It is amazing what you can fit on one cart if you really put your mind to it. Counting my silhouettes, we had around 150 decoys on this cart.
We put Blaze to work. She was a sled dog in a former life.
We carted decoys over 2 miles.
This was the view Friday in a field just over from the one we were hunting.
What proved to be a lucky omen, we had our Turkey Friends near us on both days.
Two things noted. On the lake hunt we did, the coots and ducks where rafting in tight groups. A park ranger said they do that when the hawks and eagles migrate in. There was an Eagle hounding the wheat fields too and it seemed the Geese where staying in tight groups as well as mixing in species.
The wind certainly had something to do with it too.
So my strategy both days was open letter spreads with snows on the up wind side of the letter and a transitioned mix into the Canada decoys. And the decoys grouped very tight rather than in family groups to mimic as close as we could to what we saw the day before the first hunt.
This is around half the decoys on the snow side.
Day one we limited early. I killed three for three with my #2 hevi reloads from my 10. First shot was at nosebleed height and surprised me when the Goose folded even though I called the shot/bird. Steve then dropped two from the second large flock that tried to land. Canada limits done all we could hope for were Snows. Snows did not start flying until after shooting time was over both days. We could have limited day one on Canadas 5 times over. No other hunters on the refuge killed Geese either day. But they were not calling at all as best I could tell. I was calling and I was calling my heart out.
Sunday was tougher. No birds working the fields near us. All birds had to be called from great distance. But we did well on the three flocks that tried to land on us. I had struggled with my calling the day before, but this day I was in the zone. We commanded the field. A final bird just before ending time was a single bird that had flown by us several times during the morning. It had a distinct call and was looking for it's lost mate we assumed. I called it with spaced pleading honks in those final minutes and brought it into the decoy pocket finally giving Steve a perfect shot. We called it a mercy killing.
We had lots of variety in Goose size.
Finished up the work picking things up and carting out of the field, then the area Biologist Amber picked us up at the edge of the field which was nice of her. The final hero picture:
Note, dressed down, but still with makeup on I walked into a convenience store a little later. I mentioned to the kid behind the counter "boy, it was a tough day in the coal mine". He he sure looked puzzled.
Picked up camp and off to Kansas for Pheasants
Got back from Kansas just a couple days ago. Hope y'all enjoyed the two posts.
We put Blaze to work. She was a sled dog in a former life.
We carted decoys over 2 miles.
This was the view Friday in a field just over from the one we were hunting.
What proved to be a lucky omen, we had our Turkey Friends near us on both days.
Two things noted. On the lake hunt we did, the coots and ducks where rafting in tight groups. A park ranger said they do that when the hawks and eagles migrate in. There was an Eagle hounding the wheat fields too and it seemed the Geese where staying in tight groups as well as mixing in species.
The wind certainly had something to do with it too.
So my strategy both days was open letter spreads with snows on the up wind side of the letter and a transitioned mix into the Canada decoys. And the decoys grouped very tight rather than in family groups to mimic as close as we could to what we saw the day before the first hunt.
This is around half the decoys on the snow side.
Day one we limited early. I killed three for three with my #2 hevi reloads from my 10. First shot was at nosebleed height and surprised me when the Goose folded even though I called the shot/bird. Steve then dropped two from the second large flock that tried to land. Canada limits done all we could hope for were Snows. Snows did not start flying until after shooting time was over both days. We could have limited day one on Canadas 5 times over. No other hunters on the refuge killed Geese either day. But they were not calling at all as best I could tell. I was calling and I was calling my heart out.
Sunday was tougher. No birds working the fields near us. All birds had to be called from great distance. But we did well on the three flocks that tried to land on us. I had struggled with my calling the day before, but this day I was in the zone. We commanded the field. A final bird just before ending time was a single bird that had flown by us several times during the morning. It had a distinct call and was looking for it's lost mate we assumed. I called it with spaced pleading honks in those final minutes and brought it into the decoy pocket finally giving Steve a perfect shot. We called it a mercy killing.
We had lots of variety in Goose size.
Finished up the work picking things up and carting out of the field, then the area Biologist Amber picked us up at the edge of the field which was nice of her. The final hero picture:
Note, dressed down, but still with makeup on I walked into a convenience store a little later. I mentioned to the kid behind the counter "boy, it was a tough day in the coal mine". He he sure looked puzzled.
Picked up camp and off to Kansas for Pheasants
Got back from Kansas just a couple days ago. Hope y'all enjoyed the two posts.
