I didn't expect this on our first Saskatchewan Hunt

If you’ve watched/listened to any of our podcasts from Saskatchewan this year, you’d know that we had some unknown variables going in to the trip.

We wanted to hunt snows, but we really wanted to get into ducks this year. We’ve been hunting in the province for a few years now, but never really got into the ducks as much as we’d like to. Most of that was due to where we found birds to hunt. It was usually just Canada geese with a few snows or cranes.

*Bret gets some more information at the Regina International Airport.*

We had some family coming up to join us so we had a little extra pressure to get them on birds, since they only had a few days to hunt. We were working with Tourism Regina to promote travel from Minnesota now that there are direct flights from Minneapolis to the Regina Internation Airport (YQR). So we started the trip there.

*Bret learns the story behind Bushwakkers Brewpub in Regina.*

After spending a couple days seeing the sights in the city, we began scouting in all directions. We were also introduced to Brandon Letain. He’s a Regina resident, who’s a retired RCMP officer and loves to hunt. He had some ideas on where birds might be so we started with his recommendations. In fact, he found snow geese in an area that they don’t normally see them at, so our scouting time was cut down immensely.

*Bret searches for snows with the new Riton spotting scope he got in this year’s AGLOW silent auction.*

We wanted to thank him so much for the help, that we invited him to hunt with us each day. It was a blast and we laughed harder than we normally do in the blind. In fact, the way it started out, I was worried that there wouldn’t be much laughing at all.

*L-R: Dan Amundson, Brandon Letain and Bret Amundson*

Anytime you take a trip, there are usually some kinks to work out on the first hunt. Getting the blinds set up and brushed in adequately, putting decoys where you want them and figuring out where and how to sit in the aframe. Stove-piping your gun is pretty much a requirement in my blinds and we had two dogs that would try to sneak through the middle, so gun safety was a priority.

As a few of us left to park the trucks, I did NOT expect what would happen next. Before we could get back and get situated, geese were spinning over the decoys. It was chaos. I thought having an hour and a half to get set up with six guys would be enough, since we didn’t have a huge spread. I also didn’t expect the snow geese to start flying before legal shooting time.

*When a big group of snows decoys close, it gets wild!*

If you know anything about snows, you know they’re noisy, they spin around above you and create this tornadic atmosphere that can be downright insane. It’s the best. But if you’re not ready for it, it’s nuts.

So as we were scrambling to get back to the blind, gear was tossed in and chairs were hastily set up. In fact, as the first big group was landing in the spread, I think only two of the crew had shells in their guns. We had just crossed into legal shooting time so the two guys unloaded and geese began to fall. Things settled down after that and the snows kept coming.

But it wasn’t just snows. We had a few huge groups of mallards work the spread! So not only did we get the snows we wanted, but we were able to show the guys a big spin or two of mallards. This gave them the full Saskatchewan waterfowl experience we were all hoping for. It was awesome.

Dan did most of the filming while I made sure everything else was running smoothly. Soon the laughter started and the whooping and hollering began. We have the video from that hunt out now on the Fish Hunt Forever YouTube Channel. I’ll link the video below.

Brandon plucked a few feathers from a drake mallard and put
them in Ron’s hat.

It was a great start to what ended up being an incredible waterfowl trip. Big numbers, great times with family and friends and my 84-year-old Dad returned to the province that his father was born in. We continued to uncover more of our family’s history in the region during this trip and as more videos come out, we’ll have more big hunts and stories from Saskatchewan. In fact, we’re planning another film as a follow up to last year’s 1956 with what will go down as the best hunt we’ve ever had and one that my Dad says tops the 1956 hunt.

We’d like to thank Tourism Regina and Tourism Saskatchewan for support on this trip! We also want to thank the landowners who gave us permission to hunt. And, of course, the residents we met who knew or had heard stories about our relatives. I really didn’t expect things to go this well!