This stinks this year
Contributors to this thread:Caribou
From: Bou'bound
14-Jul-18
Normally there would be all kinds of buzz with guys getting ready to go to Quebec for a season up there. Hunting with the Humes and all.
Now it is dead as a door nail. For all the talk about where you still can hunt them Quebec was always the place that got the volume and the hunter numbers and this reality of a closed season sucks
From: Nick Muche
14-Jul-18
Any idea if it'll ever open back up? Are there any other places to hunt QL Caribou?
From: jjs
14-Jul-18
This is the reason one does not take a hunting season for granted, never know it could be the last, got to hunt like it is the last one.
From: rtkreaper
14-Jul-18
After 18 years of hunting with JHA, I'm heading to Manitoba for caribou. Hope its half as good as Richard and Amanda. See you on the tundra. Rory
From: rtkreaper
14-Jul-18
Doubt if it will ever open again as we knew it. Most of the camps are being removed. Don't think anyone would want to start all over from scratch. Sad because the animals are still there in huntable numbers and hopefully can recover to the glory days. See you on the tundra. Rory
From: midwest
14-Jul-18
Had a group of 6 lined up and ready to send in our deposits when the bad news came. :-(
From: Bou'bound
14-Jul-18
It is so unnecessary biologically. Maybe 500 a year taken by non residents since they went to the one tag. Has no impact on populations at all. Stupid politics. The natives can still take all they want
From: ahunter76
14-Jul-18
I made 2 bowhunting trips to Quebec & my 2nd was in 1990 I took my son when he was 16. I filmed everything & made us a nice hour+ DVD. I took one & he took 2 + some awesome Lake Trout. Trust me, he is so thankful, as I, that we made this trip together.. Sad & as someone said, the low numbers taken by non natives makes no difference. My sons best with our guide Michelle on the last day of our hunt.
From: bowbender77
14-Jul-18
The whole deal reeks of lefty political socialism just like the Grizz issue in B.C. I do agree that it does SUCK.
From: HDE
14-Jul-18
"Stupid politics. The natives can still take all they want"
And therein lies the problem to most things lost hunting.
From: BIG BEAR
14-Jul-18
Yep.... Stupid politics. On a much smaller scale here in Michigan’s U.P.,, The DNR made does off limits to archers across most of the U.P. a few years ago... and that remains today. No sound biological reason... The gun hunters pushed for it so there will be more deer for them...... These types of things are why I would vote to freeze hunting as it is now on your other thread Grant....
From: Franklin
15-Jul-18
Has anyone seen any statistics of what this is going to cost the Canucks. Imagine how many people made their living off of residual income let alone hunting camps.
From: Bou'bound
15-Jul-18
Franklin the economics are not material to the country's budget or they would not have done it. Money would have won. Reality is the number of camps and outfitters and hunters was falling over the years and I heard it was down to about 600 NR hunters a year.
That's kind of the point. the taking of less than a 1000 bulls a year has no impact on a herd, even if the herd was half of it's prior level.
Certainly individuals were wiped out by the change, and a few other businesses may feel it in isolation (air services transported, a hotel or two, etc.), but if each hunter contributed 8K to the Quebec economy it would only have been a total of about 5 million bucks. that's nothing to a government or provincial economomy.
From: Bob
15-Jul-18
Ahunter76 thanks for posting that picture of your son and Michelle. My dad and I went in 92’ with Michelle as our guide and Rodger was the cook. I believe Juliet was the name of the camp. I still talk about the pate that Rodger made from one of the lake trout my dad caught. It was the absolute best I ever ate !
From: JL
15-Jul-18
"" Reality is the number of camps and outfitters and hunters was falling over the years and I heard it was down to about 600 NR hunters a year. ""
If that is true, I suspect there are other factors involved with the decline of NR's. When I went with Safari Nordik around 2002/03 it was approx $3100 for everything. Compare that with recent costs and I suspect that is a contributor to the decline of NR's.
From: Trial153
15-Jul-18
I hope, but doubt they will get up and running again. This is hunt I planed on taking my son when he was old enough as it can be squeezed in August before school. I had great hunt with JHA last year, one of my best ever.
From: LKH
15-Jul-18
Not knowledgeable about the politics but caribou herds have long term swings that are quite extreme. Just in AK the Mulchatna, Nelchina and Arctic herds have experience huge drops in the last quarter century or so. Nelchina is back somewhat and the Forty-mile seems to have recovered quite a bit. The Haul Road bou (Wrong name) have gone from the mid 70K's to about 22K in 5 years.
From: Franklin
15-Jul-18
Bou….you may be referring to the last year of Caribou hunting but you can`t tell me in the heyday of Quebec Caribou hunting it was only $5 million in TOTAL incomes. Non- resident hunting in Wisc. is almost a billion dollar industry. Hunters stopped going to Quebec because the hunting was much better in other areas. So the decline has been in progress for awhile now.
From: Bou'bound
15-Jul-18
Right I was just doing the math at current figures. Many of the outfitters sold or folded and the hunter numbers were down as access was more limited than it had been and there was bad PR about some of the outfits up there. The success rates from those who went remained high and did not support closing down the season based on biological rationale.
If fewer people were going due to higher costs, or bad PR then the market should have spoken and let only the strong survive and stay in business.
From: ahunter55
27-Jul-18
Bob, I had Michelle both times, he's an awesome guy.. I also used him for my last Bear hunt I think 91 in Quebec. Took a 19" & filmed that too. He's cut off in the photo but you can see that shirt.
From: Too Many Bows Bob
27-Jul-18
I read recently that the caribou population is down from 1,000,000 in the mid 90's to less than 14,000 now. When the population was up so high, they destroyed the lichen by overeating. Now it will be 30-40 years before it grows back.
So glad I went during the glory days.
TMBB
From: APauls
27-Jul-18
I'm betting that's presumably what happened in Northern MB / Nunavut as well to a lesser degree. Now I'll be 60 before they really come back.
From: caribou77
27-Jul-18
Franklin, the closing of the Quebec caribou season has nothing to do with declining numbers. The herd was at 200000 animals last fall. Yes it has declined but it is still strong and healthy. I believe the last figures I received from Richard actually showed a 10% increase last year. In the end the hunt is over completely do to political reasons. Much like the closing of the griz season in b/c.
From: Bou'bound
27-Jul-18
There are more Jan 14000. That is ridiculous
From: Trial153
28-Jul-18
There are two herds in Quebec/ labrador. The leaf and the George river herd. 20 years ago the George was over a million stong. Every indication is its under 20k at this time. The leaf river herd is at anywhere 125-200k depending on who you ask...in its hey day it was over 700k
Of my three hunts in Quebec last years was by far the best in terms of trophy quality, seen more big bulls in 5 days then i seen total on my other hunts. Numbers were good at the camp we were at, other camps really struggled. All in all for the leaf river herd i think tye truth of the situation is more in the middle of both sides postions on the issue. If they ever reopen JHA will have my depsots asap.
From: Dale06
29-Jul-18
I went there in 87 and 88. I was in the North Camp with Bob Foulkrod ( great guy). He was running the camp. First day he said, we have been 200% in this camp for several years. Take your time and be selective. I believe there was 10 of us in camp and we killed four caribou. I and others never got a shot. There were almost no caribou around. Bob offered all of us to stay an extra week. Some guys did, I had a job to get to. He told me to call him later. I did, and he gave me a good deal on a return trip next year. The next year I shot a small one early in the hunt so as to not get skunked again. And on th last day I shot a decent bull. Again the hunting was not that great. I guess I picked bad dates to hunt there as most people fared better in those days.
From: Bou'bound
13-Aug-18
Ridiculous. Should be guys heading up but it isn’t happening
From: stealthycat
13-Aug-18
all I have for caribou is a Tutillik story :(
From: RD
15-Aug-18
I heard it was a ten year closure
From: Rut Nut
15-Aug-18
Stealthy- I remember something of the Tutulik fiasco- bunch of hunters getting screwed. But can’t remember any details. At the risk of digging up old wounds, can you refresh our memories?
From: newfi1946moose
15-Aug-18
I started hunting caribou in QC w/George River(Norpac) in 1987. Hunted w/them taking groups on DYI hunts up to 1998 when was invited to work shows including Harrisburg for them. My last year w/them was 2006 and the GR herd was in trouble then. Many diseased animals and numbers down. That year I switched to Tutulik and my clients had excellent hunting w/them up through 2008 when I and four of my clients had a very serious falling out concerning the amount of meat that arrived back in Montreal! That night I quit them. I then went to work for Explo-Sylvia until 2010. I seem to recall that it was in 2010 that Tutulik opened the hunting for one week and then declared 'bankruptcy' and pulled the plug on some 160 paid-up clients. Their camps on Minto were decent and hunting was excellent. I have never read a precise reason they dumped on their clients. The many years I was up there were awesome! Why some of the more established outfitters up there have not tried to transition over to fishing I do not know. I believe that Jack Hume has and I know Norpac still runs its George River salmon camp. I remember sitting high up above Minto on a day when the lake was calm and you could see schools of large lakers. I hauled a three lb brookie out of a tabletop size hole that had come up a small feeder stream there. Just the experience of landing the plane on Minto's camps was breath-taking. The natives squandered what Minto had to offer.
From: gobbler
15-Aug-18
Glad to have memories of the past
From: moon
15-Aug-18
Caribou hunt with Bobby Snowball on the Tunulik River 1982
Caribou hunt with Bobby Snowball on the Tunulik River 1982
From: Slate
15-Aug-18
I hunted with Safari Nordik. A lot of bad things about them but my hunt was amazing. Glad I got it done. Killed 2. Next its NWT for mountain caribou.
From: Slate
15-Aug-18
From: Slate
15-Aug-18
One of my favorite hunts it is a shame.
