Moose Report

[Surf and Turf]

Late report on this year’s moose hunt.

Again this year we hunted the opening week.

Boy was it warm!

We had a group of 8 guys this year. We drew a Bull tag, and had a Cow tag through outfitter camp. 

Leading up to the hunt we hade been having quite a debate over whether to take a cow or not if the opportunity presented itself and decided as a group that we would take one only if it didn’t have a calf with it.

Opening morning we set off to our respective hunting spots. Myself, and a buddy made the hour long trek in the dark out to a beaver pond which I like to hunt. It is in a beautiful clearing about 300 yds across and very remote. The edge of the clearing is about 50 feet from the edge of a river. It is a perfect location for calling, as they can’t come in behind you unseen. I had just set up the decoy got comfortable and starting calling when one of the guys comes on the radio, “Moose Down”!  “Cow Down”!  Twenty after 8 am on opening morning and we have a moose down.

So we pack up our stuff, make the journey back to camp to gather up all the necessities to recover a moose. Rope, knives, saw, bottle of rye for celebratory shots, etc., and off we go.

When we got to where the moose had gone down it was approximately 100 feet from the side of a river, about 99 feet farther than I like but I guess it could have been worse. It was an old dry cow, so we didn’t feel bad about taking her.Thankfully in the long wait to get there the shooter had taken the time to gut the moose. So at that point we just had to drag the moose to the rivers edge and load in the boat. So with “heave ho’s”, 12 inches at a time we finally got her to the rivers edge and rolled her into an empty 14 footer.

Now a quick 3 hour trip towing the moose back to camp at a perfect walleye trolling speed of about 1.5 mph! Back at camp we made quick work of getting it quartered, skinned and hanging.

Back to the beaver pond for another three days back to back, dawn to dusk, until I had fed every mosquito within a mile. Not one response, it was just to hot, and the moose were obviously not in the rut or even curious about what was making all the racket.

I spent the next couple of days traveling the rivers and checking back bays hoping to spot a bull feeding, and catching a few pickerel and pike in the early afternoon.

On Wednesday a couple of guys came upon a bull feeding at the side of a creek. There are conflicting stories about what happened, who made the most noise, who couldn’t get their gun loaded, who went left when he should have gone right but the end result was the same. The Bull got tired of watching whatever they were doing and walked around a bend in the creek never to be seen again!

Well we got skunked on our Bull, but over the course of last week and a few beers, we came up with a great idea, and some begging with the wives we are going back this weekend to finish business.

Leaving this Friday morning, 10 hour drive up, hunt Saturday and Sunday and 10 hours back on Sunday night. As I write this I’m actually almost agreeing with my wife’s take on this “mission”…. well almost!

I’ll give an update when back.

 

[smerchly]

Congrats on the cow ....a lot of hard work  to get it back to camp .  We have carried many "pieces" of moose long distances back to the river/lake where the quarters were carried out on a  "bush stretcher" . As we aged , we used a chain saw & used cooking oil for the chain & would hang the quarters in dense pines after skinning, peppering & wrapping in cheese cloth & keep them cool as possible . We started using an ATV to take moose quarters from the bush ....much easier than the long haul with stretchers !  Those were the days !  The last 4 hunts was a 2 day trip to the camp west of Thunder Bay starting at Arrow Lake into Rose Lake (full of perch) .  ( surf'nturf )   Many stories to tell.......Good luck  Surf and Turf  .

 

I just saw this drone video in the British paper , Mail on Line ....  A crazed wolf trying to kill a big cow moose near Sault St.Marie ...amazing what one wolf will do for a meal !  Many calves have been lost to these vicious wolves and adult moose are easy targets in deep snow when a pack is hungry .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akGWOpcWfrQ  

 

 

[Surf and Turf]

Thanks Smerchly!

It sounds like you had some great hunting trips, and great memories Smerchly.

Yes, the older we get the wiser we get, or lazier? Ha.

We had a bit of an adventure on the weekend. Heading up on Friday morning the tongue on my buddy's trailer collapsed just outside of Halibuton leaving us on the side of the road. A few calls and we had CAA taking the trailer on a flatbed to a friend of a friends place about 20K away, another couple calls and we had a trailer lined up for a landscaping trailer form a local rental store. After a 3.5 hour delay we were on the road again, arriving at camp about 8:30. The next morning we up to windy conditions and 3 degrees out.  Our expectations were high for a moose that morning,  and we headed off. Our plan was to travel the 6km down the river to a lake,  4 km across the lake to another river that we planned to hunt hard that day with guys posted at several spots up and down the river. I set up in a nice clearing, set up my decoy and called in the morning and late afternoon heading out at sundown with no sign of Bullwinkle, and collected the crew along the way. No one saw anything.

Sunday morning was even windier and colder and raining to boot. We kept our same plan, hoping a moose might have come into the call from night before. We reached the lake around 6:30 and started across in the 14 foot aluminum through about 1.5 foot waves, 5 of us and towing a canoe, the farther we went the stronger the wind got. By the time we reached the mouth of the river the wind was really blowing and we made decision to pull the plug and head back as we didn't want to get stuck there overnight without the proper gear. So back we went, the life jackets went on and we kept into the waves. By then the waves were probably only 2 feet but I'd rather be in 6 footers on lake erie in my big boat any day. By the time we got back to the mouth of the river leading back to camp we were all wet and cold. All the guys wanted to go back to camp and call it quits, I still wanted to hunt so they left me with the canoe. I found a nice beaver pond off this river on this river and started calling, around 9:30 it started snowing, I lasted until around 11:00 then decided to work my way the back up the river to camp, checking out all the streams and clearings along the way. Well the moose won this round.. I think the highlight of the trip was running into a family of otters the first morning, allot more interesting, and hunter friendly than the beavers, with no tail slaps!

Already looking forward to next year! 

 

[mooseslayer]

I didn't go moose hunting this year for the first time in about 30 years. Only about the 2nd or 3rd time in all those years I don't  have moose meat in the freezer. Oh well...we went 5 for 5 for bear at my hunt camp. I guess the deer will have to fill the freezer lol.

[Surf and Turf]

Hopefully you'll make it out next year mooseslayer. Good going on the bears! Bear hunting is one thing that I haven't made time for yet. Always have a bear tag when moose hunting just in case though. 

Good luck with deer season!