Quebec Welcomes Hunters with Open Arms and Garbage Bags
Bill Miller 08.18.14
What’s your pleasure? Puddle ducks? Geese? Ruffed grouse? Woodcock? Sea ducks? Whichever, the days are quickly ticking off the calendar. Prime time will soon be here. Do you have your hunts booked for this fall?
My own dance card is pretty full, but as I seek to plan hunts for the gaps, my starting point is the Quebec Outfitters Federation website. They are the best place to connect you with the province’s finest operations.
Though I’m a Midwesterner born and bred, Quebec has become a hunting home away from home for me over the years. I’ve sampled all the hunting Quebec has to offer, and I keep going back. It’s a place where hunters are truly appreciated.
A few years back, I was hunting with an outfitter in Quebec a couple of hours northeast of Montreal. From his comfy base camp on the shores of Lac St. Pierre, we hunted ducks in the morning and woodcock in the afternoon. It was terrific, and despite eating delicious duck dinners, we soon had our possession limit.
To keep us hunting, the outfitter made arrangements for us to venture southwest of Montreal for a morning of field goose shooting. The outfitter drove us through the wee hours, and we enjoyed a limit morning on Giant Canadas. To celebrate, he suggested lunch at a restaurant owned by a friend in Montreal’s Little Italy. That sounded just right to all of us!
We wound through Montreal’s maze of streets arriving in front of what I call a “fancy restaurant.” Five of us piled out of the jammed pickup truck, and the valet took the vehicle. We stood before this restaurant’s glass and marble façade dressed as typical goose hunters. I recall I wore insulated camo bibs, but on top I’d stripped down to my sweat-stained long underwear shirt, with muddy knee-high clod kickers on my feet. My expression must have revealed my misgivings because the outfitter said, “No problem, no problem.”
We went in, and despite the owner’s genuine welcome, it felt like every eye in the room followed us. It stayed that way throughout a terrific four-course luncheon during which the owner circulated table to table speaking to smartly-dressed diners in French and Italian. They all watched us!
I noticed that during our meal, nobody had left. Everyone who had been there when we walked in was still there when we finished more than an hour later! When we stood up, they all stood up. All of them, including the owner, followed us to the curb where the valet had returned the beat-up truck.
Then I saw the garbage bags under the owner’s arm. During his rounds at lunch, he let all the patrons know we had geese we might be willing to share—and share we did!
I hopped in the bed of the pickup and started doling birds into the bags our new friends held open. Twenty weighty birds were soon distributed. I remember a kiss on both cheeks from a woman to whom I explained (through an interpreter, mind you) my favorite way to pluck, dress, and prepare Canada geese.
More than any other place I’ve been, particularly big cities, Montreal and Quebec have an appreciation for hunters. They welcome us with open arms—and garbage bags!
Tip of the Week
When positioning your ThermaCELL near a blind, make sure the unit has air circulation all the way around. Don’t lay it down on a solid surface or clip it against something that restricts air circulation. The best plan is to push a stick in the ground and clip the ThermaCELL to the top of it about 18 to 24 inches up. That will create a “zone of protection” the fastest.
Bill Miller’s least favorite question is, “What is your favorite kind of hunting?”
He dislikes it so much because any answer may hint he’s willing to give up one or more of the lesser favorites. But if you press him really hard, his answer will be, “I really like anything I can hunt with a shotgun and over good dogs.”
At an early age, Bill became shotgunning addicted. Instead of an allowance in cash money, Bill earned shotgun shells for his chores around the family home. Then on Sunday afternoon’s he would haul an old Trius Trap out to the field behind the house on to the make shift “trap range” he’d mowed into the tall grass with the push mower. Then his dad would join him to supervise the shooting of the shells earned during the week.
About the same time, at age 11, Bill figured out he wanted to make his living experiencing outdoor adventures and sharing them with others. He wanted to be an outdoor writer. In the decades since, he has lived and continues living his dream.
He travels widely enjoying adventures close to home as well as on five continents. He shared his adventures on national networks hosing and producing shows for NBC Sports, Versus, Outdoor Channel, Wild TV, Sportsman Channel and others. He appeared on ESPN for 13 season on "Shoot More, Shoot More Often." During the production of “The Shooting Sports” for ESPN, Bill was honored to shoot frequently in the company of members and coaches of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team.
In 2012, participated in the Armed Forces Entertainment Outdoor Legends Tour to Afghanistan to entertain men and women serving in the military -- in his words, "...it was the greatest honor in my career and a life changing experience. His latest venture is a new book, "Reflections Under the Big Pine" he co-authored and published with K.J. Houtman.
