Reports

Fall Report 2015

 

We are pleased to say that we had another good outfitting fall in spite of strange conditions. There was water standing everywhere from last year but this summer southern Saskatchewan had a drought until late July and then got more than six inches of rain in short order. Most of the crops were poor but difficult to harvest because of ponds in the fields. Crops that didn’t germinate in the spring started to grow in August! As of November 1, we have knee high canola blooming in numerous fields! Another strange thing was that the birds were not in their traditional locations. When a person is trying to keep tabs on 1,000 square miles, like we are, that adds to the challenge.

 

We are thankful that many of the “free loader” hunters that have come to our area in the past, stayed away. It is nice that some of the biggest landowners here understand what is happening and are starting to ask if the person is a taxpayer in SK before they give permission to hunt on their land.

 

In 2014 we set new camp records for ducks. This year we set records for both honkers and cranes. Crane decoying is rather new to us and added some good excitement and variety.  We had several great early season honker shoots (and a couple of ugly ones at the end of the season). Fortunately we still had lots of ducks…and they cooperated nicely. We started field decoys ducks several years ago and it has now become our most common and successful hunt.

 

The snow geese were notoriously hard to decoy unless the weather was favorable. The success rate in our afternoon hunts was down from previous years. It seemed that the snows were two weeks late and had very few juveniles with them. I am sure that the relentless spring hunting has eliminated any birds that decoy easily. We are proof that a new decoy trailer and new decoys don’t automatically make the birds cooperate. After having some time to reflect on our season, Dan and I are already making numerous adjustments that should improve our snow goose decoying. I am optimistic that we are getting better faster than the birds are getting smarter, but sometimes I wonder.

 

We have decided to limit our business to five hunting parties per season and only do one hunt per week. The longest hunt we now do is a 4 ½ days. That will help maintain the highest quality hunts possible. Four out of the five groups we had were returning hunters and all included at least one father-son combination. After the season, I was able to go decoying with my 3 sons and 3 grandsons. That is as good as it gets. I want to say a special thank you to all our returning hunters. It was wonderful to have you here!

 

 
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