The author and a healthy bag.

Whitefronts
I generally target whitefronts from early September through late October, as this is the prime time for these geese to arrive and stage on Lake Diefenbaker. At the peak of the migration, which occurs in early October, there are usually well in excess of one million whitefronts staging on Lake Diefenbaker. During most seasons, the vast majority of those birds typically roost on Galloway and Miry Bays. However, in wet years, whitefronts may also stage on smaller wetlands surrounding Diefenbaker.

Over the years, I've hunted on the north side of the lake near the communities of Kyle, Lacadena and Whitebear and on the south side near Abbey, Shakleton and Cabri. In most years, the hunting is equally good on both sides of the lake. However, in some years, the hunting can be better on one side or the other based on food conditions and/or surrounding wetland conditions. For example, if the south side had drought and poor crop production, the birds will tend to feed more on the north side than the south. Other crop factors, such as bumper crops, hailed out crops or a lack of pea, wheat or barely fields may dictate which side of the lake the birds will feed on. In addition, changes in wind direction and hunting pressure can also dictate where the whitefronts go to feed.

Even with such large concentrations of whitefronts in one place I've discovered that scouting is essential to finding a prime place to hunt. In addition, with so many live birds in the area, a good sized spread is also important. Hence, when targeting these geese, I spend hours scouting and always try to set up a minimum of 10 to 15 dozen decoys.

When setting up my decoys for whitefronts, I try to represent a large undisturbed group of contently feeding birds. My set consists of a main body of decoys with family units spreading out to feed, new arrivals joining the main flock and an open landing zone to attract and funnel incoming birds. While a spread of all whitefront decoys would be awesome, the vast majority of my spreads are Canada goose decoys with a few whitefront decoys mixed in. In most cases, the whitefront decoys are placed in the landing zone and the upwind end of the spread.

A spread for lessers.

Over the years, I have seen the habits of whitefronts change. Maybe it's because they are becoming more like snow geese or they simply are adapting to hunting pressure. When I first started hunting them, they were quite naïve, easy to decoy and could be harvested throughout the entire morning. They were also easily drawn into range with Canada goose calls. Now, they seem much warier. The majority of whitefronts I shoot these days are taken in during the period of a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunrise and usually require lots of realistic shrill two note whitefront calls to draw them into shooting range.

Canadas
There are two prime times each fall when I hunt greater Canadas around Lake Diefenbaker. The first time is early in the season around mid September and the second time frame is later in the season starting about the middle of November.

I've found that early season honker hunting can be good all around the lake. Which locations are better than others is dependent on what the spring nesting conditions were like. These early hunts are for local geese that nested in the area and are congregating in small groups to feed. In most cases a good shoot can be enjoyed if 120 to 150 Canadas can be found feeding in the same field.