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Anybody done this hunt recently. Gun or bow matters not to me. Just curious if the migration has been more regular or not. I know they had several BAD years and then a good one and then I haven’t heard much. Obviously no hunts in 2020. Any info on 2021? Still the best deal around if they’re present
I think the last good year was 2016 or 2017. Can’t remember. Been dead since then. Last year a few animals trickled through. My brother happened to have gone last year with a buddy and they shot 4 Bou including two good ones. He did a thread on it. (MPauls)
Thanks Adam, think I remember that, I’ll dig back farther on the threads
I’ll bump it up for you Luke. My same friend is going again same place, leaving in a couple weeks with his wife. I can let you know what they see if you like
I should maybe add for what it's worth we are seeing more caribou up north in Manitoba in the summer this year. I have no idea what that means, as those are residents, and not part of the migratory group.
Luke…..are you wanting to take a CBGC, or wanting to hunt in Manitoba, specifically? If the former, Greenland is also an option.
Are you guys driving up or flying up? I was curious if it's like the James Bay Hwy road trip?
We last hunted Northern Manitoba in 2016. Didn't see a caribou, no resident ones either like we normally do. And we put on 100's of miles between the two boats that week. Last year i heard they did kill a few but it wasn't as good as prior to 2016. Hoping the migration comes back, as we are looking at going next fall again.
Definitely a hunt I want to do when they come back, if they do!
Fall of 2017 there were some bowsiters who reported having a good year at Webbers, but I haven't heard any reports of great hunting since then. Of course Covid knocked out most of 3 years of US hunters. As mentioned above, Greenland is another possibility for CCBGC.....you can take more than one caribou if you're so inclined, as well as a muskox while you're there.
sticksender while Webbers (I am currently sitting at head office) is a Manitoba company, I do believe those hunts you speak of happened at camps in Nunavut. At the time we ran some hunts out of camps in both Manitoba and Nunavut. The caribou used to (pre - 2015) run a migratory route that dipped below Nunavut and into MB before they'd typically actually curl back up north into Nunavut before coming back south and again and into central MB for winter.
What started happening is that the caribou's southern swirl no longer went south far enough into MB for a real migration. Sometimes they were juuuuuuuust over the border and those southern Nunavut camps had wicked hunts while MB was bone dry. There were the odd resident bulls that hang out at northern lakes, but the migration has stopped coming into our province until much later in the year. We still see the migration come into our province every year same as they used to come later in the year before winter. That can be late Oct/early November same as it used to be. But we miss that Aug/Sep swirl. Why not hunt them in late Oct/early Nov you ask? Float planes and lakes. At that time we are frozen with thin ice. Not enough ice for something heavy, and even the hundreds of miles of muskeg that never really freezes solid would betray you with a snow machine if you tried to get there. In talking with people that have shot post-rut caribou they say they are not edible. I find it hard to believe but that's the word. I might have to poke one and find out one day.
Talked to somebody who ended up guiding just south of the Nunavut border last year in MB and they filled 3 of the 60 tags available. They ended up focusing more on moose as the bou weren’t really around.
So how about Nunavut then? I haven’t heard a bad thing there yet
My Manitoba trip was an expensive fishing trip. We never saw an animal.
Who's running Central Canada Barren Caribou in Canada now??
Manitoba would be a fishing trip with a very small chance of shooting a stray caribou, I'd never expect anything else. Henik Lake is a long time operator in Nunavut.
My personal working theory is that the massive herds of the 90's, 2000's ate up all the food along their travel routes, and herds are now moving through new areas. Anyone that knows about the north knows it takes "Caribou moss" or lichen 25-30 years to re-grow. 800,000 animals running over an area twice a year for many years has an effect. The landscape and trails still look like the caribou came through last year, and there hasn't been any in the fall since like 2015. That, coupled with the overall decline in herd numbers make Manitoba a no-go for caribou hunts IMO. I think numbers are down, and what numbers there still are have picked more productive routes to take.
Hunted in N. MB in 2014 with Munroe Lake lodge. Camp was literally within sight of the Nunavut border. Lots of animals that year, all 6 hunters filled 2 tags each in 3 days with many real nice bulls... 2 day weather delay getting in. I heard they stopped doing CBGC hunts in 2017 due to the lack of animals migrating thru. Got lucky to get there when we did and so unfortunate about the migration now... such a great place to hunt!
