huntcaribou

Sounds good beardog, just make sure that they will not charge you for going a day early, and i like to go a day early and get to matagami also, makes for a better drive the next day as i have a few hours drive longer then you, i hunt out of camp kiskimaastakin. good luck on your deer hunt also. LETS GO BOU HUNTING!!

beardog 836

Yea they said just got to pay for the room

SLOKIE

Hi guys; I was reading article in New York Outdoors News April 22 Edition they talked about the two herds George River and the Leaf River apparantly the George River herd is the one in decline it states that the Leaf River (which most of us hunt) was never in harm and that the numbers seem to be steady. This years delay and scare for outfitters and hunters was what they were going to do about the George River herd not the Leaf River herd (which is also the larger of the two herds) It states that the George River herd has declined from 385,000 to 74,000 / Hope they find the Leaf river herd in as good a condition as the article says. They also say they are creating a subdivision along Zone 23 into a eastern and western section so they can manage the 2 herds separately. It does say that anything can happen next year , this is the year to go if its on your BUCKET LIST , The problem we hunters have is once we do a hunt we like it so much we want to start with an empty BUCKET EACH YEAR , Havn't found an animal I've hunted yet that I would'nt go back for SECONDS !!!!! Good Luck Guys Enjoy 2011

CNYSportsman

There seems to be discrepancies in reports, even from the outfitters, on the 2011 Leaf River Herd taking of Caribou. Reports seem to be consistant that hunters will beable to take two Caribou. The discrepancies seem to be that you can only take two bulls with horns or that you can take bulls or cows with horns. Does anyone know the correct answer?

bjess

We just booked with Mirage for Nov. 18 - 22, 2011 and the information they gave us was you were allowed 2 caribou with antlers. It would pretty much have to include either sex as the bulls lose their antlers and that just leaves cows.

huntcaribou

yes you will get two tags but no anterless bou that will include
any bou without antlers. bulls/cows/calfs you should be able to get some nice bulls with antlers or cows if you wish. SO LETS GO BOU HUNTING !!

Nord QC Bouman

The eastern herd was around 400K in 2000. The number of small outfitters during the late 90’s and up until ~ 2004 grew exponentially – mostly natives looking to cash in as you need to hunt with an outfitter, no matter the services which were not great. This coupled with poor fish cop controls on the ground made for big impacts to the herd. 2004 the Georges herd was less than 200K and this year we see a 70K herd. Many of these outfitters went bust and the MNRF began controlling tag numbers which they had never done before. The commission looked pretty bad at this point and in 2004 they began controlling the losses more and more – we even say these new regulations in the west if you guys remember all the crap about where to piss and so many feet off the road, use of pull-off, etc. Most of these rules were being reinforced because of the egg on their faces in the Georges River management. They are still reacting in the same way to both herd today.
Last count I got word on was more than 800K in the Leaf Herd – and tags have been down the last 2 years so this would have use near 1MM or more. Variable is with the natives that take 5 to 1 (estimated from a Native fish cop to me in 2007) so monitoring the actual kill is hard.
No changes this year to the calf/cow or bull take – just the season length which looks like it is going to hold for 2012 as well. Hope the margins are there for he lodges to stay in business – Donats is done so this should give a 10% boost to the other 3 main lodges – I think Nochimi the most as they are close to the cost of Donats – albeit the drive sucks to the zone. We talked to several groups in 2010 that were x-Donats coming from Nochimi. One the best spot to hunt 2010 30 NOV was from Donats parking lot. With no pressure the animals were moving east from Polaris and walking through Donats back yard.
We are hoping for cold this year – ponds were real bad and many large bulls were out of reach.

huntcaribou

Hi bouman, from what i get from the outfitter i hunt with is that no bou without antlers can be shot! and we still get two tags this year! not sure of what will happen to the 2012 season or if thair will even be a season!! SO LETS GO BOU HUNTING!!

Nord QC Bouman

HC - This is not the current ruling. In the Feb release the 50% tag reduction was tied to a antlerless rule, but due to all the noise it was refined when the rules fo the 2 herds were defined seperatly. This was also not present in the 18 MAR 11 ruling for 2011-2012.

We also have the summer inventory coming up - I can tell you if the numbers looks good for Leaf River - the season for 2011-2012 will be normal. They only have a view into the Georges herd because of the wintering area and have not assessed numbers in the western herd.

huntcaribou

bouman thanks for the info, but i am getting my info from the outfitter i hunt with and they are not going out of businness as some of the others !! if you don't get this hunting book check this out, the hunting report, at www.huntingreport.com look at april 2011/volume31/number4 this issue has a whole thing on bou hunting for now and in the years to come, SO LETS GO BOU HUNTING!!