Guided Caribou Hunt
 

Like everyone else, my international hunting trip was cancelled this year. So I have recently been thinking about doing a guided Caribou hunt in Canada. Either looking at a cancellation hunt for this fall, or booking for next year. I am looking to hear recommendations from those who have been for either woodland or barren ground and which outfitters you enjoyed.
Ideally I would like to head north into the Yukon or NWT, but am open to other provinces if the value is there.
Feel free to share pics as well and tell a story about your experience.
Cheers,

I think the only guided non-resident caribou hunting left in Canada is in the Yukon, perhaps only for the Porcupine herd. Might be wrong.

Nwt is still closed
Yukon as of now is technically open but could change
Other option would be bc
You won’t find a barren ground caribou hunt in Canada for the price you find them list for in Alaska. Most of the cheap Alaskan hunts are unguided drop camps.
Not an option in Canada

Can a non-US citizens do un-guided hunts in Alaska? they way I was reading their hunting regs, that was only for US non-residents.

US non-res hunters still needed a guide if they wanted to hunt girzz, sheep and goats AFAIK

Contact sub-arctic hunts Ken gangler in Manitoba not sure what their status is this year but they still do hunts. t might be tough to find an operation that's running this year there's also another one I forget their name they hunt out a Nunavut out of Winnipeg

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Check out The Lodge at Little Duck, top notch operation. I've guided there quite a bit. Great Lodge, great guides, great boats, awesome fishing for pike, grayling and monster lake trout, awesome area to hunt plus we do hunts in Manitoba and Nunavut. You won't be sorry if booking there.

We also do muskox hunts in Nunavut, I managed the camp at Baker Lake Nunavut last year.

I've guided for Ganglers, also now called Moose Hunting North, steer clear and for good reason. Treats his clients and guides like ****. He's constantly looking for guides and they all bail on him. He'll do anything for a buck and has no problem ripping people off. He's been bouncing checks and not paying guides. His main lodge was broke into and pillaged this past winter/spring, I'm assuming that a few of the past guides and their buddies got tired of his crap.

I've been asked to bail him out a few times now and won't do it, he ripped my clients off, flew me 4 hrs away from my vehicle with no way to return, underpaid me and had the nerve to try to drop me in an ecological reserve. That is a $1500 a day fine per person to start and the fines grow from there.

I suggest that you avoid him like the plague. You won't be happy if you go.

The Lodge at Little Duck is where it's at, Munroes also run camps in Manitoba but they are strictly a tent camp but are still top notch as well.

But honestly you can't beat the lodge for what we offer.

I don't normally bash business or people but I apologize there's no way in good conscience would I let someone believe he is top notch because he is anything but. Just look for reviews and you will see what I mean, there's a reason he changed business names for hunting.


If you want more details or pics msg me and I can answer any questions you like.

Nunavut’s a no go

That’s the way I understand it also

I also guided at little duck sometimes the Boos were way up North had to boat to the North End of the lake I got the nickname Tundra bunny cuz I spend so many nights on the North End of the lake waiting for the waves to calm down there is a nice Lodge there and great fishing, that's sad to hear about ganglers when I work for them they were pretty good people times change I guess in the last 20 years.

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Did the caribou return to Manitoba last fall?

I recall that for the last few years caribou hunting was terrible in Manitoba as the herds did not migrate far enough south.

A Manitoba caribou hunt sounds like a poor odds bet right now.

Ya unfortunately things have changed lots. Wasn't meaning to punch holes in your suggestion but as stated this is what's happened to myself and many others I know. As everyone is aware if guides aren't happy, clients won't be happy.

North end lol yup the lake can get worked up alright, I had an interesting ride back last fall not sure how many waves came over the bow but we made it back. Any worse and we'd have been staying. I boated 3 1/2 hrs north last year. Past Weak Tea Bay, Bulloch and into edge of Inverarity Lake. Awesome area and great pinch points, buddy found an awesome spearhead that's huge and perfect condition so obviously it was lost when hunting.

I won't lie, yes it's been bleak unfortunately. Manitoba did kill over the last few years but not like normal. They are hanging up north but as everyone knows it's a migratory animal you are hunting, and they do call it hunting not guaranteeing lol.

2017 was back to normal and everyone did well. Last year there were animals but it was extremely slow.

That's were we have the better option as we also have our Nunavut camps and they continue to do excellent, biggest bou I've seen came from there in 2018, massive!

care to explain what you mean seeing as I was managing a camp last year that we were shooting them at as well as later on working in tandem with our Nunavut camps when I was in MB?

Our Nunavut camps sell out the fastest so I'm not sure what you mean as it's a no go.

Most lodges this year are no goes as 98% book American hunters and we all know about the border issues. 2 of my buddies fish and bear camps were a total lost season this spring summer and fall.

Quebec ?

Grizz

Quebec is closed to hunt due to low herd numbers
Nunavut is closed due to covid

Caribou hunt
 

I pretty sure Newfoundland has a caribou hunt

Only place your allowed to hunt woodland caribou
👍

Newfoundland has the only recognized & hunt-able woodland caribou strain by P&Y and B&C only place to fill the Bou slam for woodlands.

Avoid Manitoba and the Lodge at Little Duck. I went with them in 2018 and it was the biggest waste of money I’ve ever spent. Even the fishing sucked. I paid about $1,000 per fish. They had led us to believe up until our hunt started that we were going into an amazing caribou migration hunt only to meet the last group leaving with no kills and all livid for good reason. I’d do Nunavut if I was to go again and it would be more a muskox/caribou combo.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I call bs on the fishing sucked. I'm likely the lower class guide for fish as I'm a hunter through and through and we still slayed them.

You just said avoid them and the next second said you'd go with them to Nunavut so obviously not that bad. There's a reason I said we do MB and Nunavut hunts as it's a migratory animal no different than hunting geese in MB, if they aren't migrating at the time pretty hard to shoot. I was asked about it being slow and I never lied that yes it's been slow in MB but I personally guided a client in 2018 to his caribou so they were there.

Check out the fishing from last fall https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tmogkJKzg7U

As stated you are allowed to have and form your own opinion but it's still the best lodge in MB in the far north compared to others.

I was a caribou guide for 10 years in the Northwest Territories in Nunavut ,the herds are down everywhere the hunting is down everywhere I'll be surprised in the next five years if you can still hunt Caribou anywhere in the North.

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I agree with the above statement 100%. I know conservation in MB put outfitters on a 9 month window for a guarantee for caribou tags, it used to be 3 years. I'm pretty sure everyone can read between the lines, get at it while you can before it's gone everywhere.

No opinion
 

Im not sure that was an opinion, more an observation?
An entire group returning without a single animal is definitely a bad sign, and by no means normal. How many bulls were taken last year, and 2018? I’m always interested in a decent Caribou hunt.
You should already know about what territories and provinces are closed to travel due to covid.

I agree Little Duck is a waste of time no Cariboo. Fishing was good but not for 10k

I've done 3 DIY myself up there and 2 out of 3 times we missed the migration by a week and came home without, it's hunting it happens. In my years of guiding on once I didn't get clients an animal, that was last year.

I don't lie to my clients, I tell it as it is, there's no sense bsing them. One of my clients wants to come back again, he's 70, never shot a caribou but wants to come enjoy himself again and positively wants to hunt with me. I told him I'd love to but no slight to him but at his age I personally told him that he should hunt Nunavut as that's his best chance to ensure an animal. They migrate so the higher up you can get the better. I told him that he should hunt our north camp and I'd be happy to see him when he came through camp.

I said it to him straight, it's his best odds, even then nothing is a guarantee. If we could stay later until the end of September and 1st week of October they'd be thick like fleas. Can't unfortunately as everything freezes up fast. We've got snow in early September and I've seen it start icing up my 3rd week in September. It's a game of chance honestly.

I'll honestly say that anyone going should go as far north as you can but that's still no guarantee. Even locals last year when I managed the Baker lake camp for muskox were boating past us for Caribou, that's not the normal, they would usually be shooting just outside of town. They were boating past us and we were 60 miles from town. Even locals are struggling not just sport hunting.

Caribou are struggling everywhere in Canada and it seems to only be getting worse, there's lots of articles that one can read about it, unfortunately nobody knows the answer.

It's honestly just a passion for me being on the tundra or the arctic, not a full time job. Like any hunt it's what you make of it. Success isn't defined by killing in my mind personally but then I don't shell 10g out so I honestly can see the heartbreak about that. That said a slight bit of research and anyone can see caribou hunting as a whole is suffering everywhere. I know I'm in the process of signing a contract for an outfitted hunt and I've been researching as much as possible, nothing is a for sure except that regardless I'm going to make the best of my time and my hunt, not everyone can be as fortunate to travel to the places and see the things we all get too. I personally plan to enjoy the trip regardless.

The above is just my opinion of course. Good luck to those after caribou and if you are going try to go as far north as possible and enjoy your time. If you end up at the Lodge at Little Duck be sure to seek me out, I'm not hard to miss, I'll be the tallest, thinnest and craziest looking guide there that doesn't deck himself out in expensive gear lol.

Good luck to all.

I never said I’d go with the lodge at little duck in Nunavut. I said I’d go to Nunavut. I think all of us disappointed 2018 clients would have felt a bit better had they gave us a heads up that “hey the last 3 weeks of hunters haven’t seen any so just a warning” but nothing. We literally showed up to disappointment.

I did the non guided caribou hunt in the Alaskan range the final year that it was legal for non resident aliens to do. And that was about 37 years ago. Yikes! We hired a float plane out of Lake Hood that flew us into a small lake and dropped us off for a week. My amigo and I each paid $500 U.S. for the flight.

It was a great experience, for sure. The caribou were spotted so far away that I could not see them with my 8x36 Bushnell binos. My partner saw them in his spotting scope.

The stalk took an amazing nine hours or so .. and then the 16 bulls got our wind and vamoosed at a dead run. This was right after I was told that the caribou in Northern Quebec often paid no attention to man's scent.

Bad advice .. :)

But we got our bull shortly after and that was one long packing out job. In hip waders .. Soggy country.

Wish I would of booked a hunt with Jack Hume before they shut it all down. You only live once. Still bugs me I didn’t do it.

I'm sure glad I did 10 years of guiding 200 miles north of Yellowknife during the peak of the Caribou herds, my best memory is sitting in a herd of about 5,000 couldn't even shoot there was so many around us just sat there all day and listened and watched them, but every year got worse by the 10th year it was tough to find a caribou up there.

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