Spring bearhunt in Canada

Still happening this year? See they extended the border crossing to “essential “.

Act of God;
no refunds.

I’d bet it’s as good as toast.
Essential goods have been moving back and forth the whole time. I doubt any Canadian province is going to open their doors soon.

I know there are beaver trappers with full freezers full ready for those hunters bear baits. And nobody is calling them to get them

Next year the bears will be all that bigger.

It is going to be a tough time for many lodges with flying fishing.....are they going to fly in a plane with 10% of their passengers only booked that can come.

Wonder if they will have some help for the camp owners and tourist industry in Canada. 0% loans or something, anyone hearing any talk about that?

There has been many different assistance programs rolled out by our government to help business owners and employees. Like with everything there will be imperfections, but it’ll be a help.

from what i understand all non resident is closed

Those that guides in the summer will be hard hit. To get payments from C-19 work shut down you had to declaire at least 5000$ income. Those guys and waitresses that declaired their tips have over the threshold

Looks like they will open the border about mid May. Hopefully...

Where do you see that? They just extended the closure by 30 days and our gov said, "it will undoubtedly be longer before the restriction is removed."

We are hearing around June 1st at the earliest for Ontario. Our June 12th fly in trip will likely be cancelled.

Bears might eat for free this year!

Bears might eat for free this year!

I'm pretty sure any dates anyone are hearing are simply dates somebody made up and they are not coming from any person in a position of power. This is what Ontario is saying.

sorry Rob auto-correct.
And with your luck the walleye will have all grown out of the slot limit you can keep them in a years time.

The Ontario gov even wants to stop the Winnipeg traffic going to their cottages in NW Ontario.

Trump said it at the task force briefing. Said he had talked to Trudeau and they were thinking of opening it in 30 days. That was a few days ago....so about mid May. Going to be hard to keep people pinned down much longer. A small Washington town right on the Canadian border opened up last week. Everyone is going back to work there.

Yes, and the day after he said that, we said this,


I understand the wishful thinking, but unless case numbers south of the border are on the serious downswing in a month, we won't even consider it.

And that's a wrap on spring bear.

Buy American go for a US bear then.

Ive been watching this closely because our business ( fishing lodge, and trapping trips) relies on people from around the world getting here. I was optimistic in the beginning but not anymore...the insanity has gone to a new level. Currently we have lost at least half our summer and it looks like we will lose it all. If they do open in June we might salvage a few trips though.

Heres my take on what you should expect: A good outfitter will let you roll your trip over to next year with no extra cost. I know they are not all doing that. I've heard some horror stories ...like outfitters asking for full payment now, then if you cant come they want to charge you a 25% fee to come next year. That is just wrong and those outfitters will pay in the long run and probably go broke. I usually send out final invoices in April. I didnt this year, still havent. Every single client that we had booked called or emailed and asked us if they cant come this year if they could roll their trip over to next year. They called us, I didnt call them. The bottom line is you should not have to pay more to roll your trip over. Deposits are NOT refundable in most cases, and there are many good reasons for this. Also an outfitter might already have bookings for the next year so you might not get the same dates but thats just part of the mess we are in. I highly recommend cancelation insurance...Global Rescure signature is one of the very best.

Keep in mind that this covid deal has put all of us outfitters in a real bind. Typically we get paid once a year, and this year it doesn't look like we will get paid at all, and we still have expenses to pay. Going to be a lot of outfitters go under no doubt about that. I just hope when its over you guys will be ready to get out and hunt, fish and trap north of the border. While we are far from wealthy, we will be able to weather the storm, and will be open for business next year and hopefully even this winter on the trapline trips. I've gotten more business from Trapperman than any other place, and myself and my family thank you all for the business over the years. Hope you all have a healthy and prosperous summer.

The O'Farrell clan

What is interesting is Canadian stimulus moneys is directed to earned income in 2018 tax records, based on earning over 5000$. Hopefully the hired help includes their tips when filing 2019 taxes. Because of the restrictions of travel north of 60 is going to be tight for quite awhile.

Awesome post. I'll pull up your website in a bit after dinner and see what you guys have to offer.