2021-22 recap

I’m not gonna lie.  The 2021-22 season had its challenges. Covid was rampant, the fowl were sparser than usual, and my better half (by far), Ellen was down with a broken hip.  And a La Nina weather phenomenon that produced numerous crazy wind events vexed us regularly.

I personally sat through gusts of wind up to 86 mph! Probably 8-10 days in season with wind gusts 45 and over.  Sheesh! 

All that sniveling aside, 771 fowl. That was our total for the season. Almost exactly half of our average over the last 10 years. 

The diver ducks really let us down all season long. They may not be your favorite opportunities in normal circumstances, but you really miss them when they’re not available.

The good news is that almost everything we did shoot were nice ‘big’ ducks. With a one and done daily limit we still managed to harvest over 50 of the prized pintails.  Almost every single pintail we brought home were beautiful males. Almost every one of these are being mounted. I personally got to share in 10-12 ‘first ever’ pintail moments with clients who ranged in age from 8-73. Also, one of our clients who has hunted with us for over 35 years finally managed to harvest his ‘first ever’ drake canvasback. It was close to a sacred event.  Then there were the first ever ducks, period. And first ever swans.

And 771 fowl is not nothing. There were many smiles scattered around amid that many downed birds.  Excellent meals and lifetime memories too.

More important than all that though, is that all our guides survived the winds and the plague. At several points during the season, it seemed that half the planet was sick all at once.

Hopefully, everybody reading this is well and we look forward to being your guides to an adventure in the future.

Vic, Ellen and the crew.