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THE FISHING PAPER & HUNTING NEWS - OCTOBER 2018
The Judge and flocking cacklers Graham Gurr
Izembek Lagoon is 330,000 acres of National wildlife refuge halfway down the Aleutian Chain in Alaska. It is a staging ground for millions of birds on their migration from the Arctic to points south. Featuring one of the world’s largest natural eel grass habitats, it is also home to almost the entire population of Pacific Brant geese (last count 150,000) many of which migrate to Mexico and back each year. It is the best place on earth to see Pacific Brant, Seller’s eider, Empire geese and cackling geese — the miniature version of the Canadian goose.
When the opportunity arose to hunt ducks and geese there, and do a little salmon fishing on the side, I took my good friend and
the hunting season and, interestingly, many locals like to take their winter vacation in New Zealand and Australia. We were met by Jeff, owner and head guide of Four Flyways Outfitters, and his crew, Mark and Scott (aka Scooter), and taken to meet two other hunters, a father and son duo, Rob and Bob. All the locals were in T-shirts; personally, I found it bloody cold. Jeff suggested a hunt before dinner, so we boated a few miles from town to find Mark, Scott, and Rob had gone by car, walked in a couple of miles across untracked land and had the decoys ready for us. Laying out on the beach and covering ourselves with dead eelgrass, we waited for
Bearfoot Inn is the social hub of Cold Bay only open 4 nights a week, go every night they open and you stand a good chance of meeting everybody that lives in Cold Bay
regular hunting companion, the Judge. We flew from Anchorage in a twin engine Saab to Cold Bay, which has a permanent population of 56. This doubles during
the Brant to arrive. All the decoys, both the silhouette and floating full body, were Brant so I assumed that’s what we were there for. I have always wanted to hunt
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Gurr, left, at bay and looking cold!
Brant and, it turns out, early in the season they are as hard as early season parries. Some calling and they came straight into the decoys. We had a couple of hours of regular flights and ended up with at least two and some three (a limit)birds apiece. Bob stole the show shooting a double-banded bird. Back to the lodge for dinner. Audrey, Jeff’s wife, did the cooking and mighty fine it was too. Limited by the lack of fresh vegetables, she still managed to turn out superb meals every evening. All goods come into Cold Bay by air or every two weeks by barge, and fresh veg lasts about a day. The local pub and social hub of the town was open four nights a week. The Judge and I went twice and met most of the locals — Rose the bar lady made sure of that.
Everything revolved around the tides and the weather forecast. We set off in two boats, a Zodiac and an aluminium hulled whaler, and I soon discovered that Izembek Lagoon is only a few feet deep at low tide, with most of the eelgrass out of the water. Navigation is through the shifting channels, which change annually, so a 30-minute ride as the crow flies may take a couple of hours through the channels at low tide. Our destination was close to the Pribilof Islands, which are out on the Bering Sea. As we approached a wide river mouth, we saw bears, 10 before we even landed. A mother with three large cubs defended her patch of estuary, where salmon were running, by charging us. Jeff shouted, “Hey Bear — Go away Bear”, which did the trick; first, the cubs rushed
off into the scrub and, when they were out of sight, the sow ambled after them. We dropped the decoys on the tide edge and backed into the long grass along the shoreline. The tide was coming in and soon had the decoys floating. The first to decoy were the Brant; Jeff called as they flew past and most groups turned and gave us a shot. Green wing teal were also trading up and down the shoreline but flew so fast, the first thing you registered, was watching them depart. The rising tide moved other birds: honkers (Canada geese) need fresh water to drink, unlike Brant who process salt water, so as the tide pushed them off the eelgrass they flew inland to feed and drink. Mostly they flew behind us, which required a swift about face
to get a shot. As I had placed h myself with a large rock to w act as cover and a backrest, f turning became somewhat h I of a chore. In the end I o moved a couple of yards a so I could shoot behind, a which was just as well as three honkers appeared just f after I’d moved. Bob got one, the Judge got one, and o I managed to scratch down I b the last one as it sped by. — They turned out to be n cacklers, the smallest of the t Canada goose family; there t are two types of cackler one smaller than the other with a shorter bill. I took a picture with a green wing teal to show just how small they were. I would have liked to have it mounted but Jeff said we would probably get a better one for mounting by the end of the week. Turned out to be the only one I shot.
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