Thirdwind's Newfoundland Journal

Always enjoyed looking at everyone elses journals here, figured i'd start my own. Like the title, im from newfoundland so all these pictures will be of hunting and trapping here on the island. Although i've been around trapping quite a bit this will be my first year really getting into it myself. My uncle has been a large scale trapper his whole life so i've been with him a few times and figured its time to give it a try my self. I've been hunting my whole life, been guiding a lot recently, just finished up a great season with fly fishing clients this summer. Looking forward to posting lots and enjoying everyone elses adventures.

Found this shed back during the summer, lucky fella i guess.


Went to scout for some geese the day before the opener, no good sign but at least theres always berries to snack on


First goose of the year, had 14 fly over the week before, had 5 in the pond behind camp the day before this one, this was a lone one and 4 others flew in after i shot this one but it was too dark to get after them, I'll leave them be for a while and let them fatten up a bit. Had to get one though.



Spent a few nights in to try and get my wood split up and packed away to make room for more, managed one little teal out the three in the pond, hit another but lost him despite canoeing the pond for an hour searching, hopefully he made it as i hate losing game like that.



Managed to get all the wood put up and almost completely filled the shed (shed goes farther to left) I'll spend a lot more time cutting more now that the weather has turned cooler and the flies are almost gone.




Moose opens on oct 7th, trapping nov 1. I'll post a lot more as the seasons progress and it gets deeper into the fall.


Take Care,
Matt.

Were you fly fishing for Atlantic salmon ?

Thanks for letting us follow along. Best of luck!

Brook and Brown trout as well but salmon for the most part. We had a record low return this year and the government had to close our rivers early. Some rivers were down thousands of fish. Combination of little rain, warm waters and heavy sea ice as well as fishing from foreigners who still have commercial Atlantic salmon quotas.

Looking forward to your journal Thirdwind.

Thanks for posting

What fur species do you have there on the island?

Pete

You better flip that horseshoe over.

Was on your island last year. Love the people and the country. Thanks for posting.

I hunted moose 2 years ago with central outfitters.
I couldn't stop eating the blueberries. it was like a carpet of Blue.
som serious hills and valleys,but a beautiful place. The guide had some nice lynx mounts he trapped years ago he said.

Mink, muskrat, otter, lynx, fox, coyote, beaver (registered lines), weasel, squirrel, marten although we're not allowed to trap them



You must have been in Stoney's place. Who was your guide? My friends dad guided for them for a while, he also traps. I know Stoney traps as well and got a massive coyote hybrid a few years ago.



Heading in moose hunting this evening with my brother while he's got a day off work. His licence area opened back in august but it's too warm then to shoot anything. This is his first licence so hopefully we can get on an animal.

Ralph was my guide. he was I think 62 then, but he was a freaking mountain goat.

Got out for a moose hunt during thanksgiving last weekend. Saw 9 animals, the licence holder only had a shot at one. Well, 4 shots and he missed every one of them, i think the moose is still laughing. The scope must have got knocked on the way in. Managed one lonely grouse out of the trip but walked through lovely country. Decided to take a day today and scout some new area, i'll have to go again tomorrow and cover more ground, found some sign but not what im looking for. May have to break some new trail which i'd like to avoid having to do a lot of since the season starts November first. Snuck up on three black ducks and got almost within range but they took off.Over all not a super productive trip but thats the way it goes sometimes

Looks like you got a fool proof shooter there ,no fog up with that moose gun. Nice pics Thanks

Third Wind - that “teal” is a not a dabbler type duck - it is a diver type and more specifically a ring-necked duck. Good eating bird if not shot too early and has had a chance to fatten up. Keep up the posts - enjoy them.

This is going to be a good one to follow, thanks for sharing.

Ring neck duck? Looks more like a Ruddy duck.

Is that a 303 rifle in the last pic? I think every Canadian owns one lol.

ring necked duck - u can take it to the bank

What's up with this? Got a story?

It's not easy to quote multiple people as I'm typing on a phone right now but I'll try. I should know the definite id on the species given my background but I honestly don't. It looks like it could be a ring neck but certain aspects do not match up. Could be a blue wing teal but again could go either way. Going to send off a picture to my old co worker who done some bird surveys with me and get his opinion.

Crosspatch: not disagreeing with you however this duck has no ring on the bill and any ring neck I've seen never had the powder blue patch. Could be a juvenile but I've never seen a ring neck hen look like this, that being said the ring necks I've seen have been fully mature drakes and only few hens. Also, how's the weather up in lab? Any luck calling moose? We've been calling down here and not having any luck, wondering if the rut was early.

Newhouse: not a ruddy, tails a lot shorter and the bill doesn't have the upward sweep a ruddy does.

Jurassic: 303 it is. This is my buddy's gun, trying to get his moose, pretty sure everyone in Canada has at least one in their family and here in Newfoundland every man and their dog owns one

Tweed: this was on my uncles line, shot off an email to him to get the history of it however I'm thinking it's an old logging tilt for the boys cutting wood back in the early 1900s. I'll get the definite history soon

Heading back to my new line this week to get some bait out and sets made for when it opens, the area I'm in now has good sign and and goes on for a while. I'll have to break a new section to make it a round trip but that's not a big deal.

Thanks-
Matt.

That is how I know the bird - did plenty of survey work over the years and was involved also in the wing bees where wings the hunters send in are professionally identified. Killed my first duck 49 years ago and killed plenty since. If ur buddy is good he will know it. To help out on the ID ‘ring necked duck’ has often been called a terrible name for this bird as the ring is only present on the adult male in breeding plumage and even then is not particularly obvious. Ring billed duck has often been suggested as a better name. The powder blue patch is the right patch/speculum for a ring neck. Blue winged teal “blue” is actually a much different blue and located differently on the bird i.e. ahead of the speculum on the forewing of the bird. Handled plenty of them. Ur bird looks to be juvenile.

Moose calling - have some buddies that were calling bulls for fun easy enough up to Oct12; they only had one licence and got that one easy enough

Been involved with a few surveys myself, mostly with the muskrat falls transmission line. Sent the picture off to doug, a bird biologist, he got back right away, ring neck it is. Juvenile makes sense for the size and plumage of this one. The bill ring was not developed yet. We mostly were involved with song birds and raptors, not a ton of waterfowl species so I'm rusty on those.

Nice duck and goose.

Nice pictures and reports, wind, keep em rolling.

The duck looks more like a hen redhead

Nice work

That is not a teal though
Ringbill

Confirmed the ringbill.

Been working flat out with my two jobs so i havn't had a chance to get out much. Went out today and found some black ducks, about 15 or so but they had been shot at before and there was no way to get handy to them, as soon as the safety clicked off the gun they flushed and i lost them.

Had a nice little cross fox get dropped off to me, it was a road kill that a guy wanted to get taxidermied but couldnt find anyone to do it for the price he wanted, the going rate was about 450$ and for the animal it really wasnt worth it, skinned it out and im going to tan it for it though, i'll get pictures up of the fox and the process when i've got a bit more time at it. Still got a couple of moose to get yet although my thoughts of moose hunting are fading into getting gear out.

Take Care

Heres that road kill cross fox I was given, small little male.



Slight tear under his arm, which we're still not sure on the cause of because there was no internal bruising or bleeding anywhere near it. He was struck almost head on but only enough to kill him, no crushed or even broken bones. Im tanning this one and the guy who dropped it off said he'll buy it back, hes in the freezer now until i get the time to get at the tanning process.







Took some time to get some stretchers done up, got one fox, one mink and three weasel boards out of one length of pine. Planed the fox down a bit, still have to finish the others and then sand them all







Seasons open now but fur isn't primed up yet. Getting sets out and ready and baiting until later in the season.

Take care.

Nice dark coloured cross fox,should look good tanned as a wall hanger.Then after the guy gets tired of looking at it hanging on his wall after a couple years,it will make a nice hat.

I’ll update with some pictures later today or tomorrow. Broke my home computer so I have to try and do all this from my phone

Haven’t much luck on my snares. Had one pulled through and another two walked down by moose. Still waiting on a good flick of snow to see what’s around and moving where. Got some mink gear out after being too busy recently. With work finishing up Friday I’ll time to get more going. Had a moose along the side of the camp the other morning, nice cow. Hope everyone is hooking into some fur. I’ll have more pictures when I figure out the home computer, it’s a real pain trying to update anything from mobile devices. Also just got engaged Saturday as well!



Take care.

Congratulations.

Congrats thirdwind.Does the little woman skin?

Boco, no she don't but she cooks whatever i like so that works for me!

Been plugging away, we finally got snow, struck up the line as we had 40cm over night and reset it, then it all melted again so its been a battle adjusting and resetting so frequently but thats part of it. Had a coyote refuse my snares in different areas frequently. Its a slow slow year with strange weather. Seems were into winter finally now so i can get the rest of the line straightened out.

Hope everyones having a good new year!