is Dease worth the drive?

[hunter fisher]

a friend and i had planned to hunt his fort saint james moose draw leaving early next week, but now our other buddy has got some time off and wants to come as well. now that there are 3 of us, is it worth it to drive up to say dease or atlin and go for some monster moose? i haven't heard about fort saint james being packed with moose, but i hear if you want big moose, go to dease. anyone with experience care to chime in? we have a solid old lifted truck, travel trailer, 10 foot aluminum with an electric, and a quad.

we have all the tools, just wouldn't be sure which direction to take when hitting dease?

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Plan for next year and book a flight out of Dease....if you want a big moose.

SSS

[stroh72]

SSS is bang on.....fly in out of Dease would be the go to. No problem finding them.

[Sofa King]

dease or atlin?
big difference in the two.
how much time do you have?
another choice that not many think of, is tagish lake.
drive to the Yukon and boat down.
monster moose.

[levind]

been to dease a few times its a very hard hunt lots of moose even more people. I would probably choose fort saint james. Would probably be less people as its leh and you will have a tone more hunting options as the gravel road system is a lot better giving you more access to more locations then you would have in dease lake. if i had no leh i would go to dease but would rather spend my time in an leh area especially during the rut if you hit it right. Just my 2 cents.

[Philcott]

I'd hunt the LEH tag this year and as others have said fly in next year. If I was flying in I'd already want to be on the road heading up to Dease or loading up the plane as we type.

[Avalanche123]

Very few options for driving in around Dease. Quad restrictions in place too. Am unsure about Atlin as I haven't hunted there but it is another 6 hours from Dease.

Monster moose,,,,, as others have said, fly in... next year.

[markomoose]

Stick with Fort Saint James get you moose & drive south and shoot some deer and head home happy!

[bcsteve]

To those who say "fly in", as in with an outfitter?

[ElliotMoose]

Fly in as in hire a bush plane pilot to fly you out of dease lake into the surrounding bush somewhere

[BiG Boar]

I'd say fly in this year. Book it for 10 days and go for an adventure. FSJ is no adventure. Expect to shoot the first bull you see. I have done both 7-26 and Dease lake fly in, and there is no comparison. 7-26 you will see at least 10 hunters per day. Not to say there is no moose there, but it is sparse. Dease lake is any bull, but as others have said there are no real roads.

[Philcott]

You need to be prepared to walk the scrub brush/swamp areas on a fly in trip. No roads and mostly animal trails to walk. Bring in a zodiac or other collapsible boat to give you travel on whatever lake you camp on.

Preparation and pre planning is king.

[boxhitch]

No need o wander too far from the water , especially if you have the lake to yourself . It can be slow and boring , long days watching the edge , a boat is almost mandatory .
If you find a good fishing lake , build a smoker and bring the salt and brown sugar .

[hunter fisher]

thanks guys, after doing some more research and reading the replies here, I think we are going to go to fort saint james and try to hammer it out. dease sounds like an awesome trip but I think we will save that for next year with a little more planning. but we have 10 full hunting days, so if we smack something early we may drive over to chetwynd or fsj and try and pop a mule or an elk. not sure if theres a lot of crown around to hunt for deer? ive heard theres nice animals though

[boxhitch]

Don't sell your leh short , thats a good area and there is more than moose to hunt. Focus on the one area for this trip , your bud can fill a forking spiker tag too
If its about killing something big , well maybe the wrong area to apply. .