Brenden Gallagher for SPLIT REED
Only mere minutes from the border of New York, St. Lawrence Outfitters in Ontario, Canada, is a goose hunting destination unlike most across Canada. While the daily bag limit may be less than that in other areas of the province, the quality of hunting and personability of the guiding crew is unrivaled, in this writer’s opinion. This being my first trip to Canada, I was unsure of what to expect. The trip included many firsts for me, my first time out of the U.S., my first time on a commercial airplane, and my first time traveling internationally under the heavy burden of COVID regulations and mandates. Although this trip was brief I can say for certain that I look forward to rejoining the St. Lawrence crew this coming Fall.
Owner of St. Lawrence Outfitters David Roy started waterfowl hunting at a young age with his father. Although his father was not himself a guide, David started bringing out his father’s friends and clients on hunts when he was only 12 years old. David’s vision for the future was actually to start a fishing lodge and after finishing college he had his sights set on buying a fishing camp. The journey to find a fishing camp quickly led him back to St. Lawrence where he fell back into his waterfowl roots and officially started St. Lawrence Outfitters from scratch in 1999. By the time he was 25, David and St. Lawrence Outfitters were still relatively small, guiding mostly big water hunts for mallards, divers, and Canada geese. Soon the books started filling up, David brought on more guides and the focus shifted to chasing Canada geese in dry fields, guiding 3-4 groups a day throughout the Fall.
“Ontario is an interesting area. It’s changed over the past 10 years, our duck hunting has declined from what I’ve seen but for Canada geese, Ontario is a big holding area for those birds at least where we are at. So it’s primarily Canada goose hunts and now we are actually starting to see the greater snow geese come our way more, which is becoming a pretty big part of our operation too. The biggest thing for our province is the great hunting and it’s very easy for people to drive here from the states for anyone coming up on a 2-3 day hunt and for those who want to bring their dogs”. Although St. Lawrence Outfitters is known for its world-class goose hunting, don’t let that fool you- the province still has tremendous puddle duck hunting, as well as big water diver hunting, spring snow goose hunting, and turkey hunting. “Our diver hunts are mainly goldeneyes but it’s really good hunting. The goldeneye hunts are great from about mid-December till about early January, it is a pretty late hunt but it’s phenomenal. The other interesting thing we do is a ton of Canada goose hunts over the big water and it’s possible to have some good combo hunts shooting both ducks and geese”.
Like most of Canada, Fall is a busy season. Between all the different birds to chase but with the nearly 23 years of guiding experience, the crew at St. Lawrence has things patterned out to a T. “From September till the end of October it’s pretty much Canada geese only, we get our snow geese at the tail end of October and they’ll stay here till the weather pushes them out. This is one of their final staging areas so they’ll be here till about the beginning of December and if the weather’s mild, up until about Christmas. Our duck hunting runs usually from November to January”.
St. Lawrence Outfitters has access to around 400 square miles of some of the best hunting grounds in the province and has accommodations for up to 16 people. A luxurious river cottage that sleeps 8 or the aptly named lodge itself The Roost which also sleeps up to 8. The most common type of hunting situation is from an a-frame blind which grants clients the best opportunity to watch birds cup up and commit to the decoys. However, while I was visiting, we had the chance to hunt big Canada geese in a standing corn hide, which if you haven’t guessed it, is pretty incredible.
Aside from the big geese are the big snow spreads which become a daily part of Fall guiding life and as any seasoned snow goose hunter knows it’s just a matter of time before someone shoots a banded bird. However, I presume, many of you aren’t looking hard enough for the type of bands this crew is after.
This is a toe band. Something I was very unaware of until now but may just be more common than you think. “Toe bands get missed a lot, it’s only every so often I look for them but I have a guide who’s really into them. He’ll tear through a whole pile of birds looking for them, he’s actually found quite a few of them in the past and to my understanding, they’re only put on the juvenile snows if they are too small to actually band. They also have them on Canada geese sometimes too”. According to an article published by Ducks Unlimited, these tags were originally designed for use on fish but have thus been adopted by waterfowl biologists to mark young birds that were too small to be leg banded as David suggests.
I certainly hope I can find myself back up in Canada with the St. Lawrence crew this Fall whether it’s hunting honkers in dry fields or chasing big spins of snow geese in search of toe bands. St. Lawrence offers incredible hunting for large numbers of birds, hard-working guides, and a rooted hunting experience unlike many other outfitters in Canada.
If that sounds like something you’re interested in make sure to visit St. Lawrence Outfitters at their website or head to their listing here at Split Reed!
Sources Referenced: Understanding Waterfowl: Waterfowl Bands and Other Markers (ducks.org)
