2010 is a wrap

I went out for the last day of the late goose season on Feb 15. We have been getting some geese back in the area. So after not hunting last week I was itching to get out. Since I have always seen geese over on the other side of town I elected to hunt over there, even though I scouted the fields by my house and saw geese. In hind sight that was a bad gamble, apparently the geese haven't come back too strong cross town yet. I got out and set up by 8 am which for me is late but I was fairly certain they wouldn't fly early.
Around 9 am I saw my first 4 pack fly out off the roost, not even close to coming my way.
Soon after that I saw my first yote...... yes I said yote. He was walkin' around, a couple hundred yards away, so I didn't give him too much notice. I did give him a couple clucks and some moans to see if he would come closer, he didn't. So I waited for the geese.
Around 10am I saw another yote, I did the same thing to see if he would come closer, and to my surprise he did. He keyed in on the furthest decoy from me and started putting on a nonchalant stalk. He got to within inches of the super mag shell decoy before he realized it was not real. When he spun around to walk away I let the big dog bark. I rolled up that yote at least 4 times and he just kept on trotting away. I knew he was hit pretty bad and I was waiting for him to drop. He just kept walkin' away, I watched him cross the fence line and disappear.
It turned Noon and I was certain I had some time to kill before the geese flew. So I started tracking the yote I shot earlier. I was surprised to see how little blood this dog was leaking. I got up to where he crossed the fence and I tracked him down the fence line. He jumped up 30 yards down the fence line I got off one quick shot and he ran across the next field and the next before I lost him.
Back to tracking, I saw he was headed for a ditch so I cut back to the east to try and get him to go to the west. When I hit the ditch I started pushing it to the west. I heard a rustle in the bushes I raised my shotgun and located the noise, it was a red tailed hawk. Upon closer inspection I saw that this hawk was caught in 2 leg hold traps set for yotes. He had one foot in each trap, I wasn't going to just leave him, so I leaned my gun against a tree took off my coat and covered the hawk. As soon as he was covered he didn't struggle at all, he just let me untrap him. Even though he was free he still sat on the ground making himself look as big as possible until I turned around and walked away.
Back to the task at hand, I tracked that yote all the way across the field I was goose hunting, until I ran out of land I had permission to hunt. It was a mile and a half round trip from start to finish through some rather deep snow.
So when I got back to my blind I was ready for some rest and relaxation. I waited until sunset to see if I could get a goose but no luck. They just didn't want to come down to where I was. I did have a dozen or so come in a couple hundred yards to my east but I couldn't get them to commit to my spread.
So I didn't get a goose or the coyote, I did save a red tailed hawk and oh yeah did I mention I was covered up in ducks all day? It was pretty cool they just kept coming in and buzzing my spread.
Here's the video-

2010 Hunting Season Breakdown

Species | Days Afield | Number of Critters Taken

Turkey --------1----------------1

Deer -----------21---------------0

Dove ----------1/2--------------0

Pheasant--------1---------------1

Waterfowl-----44----------15 ducks/21 geese

Rabbit-----------1----------------1

Total--68 1/2-----39

Wow the numbers don't lie, looks like I should have brought some more meat home.
Well there's always next year, and I have alot of room for improvement. So until then, happy fishing and if you get out for some Turkey hunting good luck.
I know I'm going to try to get out for one.

Happiness is 2 matched sets

The calls from Left to Right are: Smoke/Max-4 - Straight Meat Mallard and Straight Meat Honker, Chartreuse/Blue - Straight Meat Honker and Dead Meat Mallard.
The last piece of my completed perfect sets came in today.
I started my "collection" with the specially ordered Char./Blue Straight Meat Honker. I bought it back in 09' and ever since I bought that 1 call I knew I needed more.
The reason is: these are the best sounding, easiest calls to use that I have found.
Since I had just started field hunting I knew that was the perfect excuse....um... reason to add the calls needed to complete my sets. So I picked up the Smoke/Max-4 Straight Meat Honker. After that I got the Straight Meat Mallard used, for half the price of new. Yes I washed it thoroughly.
Finally to finish out the set I ordered the Dead Meat Mallard, and it arrived in the mail today.
I would Love to say these calls are the "magic calls" that all waterfowler's are looking for. You know, the ones that call in every passing duck and goose with just one breath of air.
I know that's not going to happen, however with some practice I can certainly tip the scales in my favor.
So as this season passes and I anxiously await next years season. I'll be watching "the tapes" just as I have in previous years. I'll get as much practice as I can, without driving my wife insane.
Speaking of my wife I should probably say Thank You, for allowing me to continually indulge my hobbies.
Thank You Sarah
I Love You

Mother Nature is a comedian

I wished and wished for snow, snow like I grew up with.
Ya know when they say be careful what you wish for you just might get it? Well I got it.... feet of snow in just a couple days.
That all by itself is not a bad thing, the bad thing is that Late Goose season just started the day before the snow storm.
Now all that's left is snow..... 95% of my geese have flown south to get to some food. I just got back from scouting and saw 6 geese on a pond that has an aerator in it. The worse news is that the temps are going to drop tonight and tomorrow with wind chills below 0. That really doesn't bother me except it should freeze up any remaining open water and push the 6 geese in the area south.
The only good news is that it is supposed to get up to 40 degrees this weekend. I can only hope we shed enough snow, and get some geese back so I can hunt the last day of season.
If the snow only held off another 2 weeks you would be looking at pics of happy hunters and piles of geese. Sadly this is not the case, here I sit blogging about not hunting instead of blogging about the hunt.
Well think warm happy thoughts for me, I might only have 1 more day to goose hunt.
Guess it's time to start thinkin' about shootin' some yotes.

Late season opened today

I went out for the late season goose opener this morning. I went out to my buddy Tom's place --I didn't do any scouting but there are always geese out there.
I was not disappointed around 10 am they lifted off of the roost and came over to see me. They were right on track to enter the kill zone when they just took a hard left. I watched as they went to the end of my field and looked to set down, all but a four pack that was headed back my way. So I turned my attention to the four still coming my way, as they got closer I noticed the other 25-30 geese coming straight at me low and silent. I switched to calling to them, as they closed the distance I got a little trigger happy and called the shot a little too soon. I did put one down but couldn't drop any more. Well the whole flock saw me drop one of there own so the rest turned tail and went back to the roost.
So I waited...... at 1 pm I had 2 come from my left and try to cross out in front of me. They came in silent and I couldn't find my call to place them better into range (had it tucked into my jacket so it wouldn't freeze up) so I just waited for them to get closer. I ran her dry on those two and I know I smacked the first one (I heard the shot hit) but he didn't fall. After going to make sure he didn't drop on his way back to the roost I got back into the blind and continued to sleep-- I mean, hunt.
Well after 2-ish the blizzard that was suppose to hit did, the winds picked up and the decoys blew over. That's when I knew it was time to hang it up and head for home.
I didn't get any pics because of the snow and wind so hopefully this blizzard will pass by tomorrow and I'll be able to hunt on Thursday.
I'm not sure why my shooting was sub par, the only excuse I can use is I hadn't shot in two weeks.