Reports

Thunder Creek Outfitters Fall 2021 Report

I must be getting old because it doesn’t seem like it has been a full year since I wrote my last fall report. It is surprising to see how long it is taking to shake this pandemic. Presently, we have nearly as many cases of covid in our Province as we have ever had despite a high percentage of people being fully vaccinated. Fortunately, we were able to outfit in a semi-normal way even though only one half of our clients were willing to jump through the hoops to get across the border.

Our early hunt has typically had the best success but that was not the case this fall. Our dry cycle has continued so the birds were bunched on the big lake. Twice the wind changed direction overnight and this caused the birds to roost in a different location on the lake and not come back to the same field in the morning. One morning the ducks swarmed us a few minutes before shooting light and then left. We are thankful for the good snow goose shoot, and a good grouse hunt, but otherwise it was a disappointing.

Our later clients had nine out of nine solid hunts, averaging about 30 birds per shoot, but didn’t have any spectacular hunts. The weather had just pushed a good number of birds down to us, but, as seemed to be the case the whole season, the birds wouldn’t commit to a field. We are guessing that the poor crops left very little food and so they seemed to clean it up in one day and move on.

It has been a very warm fall. The juvenile snows haven’t come in large numbers yet, and the adult birds quickly recognize anything that looks like a decoy spread. But we did make some adjustments that may prove to be very helpful in the future. I love a challenge…that is one of the reasons I started outfitting 20 years ago. We are already talking about how to make it better next fall. I hope that you will be able to join us.

Thank you for being so flexible and doing your best to deal with the restrictions. The highlight of the fall, for me, was seeing you again. The deep friendships that we have certainly enhances our hunting experiences. Thank you!

Blessings,

Carl

 

 
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