Every year about the first of August I start planning our annual hunting trip to Saskatchewan, this was my 26th year. Twenty six years ago, five friends and I purchased four lots for $200 and that included sewer and water! It was to be the location of our goose hunting lodge. So we purchased the lots and built the house. Over the years, we have continued to furnish the house and add to our decoy collection. We now keep a 12 foot trailer up there with twelve dozen Big Foot decoys for the hunting groups to use when they are up there.
Over the years, sons, son-in-laws and friends have joined me for my week long hunt. What I enjoy the most about these trips is sharing the hunt with family and friends and building memories. While usually there are 5-6 of us up there for the week, this year it ended up that only Tom and I went on our trip. Tom and I have known each other since first grade, almost 60 years!
We had a great feeling as we crossed the border at Portal. Many times crossing the border can take hours, this year, traffic through the border was light and we got through with no wait. We didn’t see any other hunters passing through that day. We only saw one other hunting group the whole time we were in Canada.
We typically leave on Saturday, drive through the night and get to camp mid afternoon on Sunday. This was the first year the regulations allowed hunting on snows on Sunday. So instead of spending Sunday afternoon scouting, we headed out to shoot snows the last two hours of daylight. It was a perfect time – strong winds from the west with good cloud cover and the birds were feeding west of the slough they were resting in. Being concealed in a small brush area, the birds would come in at about 30 yards and go up and turn to fly into the strong wind. I shot 6 doubles. The winds were so strong they were almost suspended in mid air for a few seconds before dropping. We ended up with 22 snows, a bonus because of the Sunday shooting.
Monday morning started out great – 40 degrees and sunny. We were hunting in a bean field that a friend of ours scouted for a week. He said he was sure there were 1000 birds in this field for the last week. We set up 6 dozen Big Foot decoys and built blinds out of cattle gates with brush put in them and around them. In hunting geese, we set up about 30 yards off of the back corner of decoys with decoys into the wind. They will normally come in, circle behind the decoys and land into the wind. A couple other guys joined us so there were four of us in the field that morning. We were done at 8:30 with 7 white fronts and 25 large honkers. The balance of the day we spent scouting for a good duck shoot.
Tuesday morning was about 40 degrees and slightly cloudy. While scouting on Monday night, we watched as hundreds and hundreds of mallards landed in a bean field. We set up with 4 dozen Big Foots and 4 dozen mallard field decoys. In hunting ducks, we set decoys on a knoll or slight rise and set the blinds 20 yards below the knoll and in front of the decoys. The birds will fly into the decoys and flair up at head of the decoys. Again we used the same blinds with great success. The pintails normally come first at sunrise, followed by mallards followed by the geese. We shot 30 green heads and 17 honkers between the 4 of us.
The next two days turned windy and rained. We decided to field shoot mallards on Thursday, but only in the afternoon and evening. The mallards had been coming into that bean field for 3 days. We literally saw a field ½ mile square full of ducks. Our evening shoot turned out great again. We try to only shoot green heads. The three of us shot 24 in about 2 hours.
Friday was our last day and the roads were really muddy, so our hunting options were limited. We could only access fields with gravel roads. Since we had experienced some great duck and goose hunting, we decided to try our luck with Sandhill Cranes, a very ugly bird that can fly at speeds up to 50 mph and are very tough to kill. Since I do not enjoy eating crane, I decided to stay out of the firing range and let my Partner enjoy the shoot. He shot 5 cranes. Unfortunately they were all red crested which typically means they are old and tough to eat. Good luck Tom! (Anyone know any good recipes?!)
As you can tell we truly had a great trip. I saw more snows, honkers and ducks than any other year up there hunting. The shooting is great but the time spent with a friend or friends is far more gratifying. We both took our dogs. I have a yellow lab and Tom has an English Setter. They work very well together, especially on upland game. We did try our hand at some sharp tail hunting two of the afternoons with little success. The key I believe to all of this is the relationships we have with our Canadian friends. Over the years we have met many of the locals and we have many great friends in the area. You are always welcome and very rarely get turned down to hunt a farm. One of my friends in the area, does a great job scouting and lining up farms for us to hunt. He is an avid outdoorsman. He has hunted basically every big game animal in North America and has a trophy room/building to prove it! And another one of my friends watches over the house and provides us with the local news. We make it a priority to thank them and bring them fresh cheddar cheese as a thank you gift.
The program Canada started years ago with Canadian Possession Permits for firearms allows easy access into and out of Canada. I believe it only took us 10 minutes each way and the Border Patrol people were great.
As we reminisce, our thoughts are to take our spouses next year. It would be great to have them meet our Canadian friends who we talk about. In addition, we hope to take our kids with us next year. Both of our sons and daughter are avid hunters and know each other and therefore would make it a really special trip.
Well enough for now. It is time to get the deer cam and stands out and plan that fall deer hunt!
