Who's been?
Is this hunt still available?
Any other adventures like this available?
I was in stride for buff with Baker in OZ but he passes away.
seeking a copy of a thousand campfires and now this Terry, cabin fever getting to ya mate?
That would be a heck of a trip. I know I feel the urge every time I watch the old Fred Bear DVD of him flying into Cold Fish Lake. I am planning my trip there for next year.
Best of luck with your Alaskan adventure.
Are you going to use your hickory selfbow, Terry. :thumbsup:
That would be some trip! I don't think I know the whole story about those hunts. Except that it's not actually named the Moose John. I'd like to do that someday too. Except I don't know anything bout moose hunting or the great north, or the logistics of travel there. It's almost like you need to know someone who can show you. Still I'd like to do it.
Tedd
Cabin fever....yes...thats what happens when you don't hunt for a year!!!
Yeah....theres a reason its 'called' the Moose John.
Doesn't have to be Alaska...I just gotta go.
oh...sorry Pat. My selfbows are Osage.
A moose hunt is high on my list, but the financial logistics are hard to swallow for a guy in the lower 48 with a young family. It's tough to swallow because I'm physically in my prime and humping gear and meat in the deep backcountry is relatively easy right now. By the time I'm financially able to go on a moose hunt that may no longer be the case. Rock and a hard place.
Terry, I believe Yote Robertson took that area over from Ernie Holland a few years ago. Not sure if he is still running those hunts but he would be a very good guy to contact about an adventure up that way.
Osage will work.
Terry I floated Jay's Moose John river in 1989. If that hunt is still available it's a once in a lifetime experience.
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Un7Ae8dT1bg/maxresdefault.jpg)
QuoteOriginally posted by Terry Green:
Who's been?
Is this hunt still available?
Any other adventures like this available?
I was in stride for buff with Baker in OZ but he passes away.
Mick passed away???? Do you have any more info on this???
Bisch
Hold on I may have had a brain fart maybe he just lost the area he Hunted and very well could be mistaken with the chaos that's been in my life for the last few years.
Thank you sir for bringing this to my attention ...it's like I said I could very well be wrong about that completely and for that I apologize immensely
The Moose John is the hunt of my dreams. I hope you make it work for you.
Several on PBS do this sort of thing every year. Don't think it's the Moose John but flyin ,float moose hunts.
Mick Baker is alive, he just lost his prior Buff lease is my understanding. He sells a line of broadheads and shafts called widowmakers if I am not mistaken.
My bad....I must have had someone else on my mind.
Who wrote a book named Baker...maybe Bill Baker?
Just did a search...it was Bill Baker that passed.
My mistake.
Just did a search...it was Bill Baker that passed.
My mistake.
My hunting partner was suppose to hunt the moose John area with Yote Robertson a few years ago. The hunt fell through I believe from a plane wreck. The guide that Yote worked for lost the area. More to that story.
We are moose hunting the interior this year. 0nly four months to go. I imagine other PBS'ers are going this year.
The book is "Born To The Bow" Bill Baker. A great book that's still available from Sioux Archery
Yes...I have Bill's book....a friend gave it to me.
Been A dream hunt of mine since I read a story about the Moose John in a Archery mag in the 80's.
Jay Campbell has been a couple of times. Maybe he can advise you.
Be careful with dreaming about float hunts these days. There are so many folks on the rivers both floating and running with jet boats that the wilderness experience of yesteryear is all but gone.
Mike
There's a lot of ways to get to moose and nobody is better at it than Alaskans. I've seen airboats and jetboats over 90 river miles from the nearest launch. If there is navigable water with good moose hunting, it's been found and exploited. You can float beautiful scenic rivers in prime moose country and never know that a dozen hunters have already been down the river ahead of you...and possibly with firearms. Though it's often romanticized and talked about in traditional circles, the true wilderness float hunt (with good moose hunting) is a very elusive animal.
I purposely go out of my way to avoid navigable rivers and all areas accessed via land or water. Aircraft is the only way I go as it gets me in places where I can be alone and never see another hunter, unless it's a partner.
Bill Baker use to run some amazing 'Buff hunts here in Oz, sadly he passed away some years ago now . A giant in the Australian hunting archery community whose footsteps will be hard to follow .
Mick Baker, no relation , has had an outfitting business and also owns Widowmaker B'heads and shafts . Not sure if he is still outfitting.
In 2013 we floated DIY for two weeks without seeing a fire ring, a piece of charcoal, a human footprint or a log or piece of wood that had been touched by an axe or saw. It really was the pure wilderness I had wanted.
We didn't kill anything but spruce grouse but it had nothing to do with opportunity.
That said, if I go to AK again it will be for a DIY fly in camp where hopefully the wilderness experience will be the same.
OTOH, there is another float waiting where an equally wild experience could be had.
This would be awesome.
QuoteOriginally posted by FerretWYO:
This would be awesome.
Well.....lets do it.....
We're only getting older....
The Moose John hunt is no longer available. I've done the Moose John twice, the first time with Jay and the second time with Ernie Holland, who took over the business after Jay died. I don't know the details, but Yote Robertson was working for Ernie when Ernie crashed his plane.
BTW my partner and I did not get a moose on the first hunt, though my partner had an opportunity. We both got nice bulls in the 60-inch class on the second hunt.
I highly recommend a float trip for moose in Alaska.
I think Dale Karch and I were the last to do the Moose John with Yote and Dick Robertson in 2013. Sterling Holbrook was with us too, to make for some fabulous memories. Yote would be the one I would check with.
A friend and classmate, did a float hunt in '91. He killed a fine moose!
Like the great caribou hunting in Quebec, you asked about, has changed!
Yotes (or was up till recently) connected to the mj. Dougs still in sitka, this is a river you can diy.
Theres actually 2 rivers Jay called the mj trying to keep them a secret. . One was the oroginal (the one shown and talked about most)
Theres also an interesting read. Shortly after Jay psssed, i was a young soldier on the prowl for the mj. Too broke to go guided. I read an old story on moose john milovich.... i always wondered if theres was a connection.
There's another very cool article on tge area about long ago bowhunters. If you find it youll know it. But good luck! If you do, youll be very close to the mj. Its not on the net these days.
If you get up this way Terry, holler.
Dan
Greg,
Sterling and Krista are in fairbanks now. Oddly enough i havent run into them.
Thx Sir.
Here you go, Terry. Up for auction right now.
Loaded with information to help plan a DIY float.
Forgot the URL :o
http://auction1.tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=217;t=000069
Funny story..........
We were in the big tent in base camp and planning to hit the MJ river the next morning. I snored pretty bad back then. Jay told this story the next morning while he was fixing breakfast. A bull moose answered my snoring in the middle of the night, seems I would snore and the moose would answer with a grunt...
snore....grunt...snore ....grunt. Jay could hardly keep from laughing as he told the story, he said "Ron I thought you were going to call that bull right into camp" :biglaugh:
It's a bit unnerving. Had one walk by me in the night with nothing but a tent for protection. It made a little huffing noise with each step. Was sure it was a bear but a check in the morning showed moose tracks a few feet from the tent. :biglaugh:
Didn't sleep anymore that night.
QuoteOriginally posted by Terry Green:
Any other adventures like this available?
yoda- adventure you seek? hunt New Zealand you must.
Thanks guys....Funny story Ron!!!
Been to NZ.....Wonderful....didn't get enough.
A quality experience in Alaska is entirely available - use a reputable air taxi operator and stay away from navigable water. With proper planning you will be hunting where no other human has been in at least a year and you won't see anyone else other than your hunting partner.
I love the stories about hunting the Moose John and dreamed of doing that hunt some day, but all my recent research tells me that I should shy away from the popular rivers, like others have mentioned. So this fall I am doing a remote fly-in moose hunt with a PBS friend. Can't wait.
AKDan, please check your email. I tried to PM you but could only email you. I am sending a bunch of recurves, arrows and shooting gloves plus arm guards from the Carolina Traditional Archers and my own collection, up to Fairbanks in several weeks for a special Native American teen camp archery event at Lake Harding, but am in need of some targets (too bulky and expensive to send that far from NC).
I'd like to contact the Holbrooks for help too, but have lost their contact info when they moved there. Anybody know how to contact them? They used to love to share their trad archery knowledge with kids and would probably like to help teach these Native American teens from AK about trad archery, assuming they are available. It's very possible they are out chasing bears right now; I would be if I lived in AK.
Jeff i will check. My reg use emails akdan76@yahoo.com cell is 907-322-0397. I'm on shift today-fri. If you don't get a reply from me by saturday, shoot me a line.
I can also get holbrooks info for you, or get steve hohensee on the pbs forum.
Gnaa has targets. (3ds) i will see what i can round up there as well. They have shoots tues and thursday nights off chena hotsprings closer to town (roughly mile 6/7ish) And yes its bear season. I tweaked my shoulder again recently, taking it easy. I partially tore it a few yes ago and pinched it. Hoping i dont need surgery this time. So far so good.
Have you contacted any bow groups in anch? The massey shoot gang are still going strong.... i bet theyd jump on. Alaska bowhunters assoc, and a couple others i sm not sure still exist loll
If your dates fit, fishings getting good! Im a shift guy so my schedules a 'bit' screwy.
Got it!
I post announcements at my church and can get this in my 2nd church as well. Phone wont let me reply, sorry for posting here.
if youre doing the moose hunt i think you are, monty and brians spot, this sept youll be close to the mj (talking abbreviations haha). I have hunted below and just missed the gang at the main strip by a day. Probably good, I was chasing a small bull in my undies one morning. Got up to pee and there he was almost in range. Guess my tighty whities were too much, he swapped ends and left to my utter amazement. Haha. I had my x girfriend with on tgat trip. First and only time i dumped a raft in 23 years of trying, we were drying gear after a swim. (Which only proves how much Montys the man floating or dragging the upper solo killing bulls!)
Back where moosies go....
As far as busy. The mj is not a high traffic river due to logistics. I believe the lower is still blocked (no boats) and the uppers a long hike if you dont float in. This is one reason they picked this river its not easy to get too it without support.
I wouldnt write it off. The real question is what mj do you want to hunt. The primary we've all read about? Or the second river Jay used from time to time..... options! Haha!! Im guessing if it were me iI'd opt for the primary due to the difficult access!
But that wont likely happen soon. The nice thing about today is lighter and smaller.... no more giant boats with coolers for seats ;) .