Goose Fest 2017

[BilletHead]

         Our friends made the trip for three days to visit and try again to do some waterfowl hunting. I think this is eight years straight. We got two hunts in. One a no kill but a neat hunt. The other we succeeded in our try. I got to say it was the coldest hunts we have done and the girls bowed out and decided to keep warm. First place I had scouted the afternoon before. A field near one of the duck parks and less that a mile or two from a refuge. There was a party in that field. I called my farmer friend to ask if it was someone he knew and if he wanted me to stay out. He said he had given what he thought was a local permission to hunt one day and this was not it. He would call them and tell it would be used the next day by us. He then told me the number that was called from. I googled it up and the asker was from Arkansas. I watched the guys hunt. Many , many whitefronts  worked the field, some ducks too. I had a couple hundred of the speckelbellies land not fifty yards from my truck. I suspected the hunter may of educated the birds day before and that they may of been avoiding his spread. About quitting time the guy got up and eight other hunters did too. The farmer called me again and asked if they were gone. I told him how many and they were leaving. Farmer suspected it was a guide and told him not to come back. So next afternoon Brad and I showed up and set up. Hard to hide in a disked corn field. Used rakes to work up cut stalks to aid in hiding. Tried to hide the blinds best we could. Decoys out we were ready. Soon we could see clouds of birds coming. Not a snow or a Canada to be seen . All Specklebellies and I men a bunch. They would bounce from field to field. Ducks too. We had opportunity to maybe take a few ducks working our spread but wanted specks. Well I can say I seen more specks that I have seen in my life in that hunt and never fired a shot. The would circle, set wings and each group would sail our way and then anyone who has hunted waterfowl knows that sound when something they see or sense wings start flapping and up they would go. I have a suspicion what might need to be done different. We had no snow decoys out but all or our bigfoot canadas, a couple dozen full bodied mallards and six speck full bodies.  The ground was frozen solid and we had to drill holes for the decoys that needed stakes. Specks and ducks like snows. Next time I will be drilling like a crazy man to put out every silo sock snow decoy I have. Hope to try that field again. I kid you not we seen five to eight hundred specks that afternoon. Quite a sight.

  Next day we scouted all morning and finally found a field next to town we could hunt. Packed with canadas. Hunt would depend on how fast we could get home and eat. Well by the time we feasted it was too late for that option. At the house the owner of that place called and asked how we had done. I said we did not get to go but may try tomorrow. She said her son wanted to go if we were not. It old her we would not go in that case. She thanked me. I hope he got into them good! Pretty nice to have friends give you permission and it is important to keep them friends and for them to check with me because they had told me first to go. It was  no brainer to back off .

   Then to yesterday Saturday. I told Brad it is up to you about a hunt today. It will be cold but I knew of a place we may score on canadas. Eat early and get there to set up and just wait them out. This field was even sparser with cover where the birds wanted to land. Disked corn with one inch wheat sprouted. There was a ditch that ended up in the field. Hoping that decoys would draw birds close enough to shoot we would set up there. We set out 46 bigfoot canadas and six specks. Brad has a thing about Canada geese and that is his preference so that was the target. We had ducks in and out but they would not commit. If we would of had spinners it would of been a duck hunt. Had one group dive buy that consisted of thirty or more birds. Close enough we could see ninety percent were drake mallards. Had singles and doubles set and roll out. I was beginning to think something was wrong here too? Soon geese started to fly and head towards the field. One group and then another until we had fifty to sixty birds swarming and coming down. Then I heard a vehicle coming down the road. It stopped, a truck running. A lookie loo watching the birds above us. He started moving making birds nervous then backed up, turned around and drove off his pipes singing loud motor sounds. He went one way and the geese another. Oh well . It is what it is. Some smaller groups started coming. A group of five low and hot wings set until they swung in the LZ fifteen yards out. Five foot off the ground we made the call. Three down and another took a hit. It slowly lost altitude and I lost it on the horizon what I guessed a quarter to a half mile away along the road and pasture. Brad scared off another group as he retrieved the three downed birds. A bit later another group we dropped two more. A few minutes before LST would end I went to the truck and drove down the road looking into the cow pasture and there was our sixth bird belly up. A two man limit!

  If I could attach these three pictures you would have a panoramic view of the set up,

  Our blinds are next to the weeds on last picture.

   Brad was happy with this,

    All big fat heavy birds. Official Goose Fest 2017 is history but he said if it got real good he would come back :),

BilletHead

 

[JohnP]

45 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

         Our friends made the trip for three days to visit and try again to do some waterfowl hunting. I think this is eight years straight. We got two hunts in. One a no kill but a neat hunt. The other we succeeded in our try. I got to say it was the coldest hunts we have done and the girls bowed out and decided to keep warm. First place I had scouted the afternoon before. A field near one of the duck parks and less that a mile or two from a refuge. There was a party in that field. I called my farmer friend to ask if it was someone he knew and if he wanted me to stay out. He said he had given what he thought was a local permission to hunt one day and this was not it. He would call them and tell it would be used the next day by us. He then told me the number that was called from. I googled it up and the asker was from Arkansas. I watched the guys hunt. Many , many whitefronts  worked the field, some ducks too. I had a couple hundred of the speckelbellies land not fifty yards from my truck. I suspected the hunter may of educated the birds day before and that they may of been avoiding his spread. About quitting time the guy got up and eight other hunters did too. The farmer called me again and asked if they were gone. I told him how many and they were leaving. Farmer suspected it was a guide and told him not to come back. So next afternoon Brad and I showed up and set up. Hard to hide in a disked corn field. Used rakes to work up cut stalks to aid in hiding. Tried to hide the blinds best we could. Decoys out we were ready. Soon we could see clouds of birds coming. Not a snow or a Canada to be seen . All Specklebellies and I men a bunch. They would bounce from field to field. Ducks too. We had opportunity to maybe take a few ducks working our spread but wanted specks. Well I can say I seen more specks that I have seen in my life in that hunt and never fired a shot. The would circle, set wings and each group would sail our way and then anyone who has hunted waterfowl knows that sound when something they see or sense wings start flapping and up they would go. I have a suspicion what might need to be done different. We had no snow decoys out but all or our bigfoot canadas, a couple dozen full bodied mallards and six speck full bodies.  The ground was frozen solid and we had to drill holes for the decoys that needed stakes. Specks and ducks like snows. Next time I will be drilling like a crazy man to put out every silo sock snow decoy I have. Hope to try that field again. I kid you not we seen five to eight hundred specks that afternoon. Quite a sight.

  Next day we scouted all morning and finally found a field next to town we could hunt. Packed with canadas. Hunt would depend on how fast we could get home and eat. Well by the time we feasted it was too late for that option. At the house the owner of that place called and asked how we had done. I said we did not get to go but may try tomorrow. She said her son wanted to go if we were not. It old her we would not go in that case. She thanked me. I hope he got into them good! Pretty nice to have friends give you permission and it is important to keep them friends and for them to check with me because they had told me first to go. It was  no brainer to back off .

   Then to yesterday Saturday. I told Brad it is up to you about a hunt today. It will be cold but I knew of a place we may score on canadas. Eat early and get there to set up and just wait them out. This field was even sparser with cover where the birds wanted to land. Disked corn with one inch wheat sprouted. There was a ditch that ended up in the field. Hoping that decoys would draw birds close enough to shoot we would set up there. We set out 46 bigfoot canadas and six specks. Brad has a thing about Canada geese and that is his preference so that was the target. We had ducks in and out but they would not commit. If we would of had spinners it would of been a duck hunt. Had one group dive buy that consisted of thirty or more birds. Close enough we could see ninety percent were drake mallards. Had singles and doubles set and roll out. I was beginning to think something was wrong here too? Soon geese started to fly and head towards the field. One group and then another until we had fifty to sixty birds swarming and coming down. Then I heard a vehicle coming down the road. It stopped, a truck running. A lookie loo watching the birds above us. He started moving making birds nervous then backed up, turned around and drove off his pipes singing loud motor sounds. He went one way and the geese another. Oh well . It is what it is. Some smaller groups started coming. A group of five low and hot wings set until they swung in the LZ fifteen yards out. Five foot off the ground we made the call. Three down and another took a hit. It slowly lost altitude and I lost it on the horizon what I guessed a quarter to a half mile away along the road and pasture. Brad scared off another group as he retrieved the three downed birds. A bit later another group we dropped two more. A few minutes before LST would end I went to the truck and drove down the road looking into the cow pasture and there was our sixth bird belly up. A two man limit!

  If I could attach these three pictures you would have a panoramic view of the set up,

  Our blinds are next to the weeds on last picture.

   Brad was happy with this,

    All big fat heavy birds. Official Goose Fest 2017 is history but he said if it got real good he would come back :),

BilletHead

 

Well done Marty.  We were actually up in your neck of the woods yesterday, but to the west a bit.  Ton of birds up there that's for sure.  Didnt see the specs but we watched one big flock of snows bounce the field for several hours before a few broke off started working our way.  Could of been ugly if the bulk of flock would of pulled with them.  Looked like starlings or blackbirds out there zig zagging back and forth.