Fishing Forum

Three buddies and I made a trip to southern alberta last week, incredible doesn't begin to describe it! We hunted ponds with 30,000 snow geese on them, fields with 10,000 mallards in them and watched another 10,000 canada geese trading fields around us!

The first two days we nearly got skunked, a new weather pattern moved in and threw the birds off. We had two mornings sitting in fields that had had several thousand birds the day before, watching flocks going every way but towards us.

Then our bad luck streak finally broke [] We shot three back to back days limits of 8 canadas and 8 mallards for four guys, it was EPIC! None of our shots were beyond 35 yards and most birds were killed with their feet down at 10 yards!

We had mallards dropping 100 vertical yards in a distance of maybe 20 yards to land on our Mojos, Canadas listening to every note we'd call at them to bring them into range and Snow Geese in flocks near 1000 circling over our spread for 20 minutes!

We shot Mallards, teal, widgeon, pintails, a wood duck, Greater and lesser canadas, Snow geese and three Specklebelly geese! The specks were especially cool because no one in our group has ever shot one!

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Way to go! You look like you had a blast. That is one of my dreams and maybe someday I will be able to do it.
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The whole trip cost me $600! Learn how to call, buy some decoys and do your research! This was the sixth year my buddy has gone and done it. It's taken some work to figure it out but freelancing is a way better option than paying a guide!
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Looks like an awesome trip man. I'm sure you had a blast. Definitely on my bucket list.
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Looks like an unreal vacation. I've tried to get a trip together a couple times up there and it has yet to work out, thanks for the pics, just another motivator for me!
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Thanks!

Oh and for you upland guys, we saw roosters in lots of fields and Huns EVERYWHERE! those little guys look like they'd be a blast to hunt with a good dog! The problem is, there's a quarter million ducks and geese in an area the size of the Salt Lake valley...
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MAN O MAN! Your ruined for life! So are you going to do this every year?
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Maybe every other year, a week is a lot of vacation time and I'd like to alternate with a big game hunt or a fall powell trip.

But yeah, I'm not sure how I'm going to be feeling when I have to go back to hunting highly educated ducks and geese again....It's a very different game up there for sure!
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We have family in the Dakota's and they have gone to smoking the goose breasts and they turn out great - just in case you get tired of making gravy and baking the geese.

Just another option for the full freezer.

Glad your hunt went well!! []
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How do they smoke them?

I've started plucking the really fatty ducks (most of these I shot had at least 1/8 in of fat on them), breasting them out with the skin and fat on them. We then skore the fat, fry it in butter till crispy, then put it in a red wine, orange juice and brown sugar reduction and bake it till medium rare. Tastes awesome!
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I'll email my cousin and see if I can get any details as they usually get 100(+) geese yearly and have found various ways to prepare them. I'll let ya know...
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Wow, what a trip! Congrats to you!
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