As the title says I'm wondering if anyone has any past experience with moose hunting WMU 21A in northwest Ontario. Our group has downsized and our normal hunting WMU guaranteed group size has upsized. Not to mention the decrease in tags. Our group is looking at hunting 21A. We have concerns with accessibility by truck and trailer (28 ft. camper). Ideally accessible logged areas on crown land where we can both camp and hunt. If anyone has past experience with this area and would like to share it with us we would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
Anyone moose hunt in WMU 21A?
- Thread starter Eenie
- Start date
You will have no problem with access. There are two main arteries, North West of Manitouwadge toward Caramat... the Eastern boundary is the Little Piq River. The other main option is the road system from Terrace Bay North to Long Lac. I have taken two bulls in 21A, two in 21B, two in 19, and one in 18A... the rest were all further south in 29, 38 and 41. 21A is a good area, but there is ALOT of road traffic... I took all of my bulls during the archery season by water, with a portage thrown in to eliminate the competetion... the walleye and pike fishing was great too. A few years back the MNR bumped up the cow tags in 21A to try and eliminate some of the competition for the Woodland Caribou, a fool move IMO, but I think they have reined in the tag alotment considerably since then.
We've always hunted away from the roads like Hoyt suggests. To me road hunting isn't hunting and lacks the skill and challenge. We found the "Gong Show" to go on in other areas as well. I don't know if it's just locals going out after work for a couple of hours or on weekends or just meat hunters, but it seemed to me to slow down some once they pushed the calf hunting out a couple of weeks from the opener.
I live in the western edge of 21A--20 years ago I couldn't cover all the logging roads in 3 weeks. Now I can cover it all in about 6 hours. Once the logging companies stop maintaining the roads they fall apart very quickly. Theres very little logging going on now.
I live 3 minutes from 21A and will be hunting it again this year. The first couple of weeks are a gong show, with just about every gravel pit, side road and clearing containing bunches of trailers. In the area I hunt, from the catlonite road to the east and the Sturgeon River Road to the west, there will probably be over 2000 people at start up.
Canoes will not get you away from the crowds unless you are willing to portage, and by that, I mean more than one port in. We switched up to 18A last year, to a lake we were convinced would have no-one. Portaged and canoed all our gear in, two minutes after setting up, we heard a motor boat coming down the lake. Ended up having a good weekend of fishing.
Canoes will not get you away from the crowds unless you are willing to portage, and by that, I mean more than one port in. We switched up to 18A last year, to a lake we were convinced would have no-one. Portaged and canoed all our gear in, two minutes after setting up, we heard a motor boat coming down the lake. Ended up having a good weekend of fishing.
I live 3 minutes from 21A and will be hunting it again this year. The first couple of weeks are a gong show, with just about every gravel pit, side road and clearing containing bunches of trailers. In the area I hunt, from the catlonite road to the east and the Sturgeon River Road to the west, there will probably be over 2000 people at start up.
Canoes will not get you away from the crowds unless you are willing to portage, and by that, I mean more than one port in. We switched up to 18A last year, to a lake we were convinced would have no-one. Portaged and canoed all our gear in, two minutes after setting up, we heard a motor boat coming down the lake. Ended up having a good weekend of fishing.
That is because 18A has many, many outfitters... good luck finding a lake without outfitter boats on them... it also gets intense road hunting and native harvest... we ran into more competition in 18A than we did in 29 or 38. We eventually figured out how to position for best results, but the numbers of people were disappointing.
Canoes and a map do get you away from 95% of the road hunting pressure.
ha ha, no outfitters on this lake. It was actually folks from southern ontario who drove their trucks down a goat track that wasn't fit for a goat. Google earth and atv's have meant that very few places can't be reached now.
I remember about five years ago, I had scoped out one of our canoe routes in 21A for a water hunt by canoe. There was a port into a river where we camped. There was an old logging road on the other side of the river. I walked the ten k road the week before opening season to judge if anyone could get down there. I was pretty sure no one was getting down that road. The Friday before opening, as we sat around our tents, we heard chainsaws going straight for a couple of hours. My buddy took his atv down the road, and found six camper trailers, big new ones, at the end of the road. I have no idea how they dragged 30 foot campers down that dog track. They had over 20 people in their party. They had guys stationed at all of our portages, much like a military operation. They had one tag.
You now, I could live with that, except they used the very expensive portage signs I had hung at the beginning and end of every port as a target to sight in their rifles. That kind of behaviour pisses me off. I've met some really nice guys who spend a lot of time and money to come up here hunting. The guys we met last year were awesome. However, i've met a lot of d@nks too, and have witness people actually fighting over camping spots, claiming they had been coming there for years, etc. I've been out bird hunting and had people from out of town tell me I couldn't hunt there because it was "their" area. I usually just turn around, it's not worth it to argue with d#ckholes. I've also picked up several hundred beer bottles, discarded beside a big mess of a camp, left by people who were not from the area. I've also witnessed this from locals too.
So 21A is what is. I think if one doesn't know the area, or have a local connection, driving all the way up here and spending a lot of money to shoot a moose can be very unrewarding.
I remember about five years ago, I had scoped out one of our canoe routes in 21A for a water hunt by canoe. There was a port into a river where we camped. There was an old logging road on the other side of the river. I walked the ten k road the week before opening season to judge if anyone could get down there. I was pretty sure no one was getting down that road. The Friday before opening, as we sat around our tents, we heard chainsaws going straight for a couple of hours. My buddy took his atv down the road, and found six camper trailers, big new ones, at the end of the road. I have no idea how they dragged 30 foot campers down that dog track. They had over 20 people in their party. They had guys stationed at all of our portages, much like a military operation. They had one tag.
You now, I could live with that, except they used the very expensive portage signs I had hung at the beginning and end of every port as a target to sight in their rifles. That kind of behaviour pisses me off. I've met some really nice guys who spend a lot of time and money to come up here hunting. The guys we met last year were awesome. However, i've met a lot of d@nks too, and have witness people actually fighting over camping spots, claiming they had been coming there for years, etc. I've been out bird hunting and had people from out of town tell me I couldn't hunt there because it was "their" area. I usually just turn around, it's not worth it to argue with d#ckholes. I've also picked up several hundred beer bottles, discarded beside a big mess of a camp, left by people who were not from the area. I've also witnessed this from locals too.
So 21A is what is. I think if one doesn't know the area, or have a local connection, driving all the way up here and spending a lot of money to shoot a moose can be very unrewarding.
Potato boy
Regular
- Location
- North of the mountain
All these comments reflect exactly why I moved west 20 years ago, never regretted it. I’ll be walking up to the counter soon and buying my moose tag.
