Hey guys. Just got done our season guiding here in Alberta. Tons of birds this year and with the water we have next year will be even better. Hope you enjoy these pics.

Nube,
No wonder no ducks are here in Oklahoma, you shot them all.
Wow!

Great pics nube, I enjoyed seeing them all! Looks like you had a fantastic season.
David

Thanks guys. jsut wish I had a few more clients so i could keep my butt out there longer. It's only been 3 weeks and i am itching for next year already. I might have to go and shoot a few myself i guess as I am starting to twitch lol

Nube,
Check your email.

sent you one back.
Thanks

Congrats on putting your sports on some good gunning; looks like you know what you're doing, and your customers got their money's worth!

That said, and this is *not* to be taken as a shot, but I did notice that there are a large number of hens taken. I lost count at around 100 when casually counting suzie mallards. I have no problem with it, but confess I am curious: with the numbers of limits you show, is there any particular reason you don't suggest your sports try to bust drakes only? I ask in part because it's pretty obvious you're putting folks on good spots, with plenty of birds, so why not focus on drakes only if at all possible?

Anyway, great jobbie.

Wow...looks like you hammered them pretty good. If only Phil Robertson were to see these pics he will have a bird he thinks all Northerners are killing "his" mallards....ha ha ha... I get a kick out of it every time he gets upset.


Kamo Gari
In defense of nube...they don't have 10% of the hunters in Canada as there are in US. Add to that that their season is fairly short as compared to ours...I doubt that hunters in Canada put any dent in the overall population even if they are shooting more hens.

P.S. I wonder how many eclipse drakes are in these pics ? Grass looks green so it must have been September or early October up there.

Yes , it may look like a lot of hens but it is not like you think. We hunt Sept1 -Ocober 15th. I don't like going much longer than this as the freez up may start and hunters prefer nicer weather. Our deer season also starts up November 1.
Birds don't start to get color till about the end of Sept or even into the first week of October when the northerns come down. It is pretty hard to sit there and only pick drakes especially for a lot of guys who only shoot a couple times at home and see the very few birds they do in the U.S. It would even be tough for me to pick them out as well.

Also , this year I could count 4 groups of resident hunters I saw this year and only head shooting once while sitting in the blind. We don't get pressure on the birds here. That is why the gunning is so good.

Rod Haydel is a friend of mine and has hunted with us for years. He says it is nice to not have to blow a call at them liek he does back home. He says when you do blow it they actually respond as well which is nice to be able to do that.
It is a different game than hunting pressured birds. More relaxing and lots of action up close.

Thanks for the explanation, and again, great job.

I bet those two labs have a ton of experience.

Tons is the right word.lol
They only pick up a couple thousand birds in a short month and a half to 2 months. My yellow lab is 9 years old and is about done. I would love to know how many birds he has picked up in his life.

Still have 2 spots open for 2011 season. One is in opening week and the other is a little later in September. The rest are all booked for the year already.

Great photos ,i loved your lab ,thanks FOR SHARING

Wow those are some beautiful looking birds!

Peter

I've hunted a number of times in late Sept and the birds just don't have the color to pick drakes from hens. Every once in awhile you can get them colored up but it's rare. Once on the ground you can tell which is which but in the air, it's nearly impossible. Looks like a good season. What area do you hunt. I've hunted some around Manning and up in the Brooks area many times.

NoCAL

Sorry NoCAL, i have not looked at this thread for a bit. My area is an hour from Edmonton. The honkers are all monsters till the little ones come in from up north in October.
The specks are getting to be outstanding as well and most big shoots we have thousands of birds in a shoot. I would say we don't bother with a speck shoot unless there are 4-5thousand birds in a shoots. It is pretty wild.
Got a few more pictures as well a while back that I don't think I posted.

Very nice. I may need to try this one day .

HAHA Larry, I got jelouse watching your video of you in Argentina with your boys. What a fun time that looked like. We are lucky up here to be able to have such good bird hunting. You are invited anytime Larry and thanks again for sending the videos of your hunts up to me. Can't wait till i get to Zim.

Your hunts look absolutely incredible. You are now firmly in my bucket list if I am in your area during duck season. I fact I was in Chicago in Sept 2007 Y Nov 2008..... You should do a video along with your sheep and deer hunting!

I actually have a few videos. I put hunts together for Bill Saiff and had his team come up for years to do the show Cabin country. Him and Rod Haydel hunted with me for years to do Cabin country and then the show ended.
Rod then hooked up with Charles Snapp another big name from the Deep south and we filmed for Waterfowler T.V for another couple years till the recesion hit and wiped everyone out.
Rod had talked about starting something else up again but need to get the right contracts and we will see if it can happen.

It is real tough to put a good show together and it is a lot of pressure to produce for sure. I like it though. It was nice to always get a copy of the hunts and the final product. Good memories from it.

I would love to have deer and sheep footage but to be honest it would be too much work and it would take the enjoyment out of my hunt to try and get it all on film.

Glad you liek the pics. I plan on a new camera or 2 this year and have promised myself to take more pictures. Some of my guides don't take good pics or none at all so I miss out on a lot and will at least buy a couple cheap cameras for them this year.

I want an SLR and get some good pics of birds and pics other than dead birds as well.
Stay tuned!!

Damn!!! That's some serious waterfowling...BUT....

The best part of those pics are the satisfied Labs!!!

Nothing better than seeing dogs in the field doing what they do best!

Great stuff!

great pictures ,marvelous dogs ,i enjoyed the post a lot ,thank you from Argentina .Juan Pablo Pozzi Zurbriggen .