Canada report

Well, not the best hunt we have had up there, but still a great time. A lot of the field were planted in canola this year which geese avoid like crazy. We had some wheat fields in the area,but only about half were cut/harvested. Made for less geese in the area, but we made the best of it.

Day one we had scouted a good field the night before loaded with snows, well 500-600 snows. Me and my 2 sons set up on this field and before shooting the mallards were running us out of the field. Very few snows came back that morning but we shot our limit of ducks easily. 23 mallards and 1 pintail. Also got 6 snows. Very fun shoot even though that was not our target. The next few day were slow. Cold weather had driven the ducks and most of the snows out, but a few Canadas were still around. We managaed to scrape out 6 dark geese both of the next few days and a few mallards also. Scouting found few birds scattered over a large area. We had hopes that more would come down so we plugged on. Thursday morning we took a gamble. I had hunted this field every year and had good luck, but each day I looked at it and not much sign of geese. Thursday without much else to go on I decided to set up on this field. It paid off big. The mallards were every where right away and then the big magnum Canadas started rolling in. We had a blast and filled out on the big dark geese and got some bonus mallrads to boot. The last morning we has found more birds in the area, but they elected to go to a different field that morning, may have feed out the field were were in. We managed 6 more big dark geese to close out the week. Great time with the boys, but we were all out of gas by Friday afternoon. I think the group ended up with 68 geese total and 84 ducks. Here are some pics of the week.

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Couple more pics

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Good story, nice pictures.

I guess that’s why it’s still called hunting and not shooting. You can’t plan the weather or the crops/harvesting schedule.

It’s all good in the end. Never had a bad day of hunting, just some where I shot more than others.

Grouse

Looks like a great shoot! I have never heard of the canola issue. Do ducks typically avoid those fields also? Looks like Saskatchewan??? Thanks…

I’ve had a few fields like that in my day. If all else fails it seems like certain fields will just flat out produce. Despite it being slow for you guys, anytime you can go out and shoot at a swarm of mallards and get a few big B-29s in your face, can’t complain!

roosterrouster wrote:

Looks like a great shoot! I have never heard of the canola issue. Do ducks typically avoid those fields also? Looks like Saskatchewan??? Thanks…

Yep, never seen a duck or goose in a canola field. They say the stalks are to stiff and it hurts them to land in, plus they don’t like to eat the seeds/grain for some reason. Just blows my mind that the geese can tell what kind of a field it is from so high up. It’s Manitoba, near Brandon.

I can shed some more light on the type of field question. Canola is grown to produce a seed that is used to make oil. Not a good food source for waterfowl.

To go into the details on best crops for waterfowl, from my experience growing up in this region.

#1 is Peas. Ask farmers in coffeeshops or bars if any of them have peas. The birds will come right back to these fields even after you shoot at them.

#2 is corn. Back in the 80’s, this region did not have much corn, in fact, up through about 1995, I never hunted in this area in corn as farmers didn’t plant it. Now with genetically altered seeds, they can, and it’s gold like it is here in MN/WI.

#3 is barley. Barley is harvested relatively early and has great re-growth before freeze up. Look for wheat fields that have the green short grass growing back, especially in the track of the combine. If you don’t see this re-growth the field is probably wheat or durum which I don’t even bother with. The birds love the sprouts of this re-growth.

I too don’t know how they can tell from the air what is planted but I imagine all these crops have a different look and color.

You’ll occasionally see a flock drop into wheat but it’s usually just for a short time.

ET

cougareye wrote:

I can shed some more light on the type of field question. Canola is grown to produce a seed that is used to make oil. Not a good food source for waterfowl.

To go into the details on best crops for waterfowl, from my experience growing up in this region.

#1 is Peas. Ask farmers in coffeeshops or bars if any of them have peas. The birds will come right back to these fields even after you shoot at them.

#2 is corn. Back in the 80’s, this region did not have much corn, in fact, up through about 1995, I never hunted in this area in corn as farmers didn’t plant it. Now with genetically altered seeds, they can, and it’s gold like it is here in MN/WI.

#3 is barley. Barley is harvested relatively early and has great re-growth before freeze up. Look for wheat fields that have the green short grass growing back, especially in the track of the combine. If you don’t see this re-growth the field is probably wheat or durum which I don’t even bother with. The birds love the sprouts of this re-growth.

I too don’t know how they can tell from the air what is planted but I imagine all these crops have a different look and color.

You’ll occasionally see a flock drop into wheat but it’s usually just for a short time.

ET

I couldn’t agree more on the peas, geese will absolutely commit suicide for peas. Problem is, that peas are tough to grow and the harvest is quite minimal unless conditions are perfect. Farmers usually plant peas to rebuild there soil and if they get a crop it’s a bonus. I have not seen corn as far north as we go, so I cannot comment on that. Have had some luck in barely, especially with the regrowth, but again that is not planted much in the area. Wheat is our main field that we hunt. There is normally a lot of wheat fields and we find the geese will pile into them until they get feed out, then they move to the next field. Amazing how much grain is left in the field after harvest, but they clean it up fast. One of our best shoots in Canada was a burnt wheat field. You would have thought it was peas the way the geese wanted to be in there so bad.

That’s interesting that just 1-2 hours north there is again a line for farmers not planting corn. ( I hunt the northern ND border right up to Canada). There have been times years ago that while hunting I wasn’t sure what country I was in!) Perhaps the price isn’t as high in Canada historically. A lot of CRP has gone to corn production in the last 5 years in N. ND.

And yes, pea fields are rare, but worth asking about. And I also agree on burnt wheat fields. I noticed in one picture above, the chaff is in rows so it can be burnt or bailed. If burnt, I have noticed birds really like this. Apparently the birds like their food warmed up a little!

Looks like a great hunt and there is some really valuable info int his thread for anyone making the trek for the first time.

Yeah, there is a definite line where the corn just seems to stop. I think right up to Brandon it is common to see corn fields, after that it is pretty much grain, with just a field here and there, by Minnedosa I don’t think I saw any more corn. I have noticed that corn line moving north over the last few years, just hasn’t gotten to our area yet, but I will most certainly hunt it if it gets there!

The burnt wheat is a strange thing. When they burn the field the chaff burns off and the ash sits on top of the grain. If you kick away the ash you have a nice pile of grain that is easy pickings for the geese. We joke around that the geese like there grain toasted, but I just think it’s easy access that makes it appealing. That and the fact that it is hard for predators and hunters to sneak up/hide from the geese in a burnt field, so security is high.

I remember meeting a farmer in a coffee shop in Saskatchewan and he asked if he and his boy could field hunt with us in his own wheat field that had geese (whites…) pouring into it. We of course said gitty up! My main point is that while we were waiting for the birds I said to the farmer what % of wheat he harvests from a field (as I couldn’t believe how much waste wheat was left in the field…) and he said 99.5%! Wow I thought…Could that figure be true?