Started off kinda slow in the southern section with dry conditions and few birds around.....Did manage 8 honkers the 1st day out, but my old buddy had a rough time of it.....Layout blinds and sloughs are tough on anyone 77 years old.
2nd hunt was worse than the 1st.....We got 3 honkers for the morning & afternoon.....It was time to move north where the reports were much better with lots of rain earlier and ponds full. It also meant that there were a ton of swathed fields that were loaded with barley.
3rd day was for traveling and scouting.....Area is loaded with honkers, specs, & ducks
4th hunt and now in the Parklands was more like it......10 specks and 6 honkers......The farmer even went with us on his 1st hunt ever (just watched from our willow blind).
5th hunt was hunting over a pond that was loaded with mallards & pintail.....Limits were taken in short order and Alan even included a couple of honkers.
Took off the 6th day.....Cleaning birds and of course more scouting
7th hunt found us in green up wheat field.....Mallards were swarming us like mosquitos, but it was geese that we were after....Another tough way for my old friend to shoot, but I managed 5 honkers and 3 specs.....Even mixed in a couple of good greenheads.
8th hunt the rest of the boys showed up and we hunted a swathed barley field that had so many mallards & pintail that the owner had the crop damage guy out to look at it.....We did our part by shooting 56 ducks.....The next morning the scare crows went up.
9th morning hunt was in a haybale field.....We set-up where they (specks) were the night before, but as it were we were off the X by a goodly distance.....Still managed 10 specks and 3 snows (weren't shooting ducks). The afternoon hunt was on a ponded area that we hunt every year.....Always a mixed bag of ducks & geese.....Gadwalls, mallards, pintail, bw teal were taken for limits.
10th hunt was epic. 4 of us hunted a wheat field and my cousin and his son hunted with some locals at a different spot.....From the 1st flight of specks, till the last flights of honkers it was non stop action.....32 geese later we were done.....Got a lot of it on the GoPro.....Share after it's edited.
11th hunt got us a rainy morning.....Again off the X, but with just the 3 young guys shooting (old guys cleaning camp). They managed limits of specks (15) and a bunch of ducks.
One of the very best years I've ever had. The weather, the hunts, and of course the camaraderie with the local Albertan's and friends was something special.
Can't wait till next year already....................
2nd hunt was worse than the 1st.....We got 3 honkers for the morning & afternoon.....It was time to move north where the reports were much better with lots of rain earlier and ponds full. It also meant that there were a ton of swathed fields that were loaded with barley.
3rd day was for traveling and scouting.....Area is loaded with honkers, specs, & ducks
4th hunt and now in the Parklands was more like it......10 specks and 6 honkers......The farmer even went with us on his 1st hunt ever (just watched from our willow blind).
5th hunt was hunting over a pond that was loaded with mallards & pintail.....Limits were taken in short order and Alan even included a couple of honkers.
Took off the 6th day.....Cleaning birds and of course more scouting
7th hunt found us in green up wheat field.....Mallards were swarming us like mosquitos, but it was geese that we were after....Another tough way for my old friend to shoot, but I managed 5 honkers and 3 specs.....Even mixed in a couple of good greenheads.
8th hunt the rest of the boys showed up and we hunted a swathed barley field that had so many mallards & pintail that the owner had the crop damage guy out to look at it.....We did our part by shooting 56 ducks.....The next morning the scare crows went up.
9th morning hunt was in a haybale field.....We set-up where they (specks) were the night before, but as it were we were off the X by a goodly distance.....Still managed 10 specks and 3 snows (weren't shooting ducks). The afternoon hunt was on a ponded area that we hunt every year.....Always a mixed bag of ducks & geese.....Gadwalls, mallards, pintail, bw teal were taken for limits.
10th hunt was epic. 4 of us hunted a wheat field and my cousin and his son hunted with some locals at a different spot.....From the 1st flight of specks, till the last flights of honkers it was non stop action.....32 geese later we were done.....Got a lot of it on the GoPro.....Share after it's edited.
11th hunt got us a rainy morning.....Again off the X, but with just the 3 young guys shooting (old guys cleaning camp). They managed limits of specks (15) and a bunch of ducks.
One of the very best years I've ever had. The weather, the hunts, and of course the camaraderie with the local Albertan's and friends was something special.
Can't wait till next year already....................
