All duck hunters listen to the stories; but the greatest stories come from just a few select places. Those few places that every water-fowler must visit before his place in the big blind in the sky is secure.

Every duck hunter has heard tales about groups of 200 falling through the Arkansas pin oaks, or green wings in groups of 40 buzzing into the Cameron Parish marshes of south Louisiana. Don't forget about the storied gunning tradition of the eastern shore and its massive flocks of Canada's and black ducks. These places are wrapped with tradition, and most who have visited have an incredible story to tell.

Could Saskatchewan, Canada, be the Mecca? Hard to say, but I have never spoken with a single hunter that was not amazed at the sheer volume of ducks and geese in that corner of the world. Although I had heard hundreds of incredible stories about the fabled pea fields of central Saskatchewan I had never been able to make it up there.

I can recall word for word the stories Steve Mealman would tell me about his hunts on the great Quill Lakes, most of the time my mouth was wide open as I listened. Photographs; incredible photos of massive tornados of ducks and geese gorging themselves in the Lentil fields - they kept me from sleeping well many, many nights.

Finally the time had come; a chance to see it for myself. My only regret going was I wouldn't see it with Steve for the first time. Steve couldn't make the trip; someone had to hold down the fort at Firewater while I got to see Saskatchewan for the first time.

But, the guy that would be my host was no slouch. Fred Zink and I had met last summer at a product-testing meeting at Avery's duck camp outside Stuttgart. Fred, and his team spend the entire month of October in Saskatchewan testing decoys, calls, and every piece of gear they can get their hands on. After my not so subtle hints, he explained he'd like to see if he could get Yella to break by throwing a couple hundred Canada's in her face. I explained that it normally takes much less than that to get her to go. One is usually plenty to get her to break. The major product that Fred was sharpening - the most important new product we'd test - would be a good-looking rig of lesser Canada's designed with motion stakes by Greenhead Gear.

Fred had some concerns about the color differences between greater, and lesser Canada's and he wanted to make sure the paint was perfect. I didn't see why it was that big a deal; he had already made what most considered the best working decoys in the world, "Why can't you just make em' smaller." I asked. He showed me a couple hundred photos that he had taken of the birds throughout their migration. The difference in color between lessers and greaters is pretty amazing once you study them. Lesser Canada's are darker than their big brothers. He also explained that as birds migrate farther south they begin to darken. I had no idea, but the pictures proved it.

These guys are over the top on detail which says a lot about why Greenhead Gear has had the success in the decoy market they have.

I arrived in Saskatchewan about noon, and Fred was waiting at the hotel when I pulled in. He said "Hey", scratched Yella's head, and said, "get dressed we gotta go...right now."

After spending the morning amazed all over my steering wheel looking at field after field full of geese, and ducks I was plenty motivated. Having hunted for a few years I have seen a few different set-ups so I expected the fairly standard deal of pull the trailer up, jerk the decoys and blinds out and get it on.

Nope; when you hunt with Zink you have to do some serious dirt moving first! Camouflage is the key. Power Hunters were dug in a solid 6", and cameramen were put into 3' holes. Piles of pea stubble are raked up, and blinds are completely covered. It's very serious business. Yella followed around whoever had the rake. After the stubble was raked up, about 50 peas would be laying exposed. She's a big fan, and ate about 12 lbs. of peas before we ever got started.

After the work was done, we were gone. The only visible thing in the field was the dog blind, which became a tiny hump of stubble after Fred's team got done with it.

I won't give away the hunt, but I will say we had an incredible trip and Yella picked up lots of geese, and the longest mark was 20 yards. Get up there as soon as you can!

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