daveinohio
FNG
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2014
- Messages
- 13
Gary Colbath was not in Kotzebue the night before our hunt and we had our pre hunt meeting with Russ Meyer and Kyle Hanson. Russ and Kyle went over all of the pertinent information regarding the hunt and when they were done I asked Kyle about downloading some maps on Onx. Kyle pointed out an area on the border of 26 in the mountains where he thought we would go and I downloaded a couple higher resolution maps.
After what seemed like a shorter than expected flight of 38 minutes (it was shown on the planes gps) we landed at our campsite and I opened Onx and immediately knew we had been garholed. We were nowhere near the maps I had downloaded. We were 30 miles south of unit 26. We spent 4 days camped on the Wulik river SW of the Red Dog Mine. We didn't see any other hunters and only found a couple piles of dried caribou scat as evidence there had ever been a caribou in this area. However, we did glass trucks driving on the mine road. We could have driven to and walked into this spot. On our way to a glassing spot east of camp we came across a piece of rebar driven into the ground. I checked Onx and it showed we were now on land owned by ALASKA NATIVE ALLOTMENT. We had only walked 1.8 miles from camp and now we were unsure if we were legal to be hunting this property.
We requested to be moved on day 3 and did not receive a response.
On day 4 we again requested to be moved and Gary said "let me check to see where you are" We immediately sent our location and were moved that afternoon. We were only moved 22 miles to the NW and still not into the mountains where we later learned most of the successful hunts were conducted. There was a camp flown in a mile south of us on the second day at the new location. Still we had no caribou sightings.
After being flown out we were waiting around the connex for the van to take us to the hotel and Gary was wandering around with a cup of coffee. My buddy who knew who Gary was said to him - "Hey Gary, would you like to introduce yourself to a couple of your clients?" The guy couldn't even be bothered to introduce himself without prodding. Then he made excuses as to how we could go all week without a caribou sighting. That the hunt locations were determined by the pilots who seemed to base their opinions on landing strip access and ancient trails rather than actual visual caribou sightings. We didn't see a caribou while flying in or out and we were on 4 flights! There 30 times more caribou just in the WACH than there are of all the muskox in Alaska and we saw 8 of those flying out.
Gary should never had sold more hunts than what he could reasonably manage.
Gary should have known where we were camped.
Gary should have at least provided an animal sighting before putting us in a camp.
Gary should have known the history of the animals we were hunting.
I know hunting is never guaranteed but the negligence on Gary's part was shameful at best and borderline criminal. He took a lot of money from a lot of people when he knowingly could not deliver what he was selling. I understand and can accept not tagging an animal. It is unbelievable that I did not even see a single caribou in Alaska. I would have had the same odds of success had I stayed home and hunted in my backyard.
I had read this before the hunt. I doubt Gary has.
"No collared caribou came within 12 km of the Red Dog Mine or the Delong Mountain Transportation System this monitoring year"
After what seemed like a shorter than expected flight of 38 minutes (it was shown on the planes gps) we landed at our campsite and I opened Onx and immediately knew we had been garholed. We were nowhere near the maps I had downloaded. We were 30 miles south of unit 26. We spent 4 days camped on the Wulik river SW of the Red Dog Mine. We didn't see any other hunters and only found a couple piles of dried caribou scat as evidence there had ever been a caribou in this area. However, we did glass trucks driving on the mine road. We could have driven to and walked into this spot. On our way to a glassing spot east of camp we came across a piece of rebar driven into the ground. I checked Onx and it showed we were now on land owned by ALASKA NATIVE ALLOTMENT. We had only walked 1.8 miles from camp and now we were unsure if we were legal to be hunting this property.
We requested to be moved on day 3 and did not receive a response.
On day 4 we again requested to be moved and Gary said "let me check to see where you are" We immediately sent our location and were moved that afternoon. We were only moved 22 miles to the NW and still not into the mountains where we later learned most of the successful hunts were conducted. There was a camp flown in a mile south of us on the second day at the new location. Still we had no caribou sightings.
After being flown out we were waiting around the connex for the van to take us to the hotel and Gary was wandering around with a cup of coffee. My buddy who knew who Gary was said to him - "Hey Gary, would you like to introduce yourself to a couple of your clients?" The guy couldn't even be bothered to introduce himself without prodding. Then he made excuses as to how we could go all week without a caribou sighting. That the hunt locations were determined by the pilots who seemed to base their opinions on landing strip access and ancient trails rather than actual visual caribou sightings. We didn't see a caribou while flying in or out and we were on 4 flights! There 30 times more caribou just in the WACH than there are of all the muskox in Alaska and we saw 8 of those flying out.
Gary should never had sold more hunts than what he could reasonably manage.
Gary should have known where we were camped.
Gary should have at least provided an animal sighting before putting us in a camp.
Gary should have known the history of the animals we were hunting.
I know hunting is never guaranteed but the negligence on Gary's part was shameful at best and borderline criminal. He took a lot of money from a lot of people when he knowingly could not deliver what he was selling. I understand and can accept not tagging an animal. It is unbelievable that I did not even see a single caribou in Alaska. I would have had the same odds of success had I stayed home and hunted in my backyard.
I had read this before the hunt. I doubt Gary has.
"No collared caribou came within 12 km of the Red Dog Mine or the Delong Mountain Transportation System this monitoring year"
