33.  The annual Trepassey moose hunting trip usually falls on the Remembrance Day holiday weekend in November. However this year we opted to go down early as Moose are reported to be pretty scarce and we had two licenses to fill. Unfortunately I had a last minute work commitment come up that I just couldn't pass on so I had to opt out of this four day adventure. Bassan, Troy, Blaine and young Duncan loaded up the bikes and headed down the shore Thursday evening to meet Peter and Eddy who were already in Trepassey. This year Bassan and Troy both had either sex licenses to fill.

32.  Friday Morning the boys left the house under cool temps which later in the day turned to beautiful sunny skies. They hit up all the usual hot spots including Neddy's Marsh, Doctor's Pond, and the Herding Grounds all to no avail.

31.   Bassan got to repeatedly test out his 2500lb winch equipped 1997 Foreman 400 hauling Troy and Blaine out of the soft boggy ATV trails.

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28.   Earlier this year Bassan finally picked up a good pair of binoculars. These Vortex Diamond Back binoculars came from Outdoor Pros in Mount Pearl and are absolutely awesome.

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26.   Saturday morning the crew headed out to Cape Mutton over very narrow, steep drop off adjacent, ATV trails hunting all the way to the head.

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23.   This time luck was on their side and Bassan connected a terrific shot harvesting this beautiful big cow!

22.   Young Duncan even helped Eddy with the clean up by cutting out the liver.

21.   Peter's 1996 TRX300 4x4 sure got a workout on this ride out of the country carrying Eddy, Peter and half of the large moose all at once!

20.   The black plywood moose-hauling boxes continue to work awesome and make carrying fresh meat very easy on an ATV.

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18.   The guys headed out of the country without incident other than getting stuck a couple times, then headed to Eddy's shed to hang, skin and quarter their harvest.

17.   Sunday morning the boys hit the trails once again and spent the day hunting the country in behind the gravel pit, unfortunately to no avail.

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8.   Sunday evening Troy and Duncan headed back to town while Bassan and Blaine stayed behind to clean up & pack up heading back the following day.

7.   The following Saturday we all headed over to Troy's garage where Bassan had the moose hung to start cutting up and bagging our harvest.

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4.   The four of us had the job complete in record time finishing up mid afternoon.

3.   When I got home I decided to try out my new meat grinder which is an attachment for Sandra's fancy heavy duty Kitchen Aid mixer. I picked up this grinder after seeing how well French's similar unit worked last month. I cut the pieces of moose into 1.5" square strips, discarded the heaviest of the connected tissues and ground up 3 x 5lb bags in about 20-30 minutes.

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1.   2018 has been an awesome Moose Hunting Season, I had a lot of fun with the French's helping harvest George Andrews moose opening day and Matthew French's a few weeks later. I'm disappointed to have missed the Trepassey hunt as it's always a fun trip in absolutely beautiful country. However we may get back down for another crack at filling Troy's tags before the end of the season.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith