Reports

Thunder Creek Outfitters Fall Report 2020

For those of you that don’t like the normal routine, 2020 is your year. Who would have guessed? In July I was still expecting that we could have a normal outfitting season. By August I could see “the handwriting on the wall” (to quote the Bible, Daniel 5). Even now, at the end of October, I am surprised at the magnitude of the pandemic. In Saskatchewan we are still in pretty good shape. I don’t personally know anyone who has had the virus and our college has been, to this point, covid free. The class size restrictions have forced me to teach my courses three times instead of once. It feels more like full time teaching! I am not sure that I could do that and outfit at the same time

As some of you know by now, Dan finally got his dream job of being a local policeman. I am happy for him but concerned about him getting time off for guiding. His sergeant assured him that there would be time to continue guiding, even in his first year on the job.

Sometimes I am thankful that you couldn’t come because the hunting situation has also been weird. Our dry cycle has continued. There are very few smaller ponds left in our immediate area. Most of the birds were piled up on the big lake. That would make scouting easy but after a very warm fall, it turned bitterly cold the second week of October and by the 15th the big lake was frozen over! The few birds that remain have been sitting on the ice overnight! It seems that juvenile snows just kept flying right on past us, because we saw very few.

The bright spot in our hunting is the upland game bird population. As you might know, dry springs are a bonus for them. Apparently if the chicks get wet, they die. It must be true because we have had three dry springs in a row and there are grouse and partridge everywhere. I am not sure I have ever seen so many sharp-tail. We may need to go back to some afternoon upland game bird hunting next fall.

I am sitting here in my rocking chair with my feet up on the hearth in front of the wood stove. The wind is supposed to die down tomorrow and the coyotes are getting prime so you know what’s on my mind! There are only a few days left in the muzzleloader whitetail season so I need to do something about that too.

Thanks for your attitude, guys, in spite of all the uncertainty. And thanks for just rolling your deposits over to 2021. Hopefully, you will be rewarded with great hunts in 2021.

Blessings,

Carl

 
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