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college student needs help?

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  REM1100 
#1 ·
hey my names austin and I am 18 and a freshmen in college. A few buddies and I are interested in doing a freelance trip to canada and were wondering if you all could give us some advice. what is the prime time to go? What is too late? Is it possible to do it thanksgiving week? What would be the best location to go as far as quantity of birds, and distance from me? Is a boat neccessary or is the hunting mainly fields or wadeable? How many decoys and what types should I bring? Basically just any and all advice that you can give me would be great. We all will be paying our own way up there and so a guide would be out of the question. plus it is a lot more fun to earn it. Thanks for yalls time and helpful tips
 
#2 ·
I've never been up there, but I guy I know goes up with his dad every year. I think they go in October. They hunt private land just by asking permission. It sounds like they just find a pot hole and toss out a few decoys, nothing too elaborate. I don't know what part of Canada they go to though.

I think Canada will have just about everything available up there if you find the right spot - marsh, lakes, pot holes, fields. My guess is that Thanksgiving would be a little late. I would try to find out what the typical season dates are.
 
#3 ·
It depends on where you want to go...in eastern canada you could still have some decent hunts in November but I think out west you could be pushing it a bit. I'm pretty sure that prime time all across the country is the first 2-3 weeks of October, it is in my neck of the woods anyway. As far as what to bring you should probably decide where and what kind of hunting you are going to be doing before worrying about gear. Although you could probably kill ducks with a 1/2 dozen floaters and a pair of waders but I wouldn't hold my breath on having the hunt of a lifetime on a set up like that. As far as what species of decoy to bring, if you are just hunting ducks, mallards, unless want to key in on a particular species.

A couple of other things to consider, be prepared to scout, even with local knowledge I still have to scout two days for everyday I hunt so it may take you a few days to key in on some birds. Finally, I've never gone through the exercise so I'm not exactly sure what you have to do but make sure you have all the paper work on your firearms ready before you get to the border.
 
#4 ·
I just re-read your post and as far as where to go, the prairie provinces are legendary but you are looking at a pretty major drive at least 2-3 days from your location. I don't know if you are up for that kind of drive but if I had to pick one place to hunt in before I die it would be the prairies. In the maritime provinces non-resident hunters are required to have guide, so a DIY hunt is out there.
That leaves Ontario and Quebec, I know in Quebec non-resident bird hunters are allowed to do it themselves, but I'm not sure about Ontario. Quebec has a huge snow goose problem, so you might have some luck there, the benefits of Quebec would be lots of birds I believe in the spring and fall they have a 1000 000+ snow geese between Montreal and Quebec City (FYI the drinking age in Quebec is 18 and they have world class strippers in Montreal/Quebec City). The downside of the Quebec City/Montreal corridor is that in the rural areas you may run into problems with language (it's mostly french). The other spot I'm not sure about hunting is the south coast of the Gaspe Penninsula, I know on the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Chaleur it's closed to duck hunting in salt water for a very large section but the Quebec side may not be, if you can hunt there their is a huge number and variety of sea ducks and geese. I make that drive fairly often for work and in one day it is nothing for me to see, snow geese, canadas, brant geese, eiders, oldsquaw, scoters, mallards, black ducks and pintails all in pretty good numbers. Most people in this area can speak atleast some english and you would be shooting in the salt water so getting permission wouldn't be an issue anyway.
As far as Ontario goes I don't know much more than what I've seen on TV, but the south eastern section seems to have some pretty decent shooting.
 
#5 ·
The best time in the prairies would be oct 12 Canada Thanksgiving.
All you need per hunter is about 2 dz geese dekes,,50 texas rags about 6 duck dekes fold up blind and basic calls, cooler
2 changes of hunting clothing some cheap boarding rooms for $30/DAY or campgrounds for $20/day and lots of gas and do it yourself cooking and lots of canned quick foods. Pre-research maps phone books.calls to game wardens town motels etc.
If you can get three guys and gear in a suv.. and don't mind driving 8 hours a day..Good Luck
I don't know if you have any fall school breaks or skip classes but it takes a week out to fully enjoy any expectations
 
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