I live in the south zone, so my official opener is not until the 8th but every year I travel a couple hours north to get in on their opener on the 1st. Usually I pick an area I've never been to before and use the occasion as a scouting/hunting trip for the future. This year was the same and a former student of mine and I set up on a hard bottom lake in central Alberta.
Wind was SUPPOSED to be from the west at about 15 KPH and so we set up accordingly on a point that would see traffic from birds traveling between two bays. Well when the wind came up it was from direct north and travel patterns skirted our location completely. After the first hour and a half of shooting light we had yet to fire a round, so we pulled gear and went to where the birds wanted to go (DUH!). Moved several hundred birds off the north shore of the lake, set up again in thick water weeds and then the wind DIED completely --Not a breath.
Still managed to scrape down a dozen mixed bag of BWT, Bluebill, redhead, mallard, spoonie, gadwall and bufflehead (the Hen Preservation League will hate me)
v . Still, I know how I'll hunt the area next time and that's what my Sept 1 trip is about each year.
Wind was SUPPOSED to be from the west at about 15 KPH and so we set up accordingly on a point that would see traffic from birds traveling between two bays. Well when the wind came up it was from direct north and travel patterns skirted our location completely. After the first hour and a half of shooting light we had yet to fire a round, so we pulled gear and went to where the birds wanted to go (DUH!). Moved several hundred birds off the north shore of the lake, set up again in thick water weeds and then the wind DIED completely --Not a breath.
Still managed to scrape down a dozen mixed bag of BWT, Bluebill, redhead, mallard, spoonie, gadwall and bufflehead (the Hen Preservation League will hate me)
v . Still, I know how I'll hunt the area next time and that's what my Sept 1 trip is about each year.
