Doubled up

 Last week I went to a field that I've been watching ever since season started and I haven't really seen any geese on it. I saw seven out there about 2 weeks ago, last week I checked it and there was probably 10 up on the property line. The field they were in was corn so I decided to give it a shot. It was going to be a foggy cloudy day, so I thought it should have be good. I went in there early and got all set up, the geese started flying about 9:00. Which is fairly early but it was still really foggy so you couldn't really see them until they where 40 yards out. What I found they were doing is they were cutting the field in half, so I walked out from where I was hunting and just knelt down by some taller grass in the middle of the field on the property line. I just did a little pass shooting when they came over I shot three, not long after I shot those three the fog kind of lifted. So I went back over to where my where my decoys were. I saw they were a little close to the woods so I  pushed them out from the woods a little bit. Not long after that I had a flock come in I shot one out of the flock, and I thought I hit another one. Well the whole flock took off and went straight to the South about 500 yd 600 yd and they landed in the field. I couldn't see them from where I was so I walked over to see if my goose was dead over there. I didn't see anything so I walked a little bit more, it's a cut bean field it's just mud out there. I mean you can see a dead goose from a long ways away and I didn't see him. So, I started walking back I heard a honk from the East when I looked up I saw a pair coming to me over the field that I was just hunting. I didn't have my calls, all I had was my shotgun so I waited and watched. I knelt down, they changed course and it look like they were going to fly right over me. They flew this way a little bit and then that way a little bit and  pretty soon they were right over me. I stood up and shot one, which was my fifth goose so I made a five goose limit that day in the fog which was really really cool. I love hunting in the fog, it's cool to hear them long before you see them. The one tip I have for fog would be honk every 15 mins or so. They can't see you either so the only way they know where you are is by hearing you. When I went to look for that goose I found out the geese have been all over in that field. They had to have been in there all season I just couldn't see them from the road, there was goose tracks and crap everywhere. So I told my buddy next week I got a field for us, we'll hunt this field.

I know there's only 3, I was getting wrapped up when the flock came in and I shot my last 2

 

 MUD BOWL 2024

 

Monday Jake and I went out to this same field I was at the week prior. The other thing I found on this field is there was a big pond on the South side of the corn. With all the melt that we had and then the rain there was sheet water that was mostly on the bean side of the field. There was some in the corn and they love that sheet water on the field. This is when I knew I had a problem, we knew the field was going to be soft but WOW.  I got out there pretty good with the wheeler and all the decoys, but I knew there was no way I was going to make 2 trips out. When we could see, I saw all the decoys were covered in mud. By the time I got the wheeler back and made it back out to the spread the mud had froze on the decoys. I was able to get out three floaters and maybe a dozen and a half full bodies, 24 skinnies and some some silo socks. I was spending most of the the pre-shooting time cleaning the decoys off with a wet towel that I always bring and water from the water hole just to get the mud off of it so that we could hunt them. Well we finally got all set up and as I was stubbling my blind of course we had a flock come in. I got down, Jake was further down in the field, he was walking back from getting my gun. He heard the geese, he took my gun out of the gun case loaded it with the shells he brought, and started calling at these geese. I wasn't going to get a shot, but one got too close to Jake and he was able to get a shot. He knocked down his first goose this year, that man has been working a ton this year. Jake hung out as long as he could and in true Jake fashion he had to cut out around noon.

 I hadn't shot a goose yet so I had five geese to get, and only a couple hours to get 'em in. 

I had a flock come in...

the flock from this video

I shot three geese out of that flock, then I had a pair come over and I shot one. That makes four and then I had four geese come in and actually land on the water when I jumped up they flew and I busted 1. I was done hunting by 4:00, I didn't get everything packed out and ready to roll until 6:45. I made six trips back and forth from the spread to the truck with gear. I was in no hurry, I just took my time. I mean it really wasn't a big deal, it's just it just took me forever to get everything out. By the time I got home it was 7, I got done cleaning my geese by about 7:30, 8:00 I ate I took a shower and I got to bed probably about 10:00. It was a long day but it was awesome to take my limit of geese. 

That was Monday so I don't know if I'm going to go out again this week. I'd like to get Jake out tomorrow I'll probably Scout tonight and see if anything's going on for tomorrow. It's it's going to be a high of 47 which terrible, but it's been a good couple weeks.

Monday the truck was parked to the right off the loop. There's a road North of the woods that I parked on to load out.
 

Only one more week left of goose season. 

If I hunt tomorrow I'll put that on next week. 😁

Ran out of time

 This week was pretty interesting, but you'll have to check out next week's to read about it. 

Best day was today

I went out till about 12:30 today saw a couple geese nothing wanted to play. They started coming off Roost at about well 12:10 that's why I stayed a little bit longer. Yeah no geese today, no geese this week. Rain next week, warm temperatures next week, more the same old poopy...

The struggle is real

 Did my scouting on Sunday found a bunch of geese out East of town. So Monday that's where I went, I got there early set up my spread. got my my blind brushed in and waited. It didn't take too long maybe 10:00 or 11:00 before the first flock got there, but once they started coming they didn't stop. By 2:00 I was done it took me so long because I shot horribly. All day terrible shooting, I was finally able to put four down and had one flyer that I couldn't find so I counted him against my limit. I called it a day packed everything up came home. Tuesday was supposed to be snowing to start then turn to heavy rain so I stayed home. Wednesday was the best day of the week weather wise and I had been tapped for jury duty. So I got to go to that at 8:00 in the morning, he pled guilty before even assembling a jury. Then this morning I had a doctor's appointment so I've been kind of out of it for the rest of the week. But I got four geese this week and I'm okay with that having a good year so far. 

 I had a video that I was working on but ran out of system memory, whatever that is. So until that gets cleared up no more videos I guess. So I called my computer guy and come to find out he went out of business in Nov. so really don't know who I'm going to take it to now. 

Do you know anyone?

Well it was kinda glitchy but it let me finish the video

Here it is......

Happy New Year..... first hunts of 2024

 Monday I started at my River spot I had opportunities to shoot some ducks but I was waiting for a better shot and they didn't want to give me one, so I left out with no ducks. I did scare the crap out of a fox that was chasing a squirrel about 10 feet behind me. He didn't see me sitting down by the tree, when he did he left quickly, I saw him for like 2 seconds. 

Tuesday I hit one of the area lakes and shot horribly, not just horribly, like really really bad. I did knock down a drake and a hen mallard. Then I proceeded to miss multiple multiple mallards. I had a flock of geese that would have worked in, but I was messing around with the Mallards at the time.

It was blowy and cold today, I had on all my clothes.

 Yesterday was the last day of duck season for the year. Jake was finally able to make it out. So we hit  one of the properties that I've been beating the crap out of the ducks and geese on since October. We had nothing fly.... I take that back, we did have 1 goose and 2 ducks leave the pond while Jake was there. At 11am Jake had to go, as he was leaving the field I had two flocks of geese come in and I shot one goose, with him laying on his belly in the field a couple hundred yards away. After he left it took me 15 minutes to shoot my four other geese for my limit of 5. Then I waited a couple hours and I had a drake and a hen come in the drake landed in the decoys. I didn't know where she went so I was waiting for her to come around, she never came around. The drake got nervous and he jumped up so I shot him. When I got up to get him she took off out of the water and I shot her. I ended up with five geese and two ducks. I think my year total of ducks is going to be pretty good. I shot a lot of ducks this year, not a whole lot of geese yet, but that should be changing when the weather shows up. Now I'm only going to be loaded for geese, that makes it a little easier.