One of the most important facts about the 2004 migration was that at the beginning a very strong portion of the George River herd was mixed with the Leaf River herd. They were very far in North Western Ungava and moving at a fast pace. They reached our North Western territories during the 3rd week of August and gave us excellent hunting conditions in the Châteauguay and Pons areas. At the same time, the George River herd was slow moving in the east. Our camps of the George were experiencing strong movements and there was a lot of very high quality bulls in this area. It was the best season in more than 20 years on the George. Falcon camp, the Main Lodge and High Cliff camp were occupied all season long. Camps 1, 3, 4, 6 and 12 were good at mid-August and in late September. The Châteauguay and Pons area (5 camps) were very productive at mid-season. The season was excellent over all and our 207 «mobile hunters» harvested 376 caribou – 351 of them were bulls, maintaining our usual productivity of more than 90% success on 2 caribou per hunter. Salmo was on time again this year : the first fresh fish was landed on August 18th, out of pool 19, by 91 year old veteran «fisherwoman» Eunice Gates Water level was high and weather conditions were tough for most of the season but our fishermen produced very well under these difficult circumstances. The most productive fishermen were : Jerome Farnsworth with 7 Salmon Ann Amos with 6 Salmon Marlies Koch with 10 Salmon The biggest fish of the season was an 18 pd specimen caught and released by Jerome Farnsworth, out of pool 10 on September 12th. Brook trout fishing was also quite spectacular with several specimens of 4 pds + plus landed by Louis Paquet, Charles Moreau and Pierre Picard. CHÂTEAUGUAY camps were operated in August only this past season. Spring was very late in Ungava this year: there was a lot of snow and also a lot of rain in July. Water levels were very high and fishing would have been extremely difficult under those severe conditions. When we opened the season, in early August, the water level was high but stable, and brookies were hungry and ready for our fishermen. These wet conditions gave us tremendous hatches and dry fly fishing conditions were excellent. OUR 13 RODS LANDED MORE THAN 900 BROOKIES, several of them being over 3 pds plus. 2004 is a year to remember. IT WAS BY FAR THE BEST CARIBOU SEASON ON THE GEORGE in more than 20 years. Not only did we see a lot of caribou, but there was also a lot of HIGH QUALITY BULLS in the herds. So much for the biologists who were telling us, no more than 2 years ago that the herds had left the North Eastern territories because of lack of food… The highlight of the season, in that area was definitely the performance of our Slovenians in early September : these 7 hunters harvested 14 major bulls and 5 bears…. Difficult to beat !!! C.P. 66, Cap-Rouge (Québec) CANADA G1Y 3C6 Tel. : 418-877-4650 – Fax : 418-877-4652 E-mail : adventure@norpaq.com Web site : http://www.norpaq.com If you can't read this email, visit us here : http://www.norpaq.com/newsletter/