Hunt Lake Manitoba Narrows

Television viewers soon will have the chance to watch Pat Stashek’s dream hunt, but a few challenges almost kept it from being a success.

Footage of his September caribou hunting trip to Manitoba, Canada, will be aired starting Sunday on the “Escape to the Wild” program on the Versus network.

Nominated for the trip by his wife, Kay, Pat, 53, of Wisconsin Rapids, got an all-inclusive trip from the hunting show, joining 30 other hunters at Noname Lake.

Each hunter was given two tags, and by the end of the second day, only four tags were filled.

“Nobody in camp was really seeing caribou,” Pat said.

“It was actually too warm for caribou hunting, because temperature triggers the caribou migration.”

The hunt was even more challenging for Pat because it was being filmed for the show, and certain criteria had to be followed.

By midafternoon of the last day, Pat and the filming crew boarded the float plane to scope the area for a bull.

“There is no cover out there, so you can see for miles,” he said.

And there it was. When all was in place, Pat dropped the caribou with one shot.

“I ran across the tundra to get to the animal,” he said. “I was just so happy.”

He and the show’s host, Tom Ackerman, exchanged “handshakes and the old man hug.”

“I don’t think you could have wiped the smile off my face at that point,” Pat said.

Pat was told he got the biggest bull in camp during the three-week season, and it should qualify for the Boone and Crockett Club, which maintains records of native North American big game.

The men had to quarter and remove the hide in the field, no easy chore.

“I (carried out) the antlers, the head and the cape, and that was well over 100 pounds,” Pat said.

The meat, which he and his wife have been enjoying since his return, was estimated to weigh about 100 pounds.

“It’s the best game meat you’re going to eat,” he said. “Tastes a little sweeter than venison.”

While that taste will someday be a memory, he has other treasures as reminders. He received warm and cold outerwear, a wool sweater with wind-block lining, and a Beretta rifle.

Upon his return, he received a buck knife engraved with his name.

“I was supposed to get that in caribou camp, but they couldn’t spell ‘Stashek,’” he said.

Despite the challenges, the trip lived up to the outdoorsman’s dream.

“It was more than I thought and more than I expected,” he said.

Pat is having the head and antlers — estimated to be about 5 feet tall with a 3- to 4-foot spread — mounted in Canada, and sent to him at home.

“It’s a huge rack,” he said. “I told my wife we’re going to have to build a new house, or add on.”

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