Driving across the prairie of Manitoba on a late October afternoon big flocks of geese could be seen in all directions cruising across the endless wheat fields. As my co pilot Kyle Hamilton and I followed the endless flocks of geese towards our destination of Deloraine, MB our anticipation grew.  We were on our way to meet up with Dan Nuemann of Feathered Horizon Outfitters. Dan had been hunting snow geese in the very south west corner of the province for the past week, getting one last crack at the white devils before crossed over the border into North Dakota.

The sun was just hitting the horizon when we checked into our motel room and waited for Dan and Ben to arrive from their afternoon scouting mission. Later that evening we met the guys at a local restaurant for a quick dinner at which time we were filled in on the details of the morning’s hunt. Dan shared with us that they found a field right at dark that over 10,000 light geese had been piling into. He said that through the past week his hunters had been having great success decoying in the big flocks of snow geese which were mostly made up of the young birds of the year. In fact Dan went as far as to say that the entire fall they had been averaging about 70% juvenile snow geese, which was an exact opposite from the fall before where most every light goose shot was an adult.

The next morning at 7:00 am sharp we pulled into the field with a pre set spread with 12 dozen full body and 500 silosock snow goose decoys, spirits were high!  Kyle and I manned the left side of the spread while two of Dan’s regulars from Minnesota- Guy Gelakoski and

Mike Cassidy took the right side. Not more then 15 minutes into the hunt the action started. We had a flock of about 50 snows and blues dump right in on us. Dan called the shot when the flock was at about 15 yards out and the sky started falling! We didn’t even have time to get out and pick up our birds before several more flocks of snows were locked up on the spread. This time Dan elected to let the first 5 or 6 geese land while the big flock circled around and made a final pass before fully committing. Birds kept falling and flocks kept coming. This went on for over an hour until we finally decided to get up and make a tally of how many geese we actually had down. Let me tell you we were sprinting to pick up birds as on the horizon flock after flock of snows and blues were locked up and headed our way. It was exactly what every waterfowler dreams of, having flock after flock locked up and committed to the spread and finishing at less then 20 yards…over and over again.

As the action began to slow down a bit we had a chance to gather up and count our bag limits to make sure we were not over our limit of 20 light geese per hunter. Our first count came up with 78 geese, well within the 6 man limit. We got hunkered back into our layout blinds and awaited the action to continue. Now the small cackler Canada geese started to arrive and met the same fate as there white feathered friends. What an experience, Dan really put on a show for us. By the end of the morning we had 101 light geese and 15 cackler Canada geese in hand with a couple unlucky mallards to boot.

After a hunt like that we were all on cloud nine. At that point Guy and Mike decided to head back home as they had already taken in three full days of the snow goose madness. Kyle and I then made a game plan to head north, back to Dan’s home town of Neepawa to chase some of the big late season greater Canadas and northern Mallards for round two. Being a couple hours south of our second destination we had to hit the road to make sure we found a feeder field for the next day’s hunt.

gave me an opportunity to take my shots when I wanted without having to worry about my counter part. Over the next half hour as flock after flock of hundreds of little cackler geese rained overhead I chose my shots carefully, trying to pick out a single bird on each shot. What an experience. After the hunt was over we both agreed that there had to have been well over 5,000 little Canada geese that came over our field during the course of the hunt.

For our final hunt Dan had a gorgeous set up for us. With a light breeze out of the northwest at our back, we were set up on a little knoll in the middle of a classic Manitoba wheat field. Dan said that the day before there were several hundred greater Canada geese feeding in this very spot, as well as many big flocks of northern mallards working the area. I just knew we were in for a special treat this morning. As the sun peaked up over the top of the wheat stubble, we could already hear what sounded like a thousand or more Canada geese waking up and getting ready for breakfast. But before the geese finally decided to get rolling, we started getting bombarded by small flocks of mallards. It was tough to even pick out the drakes as it was still so early. By the time the geese started moving Kyle and I both had our limit of 8 mallards a piece. Then the big honkers started to lift off the area lakes and sloughs. They were much bigger then the little guys we hunted the day before. They looked like B -57’s moving along the horizon. These geese were definitely in the 11 – 13 lb range! We decided that when the singles and pairs would come in, we would take turns and then tag team the big flocks. As we steadily dropped our daily limit of 5 big honkers a piece, our guide Dan shot just as many if not more birds with his video camera.

It was a fantastic end to a World Class Waterfowling Adventure. Dan Nuemann had definitely done his job by putting us under more geese then the normal waterfowl hunter sees in a lifetime. What an experience. I was already looking forward to joining Dan again on a spring snow goose hunting adventure to Manitoba as the geese make their way back north in a few months.

Part 2: THE REVIEW

Part 3: Booking Information