The Mother Of All Blinds or MOAB for short..

In my last 2 posts I referred to the MOAB which is short for 'Mother Of All Blinds'... last year we needed to rebuild Tom's number 1 blind so we decided to make one that was big, comfortable and would last a long time. The first version of this blind was build up at our deer hunting camp and it has stood the test of time so we decided to make a mirror image of it 8'x8' and 12 to 14 feet to the floor up on moose mountain. Here's a few pictures of the process.

We prefabricated it at home and folded it up and brought it to Tom's in a trailer:

And that's the deal on the Mother Of All Blinds.

Moose Season or: How I learned to stop worrying and Love the Hunt - the conclusion

We were almost back to the camp when Rick's phone rang, it was Tom and he had a moose down, he was also out of shells! Ha! So we headed up the hill to the MOAB - everywhere you go on the mountain is up hill in both directions - even when you go down hill you still end up walking up somewhere along the way!

As Rick and I reached the MOAB we looked to our right and this is what we saw:

He was right where Tom emptied his rifle into him, about 30 yards from the blind! As we skinned the old brute we saw that 1 shot would have more than likely done the job but as my grandfather always told me, do what you got to do to knock him down -- even if there's only enough left for hoof soup!

Tom excitedly told us the story about what had happened and this fellow came down right from where the neighbors are -- which was a bit of poetic justice really, based on the previous day's shenanigans of them driving all over the place calling within earshot of our 2 blinds -- take that, neighbors! =)

Yours truly:

Tom and Art:

Rick and Art  are father & son -- a couple of really great fellas too - i'd hunt or fish with them anyday!

Dad, Tom and I:

The view from the blind of where the moose dropped:

The view from the blind of where he came from:

Tom and his John Deere:

Genuine Ford Parts -- and he sure is!

Dad, Tom and I:

Worn out hoof:

It was a great hunt, spent with a good old friend and a couple new ones. I look forward to spending time at Tom's place and wish I had more time to go more often. He's always an incredible host and makes us feel right at home. Thanks again, Tom! Art and Rick, it was a pleasure to meet you gents and get to hunt with you. I'd jump at the chance to do it again!

Now that the hunt is officially over I have to say how lucky we were to have a day like Friday... the weather was perfect, the neighbors had screwed off somewhere and that old bull cooperated. A lot of things had to happen just right for the day's events to turn out the way they did. As with most things in life there are no guarantees, especially on a moose hunt. If you look at the weather for this years 3 day event, Thursday was windy as hell and Saturday was windy AND rainy all day. Thank goodness for Friday!

I'm not sure how the hollywooders on the base made out, but I am both relieved and happy that Tom was able to connect at his place instead of having to join them.

What a great hunt! And I never thought of salmon fishing the whole time =)

Moose Season or: How I learned to stop worrying and Love the Hunt.

It was back up to moose mountain this year for the annual 3 day New Brunswick season, which ends today. We were once again staying with our dear friend Tom to help out with Art and Rick's hunt. As our season is so short you have to make the most of it and even then success is not guaranteed. Our plan was simply to hunt hard and see if we could meet with success.

It rained quite a bit on Wednesday but the forecast showed things settling down for the opener on Thursday. The wind was up which really hindered our calling efforts. The rain on the previous day also lessened the impact of Dad and Tom's scent drag which is performed every year that serves as an olfactory trail of bread crumbs back to our static hunting positions: MOAB 1 and Tom's new tower right beside a babbling torrent of raging whitewater.... I'm sure that part wasn't a factor during the summer drought when it was constructed...

The story of Day 1 was no moose spotted or heard but during a scouting walk we found many fresh and promising signs out on the power line -- as per usual this place was tramped and munched to hell. Young hardwood tops were all chewed off and we found several very fresh bedding spots.

Our first view of the powerline - the mighty Saint John river in the distance:

Some fall colours:

Pictures do not do this place justice as to how steep it truly is...

Sunset on Day 1:

Another big factor on day one was Tom's neighbors from the adjacent hilltop were also up hunting only they weren't sticking to their traditional hunting spot, rather they were driving up and down the hills on their wheelers and calling from random spots, some of which were very close to our hunting locations... with friends like these... well you know how the rest of that old saying goes....

So we regrouped back at camp and began discussing plans for day 2. All along, Art was determined to go drive the roads in CFB Gagetown if we weren't successful on day 1 - which is fine but not mine nor Dad's idea of hunting. In moose season though, you have to often times do what you have to do to be successful in the very limited and time constrained 3 days... 3 days... such crap, but that's another  topic which I may delve into some other time but not today....

When the discussion came up about plans for day 2 I stated that we should be focusing our efforts one last time on the blinds in the morning as there was frost in the forecast for overnight and the next morning was to be clear and calm. Our calls would really be effective and reach out and touch any potential suitors. It was agreed that day 2 would start out in the blinds one last time and if necessary, the lads would head to the base immediately following the first couple hours of the second morning.

Sunrise on day 2:

After watching this amazing sunrise and not getting any replies to our calls we decided it was time to head back to camp so the guys could be on their way to the base and that's when we heard the shots!

To be continued.....

Mr. Tanner, thanks!

What's a good way to kick a case of the "Salmon Blues" besides a successful **moose hunt?  (**a future blog entry - stay tuned!)

Well, I had no clue after the year we've all had on our salmon rivers... of course there are those who say 'keep your fly in the water' and 'once in a hundred years summer/drought' and others still who say 'what right do you have to expressing an opinion because I don't find your experience worthy of my super elite salmon fishing guru standards' ... It's the latter group that I get so sick of listening to .... all people have a right to an opinion and even folks less learned on certain subjects can still make intelligent contributions to a discussion based on other experiences they've had in their lives .... quit judging people, quit shitting on their opinions and quit being such high and mighty pricks .... who are you supposed to be, anyways?

Whoa, where did that come from?

Well, I'm pretty sure it's from residual "Salmon Blues" which I am completely over after such a great few days in the woods chasing moose on the annual 3 day New Brunswick hunt AND because of a very kind gesture from Mr. Gary Tanner who has an absolutely wonderful blog with a recent update from his recent and successful trip to the Miramichi:

http://theriverscourse.blogspot.ca/

I received this in the mail earlier this week and I am completely stoked to get up to the river next weekend to give these babies a go! Of course, my hunter's orange and 870 won't be far from my side! ;-)

Gary, you tie a beautiful fly my friend! Thanks ever so much, I can't wait to swing these --- who knows, maybe that 'Sneaky Orange' will bring me some of the same good luck you had on your trip?!

Beautiful fish! Congratulations, Gary!

Ok, so here's the deal...

...I mentioned a week or two ago that I was going to be doing something special in appreciation of the folks who take a few minutes from their day to check out this little piece of cyberspace... With your help, my blog is quickly approaching 10,000 hits which is a milsetone I didn't think I'd get near for a long, long time. So the deal is, way down at the bottom there is a counter which is currently at just under 7,000 hits -- whoever can send me a screenshot of the ten thousandth (10,000) hit -- or closest to it, will receive a half dozen flies I've tied via mail. I will allow 1 week after the ten thousandth hit for submissions at which time I will announce the winner. This could be very interesting as my audience is global with visits from Russia, China, Great Brittain, United States, Germany, Dubai - you name the country and they've been here =)

Once again folks, thanks for checking out the Wulff Den!

Another ugly bomber....

A couple more in blue and I'll be pretty much hanging up the bomber hooks for the season... in the mean time here's an ugly white with orange:

B.A.S.S. fishing on the Hammond take 2 ....

Paul and I managed to get out again last night on the Hammond - the water has dropped really fast after the 2nd big raise .... Not much fish activity of any sort, I can't imagine the fish that were waiting have already blasted through but you never know? One reason might be the warm water -- 64 degrees about a half an hour before dark! We were both surprised! I think bass fishing will slow down some now but I'll still be chasing them as long as I can stand it!

 A few pics from the outing that I posted yesterday to twitter/instagram: @nbsalmon1

B.A.S.S. Fishing on the Hammond...

The Hammond is spring high but the bass bite is still on.. I figured the little buggers would have dropped down stream but they're still sticking around.

Paul and Brandon at Smithtown Bridge pool:

Sunset at Smithtown Bridge pool:

Raising water at the French Village Bridge pool:

The weekend report... well, kinda...

I have a feeling I'll be achy for a few more days after playing woodsman for a day..... I have absolute respect for anyone who runs a saw or brushcutter for a living! I was up in the Miramichi area for a couple days this weekend with Paul and Brandon working on a good friends woodlot. We cleared a pretty good patch for being a bunch of city slickers - although Fred and Dale are likely still laughing! =) Massive thanks to the good folks at the Oxbow (Click Here) - I always enjoy my visits there and the new lodge is going to be awesome!

A few pictures from the Heritage section of the Oxbow website:

A couple pictures from the area of our woodsmen endeavours.... Dad, Joe and Bill popped by for a visit as we were finishing up.

We did manage to get out for a fish for a couple hours and the Elson-ator managed to hook up briefly - We raised a few more fish but no other hook ups - well except for the chubasaurus that took a huge blue bomber!

Fish on!

I did a little recon on the Hammond this afternoon -- things are looking MUCH healthier now!

And finally a Saint John sunset from today:

P.S. Brandon, thanks for explaining what 'Alt Tags' are and what they're used for!