Andrew Lake Lodge & Camps

THE MAGIC OF FLY IN HUNTS 1677 words
By Pierre “Big Bull” Frigon

For many years, my long time hunting partner Gord Trenholm and I had been dreaming of accessing remote hunting areas, where hunting pressure is non existent, and the land is free of seismic lines and clear cuts - where big mature Bull Moose run free and behave as they have for thousands of years.

In 1996, a long time friend of ours asked that we join her and her husband for a 10 day fly in moose hunting trip to the Cassiar mountains, north west of Dease Lake in British Columbia; a vast scenic area just south of the Yukon border. At last, our dream had finally came true as I harvested a 50+ inch Bull Moose on the first day, whilst my hunting partner Gord connected on a wonderful specimen on the fourth day. I should also mention that we called in and filmed an additional dozen or so large bull moose. Needless to say, we were hooked for life!

We returned to Alberta in search of a similar area, one that could hopefully be as beautiful, remote and productive. This proved to be a little harder than expected as most of Alberta has already been submitted to extensive scrutiny by the oil, mining and lumber industries. Northern Alberta also lacks the multitude of lakes and river systems found in Northern British Columbia. However, further to extensive research and numerous calls to both government biologists and northern conservation officers, I eventually discovered that both of the areas to the east & west of Wood Buffalo National Park did provide quite a few good options, with many northern lakes still untouched.

I subsequently had the good fortune of meeting the late Glen Wettlaufer, then owner & operator of Andrew Lake Lodge and Reliance Air Charters. Glen introduced Gord & I to the north east corner of Alberta, the only section of our province to be part of the Great Canadian Shield. For those of you not familiar with this area, it is a remote yet beautiful landscape dotted by a multitude of clear water lakes and big mature Bull Moose. Although the area has one of the lightest densities of moose in the province, the ratio of bulls to cows is an even one, and most bulls have the opportunity to reach full maturity. Having said that, I will not fool anyone into thinking that you can just show up there and shoot a moose on the first day by simply cruising the lake shores. One must still be able to recognize good habitat, recent signs, and put experience and acquired skills to work.

This past September was our eighth fly in hunt and the fourth consecutive year Gord and I hunted the north east corner of Alberta. In these same last four years, we managed to harvest a 56” bull, a 54” bull, two 51” bulls and one 42” bull. We also elected to pass another three large bulls.

Allow me to share this year’s hunt with you.

Further to a 15 hour drive from our hometown of Jasper, we arrived in Fort Smith in the early morning of September 23rd. True to form, Dan Wettlaufer of Reliance Air Charters had two Cessnas 206 on stand by waiting to take Gord & I, along with all of our gear, to our secret lake about one hour flight from Fort Smith. Once there, we had both planes unloaded by noon and had our complete camp erected by 5pm.

We opted to take it easy that evening as it had been some 35 hours since either of us had had any sleep. A few rums and several hunting stories later, we finally hit the sack, only to wake up one hour passed our planned rising time.

Hurriedly, we gulped down a few cups of coffee and skipped breakfast so as to reach Gord’s favorite calling spot located in an eight year old burn, about 2km or so down the south eastern part of our lake. It was a windless morning, perfect for calling moose, with the sun just breaking the horizon. Gord began with long drawn out cow calls whilst I proceeded to destroy several evergreens and red willows, imitating a love crazed bull thrashing willows, ready to fight. To our astonishment, we soon had a bull answering and quickly gaining on our position. It was only a matter of minutes before it appeared over a small crest, some 80 metres away. It hung there for a short while, so I gave it a few grunts and thrashed the ground with my right foot. This got his attention and it turned towards me, some 35 metres away. As it crossed my line of fire, I realized this was a real beauty and gave him a stiff bull grunt which froze him right in his tracks. The 338 Remington Ultra Magnum soon barked propelling the 250 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw at 2900 feet per second - making contact. The bull fell right where it was standing. It was only once we proceeded to field dress the large Bull that I realized the bullet never exited, which meant that it had taken the full impact of all 4600 foot pounds of energy. A quick clean kill. I was also pleased to see that Gord had captured everything on his new Canon digital video camera.

Two days later, we were awakened from our afternoon nap by a low flying aircraft. As we started to stir within the tent, we were both stunned to hear a large animal go crashing through the bush a very short distance behind the tent. We promptly went to investigate and were amazed to find a moose bed and fresh droppings no more than 50 yards from where we had just been snoring! As per Gord’s suggestion, we opted to call from camp that evening.

Once again, Gord started with soft cow calls. An immediate answer from across the bay, some 300 metres away from camp, quickly got our attention. Moments later, a gargantuan Bull appeared and proceeded to make its way to our encampment by swimming across the bay. Gord soon activated the digital video camera which enabled him to film the entire sequence. I further excited this large ungulate by rubbing a large pine tree located on the edge of the lake with the full rack of the moose previously shot, and then showing them in full to the incoming bull. This did speed up the bull’s travelling time considerably!

As it got close, the large Bull moved stiffly, slowly shifting its large rack from side to side. It eventually reached an opening along the lake shore, no more than fifty yards from the wall tent. With six days remaining to the trip, Gord opted to pass this marvelous trophy to avoid having a gut pile in close proximity of our camp. I firmly believe that he will be regretting this decision for a long time… We eventually had to jump up & down yelling loudly to snap the Bull out of his trance. It slowly returned to the thick forest, the exact same way it had come. This had been more excitement than I could bear.

The remaining days were spent relaxing, fishing and hunting, and we were fortunate enough to be able to observe two cow moose feeding and interacting, as well as several pairs of bald eagles. Eventually, our eleven day trip came to an end. We were scheduled to be picked up at noon on October 04th by Dan Wettlaufer and his competent pilots.

As planned, the alarm sounded at 7am and the packing up process began. Gord had been calling through the night, every time Mother Nature called. I also produced a few bull grunts as I sat on the John, reminiscing on just how good the trip had been when a loud Bull grunt interrupted my business. I softly yelled for Gord to grab his rifle as it was eminent that a large visitor was on its way. Moments later, we were both in the tent scrambling to get some clothes on whilst we could hear the bull’s grunts becoming louder & louder. Less than four minutes later, this mature Bull was on the rock cliff above our tent, perhaps 90 metres away, looking down on us like a statue.

I produced a few more bull grunts and it immediately headed for our tent – here we go again !!! At about fifty metres, it must have detected something as it let go a loud alarm bark, and ran back up the hill slightly. I responded with a short soft cow call. The bull moved slightly to the left then stopped, offering a clean broadside shot at no more than 60 to 70 metres. Gord’s 30-06 broke the early morning silence. The Bull moved back up the hill & toppled over, no more than 125 metres from the tent!

Luckily, Gord had just purchased a Globalstar satellite phone and a quick call was placed to the float plane base, begging to delay our pick up time by two hours as we had some serious work ahead of us. This beauty measured at a whopping 54 inches – not bad for a bull called from the John!!!

We eventually were back at the float plane base by 5:00pm, loading everything into the Chevy truck, as one more incredible fly in hunt came to a close.

I encourage each and every one of you to participate in a fly in hunt, at one point or another. You may or may not come home with the game you were seeking, but the experience of being where no man has been is not only very special and unique, it is exhilarating. The fishing can also be absolutely phenomenal. Perhaps make it easy for yourselves and simply contact Dan Wettlaufer of Reliance Air Charters. With a bit of luck – you might also find your own moose heaven!

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