Greetings Fellow Goose Hunters:

2014 Annual Report

Overland flooding in late June was still wreaking havoc all through the fall in the Winchester R.M. and at freeze up the lane to the lodge was still covered by 18 to 24 inches of standing water depending upon which way the wind was blowing.

Speaking of which way the wind is blowing, the new Reeve and Council elected in October seem to be more “drainage” orientated and the recent Tender for Gravel in the Brandon Sun appears to suggest that road repairs are going to form a huge part of this year’s budget.

Despite the terrible access problems due to flooding, the Harvest Count was 178 (more than half Honkers) and ranked 11th overall out of 34 years of record keeping. We did put two new Honkers on the Top Ten Chart (both in November) in the 4th and 5th positions (13 lbs. 12 oz. & 13 lbs. 13 oz.).

As we enter our 35th year, the harvesting of our 5,000th goose is a real possibility as the cumulative total now stands at 4,790 so we need a kill of 210 to put another mount on the South wall of the front room.

We have killed well over 210 geese in four of the last five years (see harvest analysis) so i think it is likely to happen sometime around Thanksgiving Weekend.

We collected no Bird Bands this year. We are anxiously awaiting confirmation by the CWS that a Rudy Duck was harvested in Manitoba this year (a true Scuttlebuck team effort).

Look forward to seeing you all in the fall.

– RHJ