another week of getting kicked in the yam bag....

 Sunday I scouted my field in Auburn and had 30-50 geese on it, I shot Jake a text with what I had and he shot back, I've got more call me.  So we figured out where we were going on Monday and it turned out to be one of Jake's spots. We put out all the full bodies in his trailer stubbled up the blinds and settled to wait for the geese to fly. Unfortunately with the fog, they took their sweet time. When they finally did fly there were only 9, and they had the good sense to fly over while we were standing up loitering around the blinds and adjusting the spread. So we gave them 'til 2 and then picked up without firing a shot.
Tuesday we did an afternoon hunt in the same field in a different spot. When we were circling the field we spotted 10 on a hilltop, so we boosted them off and set up right where they were. We had birds moving and confidence was high when I spotted a line of geese just a little under a mile away. I got to flagging and Jake hit the call, we got these geese turned and coming in on a string.... only to land 100 yards from us. For whatever reason, they would not commit and come any closer, they just short stopped us and started to eat. We got up to kick them out, discussed what just happened, got back in the blinds and continued the hunt. It wasn't too long I saw another flock was comin' in all silent like, they were alot closer and when Jake asked, "where are they", all I could say was, right there in front. We got down and started calling only to have this flock do the exact same thing as the first. Well, this time they were a little closer and we decided to shoo them off the easy way.... with a hail of steel. Nothing fell... except our spirits. We had a little time left so we moved our blinds forward to cut the distance and if they tried that again at least we would have a shot at getting a goose. Nothing else wanted to play, so we packed up the dozen and a half decoys and gear and headed to the house, again with nothing to clean.
Wednesday I headed to Auburn by myself for an evening hunt, to shoot the geese that I had seen on Sunday evening. I got my gear out, my blind stubbled, decoys set and settled in for the arrival of the guests of honor. Come to find out, unfortunately, that list only had 3 on it and they flew behind me with a couple honks. I don't think they even gave me a look or slowed to see the party I put out just for them. So there I was packing up one more time in the dark, dragging my gear the 500 yards to the truck. Only to come to the realization the next year I will have a big enough trailer to put a 4 wheeler in... then, of course, I'll need a wheeler.

A smarter person would just sell all the gear and camo and retire... thank goodness I'm not that smart.

Only one more week to shoot a goose
then I got coyote for a couple weeks
then it's time to put all the hunting silliness away and get the boat ready. I'll be able to fish for a couple weeks. Then it'll be turkey season 👍 for a minute then back to fishing.
Busy, busy, busy......

Just a quick note

I actually forgot to do this today so here's a quick update for the week.... Crap. No birds...
is it fishing season yet???

Stale birds as far as the eye can see

Wow, isn't that the truth? Jake and I got out Monday on a new prop I got permission to hunt this year. I had been scouting it for a while and this was one of the best opportunities to get on it. We had to pack in quite a ways only to set up 100 yards from where we should have. I'll get it right next time, after all the work of getting in there we bumped off 3 dozen or so geese that were roosted on the water in the field. After they took off we got down to setting up the spread and wait to see if anything would return. It took a minute but we did have a flock of a dozen or so return and they definitely wanted to land, just not where we were, sorry Jake. We turned 'em to us but they really didn't want to be where we were. So after they made a hasty retreat, the wait was on... and on... and.. hey is that a goose? We were sitting there blind doors open contemplating when to start packing up when we had a goose come in, circle over us and continue to try and land. We helped him with the landing, kinda crash style after the 2 goose loads found their mark. So we did get one, sorry no pick, we got picked up and packed out by 11am. I made a trip around the block and by the time I got back I was able to watch a 3 pack do it perfectly on the spot I should've set up at. Next time gonna crush 'em.
Tuesday I set up on Big Turkey lake and waited until noon before shooting the only goose to come in. Really didn't even see that many geese, but we have alot of water all over right now.

last minute ramp pic

Wednesday I decided to head to town for a hunt at Kelly's property. I had to unass my spot on the fence row because of the wind direction. I had my buddy Cliff with me... you remember Cliff?

We made it to town early enough to get the gear hauled out and get the blinds stubbled in. This time out I decided to bring the trailer and set out a couple more full bodies than I had been putting out there. Well, after the fog lifted a little the birds got a little active and started to fly. We had a flock of a dozen or so geese coming in that kinda split into 2 flocks right before I called the shot and the better flock was the trailing flock. Well, Cliff has only been out one other time and didn't realize the differences between what ducks do and how geese come in. He was expecting the geese to do the duck thing and circle a couple times before committing. So when the geese started to flare I had to call the shot. Cliff was kinda caught off guard... he made up for it though, when he came up and gave 'em 3 he went wwaaayyyy over his shooting line and possibly rained all over the houses across the street. OOOOpppsss, that was of course after we had the talk about where not to shoot. Well, as poorly as we shot we did drop one in the field and actually sailed one into the addition, we'll get that one later. The hunt continued all the while waiting for a CO to show up and remind us where not to shoot. Well, the CO never showed and we settled in for a little snooze while waiting for the bulk of the geese closer to sunset. Around 12:45 Cliff says, "is it alright if we pack up around one? I gotta get my kids from the babysitter. Ummm... WHAT? Of course, that's all right...??? So, we start picking up and get out of the field with only a couple hours to the second-best time of the day. I don't know if they flew a little before sunset but I keep telling myself that they didn't.... nope I'm sure they didn't...😧
Anyway, after we picked up we went in search of the goose we sailed. After a little detective work, we were able to recover it in a little woods just across the road. So even though there's only one in the pic we did get 2... We probably could've had limit if we would've sta.... nope not gonna say it....

 Good news, we should get a push of birds this week with this front coming in. Wish me luck for next week.

I needed a win

I started the week with a water hunt since it's been soooo warm. I landed a flock 30 yards short of my set up. After they swam off to the other side of the lake I started picking up, I had to be off the water before noon. When I got 30 yards from where I was set up when they decided to get up and fly over where I just was. Crap... Tuesday we set up on a field that there were geese in the past couple days, every day at 3:45.... except the day we were there. Crap... They did the waterfowl thing and flew just after shooting time. So that hunt made the third strikeout since last week and I needed to get a win. So after a conscious decision to skip the morning and sleep in, I just didn't have high hopes for it. And what a mistake that was, it would have been the best morning in a couple weeks. The wind blew and the snow flew, I drove to my spot in Auburn and man there were geese everywhere. Anyway, after I got back home I decided to go into town for another afternoon hunt. The geese actually flew out 10 minutes before shooting time ended, and I shot alot and finally brought down a goose.

I have to blame my very poor shooting on not squeezing the trigger all week.
Maybe I'll get to shoot again next week. 😄

2019 is the year I quit hunting

That's right I'm done... I'm just getting too old and sore to keep going out and killing myself for a couple geese, deer, turkey, whatever. Regardless of what my future holds my last hunt was a veritable barn burner. As I drove the hour into town I listened to the weather warnings come over the radio. Just trying to stay on the road with the wind blowing 15-20 and gusting to 40 with the snow coming in sideways was enough to make me want to turn around and go home. When we got to the field, the ferocity of the storm hit home... or more appropriately... our faces. As we started to drag our gear out, the snow helped the sled's slide easier. The wind however, was really cutty and the snow 'bout blinded us. Once we were set up it didn't take long at all to get some geese in and put some feathers on the ground. Well, it wasn't long for me to put feathers on the ground, Jake, on the other hand, was having a bit of a time. After a couple 3 misses on geese he deduced it was his new Sitka neck gaiter that wasn't allowing his head to get down on the gun. Once he figured that out he started putting his limit together. By the time the worst of the storm had passed we had our limits and were packing up, it wasn't quite 9am.

We were squinting because the snow had turned to hail and the wind was still going just as strong. I really wanted to get video of this hunt, but with the snow coming in hard along with the wind I didn't think I would get anything but white.
 
 2020 IS THE YEAR I START HUNTING....
 After thinking about this long and hard I have decided to start hunting again. With that Jake and I headed out to the same field, we shot the above limits. So, New Year's day we found us setting up to try and tack down another limit of geese. It started off with a coyote sighting crossing the end of our field. Try as we will we couldn't get him to come closer, he was downwind and I'm sure he scented us as soon as he crossed our scent cone. The next was 7 doe's running from the same way the coyote went. When they realized we were in the field they went back the same way they came from. A couple hours later had those doe's coming back across the field trying to get into the woods on the left in the picture above, 3 of them made it and the rest headed back the way they came from. Jake took off around 11ish and I decided to stick it out. So, after we packed out his gear I grabbed a watch and headed back to get some sleep, watch for geese. After I woke up from my nap I still had a couple hours before sunset, so I got up and moved decoys and got ready for the horde to arrive. Well, the horde got off their roost 45 minutes 'til sunset and headed to the NW (not my way) and never even gave me the hope of a flyby. I did have a single fly from right to left a couple hundred yards away, he was looking for company. I started calling to him but that didn't deter him in the least. A couple minutes later he flew by again from left to right, so I started calling again, and still he didn't change course. Now it's 3 minutes to sunset and that same single is finally headed my way. He cuts the distance to about 60 yards just outside of the spread and just kinda slides off, not sure why so I continue to call at him until sunset. Mystified, I get up and start policing up my gear when I look behind me I see 2 small bucks come up over the hill and head to the woods, now I know why that goose was spooky. 

So with that my first hunt and first hunt of the year came to an end without a shot fired.
 I think I'm going to like this hunting thing... maybe next week I'll get lucky.