All my outdoor adventures are put down here for you to see. My goal is to make you smile or maybe even learn something. If you don't, well it's a good read anyway.
Wish me luck.....
This blog is dedicated to my Auntie Nae and my Mom. They have contributed to this in their own way.
Thank you for all you have done and still do.
And a special Thanks to my Dad, he started me on my path by having time to take me hunting and fishing.
Thank you.
Two words goose hunters never want to see in the same sentence. Unfortunately that's how this week went, all sunny and all cold.
I scouted Monday and made the decision to hunt Tues even though I didn't scout the property I was going to hunt. Not really a bad choice since I have hunted that property for a long time.
The weather was forecasted to be cloudy and cold, those are 2 words goose hunters love to hear.
As I was driving south, the sun started peeking through the clouds. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day thanks weatherman 🖕. With everything set up the best option was wait to see if they'll fly closer to sunset.
Jake showed up around 2 and we went for a drive to see what the geese were doing. Turns out the numbers I was hoping for were just not there..... not even close. We made our way back to the blinds and waited... and waited... and waited.
NOTHING... nothing flew until well after sunset.
It turned out to be a good practice day, the spread looked great, the blinds looked great, all we were missing were the guests of honor.
Oh well there's always next week, which has been forecasted to be cloudy and cold ⛅.
I finally found some geese and invited Jake to hunt on Wednesday. This is the first time I've found geese on this field so I wasn't sure how long they had been there or if they were even coming back. We got to the field around sunrise which for me is reeaaallllyyyyy late, however geese are kinda lazy and don't tend to fly 'til a little later. Anyway we got everything set up and parked the trucks and on the walk back actually had 3 geese land in the spread. We looked at each other and grinned, this should be a good day. After a little decoy move to center up the next flock we were ready to go.
Next to come over was a four pack with 2 lower and 2 higher. The 2 lower were centering up perfectly, they flew right in front and were looking to drop the landing gear and land when tragedy struck. They saw something they didn't like and aborted the landing, caught the wind and were in the next county. Leaving us scratching our heads. I got up to see what they didn't like about the spread, the only thing I saw was Jake's blind had lost some stubble on the outside so I started restubbling and in doing so I saw the culprit. We had a man down, one of my decoys had blown over and was laying on its side, of course with the white belly facing the geese. So I picked him up and secured him to the earth the best I could thinking the whole time. If you were flying into an airport and saw planes burning on the runway would you want to land?
Jake's daughter had dance that night so as much as he wanted to stay he had to go. So by noon, without firing a shot at a goose that day he packed up and headed out.
Since this was my hunting day I stayed for the long haul.
Fortunately the long haul wasn't really that long, I had a 6 pack come in around 3:30 I hit the first one and dropped the other 2. The first one sailed off a couple hundred yards, I marked where he went down. Now was the waterfowlers delema: do I stay in the blind knowing more geese are on the way or do I make the mistake and head out after the downed bird?
Against my better judement I headed out across the fields to get the downed bird. And as usual I got halfway to where I saw him go down and the flood gates opened and geese from all over the state were converging on my setups location. To make matters worse the goose was on a frozen pond and when I crested the levy he took off.
So I started the long walk back watching geese land in my set accompanying the already 50 or so geese that were on the ground.
I kicked the geese out and got ready for next batch, I was really hoping there was a next batch. Fortunatly for me there was and I was able to put another double on the dirt. I hadn't even went to pick up the last 2 when I noticed my camera was not working... dead battery so I got another battery and headed out to switch them out. After getting the batteries switched out I saw a flock of geese not more that 200 yards out so I crawled into my blind... this is what happened next.
Yep got my gun caught in the grass I zip tied to the blind, it's a good thing I don't look down the barrel to make the shot.
Man, talk about a hail Mary, end the game, toss it up and hope someone catches it shot. That was the goose I was trying to hit but I still can't believe he got that far out before I got him.
I got some good video of this day and the last hunt but will probably just make a montage at the end of season.
Hopefully the weather that's suposed to show up on Monday actually does and I can get a repeat of this day.
Finally found some geese at one of my spots yesterday, so I called Jake to see if he wanted to go. It was the first time since early season that he had been out this year, he still doesn't have any geese.
We had the first flock do it right and we dropped 3, then we had a 5 pack come in that split. With 2 that flew by, 3 decided to give us a shot. With the first goose on the ground and the second about to be I called the shot and we both shot the one that was still in the air, and completely whiffed on the other 2. All in all we had a pretty good day, we got out and actually did some goose hunting.
Jake had to bounce before I did, but he left with 2 also. Hopefully the storm coming in this weekend will push some birds around.
I went to Fort Wayne yesterday to try for a goose or 2. I knew it was going to be a long sit because of the weather, sunny and cold. There were a couple flocks that got up and flew around in the morning, giving me a little hope but nothing wanted to play. So I waited and held out hope for a midday duck to fly into my spread. Well, that didn't happen so all I could do is wait for it to close in on sunset. Sunset showed but the birds didn't, when I started packing up.... that's when they showed. All that was left to do was pick up and pack in the spread.
Today was a repeat of yesterday so I got my shopping and house stuff done.
Wednesday I'm working.
Thursday looks fo be the best day to get out hunting and I've got a tire appt at 1100 am.
Friday-Sunday I work 😪, so guess I'll have to wait til next week.
