Bird Watcher

There's a lot of honkers in that area, or there have been all year. I haven't looked at them in about two weeks, but they've been there. You guys should have seen the waterfowl where I was in Central KS. I haven't seen as many birds all year around here as I did in three days out there.

Haha! whatever. I don't know about the whole "skilled hunter" thing, but I can sling b.s. in the blind with the best of them. How about Wednesday? I could use a day to get caught up a little at work after the four day weekend, but I should be good to go after a full day at it tomorrow. What do you think? Would that work for you?

When are you going? I'd still like to come up there and hunt with you one day if it would work out. I understand if you are taking your wife though. If you are going to hunt by yourself, let me know and I'll try to come up and hunt with you.

What do you guys think is wrong with them? They were missing feathers on their head and they didn't want to fly. It seemed like they just wanted to sit in the grass or run and none of them were around water.

It was a good time in this forum this year. Marty kind of got me hooked with his early season goose reports and come to find out we hunt the same little corner of the world sometimes. A great place to talk about some hunting some birds and follow along on everyones trials and tribulations without any ego or backlash like I read a lot of on other waterfowl forums. Everyone just having a good time and talking about one of the things we all love to do. P.S... Are you guys quitting or something? Last time I checked, goose season doesn't close until the 31st .

There's nothing more fun than hunting ducks beside a flooded tree in my opinion. Nice hunt.

nice pintail. Sounds like a good time.

Another good one! You went out in style!

nice going Duane. Looks like a good time

Really nice bird Marty. Congratulations. A lot of guys hunt a long time and never get one that nice.

Hard to say. Usually they will, but I think it's key to get in there early and get set up. I always like to be completely set up 30 mins before shooting time when I hunt a scenario like that. The last thing I want to do is let them see me setting up at shooting time. After that? who knows? I guess it all depends on if there is any more open water around and where they are feeding. I saw them using that two Fridays ago, so by the time you hunt them, they will have been in there at least two weeks and they haven't been hunted there all season. You should catch a few by suprise, I think. Good luck on getting a big old sprig too.

I hate those little things! They are always messing up my hunt. They usually fly around in those great big flocks and work the spread about like snow geese. It seems like just about the time I have a nice group of honkers on the approach, a big flock of those chickens come spinning through squawking and they flare the big geese off, then the little geese never get in range and they end up sliding off too. I do think they are a little easier to decoy over water though. Good luck! I hope you get some.

Heck, that's awful nice of you to be considerate like that, but don't worry about me Marty. I'd go shoot em up if I were you. I probably can't goose hunt again until sometime around the last weekend anyway and who knows where those geese would be by then. I'm a big believer in shoot them while you can, because I have never been successful at stockpiling birds. They move around too much. I'd like to try and take off a day or two during the next week or maybe even the 30th or 31st to hunt a couple more times before the season is over and was thinking about trying to hook up with you for one of those days, but I don't know how my workload here is shaking out yet. I'd go bang on those geese at his house though. He doesn't like them and I feel bad that I don't get up there to keep them ran out like I used to. Do you have anyone going with you in the morning or are you going by yourself?

Marty, I know the goose is in good hands. I would trust you to decoy sit for me anytime. I'm sure he's having a good life and getting to do what he loves to do:) I don't know when I'll get back up there. I probably will before the season is over, but I'm going out past Wichita this weekend for 4 days to pheasant and quail hunt so I know it won't be this weekend. It pains me to say that because goose season is still open, but a buddy has been after me to go on this hunt for three years so I guess that's what we're doing. I'm sure it will be a good time, even if it isn't goose hunting. Here is the corned goose recipe. I copied it from another website, so I won't link it on Phil's site here. This recipe has been adapted (slightly) from a corned beef recipe in the Morton Home Meat Curing Guide Quite simple.... and very tasty! 6 to 8 goose breast filets (4 to 6 lbs) 5 tablespoons Morton Tenderquick mix 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon ground paprika 1 teaspoon ground bay leaves 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder Trim, skin, and clean up breast filets (or beef brisket or boneless cut of deer, elk, etc) In a small bowl, mix Morton Tender Quick and remaining dry ingredients and spices (Do NOT substitute any "meat tenderizer" for Morton Tender Quick) Thoroughly rub mixture into all sides of breast filets. Place filets into a plastic bag and close securely. Place in refrigerator and allow to cure 5 days per inch of meat thickness (a week seems to work fine for goose breasts). Place filets in Dutch Oven or stock pot or crock pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer until tender and meat can be separated with a fork, about 3-4 hours.

Yes. a 1998, but it didn't have screws. The solenoid on mine is a solid state piece with leads coming out that are spiced into the wiring harness. I just took my multimeter probe and stuck it up into the splices to read the output voltages while the motor was running. If I rember right, I was supposed to get 13.5v on the lead that went back to my battery, 12v on the lead that went to the coils, and something real light, like .5V on the lead that went to my tachometer. Don't quote me on those, I got the information out of a table in my repair manual. I was getting voltage swings from 11.9 to 12.8 on the lead that went to the coils, I believe. I called the mechanic and he told me the poles on my stator were getting worn if that was happening. I pulled the flywheel and replace and stator and sure enough, 3 or 4 of the poles had cracked epoxy and were starting to seperate. If you can get your hands on a flywheel puller, you can pull the flywheel fairly easy and see the stator to verify if it's getting worn or not before you order a new one if that's what you suspect.

I wish I had an exotic recipe for the sausage, but all I use is the High Mountain kit. It comes with seasoning and casings. You can get about 4 or 5 different recipes, but my favorite is the maple and brown sugar. We coarse grind the goose and then mix it 1:1 or 2:1 with a pork butt and seasoning and grind it again. We put it in a bowl and let it chill again for about 2-4 hrs, then stuff the casings. Pack them 5 or 6 to a bag and vaccum seal them. As for the Jerky, I slice it all on the meat slicer, then I put about 5 pounds of it in a bowl with 2-3 cups of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of sesame oil, 2-3T of crushed red pepper, 2-3T of mustard seed, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 2-3T Garlic Powder let it marinate 24 hrs, tossing it once half way through. Put it on the dehydrator for about 5 hrs or until dry but still pliable.

Brad McCaslin at McCaslin's marine in Carl Junction is the most honest, stand up boat mechanic I've ever found. I've went to him several times over the years with your same scenario. He's not alwaws the mechanic I've used due to location (sometimes I've lived quite aways from him) I've also used mechanics in Grove and Joplin, but He's who I go to if I have something going on like you described. He'll stop at whatever point I ask him to, just check what I ask him to. He's ok with me doing some of the work and him doing the rest as long as I talk to him about it first. The only downside is that he can have a long waiting list. You might be able to get in to his shop this time of year though. I'd call him and talk to him about it. I had the same exact symptoms as you one time and it was my stator. You can check that with a multimeter off your solenoid if you know what voltages you should see. I agree with J-Doc too. Compression is easy to check and it's apparent if you have a problem. It's also the first thing I'd check. Everything else is moot if that's your problem. Trust me, unfortunately I've scorched three outboards in my time.

You know Big Red, I used to be the same way, but I decided that if I was going to hunt them I was going to start figuring out some ways to make them palatable. What I figured out was I had been cooking them wrong the whole time. Here's a list of my fav's Goose salad - (picture Tuna salad or Chicken salad only with shredded goose) The women love this recipe. I can't make it fast enough for them. Eaten on ritz crackers or toast Corned Goose - This disspears real quick too. We usually make a big batch and then vaccum pack them and break them out on fishing trips during the summer Goose bratwurst - once again, disspears as fast as you make it Pot Roast goose - with brown gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots pulled BBQ goose - Cooked in apple juice Goose Kabobs marinated cubes in Italian dressing Goose Jerky Goose gumbo I personally think goose is one of the best meats a guy can get. It gets a bad rap. The secret is you either want to barely cook it (not past medium rare) or you want to cook the daylight out of it-until it breaks down. You don't want to stop in the middle. That's when it's tough and tastes like liver.

I hear ya. Me too. Most of the time I've been doing a little scouting on Saturdays and trying to get a little hunt in on Sunday. The places we've been hunting in Newt. are all real close to my Dad's house, so he's been doing most of the scouting after work and on lunch, etc. We've had some good luck down in the sticks this year. We've been pleasantly suprised a few times with how the hunts turn out after having low expectations. It's the same little flock of resident geese though and every once in awhile some ducks get mixed in with them.

Lol. I haven't put a picture up over there in 3 or 4 years, or a report for that matter. I figure it's relatively safe here on a fishing site. It's still the internet, but this place is a little more obscure of a place to post pictures of hunts and tell stories. If I was over there it'd be NO Water, NO ducks. Yes. Had to of been a 20#. Grey eyebrow, breeding stock from the secluded back bays of Minnesota. Sucker couldn't stay airborne for more than 30 yds at a time.

Good deal Marty! That's some BIG wind out there Today. Do you use a circle meat slicer on your jerky or do you slice it with a knife?

One of my favorite perspectives in the world. It's just too bad I can't view all of my every day life over my gun barrel with decoys out. Hmmm...that may have just given me an idea for the back yard patio area this spring. I wonder what it would look like with fullbody decoys all over my lawn if I replaced the patio furniture with layout blinds.

I love the live waterfowling blog you guys have going here. Could you guys figure out how to stream a live video feed so we can hunt with you via computer? That would be awesome for days I'm stuck at the desk.

Thanks fellas. Yeah, I'm not usually a fan of the tailgate pile photos, but sometimes you just have to do it to see what it would like like if you put them all in one pile.

This kind of falls in line with what you were saying in your "ozarks" post, F&F. With the mediocre bird numbers around, we've been hunting around the house more than I can ever remember. There are always a few birds around the house, but it always seems like there are so many more an hour or two away that it's hard to stay local. This year, there are a few around the house and a few an hour away, so we have just been saying the heck with it and hunting down the road more than ever. We went out Saturday afternoon and didn't see any movement until 5:00 pm and we weren't on a roost, so the few we did see just flew on past in the distance heading back to a big roost lake. Sunday, we decided to try it early and see if we could have a little better luck. It was a pretty good hunt. We were off a little on our set up with the big S-SE wind, but I guess it was good enough. Newton County. 5 minutes from Dad's house. [url=