Sometimes, when you meet people for the first time, it feels like you’re reconnecting with old friends. I’m not sure if it was the setting (a rural parking lot surrounded by great upland cover) or the attire (all my favourite people wear hunter orange). All I know is that when I met Mario Coniglio, Steve Dalrymple, and Andrew Brenner, in late October last year, I immediately felt I was among kindred spirits.
I suspect my Ontario Out of Doors colleagues Ray Blades, Tom Goldsmith, and Tamas Pal felt the same. We had been invited by Coniglio, on behalf of the Conestogo Pheasant Club (CPC), to experience the hunt they had fought so hard to reinstate.
Our road to this hunt was easy. The road Coniglio and his team took to make the hunt happen required far more diligence and effort.
You see, the Grand River Conservation Authority (GCRA) had abruptly canceled this hunt in the spring of 2021. The decision surprised many, for the GRCA pheasant hunting program had offered the hunt at Conestogo Lake since the mid-70s.
It’s fair to say that hunt would be a distant memory, if not for the men hosting us that day. For they knew what had been lost and, more importantly, were unwilling to accept it. Which is why they promptly began advocating for the hunt’s return.
Just over a month after the cancellation, Coniglio started making phone calls to the GCRA. He soon discovered the cancellation was a response to difficulties in managing the pheasant hunting program, which required more hands-on management, resources, and expenses than other GRCA hunting programs.
What bothered Coniglio most, however, was how the decision was made.
“It was also clear that the decision to cancel this 45-year-long, successful, and (to its users) highly valued program was made without any stakeholder consultation whatsoever,” he later wrote.
So, Coniglio, a professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo, put his researching skills to use.
He quickly learned that participation in the hunt had never waned. In 2020, the year before the cancellation, the GRCA sold 125 permits at a cost of $280 each, an indication that the hunt was financially viable.
On January 28, Coniglio led a delegation to a GRCA board meeting to make them aware of the pheasant hunt, discuss reasons for cancellation, and offer an option for reopening the program. His presentation led to a GRCA report that examined their hunting activities and policies, and the reasons for the hunt’s cancellation.
Coniglio brought Dalrymple, Brenner, and Jim Baker (president of the Grand River chapter of the North American Versatile Hunting Dogs Association) into the conversation.
OFAH Membership Director-at-Large Tony Jackson, whose experience in dealing with conservation authorities and connection with the OFAH also proved instrumental. Jackson provided OFAH advice, perspective and protocols, and played an important role in funding and fundraising efforts.
The team began formulating a plan for reinstating the hunt. On April 22, they attended a GRCA Board meeting, bearing letters of support from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) and the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association – Ontario Grand River Chapter (NAVHDA - OGR).
They also delivered a letter discrediting the reasons for the hunt’s cancellation and asking the Board to consider a volunteer-run hunt. The case they made was undeniable.
On July 22, the GRCA released an expression of interest (EOI) document calling for a volunteer-based controlled pheasant hunt at Conestogo Lake.
The deadline was October 3, 2022. The OFAH responded in time as the third party and provided operational plans for the Conestogo pheasant program, as well as declarations of insur-ance, governance, statement of experience, and other pertinent assurances.
Coniglio and his group were involved throughout. Their hard work, which required 280 volunteer hours at that point, paid off when a license agreement, between the GRCA, OFAH and newly formed Conestogo Pheasant Club (CPC), was finalized on March 24, 2023. The CPC, with Coniglio as its president, became an OFAH-affiliate club in February 2023. It was tasked to run the three-year pilot hunt, which ends after the 2025 season.
If our hunt was any indication, the CPC is doing a fine job. The seven of us went afield behind Benelli, Coniglio’s German shorthaired pointer, and Eisen, a German wirehaired pointer owned by Dalrymple, CPC secretary. Watching them work the dense cover was a pleasure. Seeing the birds flush hard as they did was icing on the cake.
What truly made the upland trifecta complete, however, was the setting. For the hunt property, situated on 700 acres of Area Three of the Conestogo Lake Conservation Area, holds wonderful cover for pheasants and hunters alike. Its gently rolling terrain is carpeted with chest high grassy fields, interrupted by dense hedgerows, cat-tail edged ponds, and ribbons of trees and forest.
By the time our day was done, Blades, Goldsmith, and I had each taken two-bird limits, while our generous hosts handled their dogs, and Pal took photos. It was a wonderful hunt in every way.
As I write this a decision has yet to be made on what the 2026 season will bring. Coniglio and Jackson remain positive, nonetheless.
“It appears that the program is being well received by GRCA staff,” Jackson said.
From an outsider’s perspective, there’s no reason to believe that the CPC hunt will not continue. It’s self-sufficient, popular, and financially viable – a testament to the volunteers that make it happen. This year, at Conestogo Lake Conservation Area the pheasants will once again flush, the dogs will be worked, and a good time will be had by all.
“We can’t stress enough how critically important OFAH support has been in making the club a reality (both mothership OFAH as well as the local OFAH Zone J) – with strong guidance in the early stages of discussion with GRCA, to being a signatory on the three-year license agreement to essential financial support to get the club launched with the resources we needed.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the CPC would not have happened if it were not for OFAH…” Mario Coniglio, CPC President stated.
Getting there: Conestogo Pheasant Club’s hunting area is approximately a 40-minute drive northwest of Kitchener.
Bird releases: Birds are released from Sept. 25 to Nov. 28, 2025. The property is closed on Sundays and at noon on Thursdays for releases. Hunts start at 8 a.m. To discourage crowding, members can only hunt if they find a spot in the 17-vehicle parking lot.
Cost: Membership costs $280 per season, sold online in June. They sell out quickly. Fees support the purchase and release of 1,000 or more birds each season, as well as maintenance, administrative and licensing costs.
For club info visit: www.conestogopheasantclub.ca
Originally published in the Ontario Out of Doors 2025-2026 Hunting Annual
Contact Information
PO Box 2800 / 4601 Guthrie Dr.
Peterborough, Ontario Canada K9J 8L5
Phone: 705-748-OFAH (6324)
Fax: 705-748-9577
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