Gray
Tails, Greenheads and Bluebills…of Manitoba
By
Tim Herald
As I sit writing this piece, I still feel the excitement from my first
waterfowl hunt in Canada even though I have been home for almost a week. I drove
1,200 miles north to southeast Manitoba to help two outfitters add optional
morning goose hunts to their already successful grouse operation. I was told
that there should be plenty of honkers around and when I arrived, all the fields
would be lined up for me.
That was about as far as the far as the
prehunt arrangements went. When I got there, I had permission to hunt two fields
on adjoining properties. I will say that there were a good number of geese using
these fields, but the properties were part of numerous square miles of identical
terrain, and the geese were feeding randomly throughout the area. I had my work
cut out for me to say the least.
I
arrived a day and a half before the hunting was to begin, so I had a lot of
scouting to do in a short period of time. I watched the fields early and late,
and tried to get permission on other properties in between. I found a few spots
that were holding some ducks, but we were supposed to be goose hunting.
The
first morning I hunted with Jim Geisler Sr. and Jim Geisler Jr. from Louisiana,
Jimmy Marcum from Kentucky, and Yavuz Sarmat from the Republic of Turkey. We put
out a spread of about 12 dozen decoys which were mostly Outlaw silhouettes in a
wheat stubble field and settled in. We saw a good number of geese that morning,
but the largest concentration of birds landed about a mile away.
We ended up taking 7 Canadas that morning, and although my companions
were pleased, I expected a larger bag. The next morning we tried a different
field, but another group of hunters set up about 200 yards away and skybusted
everything within 100 yards. We only took 5 geese, but they were all feet down.
I saw that goose hunting was going to be
mediocre at best, so I decided that I would have to figure out a way to get into
some ducks. During one of my scouting forays, I had seen a piece of public
timber that appeared to be flooded from the road. After the second day’s goose
hunt, I grabbed my 870, a pocket full of Winchester Supremes, half a dozen
decoys and waded in to check things out. I hadn’t gotten 50 yards into the
flooded timber when waves of mallards began flushing from every direction.
I
eased through the tangle of fallen trees and samplings until I found an opening
that was approximately 25 yards wide by 60 yards long. I pitched out my decoys
and settled my back against an old oak tree. I didn’t have to wait long before
the ducks started pouring back in. The first group of three came in while I was
putting on my gloves. The first two birds had hit the water about 45 yards out
before I could get into shooting position, but the third was about 10 yards
behind them. I swung on the bird and dropped it cleanly. When I walked over to
retrieve my prize, I realized that I had just taken my first pintail. I tucked
myself back into the shadows as group after group of mallards floated back into
my secluded opening. After only 50 minutes I collected 7 mallards to fill my
limit with the pintail.
I made it back to the cabins by noon, and
told everyone of my discovery. Many had grouse hunted that morning and had taken
about 18 ruffies before lunch. My brother-in-law, Roger Varney, was in camp, and
we decided to run out and chase grouse for a couple of hours before I took a few
folks back into the timber for an evening duck hunt. We started down a trail,
and within the first hundred yards, Ester, Roger’s English setter, locked on
point. A grouse flushed on our approach, and I promptly shot my whole load of
6’s into a leaning pine tree. Roger asked if I had hit the bird, and I said
“not a chance”. Then Cricket,
Roger’s pointer, came running from an aspen thicket with a big gray phase
ruffed grouse in her mouth. No one could have ever convinced me that I had hit
that bird. Chalk up the conservation of another recovered bird to a well trained
dog.
Roger and I killed another grouse each, and both of us missed a “gimme” shot
on a big gray tail that flew straight away from us down an open trail . Three
grouse in less than two hours is pretty good where I’m from. It was only 2:00
pm and I had killed a goose, a limit of ducks, and two grouse. What a day, and
it wasn’t over.
I took three guys with me and headed back to the flooded timber about 3:30. We
set up 12 decoys and spread out. We had chosen a spot where the timber opened up
into a thick marsh, and the area was scattered with large clumps of buckbrush.
The mallards began arriving soon after we did, and the shooting was fast and
furious. Lloyd Jones, from
Louisville, Kentucky, dropped a
greenhead out on the edge of the marsh, and when I walked out to retrieve it, I
saw two teal jetting toward our spread. I yelled. "Incoming!”, and soon
after I heard the report of a 12 gauge. I saw the remaining teal climbing high
to clear some brush, when the second shot neatly folded him. We hunted until
about 6:00, and the guys ended up with 21 mallards and the two green wing teal.
We were all pumped up when we got back to camp, and so were the remaining grouse
hunters. Everyone had taken more birds in the afternoon, and I was pleased to
find out that Roger had killed 5 more ruffies to fill his limit. There was no
problem getting volunteers for the next morning’s duck hunt, so off to bed we
went.
The next morning I took Roger (who had never been on a duck hunt), Lloyd and
Yavuz back to the duck hole. We set up about 200 yards south of where we had
hunted the evening before, and the mallards liked our choice. I was still
getting organized and loading my gun when the first ducks dropped in. Yavuz
doubled and Lloyd took the last of the trio of mallards that committed to our
decoys. Upon those first shots, what appeared to be a couple of thousand ducks
erupted from the middle of the marsh. They worked our area like a swarm of bees
on a flowering clover field.
Every few minutes a group would either come into our dekes, or pass by within 30
yards. We picked up the last of our 32 mallards about 9:45 am. Before lunch I
slipped out to a patch of woods where I had seen a couple of grouse while
scouting some hidden ponds for jump shooting. I wanted to take my lab, Teal, and
see how she would react to a grouse. We hadn’t been out of the truck for five
minutes when Teal flushed a grouse about 10 yards in front of me. As grouse do,
he put a large spruce tree between us, and I had no shot. I did shoot straight
up, hoping that Teal would catch on to what this new game was all about.
A little while later I saw Teal’s tail go into overdrive, and I knew she
smelled a bird. I saw the grouse in front of her on a log, and when she put him
up, I was ready. Teal loves to retrieve, but I have never seen her as happy as
when she brought that big gray bird to my side. Grouse must taste as good to a
dog as they do to us humans. I was very pleased with Teal, and I believe she was
quite proud of herself.
I borrowed a boat, and decided to scout Whitmouth Lake later in the day. It
didn’t take long to scout because ducks were everywhere. Little pockets in the
reed line held teal, mallards and blacks, and the open water was holding tens of
thousands of divers. I picked out a small cove where ducks were taking shelter
from the wind for the next morning’s hunt and went back to the cabin to get
prepared.
Dr. Grady Stumbo, his brother Tracy, and Burl Scott joined me before daylight,
and we began the task of ferrying everyone out to my chosen site. I took Burl
and Grady’s dog, Hatch, out and dropped them off with the decoys and a sheet
of plywood that we towed in another small boat. We set the plywood up in the
reeds and tossed out the dekes. Then I returned to pick up Grady, Tracy, and
Teal. When we got back to Burl, he already had a green wing teal floating in the
decoys. It was a warm bluebird day without a hint of a breeze, and not many
birds were flying. We ended up with 3 mallards, 2 buffleheads and the single
teal. They all can’t be great hunts, but I have brought back less many times.
As we pulled back into the little canal leading to the boat launch, I noticed
hundreds of divers resting on a bay just to our north. I had seen birds there
the day before, but I had never specifically hunted divers and didn’t think I
was equipped to do so. At lunch we learned that everyone had again done very
well on grouse, and the weather looked better for ruffies than divers. We only
had a day and a half of our trip left, and everyone wanted to hunt grouse.
I went out with Roger again in early afternoon, and he racked up a gray and a
brown phase grouse. I headed back to the lake about 3:00 to try my hand at diver
hunting. I set out about 2 dozen mallard and drake pintail decoys (that’s the
only species I had with me), and dragged the little 12 foot jon boat up onto a
point of reeds. It was about 55 degrees and calm, not what I thought of as ideal
diver hunting conditions. Was I ever wrong.
A pair of goldeneyes rounded a bend of reeds and came straight for the decoys.
When the lead bird flew over my farthest deke, I dropped it. Teal brought the
whistler back in short order, and we both resumed our positions.
Flocks of 15-40 bluebills began buzzing all over the bay. Unbelievable to
me, virtually every flock that I saw eventually came by to check out my puddler
spread. Most flocks would make one pass at about 60 yards and then fly out over
the middle of the bay. Then they would turn and head straight for my imposters.
It was a new experience to have that many flocks of ducks decoying in that
close, and within 40 minutes I had added 7 bluebills to the goldeneye who lay in
the bow of the boat. I caught myself wishing that some of the other guys had
come along, but then I realized that things couldn’t get any better than
sharing this special time with my favorite duck hunting companion, Teal.
The weather forecast for our last day predicted a carbon copy of the warm calm
day before. Everyone in camp decided to hunt old Ruff again because conditions
were going to be ideal. That was fine with me, and Teal and I headed out in the
little boat about an hour before dawn. Much to my surprise, there was a 15-20
mph wind coming out of the southwest accompanied by a cold drizzle. My bay was
not sheltered, and I didn’t feel confident in running the small craft out into
the main lake. My hopes plummeted, I knew I was in the wrong place.
I found the calmest place in the bay, and tossed out 15 decoys. The strong chop
made it difficult to set the decoys while paddling the boat, so I didn’t get
out as many blocks as I had intended when the pink sun broke the eastern
horizon. All I could think about was the old saying “Red sky in morning,
sailors take warning”. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the little 4
horsepower outboard had sputtered to a stop as I was trying to run the boat up
onto the floating reeds.
After getting everything situated, Teal and I sat patiently for 15 minutes
without so much as seeing a duck. Then a single bluebill came in on cupped wings
and I took it when it lowered its landing gear. A few minutes later another
single came in the same way but from the opposite side, and I was two birds for
two shots, which is a rarity. I could see a small raft of ducks out in the
middle of the bay, but my shooting didn’t even phase them.
I spotted a duck swimming toward my decoys, but it just wouldn’t get closer
than about 50 yards. Then from nowhere, another single bluebill flew by, and I
missed. My shot flushed the duck on the water, and it flew toward me. My
Winchester #2’s piled the little teal up not seven yards from the boat. A few
minutes passed and for no apparent reason, the raft of birds in the bay, which
was much larger than I initially thought, lifted up and broke up into many
flocks.
Birds were flying everywhere. I had a flock of about 40 birds fly straight at
me, and when they were over my far pintail block, I rose to shoot. By then I had
birds screaming by merely feet from my head. When I finally got my bearings, I
picked out a big drake and squeezed the trigger. Down he went, but it was too
late to try for a double. When Teal brought him in, I realized that this was a
greater scaup. All the others I had killed were lessers. I put another shell in
the 870 and watched as a huge flock of bluebills cruised by just out of gun
range. They swung out a hundred yards or so and turned right back toward me.
I estimated the flock to contain 120-150 birds as I was whispering “be
still” over and over to Teal. The whole flock came right over my spread, and I
downed four birds with two shots. I couldn’t believe it. I saw a crippled
drake heading out into the bay, and I sent Teal. When she was out about 150
yards I started getting worried. I tried to whistle her in, but the wind was
howling and impaired her hearing. She kept going farther and farther. I had the
boat out of the reeds, and was ready to go get her and chase down the cripple,
when I saw her turn around at about 200 yards. All I could see was a big white
ball in front of her. She made it back, and presented me with a plump drake
bluebill. I praised her many times, and then set out to retrieve the decoys. To
my amazement, the little motor started right up, and we were off the lake by
8:25 am with another limit.
I just knew that with the bad weather, the grouse hunting was going to be
sub-par. I was delightfully surprised at lunch to find that the group had been
to some new territory and had taken more grouse than any previous morning. What
a way for everyone to end the trip. Our final count was 160 grouse, 103 ducks,
and 12 Canada geese. Not a bad six
days in the bush.
I was very fortunate in getting to experience new types of duck hunting
and bagging 4 new species of ducks, but the highlight of my trip was getting my
lab into a couple of big gray ruffed grouse and seeing her make the best
retrieve of her life on a diving bluebill. If you have ever dreamed of a
fantastic upland/waterfowl combination hunt, dream no more. All you have to do
is travel to southern Manitoba and be adaptable.
The birds are there, you just may have to change your plans a bit to hunt
them.
For more great hunting articles...click here!
