This was very nearly a hunt that didn’t happen. Not only is hunting in November much colder than most goose hunters care to endure, but it is also a much shorter day, with very few daylight hours to work with. With Uncle Bob et al, in Jamaica for Keely and Eugene’s wedding and most others having packed up their hunting supplies for the winter, this weekend was left to just Big Wayne Carey and myself. Leaving Brandon immediately after work, around 3:40 pm or so, we were rushed to make the hour drive in enough time and daylight left to have a plan for the morning.

We first pulled through Elgin at just before 5 and spotted what days before had been filled with snow geese to be bare and white with just snow. Across the road held our best opportunity to this point at somewhere between 12 and 16 honkers nearly 20 minutes drive North of the Lodge. We soldiered on. After hopelessly checking our best guesses as to where there may be geese, and light fading fast, our last stop was at the burnt barley on Barry Janssens’ on the North lakeshore. As we pulled in, kitty-corner across the road towards Richard Sexton’s home, we spotted nearly 200 November honkers. This was something we couldn’t pass up.

The next morning we dispersed close to 50 decoys and our 2 goose chairs, and hid the truck in a pump jack driveway about 200 yards away. As I walked in from hiding the truck, Wayne had what was surely a surprise. 11 snow geese quietly approached the decoys and caught our not-so-nimble colleague off guard! Not to worry! They’d be back.

Hid in our chairs, and calls and flags at the ready, the first group of Canadas came to us from completely the wrong direction. They spun and worked us and circled and circled and eventually tried to land to our left, we shot out 6 pops and got two, but were very worried that this may be the way the morning played out. We pulled back the legs from the front of our “V” of decoys and created what was basically a straight line across the front of our decoys. This we hoped would get the birds all the way to us at least, if they were going to be hesitant.

Our first flock off the lake headed out our way, but they drifted a little West and looked like they may go out around us. We called and flapped and it showed great impact as it drew the birds to us, they centred up and we got 4 on a pretty good chance. The next flock out tried to land behind us, and on this chance we got 3. What had started out a little sketchy, had turned out great to this point, and with the overcast skies turning to snowfall and a stiff North wind, even the weather couldn’t have been better.

As soon as you thought that, of course, a truck pulled up. Right to the intersection 100 yards from us and stopped, watching us, clearly unsure if we were geese themselves, or the decoys we were. We didn’t do them any favours as we laid still and waited for our next chance. Then as luck would have it, when the next flock out started off further West and surely to miss us, this truck pulls down the turkey trail toward the lake and parks 500 yards in front of us. Instant rage pours out of Wayne and me, but the passengers of the truck never did get out, but they did turn the flock right towards us.

Now is where it got fun. In seeing this flock approach, one thing caught my eye, a long ways out. The lead goose of this flock was a monster, a clearly superior bird to the rest of the flock. Shortly after the scare with the truck, this flock straightened up and came in as though they were being reeled in on a string. We waited, and called, and once it was time we popped up and gave them six. 5 birds came crashing down, including the big lead goose. I will never forget Bubba’s cry, “HELLO WORLD!” moments after we shot, and I couldn’t contain my excitement. I was up and dancing around yelling, “I GOT THE BIG ONE! I GOT THE BIG ONE!”. This was a moment of sheer ecstasy for the pair of us.

With 14 in hand and a serious need to weigh them Wayne set off for the truck and I began collecting the decoys. We thought a limit would be nice, but this was a hell of a shoot. I swear I was all but finished cleaning up the decoys and Wayne was halfway back with the truck when 10 more honkers glided my way. Scrambling, I grabbed my gun and gave them three shots. The two closest geese fell, neither very dead, but we had our limit. Wayne threw the last few decoys in the truck and drove out to pick me up as I collected the last two sailers. We had our limit.

My goose weighed in at 14 lbs 7 oz, and is currently the new #1 biggest goose in Scuttlebuck’s history… For now.

Day Total: 16

Year Total to Date: 221

Cumulative Total: 4,259

Frosty morning, seven hunters, 100 honkers and… Two Americans in our spot. Drat. Now that’s a tough way to spend any morning, nevermind it already being -12 degrees at day break. Our backup plan consisted of the fifteen minute drive to pass shoot literally inside the beautiful, scenic village of Elgin. Honkers had also been spotted here the previous evening  barely scraping over the hydro wires. Alas, on this morning, there was very little wind and some very little honkers. What was thought to be 13 lbs 3 oz honkers, like the one Donald Elgin Bell himself had harversted the previous evening, turned out to be a 3 lbs 13 oz cackler. Add him to the chart, we’ll take em. 201 geese and counting. Our travels back to the lodge after the slaughter at Elgin took us to a corn field in close proximity to Bond’s Cattle Farm just south of Highway 23. One long cold jump later we had five snow geese down and “One Proud Harley”.

Day Total: 5

Season Total: 205

Barry Sunaert’s Yard in the Mist:

Participants: Andrew Johnston, Lars Johnston, Wayne Carey, Brock Bastone, Nolan Jago and Tanner Jago.

It was good. We hunted from in the slough North of the decoys. We crushed birds. There was a goose in our decoys when we got back in the afternoon.

Shot 3 honkers pass shooting at dark.

Day Total: 29

Year Total to Date: 183

Cumulative Total: 4,226

On this morning, it was tougher slugging.
Although, it’s hard to complain about a morning like the one we had.

The trio of Johnston A., Johnston R. and Wayne Carey remained intact from the first morning, but were joined along side by the one and only Joss March. After blasting the geese out of Bolduc’s barley by 7:31AM the morning before, much of the afternoon was spent scouting for our Sunday destination. As much as we tried to get picked up and cleared out of the field without completely pushing the geese out, our attempts were in vain as there was nary a feather to be found in there that afternoon.

This led us to set up kitty-corner, across the road, on Janssens’ Postage Stamp barley. What we hoped was the same 500 Greater Canadas we’d scouted the week before appeared only to be 200 or 250 or so, joined, much to our delight, by 10-15 snow geese. This was the first snow goose sighting of the fall. Alas, our destination was determined to be here. With a quick phone chat with Barry himself, the Scuttlebuck hunting quartet was set for the morning.

Loaded with a truck-full of decoys and four 12-gauges, we took to the field by 5:50 AM Sunday and dispersed our decoys. While the unloaded truck pulled out, the three remaining field attendants managed to knock down our first goose of the morning, an adult Snoss (Snow or Ross, this is still up for debate). This happened close to 6:35 AM – almost to the moment of legal shooting time.

With a slight south breeze and a cloudless sky, the hunters then waited as a fried-egg-sun rose in the east. The birds, on the other hand, had a lazy morning, flip-flopping back and forth from small puddle to small puddle – for what seemed like ages – finally venturing their way out to our spread shortly after 7. The first group out to the dekes was a flock of 9 Honkers. Looking frighteningly edgy compared to the ease of the previous morning, they locked and lowered down the right wing of the “U”, almost to landing height before they decided otherwise… Quick wing beats, followed by “Take Em!”, and two birds were down to be had. Morning count: 3.

Much to the hunters dismay, the geese coming out to our field this morning were few and far between. Similar to the first flock of honkers, small families of birds came and went, most leaving with less than the number they arrived with. We shot well on the chances that came our way, and by 9 AM we had our one snow goose and six honkers.

As you may know, honkers don’t follow the standard “out to feed early and back to water” rules that we, at Scuttlebuck, plan our days around while chasing the “White Devils”. It’s very common for the “10 O’Clock Honkers” to slip in silently, when the hunters least expect; or perchance, are preparing to end their morning escapade. This was the case this morning. With the hunters slipping into tired silence only ten minutes after harvesting a lonesome single Honker, the 9:30 Honkers cruised in, wing-tip to wing-tip, without a sound – and from the wrong direction. Almost along the ground, they swooped to the left edge of the decoys. Fortunately the Goose Boss expertly alerted the troops, and the boys managed to claim three of the five.

None of these flocks decoyed perfectly to any extent, but with some sharp wits and eyes, and some even sharper shooting, the weekends hunts concluded with a 10 honker, 1 snow and 2 mallard duck, morning. Season’s total now stands at 60 geese, with a long way to go and many hunts and memories to be had. Til then, ciao!

Day Total: 10 Honkers, 1 Snow/Ross*  
2012 Total: 60 Geese