Dear Fellow Sportsman:

            Thanks for your interest in our caribou hunts. I realize that a trip such as ours is quite expensive and therefore it is important that you understand exactly what you will be purchasing. Please take your time to visit our website and/or read our brochure.

While it took us nearly 30 years to build the solid reputation that we have today if it were not for the investments we made throughout those 30 years in order to build and maintain 27 outpost camps scattered throughout northern Quebec we most certainly would not be able to offer our clients the kind of success and quality fair chase hunts that we offer today. Unlike many other outfitters who choose to use float planes or helicopters in order to locate caribou, drop off hunters outside their assigned territory and who corral caribou towards their hunters (completely illegal and I might add very dangerous), we decided to take a different approach. I certainly wouldn’t feel too proud of any animal harvested in that manner and therefore I wouldn’t encourage anyone to hunt in that fashion. By maintaining 27 outpost camps of which no more than 7 camps are operated at any given time we are normally capable of placing each group of 6 hunters in a productive camp where they don’t have to break the law or the code of ethics in order to harvest a caribou. It is also of great importance for potential clients to understand that a camp that enjoyed 100% success one year may not have any caribou migrate through the following year and vise versa, a camp that may have never seen a caribou in 5 or more years may end up having thousands of caribou migrate through. I grew up in this business and have been involved with our family run operation for the past 27 years. I have seen the caribou change their migration routes many times over those years. During the 2007 season we added two more camps to our fleet. We took over Lake Bregent which is located 150 miles North of Schefferville and we also erected a new tent camp (Lake Amanda) which is located 160 miles North East of Schefferville along the Labrador border. In 2008 I plan on erecting one more tent camp on (Sawyer’s Lake) 170 miles north east. These are all in areas where we no longer had any camps in operation. They are areas where we once hunted back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Over the past few years I have noticed the bulls from the George River herd seemed to be returning to this area during late September. Although it is very costly to build and maintain camps in the north “as everything must be flown in by floatplane” it would be foolish to think that it isn’t important to have many camps to choose from that are spread over a vast area.

In brief most of our hunters (over 90%) were successful in 2007. Most of them went home with some truly fine looking bulls of which they can be proud of. Although we managed to maintain a very high success rate I would be lying if I were to say it was easy! We started our season off using camps located within 80 miles of Schefferville as the George River herd migrated throughout that area. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the herd was scattered into smaller groups. Because the caribou were scattered into such small groups it made hunting a little more difficult and hunters had to hunt a little harder in order to assure their success. It wasn’t long though before the Leaf River caribou were spotted marching through our furthest camps north and northwest and hunters were immediately being flown from 190-212 miles North West to intercept these caribou at Lake Coursolles, Ronald Lake and Marilyn Lake. Mean while things had slowed down considerable in the east with only our camp located at Lake Macabe (our Ultra Deluxe) remaining productive. Macabe lasted until the 2nd to last week of the season with all hunters enjoying 100% success. However McCabe’s 2nd to last group required a mid week move. They were flown out to Lake Coursolles and each of them took caribou. During the last week of the season the group from the ultra Deluxe was sent directly to our new tent camp at Lake Amanda where hundreds of majestic bulls were passing through. Needless to say they did quite well. During the last two weeks of our season only 4 of our 27 camps remained productive. Caribou that were headed towards the Pons River (where we have a strong concentration of camps) decided to hold up 15 miles north of these camps only to turn back north and head back towards Coursolles. Hunters who were sent to camps along the Pons River anticipating caribou required mid week moves to Marilyn’s Lake or Coursolles in order to harvest their caribou. I might note that none of our clients requiring a mid week move were limited to one caribou and extra guides were flown into both Marilyn’s Lake and Coursolles in order to help out. We finished the season using Ronald’s Lake, Coursolles, Marilyn and Lake Amanda with everyone tagging huge bulls. Interestingly enough had we depended on the camps which were productive in 2006 we would have had a terrible season with very few successful clients. It is only because we have so many spare camps that we are continuously capable of having one great season after another.

In 2008 I plan on operating just 6 of our 27 camps in order to ensure that we can maintain the kind of service our clients have grown to expect from us.

On a completely different note, plans are also in progress for us to start operating ½ of our camps from Lac Pau. Some of our camps are actually closer to Lac Pau than to Schefferville and we should be able to offset some of the extra cost involved with the high Canadian dollar and the high price of gas. Not to mention that this past season the local Montagnais Indians (Innus) put up a road block closing our access to the town of Schefferville. Unfortunately this also meant that we could no longer pick up our clients and transport them to our float plane base located at Squaw Lake. We chose to immediately move our operation to Lac Pau. (Lac Pau is a hydro electric base located 120 miles west of Schefferville, where a few of our competitors already operate from.) Our season went on as usual with just a few of our clients losing some valuable hunting time due to the native blockade. I might add that some outfitters chose to simply close down their season “as they did not have the option to operate from Lac Pau” and others endured a couple of weeks of sending their hunters through Lac Pau before pulling the plug and cancelling the remainder of their hunts we were actually one of the few outfitters that managed to stay open for business throughout our entire season despite the inconveniences of operating from a new base. I believe that this dedication can be seen as proof of our loyalty and determination towards our clients and I would certainly like to thank all of our hunters for being so understanding of the situation that we were forced to deal with. Hopefully I will have the honors of seeing some of you again. Richard Hume
 
The following is a detailed report of our success rate from 2005-2008. Keep in mind that there are plenty of factors that are more important than an outfitters success rate. Beware of outfitters boasting 100% success rates as many of them simply publish a number that looks good in order to pursued hunters to book with them. Our success rate is detailed from week to week. We aren’t afraid to publish a detailed report because we know it contains honest numbers.

85% of hunters harvested 2 bulls
94% of hunters harvested a minimum of 1 bull
96% of hunters harvested a caribou