RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

I think you were leaving to go up tommorow? If I were you I would change my hunt. There's nothing in the zone to hunt. Read the post above this one. The caribou do not turn around that fast.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

Just got back an hour ago from mirage. Hunted by foot and snow machine 1 mile north of camp and saw 200 head in four days. Thier were only 5-10 racked bulls shot in a full camp this week and only cows and small bulls have horns. The caribou moved from KM420 to KM 350 in four days and didn't look to me like they were coming back north. We saw many good bulls yeseterday on the way back, but they were in a resident zone. Wear lots of orange, people are flinging lead to fill meat tags. We killed 5 animals with the rifle and 1 with a bow and we were holding out for bow kills with the last 2 tags. I would venture to say that 95% of the bulls have shed. This apparently is a little more than usual but in a normal year sheer volume of animals puts you in front of antlered bulls where this year they were not thier. Wednesday at least 50 animals were killed within 1/4 mile of the gravel pit by the northward snowmobile trail. They are coming down and cannot cross the reservior and follow the river down and this is where the funnel is. If you are still going, get your group in the bush on lakes and sit and be patient. We sat dawn to dusk 4 days and you have to be thier to killem. Hopping from lake to lake hoping to kill them is not very effective and will lead to alot of frustration. I had 2 oppurtunity's at bow kills and screwed them both up. so that is definately doable.

As for the mirage, excellent food and plenty of it, staff great but at times a little course. The gal at the food checkout line we nicked named the soup natzi as she gaurded the line like they were stealing from her. Brand new shipments of snowmachines last week and the people that rented them were very happy. We needed a plugin receptacle for the trailer as someone stole ours and the mechanic tore the place apart looking for one. The head chef at the kitchen at night was a real hoot and he called us robinhoods and would sing the robinhood song everytime he saw us because we were the only dedicated bowhunters in camp.

I will go again someday to try to experience the full blown migration. If that would have happened this year i probably wouldn't be going back. Guys that have been thier for 15 years said this was the worst that they have seen it. That's my luck. The outfitter held up thier end, mother nature just threw us a curve!!!!!! Good luck guys!!!!!!!!!!!!

WI Shedhead

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

Well at least you got your animals. That's probably better than the guys going up now are going to do. But you never know what the future will bring. I'm glad you had luck. And I wish the rest of you the best of luck.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

That outfitter is treating you extremely well and is definitely the kind of guy you want to deal with. Not to many would offeryou a deal like that. You can't control mother nature and caribou are migratory its either feast or famine.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

I just read about three years of posts on this thread and I absolutly can't take it anymore !

Do you guys who have hunted bou's this time of year think me and my crew could have a productive meat hunt up in " Da North Country " if I left this week ?

Thanks in Advance !

WD

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

Not right now this year. The Bou are already gone and most came through in the resident only hunt zone. Not to say some may come back or a few stragglers, but it would be tough hunting.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

Absolutely not. Right now you would have less than a 1% chance of even seeing a caribou in the zone you can hunt, let alone shooting one.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

We got back Friday night. Hunted 27th,28th and 29th. We covered everything from the line at 348 all the way to Kisk. There were scattered animals along the road to the dam, and above the dam to around L22 or a little more, but nothing we saw had headgear of any size. Just cows, small bulls, and a lot of big boddied bulls that had already dropped their racks. We hunted hard from the road, and using snowmobiles, and filled 15 of our 18 tags. We could have filled the other three also, but held out hoping for a good bull, which never showed. The most productive area we hunted was the lake East of the road to the dam by the 22km marker. We snowmobiled in to the lake, and posted along the shore line. On Wednesday there were a lot of animals taken just at dawn on the Trans Tioga Rd. around 356km or so, just West of Mirage, when a small herd crossed.In the three days, I only saw one bull taken that had a really good rack. It was on a truck in the Mirage parking lot.

On the way out on Thursday there were hundreds of animals along the road in the Resident Draw area. On the James Bay Rd. they were in the road South of the 381 Relais down to the 360km marker, but still no really big bulls.

All in all, we had a good time, and will go back again, probably in a couple years.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

Just arrived home an hour ago. That drive sucks bad!
34 hours. There was way more hunters thank Bou. A lot of people are choosing to road hunt. Each day we saw less caribou. We got 15 of 22 tags filled. Most being filled on the last day there. Weather was terrible, very strong winds. Roads were slippery and the further north the narrower and rougher they got. Lots of trucks slid off the road, most due to meeting other people that would not move over enough.
One thing that did get me upset a little was, I had phoned the Mirage to ask about snowmobile rentals. They told me that it was $135 a day plus tax. When I got there they informed me that it was $186 plus tax.
This year was deffinetly a meat hunt as people were just trying to fill there tags. We saw lots of big antlered bull down by Relais 381km. But only a few up north.
We also discovered were people were setting up decoy hunters on lakes hopeing to keep other hunters away!
All in all it was pretty eye opening to see. Hunters were acting unsafely and obviously left there morals at home.
The small herd I got my two caribou from could be seen from the road. A cow that I had shot did not drop immediatly and just stood there with her head hung down. As I was walking up to finish her off a couple of trucks pulled up and started shooting at her and the others. I was on the other side of them. I proceeded to yell at them to get there attention but they just kept blasting away.
Next time I am picking an area much further off the roads.
We stayed at Donat's. I never had to deal with him but I did witness him chewing the ass of some other people because they never parked straight. He give another guy supreme yelling at because he had failed to close an outside door on the cabin.
I don't mind staying there because its a little cheaper and easier to get into but, What my one complaint is the heat in the cabins. It is non adjustable and our windows did not open. We had to leave the inside door open all night or it was way too hot to sleep.

RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
 

This is the first year ever that I can remember that there were reports of careless firearms usage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The QPP (provincial police) and the CO's, from what I've heard coming out of Radisson, have laid several charges against non-resident hunters because of complaints. Careless handling and discharging of a firearm, endangering public safety, unlawful shooting from a motorized vehicle (trucks and snowmobiles) these charges get your gun taken away and they have to return to Radisson for court. Fines can be up to $10,000.00 and they won't get their equipment back. I guess the lack of caribou got the better of some hunters which is no excuse for discharging a firearm in the direction of another person.

I also just heard there were some charges laid for hunters trespassing on Native land. Those little red markers mean No Trespassing. One group even shot caribou caribou in the resident zone on their way out and were charged. All in all it's not been a good year for Caribou hunting so far.