Ducks and Geese

From the outlet of Little Lava Lake, 4,739 feet above sea level, the Deschutes River gets its start. Over the next 252 miles, the river drops 4,579 feet to meet the mighty Columbia. In its upper reaches, it’s a placid stream that winds its way through the pines, gathering its power from the Little Deschutes,…

When leaves turn to gold and skeins of waterfowl are on the wing, it’s time to take your shotgun and camouflage out of the closet. Waterfowl season is here and there’s no better place to slow down and focus on the hunt than on a river. If you don’t have a dog or the patience…

It’s that time of year again. You can smell a difference in the early morning air. It means school and football are starting soon and coho are moving up the Columbia. It also means September’s early goose season is upon us. The September Canada Goose Hunt is designed to reduce the number of resident western…

All was quiet in the last moments of the night. Soon day would push back the dark. Was it my imagination or were the geese moving out on the lake? We lay in the middle of a group of Canada goose decoys in a cut-over barley field, watching the eastern sky pale through loosely-woven burlap…

I played a round of golf the other day with a golfing writer from Bend and he told me how excited he got when he shot his first birdie. “Me too,” I said. I let him tell his story first. I didn’t tell him about my first birdie. Throughout the game, I kept an eye…

It’s a hunt designed to shift pressure from private croplands to the refuges in the Klamath basin and it’s focused on one species – the greater white-fronted goose. GWF’s, also called specklebellies or specks, begin flying through the basin in September on their way to the Sacramento Valley. In January, they start their way back…

When the temperature drops and the first thin film of ice forms on the lakes, ducks have to go somewhere to find open water. That’s when mallards make for the river. If you don’t have a dog or a truckload of decoys but still want to hunt waterfowl this winter, go after them in a…