With great anticipation we motored up to the same spot as yesterday. But as we got deeper into it, something was wrong. Where there had been hills moving with caribou only yesterday – today the hills were barren. The caribou had moved out – to where was anyone’s guess.
We glassed the area for about an hour then we decided to jump into the boat and see if we could find the caribou from the lake. We covered miles along the shores of Lake Minto before we finally spotted two bulls at the top of a meadow.
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I stalked this bull for an hour over a mile! |
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When the bull moved behind cover, I sprinted across the meadow to get into position |
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The bull had some impressive bez and shovels - he was book even with the weak tops.. |
Boney had accompanied us so Bill, Boney, Jean-Marie (our guide) and myself ran up to the top of the hill and spotted the two bulls. They were moving west – feeding away from us – so we needed to get moving. Boney and Jean stayed behind as Bill and I moved quickly to stalk the bulls. After an hour of playing cat and mouse, the biggest bull, that had huge bottoms – had moved into an area that was stalkable. I ran as fast as I could until I was within 60 yards of the big bull. I wanted to get close, but suddenly, the bull turned and started to feed toward me. I nocked an arrow and readied for the shot. But the bull moved off a little further than I wanted him to and stopped at around 45 yards. Now, lots of guys can shoot 45 yards, but I’m not one of them. So I simply let the bull move on up the hill until he caught my wind and ran away. It was a fun stalk. Without realizing it, I had gone over a mile to chase this bull – but it was worth it. In the end, I was happy with my decision not to shoot. I find myself much more disciplined now with a compound than I was when I used to shoot one 15 years ago.
That was the only caribou seen all day. The weather was much colder and raw – with rain pelting us all afternoon. We are hoping that this change of weather may get the bou moving – so far it’s been a tough hunt. But in some weird way, I like it better when it’s a challenge.
Why no Fly-Outs?
It seems that all the rage these days with Quebec caribou outfitters is that they will provide fly-outs if there are no caribou in the area. I won't debate the merits (or problems) with these programs as much of it is a personal opinion of the hunter.
But fly-outs are no panacea. Your outfitter may be obligated to fly you out, but there is no guarantee that they will fly you into caribou. Secondly, fly-outs are often cancelled when the outfitter has nowhere to fly you to!
Tuttulik does not provide fly outs. But since their camps are located on Lac Minto - they have the ability to boat you literally hundreds of miles along the gigantic lake in their freighter canoes. This can provide you with more mobility than a fly out which will simply drop you at a lake somewhere and if the caribou move on - you're out of luck.
According to Greg "Boney" Bonecutter - he promises you a hunt - not a slaughter. He wants his clients to see good numbers of caribou, hopefully experience a migration, but to have a sense of accomplishment at the end of their hunt.
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