We are fortunate to live and hunt right in the middle of the prairie pothole region. This means that the ducks are born and raised literally in our back yards. We play host to just about every make and model of duck, mallards, pintails, gadwall, wigeons, green and blue winged teal, shovelers, Rudy ducks, red heads, canvasbacks, blue bills, and ringnecks are common nesting ducks here. We don't have to wait for any migration to be covered up in ducks. We try our best to give our clients what they want in a Saskatchewan duck hunt, so we have a variety of techniques at our disposal.
Field: We try to hunt dry pea, lentil and grain fields as much as possible to keep the ducks at ease on roost water. The true meaning of duck hunting in Saskatchewan is mallards and pintails bowed up and whistling into a pea field. The ducks can be mixed in with geese and killed on morning goose hunts, but are typically hunted in the afternoons.. If we are hunting in the afternoon for ducks in a field, we employ the same dark goose spreads to give us maximum visibility to the ducks but add in a couple spinners and field duck decoys. Hunts in this style have been completed in mere minutes!
Water: Disturbing roosting ducks is a very fast way to clear birds out of your area, or at least make them unhuntable. In the last couple years we have experimented with hunting transition ponds, which are essentially watering holes. Ducks leave their roost and hit these potholes for a drink before heading out to feed. Hunting in this manner hasn't had detrimental effects on our duck's roosts so we do it when water hunting is requested. This also presents more species of ducks, so a more varied bag. Typical of any water hunting situation, we use natural cover, be it bull rushes or shoreline vegetation. All guides are proficient with a duck call, so the ducks come in on a string. Early in the season when the weather is still warm we bump birds off loafing ponds and then quickly set up. These ponds are not main roost, but rather daytime relaxing ponds. Birds usually start returning back within minutes of being rousted. These hunts are usually a nice leisurely hunt where hunters can take their time and slowly work up to their limits.
Limits/Possessions
• Daily limit is 8, maximum of 4 pintails
• Possession limit is 24, maximum of 12 pintails
