Our group left on Wednesday morning for the 32 hour drive to camp. Gas stops were few and far between, so much so that we had to use the 15 gallons of gas that we brought with us just to make it between the stops. We arrived in camp around 9:30 Friday morning, signed up for our tags, and headed out for the evening hunt. We drove east about 1 ½ to 2 hours to the area around mile marker 500. Drove up onto a lake that was about 1 ½.miles wide and 3 miles long. We spotted a lot of animals moving across the frozen lake. I put on my gear and headed out to a small island. The snow was almost waist deep in the trees but only a few inches on the ice. I sat for bit and decided to move to the east. One of the guys in our hunting party used a snowmobile to get out farther on the ice and put a good shot on a really nice bull.  As we moved east we located a cove where the caribou were making their entrance onto the lake. I decided to sit at a point about 200 yards from where they were crossing. After some time I decided to move out to a small island to the east farther.  Our hunting party was split into groups of two. I left my hunting partner at the island and continued down the lake to the east. As I walked in between the islands, caribou were moving southwest on both sides of the small islands. I decided to turn around when I figured I only had 2 hrs. of daylight  left. As I moved back to the island where I had left my partner, I could see a large line of caribou out in front of the island to the west.  There was a really nice bull in the line. There as a shot from Jason, my hunting partner and the herd was on the move. About 5 to 10 seconds later there was a second shot and a caribou hit the ice. As our party moved in on the animals we realized it was a cow with antlers. I guess Jason was aiming at the bull but after his first shot the animals began to get mixed up and he pulled the trigger on the wrong animal. With the temperature dropping fast everyone decided to retreat to the truck camper while I chose to stay on the ice, I moved to the north bank and found a place I could toss my pack and sit on it in the snow. Although the temperature continued to drop I was able to stay pretty warm. Daylight was fading fast and I figured I had about 20 minutes of shooting light left. Off to my left the caribou just started coming on to the ice like crazy. As I looked thru my field glasses, I saw a set of antlers that I thought were pretty big. I unfolded bi-pods, picked up my rifle, and took aim. Everything looked good. I guessed that the animal was about 300 yards out. I aimed with 12 inches of lead and about 6-8 inches high, and pulled the trigger. The first shot hit just in front of the shoulder at the base of the neck. The front of the caribou went down. The second shot followed a few seconds later and dropped the caribou on the ice. After I was finished jumping around, I strapped my rifle into my pack and started to drag my caribou out. After about 100ft. I decided to gut it and try again. 50ft. later I decided that my best bet would be to walk back to the truck to get the snowmobile and sled. In my opinion, a snowmobile is a must when hunting caribou I would not go back without one

Later that night at camp the outfitter came to our trailer to update us on the status of the herd. He said that the herd was spanning 5 miles wide and 100 miles long. The outfitter knows this because a few of the cows in the heard have tracking collars they can track the movement of the herd.

Saturday morning we decided to head out to the dam because we heard that the herd was crossing just south of the dam. On our way out, we had to stop and wait for the caribou to cross the road, right away we knew that we were in the right spot. All the ditches were full of tracks another sign that the herd had been crossing all night. I decided to set up on an island about 1 ½ miles off the road in the middle of the river. A father and daughter team from my hunting party set up about 300 yards behind me. I watched hundreds of caribou pass by me all day; some were as close as 6 ft. two nice bulls came down the ice but I  decided to let the first bull pass. Nick and Jessica were batting zero and I already had a bull in the bag. Nick shot and dropped the first bull. After the shot it did not take the caribou long to go back to their business of traveling. The second bull headed up the hill to the tree line, a shot was fired behind me. The bull was a lot farther away than it was on the ice. Come to find out Nick had handed Jessica the rifle with the sent shell in the chamber. So to say the least she was not happy. Around 11:30am I glassed the far end of the ice and saw the second bull I took to fill out my tag. I was just sitting in a snow pile about waist deep. I had on LaCrosse Alpha boots and Smart wool socks. It took the bull around 35 minutes to move into shooting range. I took a broadside shot at about 100 yards. The bull dropped on the ice. Our group of 6 hunters managed to get 8 caribou; we all filled out our tags.

Thanks for a great hunt!

Donat Asselin Outfitter From

James Day- Quebec