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.

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.

In many of these early season hunts, the geese are still in family units and often come from multiple roosts. When I encounter such a scenario, I’ll deploy no more than two to three dozen decoys. I set them up in family groups consisting of two to seven birds, with large open spaces between the groups. If all goes well, the geese will come to the field at different times and offer several shooting opportunities. As each group approaches, I’ll work them with a few soft clucks and moans until it’s time to shoot.

In November when surrounding wetlands freeze solid, the local greaters along with honkers from the more northerly portions of the province start to congregate on the open waters, back bays and sandbars of Diefenbaker. When they do, they offer some great hunting opportunities. In most years, the shooting action can extend well into December and there have even been years when there have still been geese around after the season is over.

Later in the season, these big geese are more concentrated so I generally use six to eight-dozen full body Canada goose decoys. Since most of the mornings are frosty this time of the year, I use all fully flocked decoys like the Greenhead Gear full body Canada decoys to eliminate frost build up and decoy shine.

My go to spread is a “U” shape with my blinds positioned on the downwind edge of the main decoy spread. I usually space my decoys three feet apart and place most of my feeders around and upwind of the blinds, with the majority of active decoys downwind of the blinds.

During these late season hunts, the arrival of birds to feeding locations can and does vary. In many instances, the birds go to a once a day feeding pattern and as result, they periodically fly out to feed later in the morning than they did earlier in the season. On extremely cold days, I’ve even experienced geese waiting until early afternoon to head afield. Regardless, I’m always prepared and ready to go at legal shooting time.

Between hunting the greater Canadas early and late in the season, there is a period when migrating lesser Canadas start staging on the Mighty D. In most years, the lessers start arriving in the Lake Diefenbaker area in late September and depending on the weather are basically gone by the end of October or early November. The peak of this annual lesser Canada goose migration usually occurs the last three weeks of October.