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I am looking for inforamtion on the river conditions and WMU 541 ans 542. I have a moose hunt booked with Northern Wilderness Outfitter Sart date of the hunt is October 2, 2011 and need any information you fellows can provide. Thank you in advance.

Seen your post of Alberta Outdoorsmen's site.

Good place to look at numbers is the "My Wild Alberta" site...look up the 2 WMU's you listed for draw results and successful hunters over the past few years.

I have driven past these 2 zones heading south on HWY 88 from REd Earth and actually driven back on some of the lease and pipeline roads...more in winter in the area with work......looks like it should be great to hunt....especially getting further in. There is a new Powerline ROW thru WMU 542 heading east and I imagine good cutblocks and a few nice small lakes with very little access in the fall (Winter only)... YOU SHOULD HAVE FUN and hopefully SUCCESSFUL!!!

Your trip coincides with my annual Moose Camp. PRIME TIME for the rut. Leaves and changing color fast here in the Peace Region and been cool mornings for a week already...FALL is coming on fast !! Me personally, I hunt up in WMU to the west of those listed...been at the same hunt camp location for 20 years with one buddy (both of use have guided for big game), now has grown into 6-7 of us in the last 8-10 years.



We leave on sunday Oct.2 early in the morning (7am-one guy always seems to have to work a night shift stretch during the week prior to us leaving). We will be unloading the trucks by 9am and hauling in the walltent camp and all the gear and supplies. Should have camp up by noon.....get a chopped up wood supply for the firepit as we have a diesel heater for our camp now the past 3 seasons in our bigger wall tent (16x20 with 10' porch).

Couple of pics to tease you-having a cold one after getting camp set up, settled in and wood supply set for a few days.




Our group spreads out in usually groups of 2 to cover some areas for the first evening hunt...alot of the time I cover by myself as only a couple of us really know the area in and out...usually out of camp by 3-4pm. We are meat hunters and if the bull is legal...it goes down...and if we have more tags in the group, then we may start looking for a bigger bull.

Here is my moose from last year on the first evening....2 bulls were answering my cow calls-2 different directions, I think the one bull clammed up after it got wind maybe when a slight breeze picked up...but the other bull come charging in, grunting hard, could hear him hit the creek water splashing, running, come to the edge of the cut line...Oh there he is...GOOD BULL...paused for a minute, took two more steps out and BOOM !!! BOOM!!! all over. But thats only the first part of this story...the rest was a long night getting the bull back to camp. I took the pics after it was getting dark, a couple of us gutted him out as we had tried to dress out the bull with the little day light we had left...those are precious minutes. Was a great FIRST DAY in our Annual Moose Hunting trip!!!!



Good luck on your hunt.

Mighty-
What size bulls can you ezpect to see in that area of Alberta? Do you know how thew river conditions are in that area been getting much rain?

French Creek/GaryandGus...whats up? Sounds like a fun moose trip planned.

Antler size anywhere from low 30" up to 60" for sure...average I would say if holding out for a certain size would be low 40's-50"+ easily. I have seen the 60" bulls, after we were already tagged out....its happened a few times, but it sure is fun to see and heard a bull that size come charging in, crashing thru trees like a D11 Cat Dozer !!! WHAT A RUSH !!!

What size range does your Outfitter have for success rate? Guess it all depends on what you want. If you are looking for montser bulls, better off looking into northern BC, Yukon and Alaska for the Alaskan/Yukon species of Moose to hunt...but Ibet that hunt costs alot more than the one in Alberta.

But I will say, with a good Outfitter/Guide, you will should have alot of fun!! I have guided for a number of years before, so I know how much work the guide should/can do. Just cant promise the huge Bull or the 200" Whitetail...they are out there and may have seen them, set up the client as best you can for an opportunity, the rest is up to Mother NAture!! Cant control the big game/weather.

Trust me, I had an opportunity to be filmed by Mossy Oak Productions a couple years ago with my buddy in the picture above(us two on the left) for whitetails and mulies.....I had prime land in a few different areas close to home, did my scouting prior...and it was the hardest I seen it to even get a 150" deer for film...I pass on these all the time. I personally have higher range of size(185" for WT / 190" for Mulie-but thats my standards), but for the video I would of done it. Cant control the game. Frustrating, but hey, THATS HUNTING !! My buddy got a sweet 170"+ mulie with a droptine so it was GREAT !!

We had alot of rain this summer in Alberta...alot more than normal, especially June and July. Rained alost 20 days straight in mid-late June.

Water levels on river would be dropping by now but should still be travelable if doing river floats. What rivers are you thinking of in WMU 541/542?? Also, I will suggest on getting a wolf tag.

Leaves are starting to change here already and the past week has had cool nights and mornings.

Mighty-
The river will be floating is the Athabasca, are you familar with that one and or its condition this year, two years ago when I hunted with Bruce the river was so low yo could have walked across it and not get wet.

The outfitter is claiming a 45" average on bulls, hell I don't know what a 45" bull moose looks like.

I usually dont travel too much past Slave Lake were the Athabasca crosses HWY 2 but where the river crosses HWY 49 by Whitecourt- lots going to Edmonton.

With all the rain in Alberta this season, the major rivers will be higher than normal this fall. The Athabasca has a large drainage system just like the Peace River-but the PR has a dam on it in BC.

YEars past have been really dry overall, so this year should be better doing the river float.

I believe my bull last year was 45 to 47" if memory serves me right.

For other info, maybe contact or do Google Search for water levels on the river....the Canadian Govt agency Department of Oceans & Fisheries (since the Athabasca is a navigatable waterway) may have info or Alberta Environment.

The way we hunt is in the bush, hunting old and newer cutblocks, existing cutlines, small ponds/low areas with water and lots of CALLING !!!

Hope this helps. Good Luck !!!

Mighty-
I thank you for all the information and it does help, I am looking forward to the hunt and will let you know how it went.