And it's over until Turkey opens

 That's right my hunting season has come to yet another end. The coyotes this year will be able to live until next year when I get my next chance. March is the month of cleaning and fixing, I gotta get my trolling motor back on the boat after having the new spring put in it. I'll let you know if this fixed the motor popping out of the collar with the bow bouncing. 

I also have to clean out the garage and put all my decoys away to make room for summer fun. I get to rehook all my new lures and spin my line around on my Lake Erie rods. 

That should keep me busy til April when FISHING season starts. I'll try to keep you informed of what I've gotten accomplished per week, it will be boring but I'll blog it anyway.

OK so I've been asked to pose this question to my tens of followers on this blog: Do you like this format or would you rather I move this to my (would be private) facebook account. 

Let me know what you think via: the envelope below, my email, text or call to leave your vote.

Not an auspicious beginning

Monday I went out to do some coyote calling, and a snowstorm broke out. We ended the day with a one day record snowfall of 10.4", and not a single yote.

Wednesday I made my first call and heard 4 coyotes calling from across the road behind me. I got in my truck and headed around them to try and call them in and this happened.

 

 

 

I wish now I had gotten a pic of the truck before I got it dug out. I was stuck for 3 hours and when I was finally back on the road I was soaked and tired, so I packed up and headed home.

Today I went out with Jake to hit some of his spots only to figure out the snow was too deep to walk in. So hopefully with this warm weather coming on this week next week might be more conducive to getting in and out of the field.

Might have to wait 'til next week

 Yep I'll be hunting on Thursday so I probably won't be putting out a post 'til next week. 

Take care, hope your warm and well.

Last week and Last week

Last Week: part 1

Well, Monday Jake and I had plans to go out to one of my properties. He gave me a call in the a.m. and had to cancel so I just decided to be lazy. It turned out to be a good day to be lazy as the sun decided to pop out after only a couple hours of clouds. With Tuesday and Wednesday also looking to be sunny I basically took the whole week off, until Thursday that is. We were suppose to be getting some weather on Thursday so I had to get out and give 'er a try. 

I hunted with my ears (eye's closed ears open) for most of the morning, with very little to report except for the 18 degree high. It turned out to be a pretty long day until afternoon. Closer to 1pm I heard a goose honk behind me. I gave a little hooty-hoo on the old goose horn and didn't hear anything back so I decided to lift my head to check my surroundings, and low and behold I had 15 more decoys in my spread and they were alive. So after a brief course of action meeting in my head I sat up, flushed the flock and was able to drop 2. 

Since there was weather that was suppose to come in, I wanted to get picking up and going by 2:30 which was around when this pic was taken. Notice the absence of blinding snow. 

 

By the time I made my first decoy trip out, the storm hit. It was literally like a wall of snow and ice blowing in from the East. After I got loaded and on my way everything in my trailer was snow covered and I was soaked. I drove home between 40-60 mph partially because of white out and partially because of slick roads.

The good news is I got super good gas mileage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say I didn't make it home until 5:45 and didn't get to bed until 6:45 -ie no blog entry. The things a waterfowler will do just for a chance at a bird still baffles my mind.

Last Week: part 2

With this being the last week of goose season I looked at the weather and decided to hunt every day, except Jeffday, only because I too need a rest day, and after yesterday I was whooped.

All three days I hunted in town, Monday was non eventful, I'm pretty sure the birds new my game out there. I burnt it out pretty good, I think out of the dozen times I hunted there I set up the same way at least 6 of them. With the high of 10 degrees and birds not really wanting to work, all I really got on Monday was alot of sleep which was wonderful. 

I left the house in the dark and made it home in the dark.

Tuesday was a late day due to sunshine, I got to my spot at 3. This spot is a late season spot and it holds birds, as soon as I got there I busted out 75-100 birds of which one stayed to add to my spread. After a couple hours I had a flock come in silent, while I was watching some ducks. I dropped 2 to fill my limit for the day, I only had another half hour to hunt, so it was another long day.

Yeah my hat may look goofy but it sure keeps my head and ears warm.

 Yesterday I was back in town running a little traffic. I haven't seen geese on this property all year but with the impending snow moving in I thought it would be my best chance at a limit, because they were in the area. The first thing I had to do was get the spread out, so I drove down the lane and made trips out with decoys. It was too snowy for the wheeler so I had to run decoys old school. When I was done with the decoys I had to drive to the end of the lane and turn around. Well, it seems the tracks I was following were made by a truck that was not hauling a 7x16 double axle trailer. Needless to say I tested out 4hi, 4lo and my shovel, after an hour I was able to park the truck and head out to the blind for some much needed rest the hunt. I had some geese moving all day but it really got interesting around 2, the snow was predicted around 3 so the geese started getting up and moving. I had my first flock that I called over and was going to do it around 2:30. I say was because I never let them set up like I should have, as soon as they were close enough I shot...... and missed, maybe. I had one goose soar off 400 or so yards and go down. Off I go to try and get that goose, as soon as I got to within 50 yards he took off. So I started back to the blind, it was snowing pretty good now, halfway back I watched 75 or so geese drop into my set. With the blinding snow in my favor I stayed on the lane and walked like I was going to pass the geese and my set. When I got a little past my set and had a favorable shot angle, I turned and walked tword the geese which were now all watching me. When the flock got up I managed to put 2 down. I stuck it out until sunset, however when I picked up I used the wheeler and boat on the lane instead of running the risk of getting stuck again. 

 The weird thing about this year is, of all my properties I have to hunt, I only had geese on 3 of them. So, I had to hit them alot if I wanted to keep putting feathers on the ground. In years past I have been able to move around more so the geese didn't get wise to the game, but not this year.

The only sad thing is I went another year without a band

and I didn't get any bonus geese this year either.

 Somebody got lucky this year but it wasn't me..... they were my properties... but it wasn't me..😢

And that's how my goose season 2020 ended, all in all I had a really good year with some really good friends and I was able to put alot of meat in the freezer.

For the rest of February..... watch out coyotes....😈

All aboard the struggle bus.... HHHooootttt hhhoooottt

 Jake had alot of geese around his house this week, so we got a plan together and called in Doug to help with the carnage. We starting setting up in the dark not knowing when the geese were going to show. When the daylight finally cut the darkness we were all giddy with excitement in anticipation of the guests of honor. Who were a no show, Doug had to go by 10:30 Jake and I went to get some gas station lunch. We drove around and checked the area roosting lakes and they were looooaaaaded with geese. So we decided to hang out 'til sunset this time.... Yeah I said this time, this would be the third time I've hunted this very same hill in 3 years and have yet to put feathers on it. Back to the story... Doug called after a couple hours and we told him what we were going to do. He decided to come back out a little later. So now we were all set, the dekes were out, the blinds were set, now yet again we were waiting on the geese.

But when they showed up....

(Video)

We finally did get a flock to play and of course I wasn't recording, they didn't really give it up but they got close enough for us to scratch a couple out. Then a pair flew in and only one flew out... I along with the other two left the field with significantly lighter blind bags.... That means we shot alot.

Even though we shot terribly and only put 3 down I still chalked this hunt up in the win column. You gotta keep in mind this is the third time I've hunted this hill and the first time anything showed. The other thing is these are the same geese everyone's been chasing for 3 months, they knew the game.

Monday we went South for the big weather event. Which was suppose to be rainy, drizzle, fog all day and ended up being snowy, sleety, fog all day. Which is actually better except the blind I brought for us when it gets wet just turned black. When everything around you is iced over or white, black really sticks out.
Fortunately for Jake he got his goose before the majority of the snow showed up. We had a flock come in and almost did it right, I called the shot, changed my mind and then called the shot again 'cause Jake was already standing when I changed my mind. Really bad call on my part but Jake did manage to get a goose that sailed a good 200 yards that I went to get. This is the one goose Jake got before he had to go.

Yeah it was banded, this is the second year that I haven't shot a band. The years not over yet but, I bring him to my spot and he shoots his first speck and lands a band. What's next for him... neck collar? I don't even have one of them. Anyway, I was happy for him and when he left he lent me the layout he brought with him. The good news is I used it to put a couple geese on the ground, the bad news is I'm probably going to be buying another new blind next year.

 

 I stayed until sunset then started picking up, I didn't get limit but it was another really fun day. 

Looks like we'll have another "weather event" Sunday into Monday, not sure where I'll be but hopefully I'll be shooting better. By the way when I was by myself I did much better, I think I'm rushing my shots. Gotta slow down and conserve ammo.

Does anyone know where I can score some hevi steel 3" BB's?