Reg 5 immature bulls

[Russell]

I phoned the biologist for region 5 today to ask if there will be an opening for immature bulls this year before our group puts in for the LEH . His answer was that there will be no immature openings until they come to some sort of understanding with the first nations in their area ( like that is going to happen in my lifetime). I also got into quite a long conversation about the moose allocations and their reasoning for numbers of draws going down when in my opinion the moose numbers are up substantially in this region ( the season before last I counted 35 bulls and even more cows & calves in just over a week ) He stated the original allocation was based on a count done about 5 or more years ago and that since then the allocations are based on hunter success. What he meant was that the more succesful hunters there are in any given year the fewer tags to be allocated the next. I told him that didn't make sense to me as it would seem a higher success rate would mean there are higher numbers of animals making it easier to fill your tags hence the population should be able to handle a larger harvest. He stated that the success rate in the area I like to hunt was 61% last year and when I asked him if that took into account the number of succesful LEH winners that could not make it up hunting. He said no it didn't and agreed that if they were taken into account that the success rate could be as high as 80 to 90%( thank christ we didn't get a success rate that high or they might have totally shut down the moose hunt with their kind of reasoning). He did agree that a moose count is overdue but also stated that there is only 400k alloted for stuff like this for the whole province and it was not too likely to happen anywhere in the near future. So I guess 30 years of moose hunting in reg 5 has just come to an end and I'll have to move over to reg 7 man that sucks. Well thats the end of my rant guys have a nice day,Russ

[Jagermeister]

This is really irritating. I don't understand why the FN's have a right to dictate moose allocations for resident hunters. The first recorded moose shot in region 5 was in the Meldrum Creek area, the year was 1918. This was written in Eric Collier's book, "Three Against the Wildreness". So you see that the moose followed the white man over the Continental Divide, prior to that, there were only elk and mule deer.
The elk on the other hand, had a large scale mortality event somewhere around 1813-15. This tidbit of info came from Harold Mitchell who was the regional biologist in the "70s and '80s and was killed in a helicopter accident. Harold told me that they carbon-dated elk antler and bone fragments that were gathered from the Gaspard-Churn Creek area and this was the reason that he wanted to re-establish the elk to that area. Sadly, it never really coame to pass.
So FN's should have no more influence in moose management than the rest of us. If they want to talk mule deer and elk, then I'd say they may have more of a "divine right", but no way on moose.

[palmer]

sucks...I really enjoy huntin region 5 for moose

[abbyfireguy]

I am not too happy about the FN interference with the moose hunt,but do understand that there is a problem up there with the immature season.....We have hunted that area since 1982,staying mainly at Chutanli Lake,Tanli Lake or Suscha Lake.........
The problem I have seen first hand lately ,is bulls shot as immatures and left to rot because on closer inspection they were too big..Walked onto 4 in that general area in the last 2 hunts...That really gets me choked as it is a total stupid waste and gets very bad attention from the regulaters and other lobby groups in the area..........
I agree its high time for a proper moose count,and lets see for sure what the numbers are...No more quessing and extrapolating numbers from success rates...That's poor science...
Hopefully we have another enjoyable year up there,it is a nice area that offers fantastic fishing as well........
The gas prices will be the only downer this year most likely....:evil:

[Fred]

If we want proper Moose Counts(and others as well) then we should get on the case of our respective MLA's and demand that the biologists and CO's be given the monitary support that they need to do it. Fred

[abbyfireguy]

That's it...I'm starting the letter writing now...Thankfully there's spell and grammar check..:lol:

[Russell]

ABBEYFIREGUY what region are you seeing the rotting moose in?