Newfoundland is an Island off the Eastern edge of Canada. There are three big game species hunted on the Island, The Woodland Caribou, Black Bear and Canadian Moose. After checking the Pope & Young Club Record book I found that no one (to date) has killed all three species, had them qualify for P&Y Club minimums and entered the animals in the book.
This hunt will be my 6th hunt on Newfoundland and in the previous 5 hunts I have taken two Woodland Caribou and one Black Bear that qualified for P&Y Club Record Book. The Canadian Moose was the last of the three and this hunt will be my attempt to get a Newfoundland Moose that qualifies for P&Y minimum and be the first to complete the “Newfy Slam”!
Prior to the Hunt - My drive to Newfoundland from Rhode Island began 9/1/10. It is a 15 hour drive to Northern Nova Scotia then a 6 hour ferry ride to Newfoundland and then a 3 hour drive to camp. My Outfitter is Cog Pellig of White Feather Lodge (Bowsite Sponsor). Cog has a great reputation in Newfoundland and was the former head of the “Newfoundland Outfitters Association”. Last year three Bowsiters hunted with Cog and all three got P&Y Class Woodland Caribou the first day. He is well known for many successful Moose clients as well. The drive went fine and my hunt begins with Guide Deon Dicks tomorrow. Deon is a native of the area, hunted Moose all his life and will also be videoing the hunt. Wish us luck!
Deon and I started the morning climbing a hill to a lookout where we could see quite a ways. We immediately spotted 5 or 6 Moose and a really big Black Bear. I had a bear tag but we decided to concentrate on the Moose unless a bear got in our way. We glassed there for about an hour but saw nothing worth going after. It was great to see Moose immediately but it also got me thinking a trophy Moose would be hard to find. We spent the next three hours glassing from three different lookouts, saw another 4 or 5 Moose but nothing to go after. Deon decided we would spend the balance of the first day hiking, calling and covering a lot of ground.
Charlie Glassing for Moose
We went about a half mile from the truck and Deon started rubbing an old Moose shoulder blade on the brush to try and stir things up as we walked. I thought "this a bit odd" since this was way before the Moose rut and most bulls were still in velvet, but Deon told me Moose are very territorial and may come to see who’s in “their” woods.
(The attached video shows Deon Raking the branches then filming a Mink which climbed a tree in the bog. After filming the Mink we began calling again in this same bog. After 15 minutes a Cow Moose appeared at the edge across the bog. She was looking at us in the open but was also looking back into the woods. After 5 minutes a really nice bull Moose appeared behind her and the show began. We decided we would not try to kill this bull but Deon wanted to see how close he could get to the Moose so I took the video camera and began filming. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON YOUR OWN, LOL!) Talk about exciting and educational!!!)
Needless to say Deon and I were really pumped up from this encounter. We then got some rain and retreated to the woods to keep from being soaked. After an hour or so the rain stopped and when we started walking again. We then ran into this beautiful Woodland caribou right in the middle of losing his velvet. Notice the white mane in the video which is a classic trait of the “Woody Stags”. We he stops I ranged him at 41 yards!
A magnificent Woodland caribou walked by at 41 yards
The balance of day one was fairly slow as we were dealing with rain and fog. Walking the bogs brought back many memories from past hunts and it was great to be back in Newfoundland. We saw a total of 21 Moose, 4 bears and 1 Woodland Caribou. That night we had a great dinner at Cog’s lodge and then sleep came easy. Before dinner Deon and I fixed his quad and tomorrow we will go to one of his favorite areas.
