Awesome week in Canada

[Nova]

We just got back from a great week in Canada goose hunting. My Dad, 75 years old and leader of the pack, my son, me, my BIL and his son.

Took off from the cabin in Fergus at 6am Sunday. Not many birds around except about 40 miles east of Devils lake in North Dakota all the way to Devils lake. Then when we got close to the destination they started showing up.

Found a good field that night and were ready for the morning shoot. Got set up and after a nice cup of coffee the geese started moving. Mostly dark geese with a few snows mixed in. We had our limit(25) of canada geese by 10 am and hung in til noon shooting more snows and some ducks. Scouted that afternoon and found a field for the next morning.

Second day was an even mix of snows and canada geese with a few more ducks mixed in. Spent the afternoon scouting for yet another field,and found a dandy. The field was burnt. They do that in Canada to get rid of all the straw in the wheat fileds. I was a little leary of hunting a burnt field with so little cover but the birds where there 2 days in a row in big numbers.

Set up the 750 silosock snow decoys and just over 300 canada geese full bodies and shell in the burnt field on a nice knoll with the wind at our back. It wasn't long after shooting time and the geese came pouring off the roost and right in our direction. Within minutes we were swarmed with geese and so overwhelmed it was difficult to know when to call the shot. Absolutely amazing to see and experience! I have seen it on tv, but never experienced it in person. We pounded on the geese until noon and ended up with our best day of 50 geese, snows and canadas and a few more ducks. At this point the shoulders were getting sore from all the shooting

Next day after scouting found us in day 1 field again as it had filled back up with dark geese. The day started a little slow with some rain and sleet falling, but we stayed on them until noon and managed a decent day, leaving us 12 short of our possesion limit of canada geese.

The last day we hit a brand new field. A beautiful wheat field that had not been hunted all year. The geese were piled up the afternoon before, so we had high hopes. We checked the burnt field again and it was also loaded up with geese, but we went with our gut and hunted the new field.

Morning broke with us all set up and the geese were hanging tight to the roost with a little rain and sleet and a stiff north wind at our back. Finally they started to move. The first flock of about 50 dark geese slid out front of us, turned right in and poured right into the deck. The shot was called and man was that pretty to watch. The second flock roughly the same size did exactly the same and we were sitting with just one dark goose to our limit. We finished that shortly with a single and then watched as flock after flock of dark geese continued to be absolutely fooled by our spread. Finally a few snows worked our way and we aslo had a nice bunch of ducks working our field. We stayed until noon on the last day and finished out the hunt on snows and mallards.

Absolutely an outstanding trip. The best we have done in 14 years. 75 canada geese, our possession limit and the most ever taken by our party. 65 light geese, our previous record for a week was 23, and 72 plump Canada mallards. I am extremely excited already to go back next year! My shoulder needs to heal and I need to restock the ammo. 3 of the 5 of us were out of shells on the last day, that has never happened

Here are some pics

[Hoyt4]

Great hunt and pictures Nova.

The shoulder might need a rest.

[Nova]

I got a hot pack on it now. 12 boxes of 3.5" Kent fasteel in 5 days took it's toll on this old boy

[Haywood]

hey, is that decoy in the bottom left of the last picture, banded?

[Nova]

yes it is, we have several like that. It's all about the realism