Back in the early forties when the market hunters ruled the marsh with their wooden skiff boats and their punt guns, the Delta Marsh located neat St. Amboise Manitoba was one of the main areas for these highly sauté after waterfowl. Back then there were no limits on the numbers of ducks taken and the skies were black during the peak of the migration, they would say. At that point in time the all mighty Canvasback brought the highest price and was thought to be the best table fair on the market. Since then things have changed immensely in the duck hunting world but there is still a place that has a lot of tradition and history from way back when.

The Delta Marsh is located on the south end of Lake Manitoba in the south western region of the province. On this trip outfitter Scotty Barmby of Black Duck Outfitters shared with my hunting partner Kyle Hamilton and myself that we were going to have the opportunity to spend time in the duck blind with one of the oldest living duck hunting guides to date- Alfred Levallee better known to his friends as Alfie. Now 73 years old, Alfie grew up back when the duck hunting was at its prime, something we will never have an opportunity to witness with so much habitat loss and predator invasion into the once pristine waterfowl nesting regions of the continent. Alfie recalled the uproar from hunters back in the early 50’s when the limit was dropped from 50 ducks to 25 ducks per day. As a kid, Alfie said he would get paid five cense per bird to pluck a duck. At the end of the day there would be piles and piles of ducks to be cleaned as the market hunters (his father being one of them) would come in from a long day on the marsh. Alfie still recalls how sore his fingers would get after a long night of plucking birds.

As we overlooked our spread of 3 dozen brand new top of the line plastic blue bill and ring neck decoys, Alfie shared with us that as he grew up, he started carving his own decoys out of balsam wood. In fact Alfie still carves decoys to this day. Not so many anymore he states, maybe a dozen a year now. But hey when your 73

years old quality is much more important than quantity.

One of the main things that still gives the Delta Marsh the throw back feel from way back when is the fact that motors are not allowed on the marsh and most of the local hunters still use hand crafted wooden boats and decoys. As great as it was to be

Since the majority of the divers had already moved through the area this season and the conditions were rough, we were not able to experience the great shooting that the previous hunters in camp had. Around 11:00 am Alfie said we needed to head back to the lodge for a hot lunch and to meet up back up with our outfitter Scotty Barmby. Scotty had an afternoon hunt set up for us of field

After a quick lunch and a short nap it was back to the grind. As we set up in one of the rare corn fields in Manitoba, we were joined by two of Scotty’s faithful customers from Tennessee. We all raced to put the finishing touches on the layout blinds as the geese started arriving a little earlier then normal due to the cold whether conditions. Right away a pair of honkers sailed right in and Kyle and I tag teamed the big honkers. As the afternoon lead on we had more and more Canada geese working the spread and we had several nice flocks drop right into our lap. Then as the sun hit the horizon the mallards started buzzing the tower. Since it is legal to hunt ½ hour after sunset in Manitoba, it didn’t take long before we had a nice pile of mallards in hand. Just as we were about to call it quits we had one last flock of 5 mallards come banking in and as we dropped all five, it was the perfect end to a fantastic day of waterfowling!

Back at camp that night we were treated to a scrumptious four course meal including fresh duck hors d’ oeuvres, T bone steaks and home made chocolate cake for desert. I’ll tell you what those ladies sure can cook! After dinner we had a chance to look around the lodge at all of the old photos and decoys that the tradition of the old “Hextall Lodge” had to offer. Over a couple cocktails that night Scotty shared with us how he had taken over the camp back in 2003 and how tremendous the duck hunting on the marsh has been each year ever since. In fact Scotty said the duck hunting had been great all the way up until this last front moved in. Scotty said that they normally close up the camp the day we arrived but he kept it open a couple days longer this year to accommodate our trip at the end of October.

Scotty shared with us some of the photos of the hunters who had been there the week before and had taken 9 different species of diver ducks on the marsh. Scotty then shared with us that he was hitting the road after our morning’s hunt on his long trek back to Maryland where he had to get ready for his first group of sea duck hunters on the Chesapeake Bay. I don’t know of too many other outfitters that have as much experience hunting divers and sea ducks than our outfitter Scotty Barmby. What an experience to have the chance to spend time with two great waterfowl hunting minds and to experience the tradition that this area has to offer. This is definitely one trip that all serious waterfowl hunters need to add to their waterfowl resumes at some point in their hunting careers.

Part 2: THE REVIEW

Part 3: Booking Information