Last spring on our snow goose hunt just north of Quebec City, I found myself along with my mates putting a lot of trust into a very young guide at a local outfitter. One of many! This was our second season and the previous year we had chosen terrible guides.
I often asked myself. What does it take to be a guide? Being a guide must not be a job which can be taken lightly. You would have to deal with a tremendous amount of pressure; coming from your clients who paid lots of money and sometimes expect the impossible. You would have to be very confident and very skilled. Of course you would also have take into consideration that being a guide is a business, so there is also this whole added world, the existence of the business, your presence on the Internet, marketing and much more.
Were the guides skills and knowledge passed down through a teacher or were they acquired through years of experience? You must have a successful record and great reviews.
As a client though you also have a responsibility of being respectful and most of all being reasonable, most hunters know that the guides have no control over the weather, neither bird or mammal behavior. So be patient and do not allow yourself to get frustrated. I have the perfect example of this.
We had being lying in our blinds for well over an hour and the birds were staying close to the shoreline in groups of five or six and were out of range to the west. So, a couple of impatient and frustrated hunters got up and decided this would be a good time to take a much-needed break, I don’t blame them it was getting really warm. Within ten minutes of them being gone, a group of snow geese flew in nice and low just overhead and I harvested two.
Actually, I just about blew my shoulder off as I was trying out new ammunition and had used two Remington hypersonic steel shells and I found it way too powerful. I much prefer the Remington Sportsman Hi-Speed Steel, three inch, #3 shot for goose and duck and it is very effective.
This is different of course if you are hunting at an outfitter which has a fenced in territory in which case you are pretty much guaranteed your trophy or harvest.
The guide must have the same if not superior knowledge in our case about snow geese. This means being familiar with their feeding patterns, knowing and understanding the tides, the winds and this has a direct impact on your blind placement.
The task at hand can be a very challenging one indeed. This is a topic which I will continue to explore throughout my hunting seasons and over time, I will be able to choose the best guides for my classic hunts.
In the end I realize that if you are a true hunter at heart and you can appreciate the knowledge and experience of the guides you chose then this makes the experience a much more enjoyable and memorable one regardless of age.
Turns out our guide was very skilled and we had a great harvest but most of all, we had a blast. The waterfowl season is only a few weeks away now and I am, like many others extremely excited!
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