|
GOOSE FEVER
By: Ron Wilson
October 14, 2010.... This year the
Department of Fish and Game gave us a large
Canada Goose early
season
hunt from October 2nd through the 6th. I guess they finally realized
that there is an over population of these non migrating waterfowl that
now do great damage to farm crops and pastures.
A friend of mine has complained for the
last few years that they come in to his leased land to feed and make a
mess while robbing his cattle of fresh green grass to go along with
their dry stuff. I was only to happy to lend my services to help him
solve some of the problem legally.
Mark Seaters, of Stockton, and I met at 5
a.m. Mark asked, "Ron do you have your sun screen on? Do you want me to
get the sun glasses out of the truck for you?" it was 68 degrees and far
from any type of waterfowl hunting we are used to.
We had been scouting the area for a week.
The birds were all over the place mowing down the grass in family groups
but they seemed to really like this one area we were watching.
We loaded up and took our spread to the
spot and started setting up. By 5:30 a.m. we were sweating and time to
take a break and drink some cool water. Mark said heck I am tired
already and its an hour before daylight.
After a little breather we continued
setting up the spread. We only had 3 dozen decoys but these new decoys
with flocked heads and different type stands take some time. You just
can't throw them or set them out there and figure that will do the job.
You have to do a little mechanical work which I am not all that great
at.
By 6 a.m. everything was ready except for
the lay down blinds we were using, but with a little team work we soon
were reclining in a lay down position taking another break.
Darn Mark you had two shirts on! Here I
am with just a camo t-shirt on and I was ready to take that off. I would
have, but all that white would of showed right through the blind. This
winter layer of fat I have on is a great big overkill for this type of
weather.
Daybreak came and the sound of honkers
came booming through the hot cloudy sky! Coming in I said to Mark get
ready! The lead goose jumped the spread and lit on my side of the decoys
about 40 yards away. They are in scratching range Mark but not what I
wanted. We had to get them out of there so we busted into the small
family group of 5 and dropped 2 and watched another go down a couple
hundred yards away!
Well we are not skunked anyway I said to mark trying to make a sad
situation better! I like them in my face if possible.
A few minutes later we had 3 huge longnecks making a circle and coming
straight in. At 15 yards I said get 'em, I raised up and my gun went
click. Damn automatics, if you don't slam the shell in good the
firing pin don't
set! Damn I hate getting old and making dump mistakes. Mark did manage
to get one of the three.
We had watched 3 flocks head out
somewhere early every day we were there, no idea what they were doing or
where they were going but they always came back about 9 to 10 a.m. so we
knew we had more action coming our way.
The next flock of about 20 Honkers looked
like they were coming in as they circled and came over the spread and
then left for greener pastures. I think they saw a dead goose laying in
the decoys or one of us moved or maybe they were just exercising.
A few minutes later another small group
came in and at 10 yards I tried to blow the lead gooses head off. I
swear when I pulled up he pulled his head back just as I pulled the
trigger and I missed! Mark and I only salvaged a couple out of the
flock. I just could not believe how bad I was shooting.
 The
huge flock that always came back did and as they decoyed down they would
almost go completely upside down as they lost altitude. It sure got our
blood pumping but they lit a couple hundred yards away.
I told Mark, "no problem we got 3 more
flocks to come back in yet". In a matter of minutes here they came, the
only problem was that they were a couple hundred yards out of there
usual flight pattern. I was getting kind of bummed now as the heat was
really coming down.
At 9 a.m. we had another flock of a dozen
birds decoy in. I tried once again to shoot the lead gooses head off and
missed, then drew down on a body shot and pulverized him. Mark hollered
out I got a triple, well almost he folded two and the third bird flapped
away with steel in its butt! Mark said, "I turned that darn goose around
in the air on my third shot and he still flew away". I said, "Mark its
amazing at how much steel it takes to down them when you don't break a
neck, wing or head shot".
We had a great morning in the outdoors on
the first early season Honker Goose opener and while we should of killed
our limit of 12 easily, we were happy to have what we had.
The 90 degree heat was just to much for
us so we called it a day by 10 a.m. Lets hope it cools down for the
waterfowl opener on
October 23rd as I hate hunting in a t-shirt. |
