Alberta Duck and Goose - In Progress

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Are those new birds coming to the same feilds ? Or do they find new feeds every evening to sit the next AM?

 

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Different field every hunt. Twice a day

 

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They have scouts out all day dusk till dawn

 

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Limits of Geese:

 

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Last shoot of our 5th day of and Epic Alberta Canada Duck and Goose hunt!

4 of us went out for the afternoon shoot for ducks. The other 3 were tired and had sore shoulders…

 

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The Lodge we stayed in at Metis Crossing is part of their (the Metis People) cultural center. Influenced early by the fur trade and the Hudson Bay Company as they established trading posts and settled the area.

 

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This hunt with Cloud 9 was an A Class Hunt.
Great owner/operator. -Ben Commodore.
Modern trucks and new custom decoy and gear trailers with drop decks, change rooms, gun safes.
Nice Shotguns, Including left hand, well maintained and always a spare with us.
High end full body decoys. Really nice.
Plenty of Robo-Ducks on remote controls.Usually ran 2 Lucky Ducks.

Beautiful Lodge.
-Everything we needed:
-Modern and nice.
-Good food, soft drinks, Plenty of Ice and filtered water, clean and secure.
-Staff were very friendly and accommodating.
We ate 2 meals a day with option of having late lunches from a variety of good food: Hamburgers - beef or bison, Fries, Wings, salads, soups, and other choices…

Hard working (Young) guides and scouts.
-They scouted for ducks and geese every day and evening.
-Know how to call.
-Set up custum a frame blinds with fresh brush. We helped put out decoys and get blinds set up. Just made things faster and easier.
Never hunted the same field twice.

Outfitter (Ben) was a pleasure to deal with! Great communication and very professional. Provided pin drops to our hunting fields as well as the option to follow the guides out to the fields.

Plenty of things to do between hunts, most of us got cleaned up, napped, got up for a walk or history tour.

Hunts:

Morning: up at 3:30am, muffins, cold cereals, oatmeal, granola bars, or deli style sandwiches, several types of juices, and hot coffee.
An average of 40 minute drives to fields in all directions from the lodge. Paved roads to very well maintained dirt roads. Shoot time around 6:00am, and done by 9:00am. Back at 10:30am for hot sit down breakfast: Eggs, French toast, pastries, bacon, potatoes, pancakes, omelets, sausage… Good choices on rotation. Always Saskatoon berries or berry compote with fresh whip cream.

Get intel on the evening hunt locations.

Evening hunt: meet between 3:00pm and 4:30 at lodge or depart in between those times. Usually the birds start flying at around 5:00 to 5:30. Always hunting in cut fields, to include: wheat, peas, hay, canola…
Always near water. Done by 6:30 to 7:30. Clean up, pack up, pictures, on the road back to the lodge by 8:30. Sometimes the drive was 15 minutes other times 1 hour.

Ben himself guided us a couple times and was a pleasure to have in the blind. He has amazing labs that get to the business when sent out for retrieves.

Dinner between 9:00pm and 9:30pm. Beef, chicken, bison, fresh bread, soup, salad, potatoes, beans, steamed or sautéed vegetables. Dessert was cheese cake, ice cream, carrot cake, bread pudding, and other options.
We brought a few bottles of Whiskey, Scotch, Bourbon and We had cocktails in private in inconspicuous cups…

Coffee was always available.

Changes coming per Ben: New lodge of his own. Not all guides have dogs, that may change. I don’t personally care, because we are not hunting water… The guides are young, so they bolt out and collect geese and ducks after we get 6-8 on the ground. We put 12 geese on the ground and a couple of us ran out to help.

Getting there and back:

Flew business/first class. Air Canada was easy to fly, good food and snacks. Direct out of SFO to Edmonton.

7 of us split 2 full size SUV’s - 1 Jeep Wagoneer and 1 Yukon XL. The Jeep Wagoneer was nice with very comfortable seats, plenty of power, and a very nice ride.

1 hour 15 Minutes to the lodge. Easy and stress free drive.

I packed a carry on and 1 backpack.

Used: Long sleeve cotton camo shirt, fleece camo pull over, ripstop beige cargo style pants, and insulated camo bibs in the am. Hunted in Timberland Gortex Boots, wore a fleece camo beanie in the morning and a camo ball cap in the afternoon. Never unpacked my Kuiu raincoat or rain pants. Brought a pair of Merrell slides for around the lodge.

Nothing negative to say. The guides will get better with experience. The new lodge experience for the guests will make things more personal for guests and convenient for Ben and staff.

Wish I could of stayed longer!

 

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I may go back this November for Snow Geese

 

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The lodge had other guests while we were there. Everyone seemed to understand we were hunters and no one expressed any concern about it.

The Lodge at Métis Crossing - Your Vacation Retreat

Experience luxury and history with the Lodge at Métis Crossing. Book your stay at this boutique 40-room lodge on the historic Métis river lots today!

metiscrossing.com