Bad Online Review.

Im posting this on my website to give an honest response to very untruthful and inappropriate post.
First off (Ankle Concerns)
I spoke with Matt approx. two weeks before his hunt when he informed me of his ankle issues. We talked about how that could affect his hunt. First I offered him to come the following year (AT NO EXTRA COST). I explained to him we would utilize the horses as much as possible but the hunt would require a large amount of hiking regardless. Matt insisted he would be fine and the hunt was to commence as planned.
I had gotten to know Matt fairly well over the course of a year. I sent him pictures of past successful hunts over the summer and pictures of the scenery as I cut trail throughout the summer. He told me stories of his hunt in Africa and a hunt in New Zealand that he was also unhappy with… Matt insisted he was a seasoned hunter that could handle anything that would come at him. ( I informed him of past hunts that required “cold camping” ,intense physical work and long days.) Matt insisted he was physically and mentally prepared to do what it took.
The first day.
Yes I did pick up Matt 3 hours later than planned. Yes I did have a toe ball welded on my truck. (It was damaged a few days prior and could not be repaired until then) Yes we met Lisa at the store to pick up the majority of our food as we were to be in a different area. At this point we were still making good time to be in camp. There were problems finding horses that evening. I told Matt to head to camp and have dinner and I would find them and catch up with him shortly. Yes it did take longer than expected and I wasn’t able to locate them until early the next morning. As we drove to the area we were to hunt I apologized to Matt for the inconvienence and offered him an extra day of hunting at no cost if needed.
I should also mention Matt insisted on driving my truck while I was on foot. He felt his experience driving with trailers made him better suited than Lisa. After several warnings Matt drove further until there were no more areas to turn around. Resulting in him jackknifing and damaging my truck and the horse float.
Day 1 of the hunt…
The first day found us trailing horses into a large valley that consistently produced good elk. As promised Matt was the only guided hunter hunting out of this camp. It was at this point Matt informed me of his plans to work for another outfitter in Northern BC following our hunt, as he dreamt to be a guide in BC one day. Matt insisted I treat him like a friend and coach him along with horses as he did not want to arrive at the next outfit with no knowledge. He insisted I was up front with him regarding anything he was doing wrong as far as horsemanship was concerned. I can admit the hunt changed from here on in and Matt was treated as a companion and not a typical client.(As per his request)
I tried my hardest to coach him along teaching him everything from the basics of saddling to packing and everything in between. By day two I could tell that Matt was rethinking his Northern BC adventure as he had come to realize the amount of work the horses require. What started as someone listening and helping turned into a careless attitude putting himself and the horses at risk daily. I checked over anything he touched (when he decided to help) and found everything in dissaray. From large branches stuck under the saddle to cinches being criss crossed to upside down bridles… At one point he dismounted his horse for a bathroom break dropped the reins and lead rope as his horse turned to graze he bumped Matt. Long story short he spooked his horse and was chasing after it holding on to his tail! Throughout this time I was very firm with Matt as he requested. I told him several times he needed to know the basics before he advanced to throwing diamonds.
Now I will say this. The hunting was slow. Apart from the first week of September we received zero rainfall and temperatures stayed a constant 15C to 25-30C in the afternoons. As any outfit in the bull river will attest too. We focused in some high basins but mainly areas with wallows and dark timber. I asked matt if he was comfortable without a tent. He was fine. We did pack tarps in case of a sudden weather change which didn’t happen. There was very little sign of elk and the unseasonal heat wasn’t helping . Keep in mind we were three days into a ten day hunt at this point. As we rode out of the first big drainage I noticed one of the horses had thrown a shoe. I informed Matt of this and we discussed a plan to drop the horse at main camp and hunt another good producing drainage by foot the following day.
Day 4
We dropped the horse of by 4 am and were hiking up a large slide into an area where I had successfully guided another aussie hunter a few years prior. Up until this point Matt never complained about his foot. Not one word was mentioned. Now this mountain was steep but a mountain I had guided many hunters age 55 and above in previous years. Now this is when the “backseat guiding started” Matt questioned every decision I made as far as the hunting went. Every time we stopped every time I bugled every time I glassed Matt had a better idea. But he had watched every mossy oak video there was and was sure he knew how to do things. That was fine. Ive been guiding for over ten years and this was not the first time that had happened. We slowly side hilled up valley and encountered more and more elk sign. The most wed seen at this point. It wasn’t long before several cows were spotted below us. At this point Matt was struggling. We had been hiking on and off for about 3 hours . I feel it necessary to mention the superb athlete that I initially booked was not in fact. Matt Roe is roughly 5’5 and 240 lbs. Severely overweight for his size and age. Nonetheless we continued to hunt. It wasn’t long and Matt was exhausted. This was the most hiking we had done since the trip started. He began to whine about his ankle , I suggested we continue on a bit further then head down the ridge back to the truck. He agreed and followed. About halfway downhill he seemed to be in more severe pain. We managed to make it back to the truck And Matt was in fairly good shape. He said his ankle felt better and was happy from the amount of sign we seen. I agreed and mentioned trying this spot again in the morning, but suddenly the injury revisited us. (Can you see where this is going?) Matt had invisioned galloping up the mountain and shooting a 330 bull from his saddle which was never ever portrayed. As we arrived back at camp with horses Matt was limping pretty severely. We discussed options to ride into some other areas or rest a day and do some glassing from the truck. I gave Matt the option as only he could decide how his ankle felt. No surprise to me he elected to take the truck.
Day 5 started around 5 AM we took off from camp headed high into a cut block to glass. It wasn’t ten minutes after daylight and I had spotted several cows high in a slide. I pointed them out to Matt but he insisted they were moose. After he stared through my Swarovski spotting scope he reluctantly agreed they were in fact elk. We moved to a different vantage point and quickly I Spotted a younger 6 by 5 bull high in a nearby slide. The bull had several cows and wasn’t going far. Matt had told me he would rather go home without a bull than shoot a 290 class elk. This changed several times throughout the day as we discussed all options to hunt this elk. Matt was looking for a guarantee we would harvest this bull which of course I could not give. Although I felt with an honest effort we had a great shot.
By day 5 I could tell Matt had already been beat mentally and physically. He was depressed over his ankle, he realized he was unfit to wrangle in the north ,never mind become a future guide and was physically exhausted due to his size,weight and obvious lack of preparation for this hunt. The following day was spent the same glassing and driving. Although Matt did have an opportunity to harvest a young male blackbear. I informed him the bear was not huge but a good representation of the species. He elected to pass and scolded me for stopping in a puddle. We headed back to camp to take a nap during the afternoon heat when Matt came to me in tears, he informed me he felt he could not continue due to his ankle injuries. I tried to convince Matt to stay giving every option to at least continue hunting. We could have been lucky in any circumstance as everyone knows that is hunting. His mind was made up and he was beat down by the mountains ,injury,physical fitness, and mental weakness. Because the hunting was not as good as it had been in years passed I offered Matt a full 10 day hunt for the same species at no cost. Whenever he felt fit enough to return. At this time he was very gracious and appreciated all I had done. He spoke of future cougar hunts and we planned a date for 2017 for him to return and hunt elk. So to say I was blindsided by this report would be an understatement.
From the time I dropped him off to about a week later Matt had drafted up this report and threatened to post it on every forum he could unless I paid him over 9000$ Flights,Meals,hotels every expense he incurred travelling to Canada. I couldn’t understand why he would do this until I recalled a conversation we had about his work. Matt had mentioned he worked as a subcontractor and did not want to have surgery on his ankle until he had enough money to take approx. 6 months off work while he healed from the surgery. Being a contractor he was not eligble for any insurance coverage during this time. Im certain Matt hurt himself bad enough that surgery would be required as soon as he returned home and did not have the funds to either pay for the surgery or take time off work while he healed. Which explains why he was so intent on blackmailing me for the outrageous sum of over $9000.

The fact of the matter is Matt was not a seasoned hunter, Not a hunter at all. He underestimated the mountains he would be hunting in. Was nowhere close to being physically fit enough to hunt in BC. He was mentally beat by day 5 and totally quit on day 6 of a ten day hunt. I catered to Matt as much as I could but it was not enough. I offered every avenue to continue hunting and went above and beyond to offer him a free hunt as soon as his ankle was better.( Before any of this forum was even talked about)
There are some other facts I would like to clear up here:
-Any relations I had with Lisa Cocciolo had absolutely no effect on Matts hunt.
-At one point a packhorse layed down and began to roll fully loaded. I was very assertive to get the horse back on its feet to avoid damage to gear and injury to the horse. I have never abused any kind of animal. Working animal,pet or otherwise.
-The talk of shooting game illegally is 100% fabricated. Matt was offered legal tags for mountain goat during day 2 of the hunt but never offered to shoot any animal unlawfully.
- After 5 days of hunting we had spotted roughly 15 cow elk, 1 legal bull, several whitetail does,several cow moose and had an opportunity to harvest a boar black bear as well as countless mountain goats.
-Top of the line tents were present and offered. It did not rain the duration of Matts stay.
- There was an unusual amount of traffic on the road but we never ran into another hunter in the mountain the entire time we hunted.
-The camp we based out of had fully function and running HOT water. (Matt showered every night he stayed there)
-I spent all July cutting trails throughout the area. We suffered a bad windstorm in late august and there was some recent blow down and one trail that was nearly impassable.
-The horses were some of the best in the herd. They had been ridden all summer during trail rides.
- I have guided in that area for over 10 years. I do know it like the back of my hand. Every successful hunter ive guided over the last ten years will attest to this.

Thanks to all the awesome clients Ive guided over the years and the future ones to come. We had another exceptional cougar season and went 100% on great Tom lions.

Matt better luck in the future. My offer still stands if you would like to come back, but I will suggest better preparation if you attempt another elk hunt in the kootenays.