Goose is winding down

So what do you do when waterfowl starts winding down? Well you find something else to hunt, I chose to go after some fur, namely coon.
Since last week I have been out on 2 nite hunts and one daytime hunt. The first nite hunt didn't net me anything, I didn't even see a set of eyes. The first daytime hunt grounded 1 coon with 2 more just peekin' out of their den trees.

Last nite my buddy Nick and I went out on a full moon for a coon hunt. Now I have never done well on a full moon, last nite was a good change of luck. Nick thinks it was all him, and to tell you the truth I won't argue cause we brought home a coon apiece. Unfortunately we didn't have any come into the call, we saw ours spying from the treetops.

I took these pics with my old camera (I left my new one at home)

 

 

Nick with his coon

Next week goose opens for a couple days, I will get to hunt one of the days. Then it's probably coon til the end of the month, late goose comes in for the first 2 weeks of Feb.
Then it's all done til next year. So sad.   : (

Hunting slump is over

For the past couple of weeks my hunting and more to the point shooting has been lacking. It seems that when I have had shots I just couldn't seal the deal. Whether the geese were too far, or the coons just wouldn't come out of their tree, or I just plain missed.
The last couple of weeks have been a testament to my fortitude, due to the simple fact that I have come home empty handed and still managed to go out the next day to try my luck.
Well yesterday, that all changed for the better. I was hunting the river and had a flock of geese come in early, long story short I ran her dry with not a feather to show for my efforts. I thought they might be out just a little far out so I changed to my full choke and settled back to wait for the next flock. Fortunately it didn't take too long, I worked 'em in with dare I say some skill and then took my shots. I had 1 goose fall, after unloading on the flock I got up to untie the boat and go get my prize. I almost made it past my decoys when I found out my motor wasn't working. So I hopped out and drug the boat back to the bank and looked at the motor. I noticed that it looked just like an electric motor - I am not a motor repairman. My best guess is that the water in the prop had froze solid due to the cold weather. Since the motor wouldn't run I figured it was time to go, so I started picking up my decoys. I kept an eye on the goose the entire time, with the wind was pushing him across the water and I thought he would end up on the far shore.  
Wrong, he ended up on the opposite shore against the dam. I looked under the dam and noticed he couldn't make it over. I figured I would have to walk my boat and gear back along the shoreline. It took about a half hour but I made it back to the landing, loaded my boat and headed for home. When I got to the house I threw all my gear in the house, grabbed my fishing pole got in the car and headed back to the river. On my way I called one of my buddies that lives on the river and told him the whole story. Come to find out he had a key to the gate leading into the dam. So we met at the gate, went down to the dam and found my goose just outside of the wing of the dam.

 I have not checked my motor to see if it was just froze, but I really hope that's all it was.