Moose hunting season here on the East Coast officially opened Saturday September 11, 2021. This is the 2nd year in a row government opened the season much earlier than the historical first Saturday in October. Most of the crew is undecided if it's a good thing or not as we now have the gear to deal with warm temperatures. Regardless we don't have a say in the matter anyway!

Unfortunately mother nature failed to check with the Moose Hunting schedule and sent us a damn full fledged Hurricane right in time for opening day! How rude! Needless to say we never got into the country Saturday or Sunday as many of us were dealing with post storm cleanup at our homes, and in my case also at the Rod & Gun Club.

In my hunting group Andrea's father Peter has the only license, an either sex license for Area 36 – the Southern Shore. As Andrea better explains in part 2 - late season moose hunting, we were more or less operating on Peter’s schedule. For a feller 80 years old, he’s quite busy so we didn't get very many early season hunting trips on the books.

Opening day for us became Monday September 13th (as Sunday hunting has not yet opened) the forecast wasn't great but despite that we headed down the shore very early in the morning. Roger wasn't available so Andrea, Peter and I hopped aboard my truck with both Project Foreman and Project 6x6 in tow for the hunt. A pair of animals were spotted at daybreak, a shot was made but  unfortunately it didn't connect and the pair headed for thick woods.

By noon it started raining heavy on the Southern Shore so we packed up and headed for home. On our way  back to town my passenger side power window decided to quit, we managed to get it within 3" of fully raised so we didn't get totally soaked during the drive home. Thankfully parts were in stock at the dealer and I managed to fix it the following day.

With Peter's work schedule and terrible wet weather hampering our willingness to hunt, our next outing was Saturday September 25th. The forecast finally looked great with clear sunny skies, light wind and respectably cool fall temperatures. Once again Andrea, Peter and I headed down the shore to be on site before daylight. Luckily I managed to attain a charity license from a NFP group here in Torbay for today's adventure.

When we headed into the woods we spotted one large animal quite a ways away before legal light. If not for my epic Olight Marauder 2 flashlight we never would have known he was there. He disappeared as the clock ticked down to legal shooting (one half hour before sunrise), we tried calling and later tracking with no success that morning. Ghost lives on.

Unfortunately my injured foot started acting up mid morning so I headed out to the truck and grabbed Project Foreman on which to travel on for the rest of the day. Fortunately this area is peppered with bike paths and a power line corridor so I wasn't completely useless to the team.

Around 1pm we headed out to the truck where I prepared a lunch of my infamous marinated moose, mushrooms and onions paired with French onion white rice on my Coleman Hyperflame stove.

After lunch we headed back in the woods to scout out a spot for the evening set-up. Project foreman found a deeper than expected mud hole, but after a couple rips back and forth, the locked front diff and kick ass Mud Lite XTR's pulled through with relative ease.

For the evening set-up I had my FoxPro Spitfire electronic caller running but unfortunately there was no moose action to be had this day. It wasn't for naught, it was an absolutely gorgeous evening!

Again with Peter's availability and more absolutely horrendous weather (either heavy rain, a gale of wind or both), our next trip down the shore wasn't until Sunday October 17th.

The weather today was outstandingly clear, sunny, light wind and respectably cool which was a bloody rarity this season!

It was all hands on deck today as Andrea, Roger, Peter and I were all on here and uninjured! My truck was still in the shop receiving exhaust manifold and steering component repairs (shout out to the fantastic crew at French's Automotive in Mount Pearl - best in the business). Andrea drove today with both of our Honda Foreman's in tow. Once again I had a loan of a charity license here in Torbay which would hopefully help in filling at least one set of tags.

Andrea and I tag teamed lunch which consisted of my fresh Jalapeño/Cheddar moose sausages and Bassan's homemade moose sauce pasta.

It was truly a meal fit for a king!

Just after lunch time Matthew French dropped down joined us for the afternoon/evening hunt.

Unfortunately even with my caller in play and Bassan driving the woods we had no luck or opportunities to even shoot this day. Not unexpectedly the weather started to turn damp as thick drizzle began to fall. We pulled the plug about a half hour early and called it a day. My availability for the late season hunting was limited and honestly non-existent as I had a lot of work and personal projects to complete before winter. Bassan picks up this saga in Part 2 - late season moose hunting.

Cheers, MIKE

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