Over the years, I’ve experienced good lesser hunting all around the lake. However, based on my many years of hunting the Mighty D, I typically tend to concentrate my efforts along the western portion of Lake Diefenbaker and the Saskatchewan River as far west as the Saskatchewan/Alberta Border, around Gardiner Dam, east of the Qu’Appelle Dam and north of the Riverhurst Ferry.

Since this area holds large concentrations of lesser Canadas, I’ve come to realize that a spread of at least 10- to 15-dozen Canada goose decoys is necessary to successfully hunt these geese. One thing that I have noticed while scouting lesser Canadas around Lake Diefenbaker is how they react to hunting pressure. When there in minimal hunting pressure, the geese tend to be very relaxed and spread out when feeding. However, when the hunting pressure is heavy, these geese tend to bunch up real tight while feeding.

My go to decoy pattern for lessers is usually a crescent shaped decoy spread with two or three open and obvious landing zones on the downwind end of the main body of the decoy spread. When hunting relaxed birds, my decoys are generally spaced three to four feet apart and when hunting pressured birds, I tighten my decoys up and set them up one or two feet apart. My blinds are always positioned within the decoys and behind the landing zones which puts them in the middle or slightly upwind portion of the spread.

During the mid October period, it’s quite common to be able to hunt both lesser and greater Canadas on the same hunt. Generally, the lessers come to the decoys at first light and the greaters come later in the morning.

Snows
From mid-September through the end of October snow geese can be found in most areas of the Mighty D. Large concentrations of snow geese form at various locations on the lake and head out daily to feed on surrounding grain fields. When the hunting pressure in one area gets too much for a group of these birds, they simply relocate to a different area on the lake and start feeding elsewhere. While hunting snows around Lake Diefenbaker I’ve observed there are usually more snow geese on the north side of the eastern portion of the lake and along the southern side of the western portion around Galloway and Miry Bays. However, this is not to say that there are not snow geese at other locations around the lake. In addition, it seems that the further west I go, the fewer and fewer blue phase geese and more and more Ross’ geese I see.

Over years of hunting snow geese around Lake Diefenbaker I’ve observed that if the snows are feeding in a field with dark geese, they are more inclined to return the next day as opposed to when they feed in a field by themselves. Thus, I’ve enjoyed good success with mixed spreads of white and dark goose decoys.

The main body of my decoy spread usually consists of thirty plus dozen snow goose decoys positioned two feet apart in a pattern best described as a squashed football. My blinds are positioned in this main body just slightly upwind of the middle of the spread. I then set out two groups of dark decoys each consisting of 10 or more dozen Canada or whitefronted decoys. One dark grouping is deployed upwind of the snow goose decoys on either the left or right side of the spread and the other dark group is positioned downwind of the snow goose spread on the opposite side of the dark upwind decoys.

Like snow goose hunting across North America, I’ve found that motion and realistic decoys are vital to success. Luckily, most areas around this lake seem to get their fair share of wind, so full body and shell decoys on motion stakes along with windsocks work very well.

For most of my snow goose hunts I prefer to set up and hunt larges concentrations of feeding snows. This way, the bulk of the snow geese will fly to my field and hopefully work my decoy spread. However, late in the season, when the geese tend to feed all day long and the weather turns nasty, I change my approach. I try to find a field between two or three feeding fields and target singles, pairs and small groups of snow geese that toggle back and forth between the various feeding groups.

Ducks
The duck hunting around Lake Diefenbaker is greatly impacted by the pothole situation of the areas surrounding the lake. When nesting conditions are good almost any area around the lake can provide great duck hunting opportunities. In these instances, the ducks toggle back and forth between small potholes and stubble fields until the small potholes freeze up. Once the potholes freeze, the local ducks will usually stage on nearby open waters the lake and remain until their feeding sources get snow covered.