EXPERIENCE NEWFOUNDLAND'S PRISTINE WILDERNESS

Flyfishing, Wingshooting, Hiking, Big Game, Lodges, Map, Home, Bowhunting, Hunt News, Fish News, Links 

2008 Hunting Season Report

Our 2008 hunting season proved to be a continuation of the great hunting of the past couple of years and were particularly delighted with the success of our moose hunting operations.  All our guides reported more moose than we had ever seen near our lodges, with all but one hunter having opportunity for  success.    Our Salmon Brook Lodge also showed very good black bear activity, with high expectations for the 2009 hunt.  

It was also a very different hunting season for our outfitting business in 2008.    Following excellent hunting seasons the previous 2 years, and with great expectation for the trend to continue in 2008, we were devastated to be notified this winter past that our caribou hunts would be all but closed down beginning this past September.     With all available hunting tags for moose and caribou already sold before January, 2008, our government advised us that our entire allocation for caribou hunts would be reduced to just 3 permits because of decrease in our woodland caribou population.    That situation forced us to cancel a significant number of hunts, many of which had been reserved for a year or more.   This was an extremely difficult process as most of these hunters had been planning for their hunt with us for quite some time.   That left us with a greatly diminished hunt clientele for the 2008 hunting season, restricted almost entirely to moose hunting.

Our caribou sightings, while being much fewer than 5 years ago, were decent, with our only 3 tags being hunted during the same week and resulted in all being filled by mid week with good mature trophy animals.   We could easily have conducted our normal caribou hunting operation with the usual very high success rate and high trophy quality.  One additional point of note was a reasonable number of ptarmigan sightings in the Rocky Ridge Lodge area.

Looking ahead to the 2009 hunting season, we now find ourselves in the position of focusing on our moose and bear hunting.   That situation has recently been aided by the fact that due to increased numbers of moose near all our hunting lodges, and after years of lobbying for additional tags, we have been awarded additional moose tags for 3 of our 4 lodges.   This would include for our Caribou Lodge, where we previously did not hunt moose, even though there was a good population present in that area.    Our Caribou Lodge was not hunted at all this year, and considering the tremendous bear activity of the previous fall, 2009 is expected to be even better, making this lodge an excellent choice for a moose/black bear combination hunt.

The increased tags would also include providing us with a sufficient number to permit utilizing both of our lodges ( The Forks & Salmon Brook lodges ) in the Grey River area, which has just had it's overall moose license quota doubled because of the large increase in moose density in that area.    This decision by our Dept. of Wildlife was the result of an aerial census conducted on the moose population in that area during the winter of 2008.

After 15 years of  hunting mostly woodland caribou at our remote lodges, all our regular guides are excited about the extra moose tags, especially considering the recent considerable increase in moose sightings and activity.  Up until now, our moose hunting activity has been mostly restricted to just 2 of our lodges.  The extra moose tags will NOT mean that we will be hunting more hunters out of these lodges, but will result in allowing us to utilize all 4 of our modern remote facilities for moose hunting. Current plans are to hunt between 6 and 8 moose hunters each fall per lodge, which will ensure that our hunting areas do not get over harvested.   As well, 3 of our lodges are proven to hold excellent populations of black bear, including some very large ones, providing excellent opportunity for our spot and stalk hunt.   Our hunters may also shoot coyotes at no extra charge, and 2 of our lodges also offer complimentary ptarmigan hunting to all our big game hunters, with specialized ptarmigan hunting packages also being available.

The status of our caribou hunting remains very uncertain, and we are not accepting any caribou hunt reservations at this time.   I personally do not believe our caribou population is declining at the present time, but would not even attempt to predict what our government's position might be regarding the continuation of hunting.

You will notice from our web site that we have been heavily involved with archery hunts for close to 10 years, with a high degree of success, and we continue to welcome bowhunters.   As well, we have become specialized in hosting husband and wife couples, with our modern accommodations adding a great deal to this experience.   Our 2008 hunting season showed a continuation of this practice.     One husband & wife couple from upstate NY have both hunted with us 6 or 7 times for moose and caribou, and have never ended a hunt with a moose or caribou tag unfilled.

To view a summary of previous hunting years, please click on  Hunt News 2007,  Hunt News 2006,  Hunt News 2005, Hunt summary 2004,  Hunt summary 2003  or  Huntnews2002  including a large number of photos of the trophies from past hunts.