Fellow hunters:
Do not spend your hard earned money booking an elk hunt with Fishtail Ranch Outfitters. Specifically, their hunts sold in southern Colorado. Fish Tail Ranch essentially offers two separate operations. One operation is in Chama New Mexico with hunts taking place on private ranch land in Unit 4, which is marketed as offering a high success rate. On the other hand, the Southern Colorado outfitting takes place in the Rio Grande National Forest. Let me preface this by saying I understand that this HUNTING and no harvest is guaranteed. However, this post is about the level of service we paid for.
Be advised that Fishtail Ranch markets their services by using photos from the Chama, NM operations. Don’t be fooled by the photos and so called ‘testimonials’. The Colorado operation is not even remotely close to what is marketed.
Our group of 8 hunters (all military except one) and 4 guides, we never even saw an elk. Our expectations were that the guides would have previously scouted, located sign, of tracked the herd’s movement prior to our arrival. That was not the case. We simply hunted with the vicinity of the camp site that was setup since bow season. There was no attempt to relocate to lower elevations based on the herd’s movement even after receiving 8” of snow. The inexperienced guides simply walked to a meadow and said “good luck” then returned to camp for a mid morning nap. Each hunter was left without any means of communication with the guides unless he provided a walkie-talkie. When asked about the strategy of locating elk, they simply said “we’ve always seen elk here”....really...
Also, we discovered that a couple of the guides had hunted and harvested elk from the previous season in the same areas that we (PAYING hunters) were hunting.
Fishtail advertised on their website that horses would be available to use during the hunt. We had 13 horses available and not once were the used to facilitate our hunt. When we inquired about using the horses we were told that the terrain was too slippery and too dangerous for the horses. The horses were only utilized in our pack in and our pack out.
We planned on an austere environment but the general service inside our camp was less than adequate. Four grown men with gear were crammed inside a very small tent with only a few inched between our cots. Our food started out ok for the first two days but our cook developed a negative attitude and became relaxed in his efforts to provide quality meals. Our last meal in camp the evening prior was hamburger pattie and hotdog. There was nothing but granola bars available on the morning we packed out. No coffee, tea, other warm beverages were available.
We have reached out to Lee and Lee & Valerie Weiss (owners) for discussion. We have yet to receive any response. We paid a total of $26,000 for 8 hunters and did not feel we received the level of service in camp or hunting and guide services. Again, don’t waste your time or your hard earned money with this operation.
Do not spend your hard earned money booking an elk hunt with Fishtail Ranch Outfitters. Specifically, their hunts sold in southern Colorado. Fish Tail Ranch essentially offers two separate operations. One operation is in Chama New Mexico with hunts taking place on private ranch land in Unit 4, which is marketed as offering a high success rate. On the other hand, the Southern Colorado outfitting takes place in the Rio Grande National Forest. Let me preface this by saying I understand that this HUNTING and no harvest is guaranteed. However, this post is about the level of service we paid for.
Be advised that Fishtail Ranch markets their services by using photos from the Chama, NM operations. Don’t be fooled by the photos and so called ‘testimonials’. The Colorado operation is not even remotely close to what is marketed.
Our group of 8 hunters (all military except one) and 4 guides, we never even saw an elk. Our expectations were that the guides would have previously scouted, located sign, of tracked the herd’s movement prior to our arrival. That was not the case. We simply hunted with the vicinity of the camp site that was setup since bow season. There was no attempt to relocate to lower elevations based on the herd’s movement even after receiving 8” of snow. The inexperienced guides simply walked to a meadow and said “good luck” then returned to camp for a mid morning nap. Each hunter was left without any means of communication with the guides unless he provided a walkie-talkie. When asked about the strategy of locating elk, they simply said “we’ve always seen elk here”....really...
Also, we discovered that a couple of the guides had hunted and harvested elk from the previous season in the same areas that we (PAYING hunters) were hunting.
Fishtail advertised on their website that horses would be available to use during the hunt. We had 13 horses available and not once were the used to facilitate our hunt. When we inquired about using the horses we were told that the terrain was too slippery and too dangerous for the horses. The horses were only utilized in our pack in and our pack out.
We planned on an austere environment but the general service inside our camp was less than adequate. Four grown men with gear were crammed inside a very small tent with only a few inched between our cots. Our food started out ok for the first two days but our cook developed a negative attitude and became relaxed in his efforts to provide quality meals. Our last meal in camp the evening prior was hamburger pattie and hotdog. There was nothing but granola bars available on the morning we packed out. No coffee, tea, other warm beverages were available.
We have reached out to Lee and Lee & Valerie Weiss (owners) for discussion. We have yet to receive any response. We paid a total of $26,000 for 8 hunters and did not feel we received the level of service in camp or hunting and guide services. Again, don’t waste your time or your hard earned money with this operation.
