spring goose hunt

Spring goose hunt in Manitoba a welcome break from reality

June 8, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

You’re sitting in front of your computer right now.

You’ve probably needed a break for hours or weeks because this isn’t how you normally spend your time – wondering what you could do other than reading emails or surfing the Web. You just needed a mindless escape for a few minutes, but time is so precious and you’re crazy busy. The economy sucks and you want to make sure that if you take a REAL break you’ll get back to your busy life recharged and not regret spending one single dollar (feel free to regret the gas money you forked over to get to the airport).

Webber’s Lodges specializes in pauses from the grind, by providing wilderness experiences that are addictive. As Manitoba’s most trusted outfitter we strive to give you full value for every penny you pull out of your pocket to book with us.

We’re committed to quality hunting and fishing experiences and we have a 40-year legacy of satisfied guests to prove it. Caribou, moose and goose hunting, incredible fishing, luxury lodging, gourmet cooking and quality customer service – owner operated and family run.

That’s what we do.

Randy and John had the foresight to know they would need a break and decided to book a spring goose hunt with Webber’s Lodges. They were here a couple of weeks ago and gave us every indication they had the time of their life.

They left with their batteries recharged.

John heaped gracious praise on Dymond Lake Lodge Operator/Guide Doug Webber, and also added to the guest book:

Best lodge ever!! Spring goose fling! Wow! Thanks Doug.

Randy, equally generous with the compliments, was moved to write a poem in the guestbook:

Goose breast dinner, Van Ruiten wine
Limits of geese, cold front, all is fine
The tundra has stolen my heart
I wish this wasn’t the end but the start
The north is a mystery shrouded in fog
Wander all you want, stay out of the bog
Mother Nature is my guide to the north
But wait until late spring before you go forth.

Here’s some of what Randy wrote to us once he returned home:

John Van Ruiten and I had the opportunity to shoot the first five days of spring goose season under the direction of Doug Webber at his well-equipped lodge on Hudson Bay. As we crossed the ice by snow mobile, we came upon a large concentration of geese. Turns out this large concentration of both snows and blues was very close to the cabins that comprised the lodge. This told John that we were in the right spot at the right time.

Once we arrived at the lodge, we were given some direction from Doug, however we were pretty much able to hunt when and where we chose – a unique experience. Both John and I are veteran water fowl hunters and once Doug understood that, he gave us the opportunity go in the direction we wanted to shoot as long as we were within the limit.

It proved to be 4 1/2 days of wonderful goose shooting for snows and blues. We observed a great deal of Canadian Honkers as well as ross geese, but our game was snows and blues. Given the freedom to hunt within walking distance of the lodge itself, we had a wonderful time.

When we wanted decoys, decoys were set for us. When we needed a warm lunch, we were picked up by either snowmobile or cart. We were checked on a regular basis to see if we needed anything such as shells, or if we wanted to come in from the cold. On a couple of days we had exceedingly warm weather and actually sunbathed with a glass of wine on the deck of the house. While we sat on the deck, we could observe the geese and their movements. This allowed us to plan and chart our next hunt.

The chef, a young man who had obviously been in camp before, did a wonderful job of cooking, but one night he surrendered the reigns to John and I. We did chicken fried goose steak and goose breast chicken fried along with a fine gravy and fruit relish. This was a success. It made for a nice evening. Cocktails and wine were available.

The lodge is immaculate, although putting your shoes on and off every time you entered was a bit much, but we accomplished it. Doug couldn’t have been a nicer host and was with us at all meals and available for all hunts. You could tell he had bit of an itchy trigger finger as well.

The rare adventure of hunting geese on the frozen tundra, ice and snow is different than John and I had ever experienced. Witnessing the travels of the geese as they were moving to breed was something I had always wanted to do.

I certainly hope that I can return with friends of mine I have shown the pictures to. Perhaps their favorite photo was the snowmobile and the sled slowly sinking on the melting ice. Good thing helicopters are available.

Thanks Randy! Much appreciated! We look forward to seeing you, your friends and John again soon at Dymond Lake Lodge for our spring goose hunt. We certainly enjoyed your company!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blue geese hunt, blues, Dymond Lake Lodge, Goose Hunting, goose hunting canada, goose hunts Canada, Manitoba, snow goose hunting, snows, spring goose hunt, webber's lodges

Spring Snow Goose migration produces hunting bonanza on Hudson Bay

May 2, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

by Kent Michie

Whether you’re an avid wing shooter or just getting started in this wonderful sport, there’s no better place to experience one of nature’s greatest goose migrations than Hudson Bay.

At Webber’s Lodges we offer an exceptional goose hunting package that not only includes breathtaking spring Snow Goose hunting on the Hudson Bay coast, but also the finest in lodging and meals.

A little history about the Snow Geese of Hudson Bay… Since the ‘70s a population explosion of lesser snow geese in the James Bay and Hudson Bay area appears to have caused extensive damage to vegetation, and reduced some areas of coastal salt marshes to a desert-like landscape.

A number of factors may have contributed to the dramatic increase in the snow goose population. Snow geese now feed mostly on agricultural waste grains and green plants when they are down south. This change in their traditional food source has boosted their survival rate and in turn led to changes to where they nest and live. Migration routes can also shift over time and result in changes in how the birds are distributed over immense areas.

The majority of the Snow Goose population will now nest north of and around the Hudson Bay area and use Hudson Bay itself as a staging area to begin their tremendous migration south. On their return flight back to the north in the spring to begin the life cycle anew, the geese again stage in the Hudson Bay area before dispersing out to build nests and renew the next generation of geese.

This concentration of snow geese around Hudson Bay in the spring is indescribable and must be experienced first hand. The birds coming back north are eager for companionship and will decoy easily with small spreads of less than 100 decoys. These birds have not been shot at for quite some time and they are certainly not decoy shy or overcautious, which makes for some outrageous wing shooting.

With our liberal bag limits of 20 Snow Geese per day and 80 in procession, the sheer concentration of snows keeps your barrel hot and your shoulder sore.

Given Webber’s Lodges professional guides, countless birds, a comfortable, modern facility and fine dining, you will not want to leave. We’d love to have you and a friend or family member join us for the goose hunting trip of a lifetime!

Happy Hunting!

Filed Under: Blog, Hunting Reports Tagged With: Canada, Goose Hunting, goose hunting canada, Goose Hunting Manitoba, goose hunts Canada, goose hunts Manitoba, Hudson Bay, hunting geese, Manitoba, Snow Geese, snow geese hunting, snow goose, snow goose hunting, spring goose hunt, spring goose hunting

Operation DC-3 – Doug Webber’s encounter with the Ice Pilot film crew and the first DC-3 to land on the airstrip at North Knife Lake Lodge. Part 1 of 2

July 19, 2010 By admin 1 Comment

Herc I was heading north, returning to Churchill to get our Goose Hunting Lodge at Dymond Lake open in preparation for the annual Spring Snow Goose Hunt and decided to stop at Calm Air Cargo in Thompson to take stock of any cargo left over from last year. And to make sure everything was in order for the upcoming fishing season.

There was quite a bit of activity going on at the airport. A Hercules cargo plane was being loaded with emergency supplies for one of the Northern communities that was unable to get their freight in on the winter road this year. There was also a Lockheed Electra from Buffalo Airways of Ice Pilot fame being loaded at the same time. Tucked in behind the Electra was another aircraft, and I could only see a bit of the fuselage. Was that a DC-3? Closer inspection proved it was and a light bulb immediately went on. Here was the solution to a potentially BIG problem we would be facing this summer for hauling lumber and pigs of propane into the fishing lodge at North Knife Lake!

I quickly phoned the office and asked them to track down someone in Yellowknife who might authorize us chartering the DC-3 for a trip into North Knife Lake Lodge, about 160 km north of Thompson. After getting pertinent information like runway length and distance from Thompson, the co-ordinator from Buffalo Airways gave me a price and asked when we would have our load ready.

Mike, the co-ordinator asked if it would be ok if one of the photographers from the Ice Pilot series on TV could accompany the small bush plane and photograph the entire operation for a potential addition to their series. Good publicity doesn’t come cheap so I readily agreed. A quick phone call to my son-in-law Nelson in Calgary secured the plane to do the strip check. He could be in Thompson shortly after noon on Sunday, the day we were to load up the DC-3. The remainder of Friday and Saturday were spent finalizing details, getting the load properly configured and adjusting priorities. The three lifts of lumber and four pigs of propane weighed in at 7000 pounds.

Loading DC3 with lumber for North Knife Lake Lodge It should be mentioned here that our strip at North Knife Lake was built specifically with the DC-3 in mind. By the time we got it finished, there were no DC-3s left in Manitoba and ferrying one in from Saskatchewan was cost prohibitive. We had a very nice DC-3 strip that had never seen the plane it was built for. Part of my excitement in this operation was just having a DC-3 land on the North Knife Lake runway for the first time. We’d had a Hawker Siddley 748 land on the strip when it was frozen in December, but it was unable to handle the soft conditions of summer the way a DC-3 could.

Sunday morning broke crisp and clear across the three prairie Provinces and barring any mechanical breakdowns, we expected to see a successful completion to Operation DC-3. We got the crew transported from the hotel out to the airport, where we met the loader and proceeded to start the process of loading.

Everyone from Buffalo who was in Thompson, including the chief pilot, Arnie Schrader showed up to help load. We had to take apart the lifts of lumber and load them by hand, as that was the way we would have to unload them at the lodge. Many hands make quick work and inside of two hours the plane was loaded and tied down. Nelson came winging in just as we finished, I drove Arnie and the photographer over to the flight side of the airport and we climbed into the Cessna 185 for the one hour flight to North Knife Lake.

Arnie didn’t really even have to do any checking as he could tell just from our landing that the DC-3 would have no problem. There were no serious spring washouts and the strip was in better shape than most springs after the thaw. Leaving the photographer to record the departure and arrival of the DC-3, and me to get the unloading equipment organized, Nelson and Arnie blasted off for Thompson to pick up the loaded DC-3.

Stay tuned for part two of Operation DC-3 coming soon.

Filed Under: Blog, Fishing Articles, Hunting Reports, Sports Shows and Media Tagged With: Buffalo Airways, Calm Air, churchill, DC-3, Dymond Lake, Electra, Ice Pilots, North Knife Lake, spring goose hunt, thompson, webber's lodges