hear people say that it was trip of a life time, and I don't like to think in those terms as I try to make a trip of a lifetime every year. However with the George and Leaf river herds closed to hunting it most likely was a trip of our lifetime.
Any way here are a few pictures.
Jimmy
Travel consisted of a three hour charter flight north to base camp then flights out to different camps via otters and beavers. Our camp was about 125 miles north east of the base camp. We lost the first day's hunt due to weather. The camp we had consisted of 6 guys unguided. I had some experience in this so I told Paul and Alex that I would play guide for the trip. We ended up with a 7th hunter in camp who was 1-1 guided, he had paid extra for a hunt that would place him in the best camp and move him however times necessary throughout the week. Very nice guy from Oregon .
Anyway we lucked out and hit it perfect. I hunted the full five days, over 60 miles total and saw well over 150 bulls despite terrible windy conditions and two days of sideways rain and fog. Alex who was rifle hunting shot a good bull the first after noon, he then proceeded to fish the rest of the week....how many pike did he catch I can't tell you ...but we fried fish till everyone was sick of eating it! Paul shot and hit a bull the second day, unfortunately his arrow hit right in the shoulder and we didn't recover the bull. We saw the bull twice more over the next four hours and after sheading the arrow he didn't look much worse for the wear. Paul had one other shot opportunity with the bow but couldn't connect and he ended up borrowing Alex's rifle the final afternoon and killed a nice wide bull with long tops. I was fortunate to arrow my bull the third day.
All the other hunters in camp where gun hunting and they connected as well. The only other bow hunter that didn't connect was the one on one guided hunter. He stuck with the bow till the plane landed to return but unfortunately he didn't score.
All in all we hit it perfect, way better then we could have hoped. The other camps pretty much struggled and were shuffled around to get them in bulls. JHA did an excellent job as always on this hunt, no small thing considering the logistics involved.
You often hear people say that it was trip of a life time, and I don't like to think in those terms as I try to make a trip of a lifetime every year. However with the George and Leaf river herds closed to hunting it most likely was a trip of our lifetime.
Any way here are a few pictures.
Jimmy
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