Anyone Hunt with Conne River Outfitting in New Foundland?

[BUCKSANDDUCKS]

Wondering if anyone has used Conne River Outfitting in New Foundland for a moose hunt. If so did you do a fly in hunt or lodge based hunt? How was the experience?

 

[Wallace]

I did. Opening week of the season last year, I was in their fly in camp. I walked 35+ miles, hunted every day from before sun up until after it went down, and I saw one cow with a calf on the first day. 3 other guys in the same camp, one killed an average bull (took him 9 shots, killed on first day), other shot a calf on the next to last day, and the other hunter was like me ... tons of hunting, never saw a bull.

My opinion, nice guys, not near as many animals as they claim to have though. They advertised 90% (I believe that is correct) opportunity rate, hard to sustain/believe that when the first week of the season they went 50% or lower across all of their camps. I called their references before booking, ended up being the guys that hunt for a discounted rate and do their social media (found that out after the fact). Food was ok, accommodations were good (basic cabins, hot water, beds).

I'm going back to New Foundland next year, it is with a different outfit though. I'm a full time booking agent (Argentina and Africa), and I've been on a fair amount of guided hunts along with free lance trips.

 

[MallardMaster]

My cousin and his friend hunted with them this year and the hunt was a disaster. I am only going from knowledge that is second hand so my facts might not be 100% accurate since I was not there. I believe that they hunted the first day and then things fell apart. There was a major issue with the outfitter having one of their guides walk out on them and taking a number of people with him. From what I gather it was a form of a 'strike' towards the operation. My cousin and his partner then had to sit in camp for a few days with nothing to do because they could not hunt. My cousin was then given the opportunity to speak with the tribal lawyer. The following day the guides came back and they ended up hunting the final couples days of the hunt, however the bad weather moved in and they did not see any animals. From what I know, they were told that they would be refunded the cost for their trip along with a discounted rate to go back to hunt with them.
I want to state once again that these were statements that were told to me and I do not have any first hand knowledge of this. I do realize that this might be something that was out of the outfitters hands though since it went through the tribal lawyer. Regardless, it was a bummer of a situation for them and I don't know if they are going back or not.

 

[MallardMaster]

I did speak with my cousin over the holiday and they decided to not rebook with this outfit. The person that was running this camp, even stated that he was not sure if he would even be back there guiding. It sounds like this is a situation where someone leases the guide rights from the First Nation, and they were having some communication issues. After they thought about it for a little while, they just decided to move on to an elk hunt in NM. Hopefully for Conne River they can get things worked out. You never like to hear about situations like this.

 

[Trial153]

Personlly I have heard enough mixed reviews about them over the years that I have taken them of my list for NF.

 

[BUCKSANDDUCKS]

Thanks guy's. been trying to do some research on them before spending my hard earned bucks. thanks again john

 

[CRO NL]

Hi guys, just noticed this thread and thought I’d offer an update. This business is now under new management and is undergoing some exciting changes. Things are going well with the set up for this season and everyone is feeling great about it up here. Guides and carpenters and others are working at the camps and trails and equipment maintenance etc. The guide team is solid, we really have the best of the best here, mostly same crew from before with some very positive changes. Anyone that’s been with CRO previously will be impressed with the improvements, not that it wasn’t good before but we really are making some great upgrades to the facilities and equipment. New spike camps, new areas to access, multiple planes to use, new gear and lots of other good stuff. We’re really giving it a massive effort to show the industry how great Conne River Outfitting is and that we are prepared to be a NL outfitting experience leader.
If anyone has any questions at all please don’t hesitate to send me a PM to chat or I can give you a call if you’d like.
Cheers,
Robert

 

[Speedbump]

The very best outfitters in Newfoundland have a success rate of 98+%. These outfitters are usually difficult to get reservations for as they enjoy extremely high repeat customers, and work of mouth fills the rest of the openings.
As far as Conne River goes, enough negative info out there to justify being wary, very wary. There is no shortage of reliable, established outfitters in Newfoundland. Hope Conne can rebuild their reputation.

 

[Speedbump]

Hunted the 2nd week of the season last fall. All 4 hunters in camp took bulls by Tuesday, as did the 4 guys there the first week. The cabin was on the sore of a lake with a pretty nice 3-4 mile view of the surrounding hills. On Wed afternoon I was looking out the front window of the cabin. With binocs, I counted 5 more moose spread around the hills.

 

[rlmmarine]

I hunted with iron bound last year and had a good trip minus the weather. Last week of oct. Give mark a call. We all got one in camp

 

[rlmmarine]

I might add it was an hour long flight in by hellicopter to get to. Camp so it was extreamly remote