First Trip to LAP (Lac Qui Parle)
Growing up just outside the renowned giant goose hunting capital of Rochester Minnesota really didn’t put much pressure on me to chase geese anywhere else in the state. The hunting was pretty consistent from early season until the last day of the year. Also, where you grow up hunting, no matter how good it is, it’s always your favorite place to hunt and that’s the way it will always be with me. But this year offered a new opportunity because of the earlier than normal break in our local season. The Rochester Zone was shut down from Nov. 28th until Dec 8th this year, so I decided to take my first trip out to western Minnesota and hunt a place I have heard and read a lot about… the Lac Qui Parle refuge.
Back in the 1970’s and 80’s the Lac Qui Parle (LAP) refuge was the mecca of goose hunting not only in Minnesota, or the upper Midwest, but for most of the country. LAP is an 11 mile long, ½ wide lake located in the west central part of the state about 25 miles from North and South Dakota. The southern portion of the lake will stay open pretty much year round with the flow of the river coming through it. With open water and countless miles of corn rolling hills, this offers the perfect stop for upwards of 150,000 Eastern Prairie Population (EEP) geese.
The EEP is an interior sub species of the Canada Goose and it weighs anywhere from 5 to 7 pounds. The EPP geese will nest in Northern Manitoba, starting in the Oak Hammock Marsh area all the way through the interlake area and up to churchhill, where the tundra ponds start. These birds flourished in the 70’s and 80’s and increased their breeding ground to the north, but then took a serious hit from native groups killing thousands and thousands during their breeding season year after year. The numbers plummeted and the LAP area suffered, restricting bag limits to even the number of shells you could take to the field.
The population was not able to rebound as quickly because of the birds breeding habits. The EEP goose has a very low breeding success rate….only averaging 2 successful eggs per pair (The Giant Canada Goose averages almost 6 successful eggs per pair) which is a huge difference when you start talking about thousands of nesting pairs each spring. Another hindrance that slowed there recovery is EEP geese don’t start breeding until they are 4 or sometimes 5 years old (resident geese start when they are 2 years old) so with years of poor hatches and kill offs on the breeding grounds the population was at an all-time low through the 90’s and early 2000’s. But now, after ten or so steady springs in the breeding grounds, the EEP goose is back and so is the LAP area for hunting them.
With the migration in full swing and a break from our local hunting I headed west and met up with Shannon Larson, who grew up in this area and has been hunting them all his life. The LAP area has 100 plus local blinds you can draw and hunt from any day (which are right next to the lake and can offer good hunting) but we decided to get out away from the lake and hunt them closer to where they were feeding. EEP birds travel in pretty big flocks usually, because the young from years past stay with the original parents until it’s time for them to breed on their own (which is usually 4 to 5 years) this is why they call them colonies, like snow geese, because they form huge family groups. So hunting EEP usually means decoying big flocks, but it’s all a numbers game, you wait until the smaller flocks come out…which for some reason usually fly lower.
We had two pretty successful hunts, but hunting the EEP can be a challenge (especially with little wind)….here are some key things I picked up on that you might want to try when hunting the area or EEP birds in general.
-Numbers of decoys is key. These birds are used to sitting with a lot of other birds, so numbers gets them excited and comfortable with your set up.
-Don’t waste your energy calling at every flock, pick your battles. Wait for smaller numbered flocks flying lower. You will have a headache after 20 mins if you call at everything.
-Scouting these birds is difficult. Reason being they have huge numbers in fields and feed them out quickly. So pay attention to the behavior of the birds in the field. Moving fast and close to edges means they almost have it feed out.
-When hunting the X try to decoy the first couple flocks. This is key because if you don’t, they will land in the next field and play follow the leader….your day can be done!
-When the weather gets cold they will work the upwind area of the spread (like snow geese) to get to the food, so set decoys and blind accordingly.
If anyone has ever been interested in traveling to LAP make sure to stop in and visit the refuge headquarters located on the east side of the lake. They have information there about the EEP birds, their migration routes and hunting the area in general. Seeing a 150,000 Canada’s in one area is a pretty special sight.
Until next time, hunt alive!
Scott Threinen and Molt Gear
 |  |  |
| ||
 | |  |
| ||
