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Great Geese
   

Saskatchewan WON hunt event turns out great geese hunting and fun

Canada geese, speckled-belly's and Ross' geese October 8, 1999

By BILL KARR,  WON Staff Writer

LLOYDMINSTER, Saskatchewan, Canada - "We better give 'en a count," gasped our out-of-breath guide, Randy, after running down the last of 3 lesser Canada geese we had dropped from the last flock. It was only 9:30 a.m. Sept. 20, and it was the first day of our WON HUNTS CANADA hunt with WON readers.

I dropped to my knees and began counting the honkers and specks, pushing the Ross', blue, snow and ducks to the side. "Twenty-four darks!" I said "that's our limit over here." I was hunting with old-time hunting partner Chris Carbonel of Rancho Palos Verdes and WON reader Filippo Laveneziana of Beverly Hills.

"Stop hooting darks!" hollered Randy, as he continued counting through his massive pile of birds. Honkers by the dozen and flocks of Ross' geese hovered over the decoys like flying kites, inviting us to continue with the hunt.

"We're done!" was the final edict by Randy. We "only" had 46 dark geese on the ground, but there were two crips outside the decoys we were going after, and we only had 6 hunters total. That meant, of course, we could only have 48 dark geese. Over on Randy's side were WON readers Gary Cattani and his son Gary Cattani Jr., both of Pico Rivera and Carbino Cattani of Chino Hills. 

 WON On-The Spot

Our final tally for that first morning was 40 Canada geese, 8 speckled-belly's, 18 Ross' geese, 1 snow, and 1 immature blue goose. Oh and 9 mallards. That made 77 birds for 6 hunters on our first day. Not Bad, but still not limits. This year the white goose limit was raised to 20 birds per person per day, and with the 8 duck limit, we could have ended up with a legal limit of 216 birds for the 6 of us! Fat chance, though, even in Canada!

This was the second WON HUNTS CANADA event, and outfitter Bobby Lindsay of Pokolodi Outfitting had done himself even better than last year. Out of 30 group morning goose hunts with 5 and 6 hunters each, we only had two that were less than great. One morning a group only shot 18 honkers, and the very worst was 3 geese, and that was a fluke that will never be repeated. But overall? attendee comments speak for themselves:

-"Fantastic! Sign me up for next year," came from Stew Finkelstein of Orange, who has attended previous WON HUNT events.

-"This is the best hunt I've been on," said Brian Seaman of Irvine. "I saw more geese here in a day than in 10 days hunting geese in Michigan."

-"Fantastic!" said Dr. Alex Go of Anaheim of his first WON HUNTS ever. "The Best hunt I've ever had!"

-"never in my life have I shot 3 different bird species in one day's hunt - geese, ducks and Hungarian partridge." said Mike McCormich of Newport Beach.

-"I didn't realize how much I enjoyed hunting until this morning. Said Bill Lynd. "Sign us up again"

"Of three morning goose hunts here we average 2 excellent ones and one that may be marginal." said outfitter Bobby Lindsay of Pokolodi outfitting. And marginal in most cases, was more than 3 honkers per person for the morning shoot, and whatever ducks came in in the afternoon. Limits in Saskatchewan this year are 8 dark geese a day, 20 white geese a day, 8 ducks a day and 5 sandhill cranes a day. Upland game species were included in our licenses and in addition to everything else, but they were more incidental to the goose and duck hunts.

We had 25 hunters for each group, guided by 5 guides with 5 new Suburbans and trailers with blinds and 10-12 dozen decoys per group. Each group of 5 hunted out of two blinds, so hunters were 2 or 3 per blind.

Our accommodations were at the Tropical Inn in Lloydminster, right on the Alberta, Saskatchewan border, and the folks there were extremely accommodating. Lunches at the restaurant were good, and anytime anyone needed anything it was there pronto. Meals were hearty and filling and diverse, with a variety of restaurants providing a varied menu. Our Birds were plucked and processed professionally, and all of our freezers were plugged to the top with frozen, packaged birds and ready to go with us to the airport on departure day.

Our thanks to Pokolodi Outfitting and owner Bobby Lindsay, as well as the guides Randy, Brent, Robby, Jake and Jon. Also, if not for the great job of spotting all day long, we wouldn't have had the great shoots we had. so thanks to warren, Dave, Shotgun Bob and the rest of the crew. We'll see you next year. My personal thanks to all of you who came on the hunts. From co-host Mel and I, you were absolutely great. it was a fun and enjoyable trip. Now, if my shoulder will only stop hurting. 

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