Spring season has been a real grind so far. With the fields still too wet to drive in and winds at 40 km/h or higher for weeks, decoys haven’t yet been an option. Most of our hunting has been done along the roads in the ditches. Jesse Roziere and Tanner Jago have both harvested their first career geese so far this spring, and our season total has reached 20. Congrats to Big Wayne Carey for being the slump-buster and finding the first flock to be near enough a road to successfully jump.
Scuttlebuck Lodge
Newsletter
CWS Statistics 2009 and 2010
Waterfowl Harvest Estimates & Species Composition
1.Hunters in Canada numbering 170,000 kill 700,000 geese (4.1 geese/hunter) and 1,030,000 ducks (6.0 ducks/hunter) each year.
2. Manitoba accounts for 12,650 hunters (7.5% of Migratory Permits) who kill 108,000 geese (6.5% of the national harvest) (8.5 geese/hunter) and 120,000 ducks (11.5% of the national harvest) (9.5 ducks/hunter).
3. Saskatchewan hunters kill the most geese (281,00 geese/year) 2.6 times as many as in Manitoba averaging 15.75 geese per hunter.
4. Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta hunters, in that order, all kill more geese than in Manitoba.
5. Ontario hunters kill the most ducks (258,000 ducks/year) 2.2 times as many as in Manitoba but averaging only 4.6 ducks per hunter.
6. Ontario, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Alberta hunters, in that order, all kill more ducks than in Manitoba.
7. Of the 108,000 geese killed by hunters in Manitoba each year, 95,000 are Canada geese (88%) (7.5 Canada geese/Manitoba hunter) and only 13,000 are Blues, Snows and Ross (1.0 White goose/Manitoba hunter).
8. Of the meagre 13,000 White geese killed by hunters in Manitoba each year, 7,600 are Blue Phase (58%), 3,000 are White phase (22%) and 2,400 are Ross (20%).
9. Manitoba hunters kill no Whitefront Geese or Brant according to the survey and, in fact, no Brant are killed by hunters anywhere in Canada.
10. So the average Manitoba hunter will kill 7.5 Canada geese and 1.0 Snow goose (likely a Blue) each year.
11. That same average Manitoba waterfowl hunter will kill 4.361 Mallard ducks and 1.117 Redheads, followed by 0.765 Teal, 0.754 Bluebills, 0.502 Ring neck, 0.396 Canvasbacks, 0.375 Pintails, 0.263 Spoonbills, 0.259 Gadwalls, 0.240 Buffleheads, and 0.227 Widgeon.
12. The other 0.241 ducks per Manitoba hunter per year will be in order of frequency, a Goldeneye, a Hooded Merganser, and a Wood duck (only 1 out of every 400 Manitoba waterfowl hunters will harvest a Wood duck each year).
13. The entire Manitoba harvest of Wood ducks each year averages less than 400.
14. No Rudy ducks are harvested in Manitoba according to the survey.
15. They kill about 60 Specklebellies in Quebec and 175 in British Columbia each year.
16. Remember Manitoba hunters kill none.
17. Saskatchewan leads the way with a harvest of 32,322/year (1.8 Whitefronts per hunter) followed by Alberta 22,643/year (1.2 Whitefronts per hunter).
18. So everybody remember next year: 7.5 Canadas each, 1 Snow/Blue or Ross, 9.5 Ducks (only 1/2 Mallards).
19. If you see a Specklebelly goose or a Rudy duck, for goodness sake shoot it.
20. The 2011 CWS Survey will be out in July 2012.
– RHJ
2011 was a very challenging year for hunters in Southwestern Manitoba. With the flood waters expanding the lake’s breadth to nearly double it’s regular size, crop and farmland in general was difficult to come by.
Now don’t let that give you the wrong impression of the year! Our harvest numbers were outstanding by any measurement (3rd best year in history) with the biggest difference in this year’s harvest coming down to a new found affinity for stalking the big geese.
In 2011, SBL had 43 honkers added to the Harvest Chart, more than double any previous year and accounting for over 35% of The Lodge’s 31 year history! As you can imagine, there were some monsters harvested this year.
The highlight of the year was definitely the Thanksgiving hunt (pictured below). Over 50 ducks harvested on Thanksgiving Saturday was a Lodge record not to mention so outstanding shooting by Larry Wallace who personally limited in only a few hours in the field.
Back row (L to R): Lars Johnston, Joss March, Don Bell, Wayne Carey, Larry Wallace, Bob Johnston
Front row (L to R): Tod Wallace, Hunter Wallace, Travis Wallace, Riley Wallace, Andrew Johnston