The Hunt:
On a typical day you can expect the hunt to start well before sunrise. Normally we will have a 15 minute drive or less but in some instances we may drive further hunt a specific field which we have deemed necessary by your Alberta hunting guide, to give you the best possible chance of limiting out. Everyone in the group in encouraged to assist in the decoy set up, which will ensure that we are ready when the official hunting starting time arrives.
After the spread is ready to go and the blinds are totally camouflaged, the action usually starts about 15 minutes prior to shooting time. This is a magical time of day as you will hear duck wings whistling overhead and birds landing in the decoys…..the anticipation can be quite overwhelming. As shooting time arrives, the action starts out fast and furious for the first 15 minutes. Ducks are usually shot consistently until the first sounds of geese are heard off in the distance. At this point many hunters elect to hold off for the larger, magnificent targets of the big geese that are soon to fill the spread.
With the traditional group size of 4 hunters, the countdown to the Alberta goose hunting 32 bird limit now begins! The 8 bird per day Alberta goose hunting limit allows for plenty of shooting for all. The Giants and Greater Canada goose species usually come in as family groups of 6 – 15 birds per flock. Since these birds normally decoy very well, centering the flock up for doubles and triples is very common if the hunters will shoot their lanes and focus on the birds in front of them. The shots will be called by your guide at a distance that the hunting party agrees is the most comfortable distance for them. |
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Bringing the birds close enough to actually land in between the layout blinds in not uncommon. This takes a lot of nerve but is well worth it to such a magnificent site of a bird with a wingspan of 6’ + sailing merely 3 -5 feet above your ground blind. You can only imagine the site of one of these creatures actually landing on the foot of your blind…. It is truly unbelievable! Limits are taken 90% of the time with in the first 1 ½ hours to 2 hours of shooting time with some limits taken in as little as 30 minutes.
Your afternoon duck hunt can be just as exciting as the morning Alberta goose hunt. We often set up in the same situation, hunting the birds in the grain fields. The ducks come back to the grain fields in the afternoon with a vengeance. Usually the last 30 minutes of shooting time is the best unless it is raining. When afternoon rains hit, Alberta duck hunting is excellent all afternoon long. Whatever the weather is, you can be assured we will do our best in finding the birds. The limit of ducks is also set at 8 per hunter, 4 of which can be pintails. Mallards and Pintails are the most common ducks shot in the grain fields. Our water hunts differ as there are numerous species of diver ducks seen and taken. The bigger lakes in the area offer an opportunity for a very mixed bag of both puddle and diver duck species. The smaller beaver ponds and sloughs we also hunt, most commonly hold Mallards and Pintails in addition to several other puddle duck species. These areas are usually very close to grain fields.
Whatever the style of Alberta goose hunt or duck hunt you desire, you will definitely be pleased with the outcome!
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