Getting ready for 2023-24

[Deltaman]

Good Luck Don, and looking forward to your report!

[don novicki]

Thanks Delta. We shall see what happens. It's 10:00 am and I am going to head out around 11:00. Hope to get some action today.

[SpinnerMan]

Hope to get some action today.

Hope you give 'em hell.

I've been watching the long range forecast. I'm heading back up to Illinois mid January. I haven't had a really good late goose season in a few years. I really enjoy hunting the honkers in the snow covered fields. Something about it that I really enjoy. The forecasted temps look like we have a chance to be in business, but that far out who knows. For it to really get good for us we need two ingredients. First is hard cold to freeze most everything up, then a good dose of snow on top of the frozen lakes and rivers. The geese are perfectly happy to roost on frozen water and eat in snow covered fields. They however don't like to roost on snow covered water. That moves them en masse southwards to our never frozen cooling lake by the 10's of thousands. We look like we will get the hard cold in early January and then some snow forecast around the time I plan to head back. I have some flexibility, so I'll be keeping an eye on the forecast before I decide on the exact dates.

Good luck.

[don novicki]

When: 12-19-2023

Where: Porky/Tracy Rd West Springfield Pa, cut corn field

Hunters : Myself

Weather: 30 degrees, cloudy, WNW wind 15 mph (variable), snow covered field about 4"

Equipment: 2-1/2 dozen Avalanche/Flambeau/Big Al's silly's and 1 dozen Outlaw Mallards (boy do they look nice), home made flag, goose chair without the shell, Jet sled, 870 with 3" Federal #1 shot.

Time of day 11:00 a.m.

Got to the field, this place is really remote, and there were probably 30-40 honkers already in it. I pilled my stuff from the back of my truck, and as I was gathering the rest of my things, I heard some honking coming my way. As i looked up here comes another flock of geese, maybe 50 and they dumped right in with the other group. Now I'm really starting to get excited and as I put my coat on, I hear more honking and darn it if another flock of maybe 75 birds glides in and lite right with the rest of em. Now what? I have no choice so I figure I'll kick em off (maybe 150-200) and hope they come back. As I walk out, they don't move. I got really close, maybe 30 yards before they all took off headed West. I didn't fire because I didn't want to educate them, so for the next 4 hours I sat there and waited and unfortunately they didn't come back. All I saw after that was one lone goose headed East on a mission, and it didn't respond to the flag or calling, so I called it a day at around 3 p.m.. I was going to stick around but after laying/standing there for 4 hours I started to get a little cold. In days gone by I would have never gone home before dark. But that was then .I'll get back at em if we get any more weather.

Spin, going to Illinois has always been on my bucket list, I just wish I could have gone when they had the old quota zone and the clubs were burning up the geese back in the day. I remember reading about places like Crab Orchard and Cairo. Unfortunately I missed it, but now I hear the duck hunting can be good. You are right though, there is nothing like laying out in the snow for Honkers, esp. when they decoy right.

[BigHutch]

Federal #1s. I’ve killed many a specklebelly with those shells. My old buddy used to call them wing breakers. He swore he could hear those #1s cracking bones …. Thanks for sharing. Made me think of an old friend.

Big Hutch

[Deltaman]

Ouch! Sounds like a hot future hunt is in the offing, and with a little earlier set up.

[SpinnerMan]

Spin, going to Illinois has always been on my bucket list, I just wish I could have gone when they had the old quota zone and the clubs were burning up the geese back in the day. I remember reading about places like Crab Orchard and Cairo. Unfortunately I missed it, but now I hear the duck hunting can be good. You are right though, there is nothing like laying out in the snow for Honkers, esp. when they decoy right.

Now where I am at is the place to be when the weather gets right. We short stop the geese that used to head down to the old quota zone. The combination of no till farming and the explosion of live decoys (resident geese) short stopped them. I think all the cooling lakes (never freezing giant roosting areas) also played an important effect as well.

Unfortunately I hunt at a club that limits the number of guests we can bring to 4 for the season. As you can imagine, I have a lot more than 4 people I'd like to bring with.

From what I have heard is that down in the old quota zone, the resident Canada geese have exploded so they do kill some geese again. As you noted, a lot of the goose clubs have converted to duck clubs and do a lot of flooded field hunting and do pretty good. Also, the snows and specks have shifted that direction and now they have quite a few of them. I went down there for a spring snow goose trip a number of years. Saw a ton of snows and specks. They had been there a while so we didn't do that well but it was quite the show of birds.

[don novicki]

If I hadn't had a Dr appt. first thing it would have been lights out. The field had just been cut 2 days before, and I'm the only one with permission to hunt it. The dam weather doesn't look too good going forward, however if we would happen to get a lot of rain, I might be tempted to go back out as there are a couple of low spots that could hold some water...

[don novicki]

Maybe the worst season I've ever experienced. No weather, lousy SW wind all the time, no birds except for a few early on. I wish I could say things will be turning around but that won't be this season. We can goose hunt into February but without wind and weather I'm afraid we are going to be SOL this season. We have had 6.8" of snow so far this year. Unheard of for my part of the country. We typically get around 100" of snow per season but this year is very different.

[don novicki]

Monday and Thursday look promising, and scouting yesterday there were birds in the field. Now to get out early and see what I can do. Full report, good or bad to follow.

[Rick]

Sic 'em.

[Duck Engr]

Sounds promising Don! Get that season turned around.

[don novicki]

When: 1-1-24 and 1-4-24


TOD: 06:00

Weather: 1-1 35 degrees, overcast light N wind, 1-4 28 degrees, N wind 7 mph (approx) light dusting of snow

Place: Tracyhill and Porky Rd, Albion Pa. (almost to Ohio line), Huge corn field

Equipment: same as always 2.5 dzn. sillys, 2.5 dzn. 32" shells, 1/2 dozen deadly Decoy wind socks, 1 dzn Outlaw Mallards, jet sled, Goose Chair, black flag, 870 with Federal #1

Calls: Big River long honker flute, Tim Grounds Hen Talk, Snow goose call ( just in case)

Got there and had 2 rough drags to get into the field and two drags out both days. Had decent weather and some wind but never saw a goose. We can hunt geese well into February but unless something radically changes this will probably do it for me for the year. It's been a terrible season with too warm weather and the wrong wind most of the time. You can hunt Presque Isle until 1-13, the latest ever allowed, but it won't make much difference. Either the birds migrated through earlier or they are staying put up north somewhere.

There are 2 huge ponds not far from my house. The gravel pit pond usually has anywhere from 500 to maybe 2 thousand birds at one time depending on the date and weather. I looked yesterday, once in the a.m. and once just before dark and there wasn't a bird to be seen. Same thing with the other pond.

So far we have now had 6.8" of snow for the year. Unheard of as we typically get 30" or more in Dec alone. The weather for the next 10 days shows virtually nothing for snow.

Happy New Year fellas and I hope you all did better than me.

[don novicki]

Cold the last few days. Small water is all hard and larger water is starting to get that way too. Was out this morning scouting didn't see anything. Next Sat is the last day at Presque Isle. What little season we have had is coming to an end. Less than 8" of snow so far this year and believe it or not we were under our normal rainfall totals this year. Hope we aren't going to get into a drought situation. Whack em and stack em.

[don novicki]

Cold temps net week. All the water will finally freeze and maybe get the geese into the corn. I'll be out and will post up my usual boring report probably. But I sure hope I can have some success.

[Rick]

Can't know until you go.

[Duck Engr]

Look forward to it Don!

[5 stand]

With the cold temps, I don't know why a Goose wouldn't be interested in a kernel of corn, Good Luck Buddy...

[Deltaman]

Hope they cover you up brother!!!!!

[don novicki]

Well after a hard scout on Friday evening, I found about 100 honks in my cornfield enjoying the waste grain so I set my sights on a Sat. 1-20-24 hunt, the last day of our Jan season. It had snowed on Friday, and we got about 5" of the stuff with more on the way for Sat.. I was excited figuring that, maybe this outing would be have a different ending than what I was used to. Well I was wrong. As I headed out Sat morning it was a raging Lake Effect snow storm. The ride to the field was white out conditions and I was lucky I knew the roads well and that a few of the plow drivers had been out so I could see where I was going. As I got to the field, I knew I was in trouble when I got there. Where there had been 5" of snow, now there was 18". The snow was up to my knees and my instincts told me that with the storm, and so much new snow, it was going to be a different day. I hoped that maybe a few birds might wander by, but after laying there for a couple of hours, I figured that they were not going to fly and were probably hunkered down someplace. I was right. I laid out in the field until almost 11 before I called it a day, and most likely a season. Never saw a bird, or really any birds of any type.I did hear multiple flocks of swans going overhead though. It was a brutal day, and it took 3 trips to get all my gear out into the field. I was dead when I got home, disappointed, but still happy that I got out and enjoyed the day and weather. I had to snow blow when I got home so I did our house and a couple of neighbors. We have only had about 25" of snow so far and most of that came on Fri and Sat.. We can hunt geese from Feb 2-24 but it's highly unlikely I will go out again. A most disappointing season, but you take the good with the bad. Not sure if I'm going to continue with the sport anymore. I like to hunt alone, but it's getting pretty tough anymore to get out into the locations that I once had no problem with. I guess I'll make a determination before next season starts. Hope everyone here is crushing the,.

[Rick]

Just wait and see, Don: come next fall you'll be anxious to go all over again.

[don novicki]

I'm already looking at a new set of waders for next season. Kobuk has a nice pair of 5mm neo ad 1600 grams thinsulate for 154.00. I'm planning on pulling the trigger on a pair for next season. So I'll be back...... I can't quit until I'm dead.

[Rick]

...can't quit until I'm dead.

That's how it's supposed to work.

[DComeaux]

I know the feeling.

[don novicki]

Just checking in. Turkey season starts May 4 which is a Sat., but I won't be going out until Mon 5-6. There's no one in the woods anymore, esp. during the week, so wherever I land up I'll probably have it all to my self.

Looking forward to getting out in the woods again, even if I don't tag a bird. Gotta watch for ticks........

[Rick]

There's no one in the woods anymore, esp. during the week, so wherever I land up I'll probably have it all to my self.

What a blessing that would be. Best of luck with it.