GKR's week of snow goose hunting

[goodkarmarising]

As many of ya'll know I try to take a full week off during February or March depending on the year and what I think will be peak migration. This year has continued to be a challenge for me to scratch out birds. Didn't completely bomb but didn't do as great as I hoped number wise.

I was off the 16th thru the 25th and definitely enjoyed the time off. There are still more birds to take.

Saturday the 16th

Spent the day bumming around putting together last minute stuff for the coming week. Rigged up snow goose floaters (duck floaters I bought for $1 each and then spray painted into blues and snows). HandyAndy from DHC came out later that night, cooked dinner, bs'ed, then didn't spend much time sleeping. Threw all 200ish snow goose floaters into Andy's boat. Loaded my expedition with the rest of the gear. (flyers, layout blinds, tubs of northwinds, shotguns). I keep telling myself that every year I am going to have stuff packed up and ready to go before the last minute. Never happens.

Sunday the 17th

Wake up about 330 am and head out to a local lake that we could hunt becuase of the drought. We had an idea formed that we could use Andy's boat to hunt out of or use it to set decoys. Because of the drought, we couldn't launch the boat. Andy backed the boat down the ramp as far as he was comfortable doing and there was a still a foot between the water and the boat trailer. We had to move on to plan B. We go to the north end of the lake and set up. The mud right by the water is merciless. It is deep, boot sucking, and I sink into the crap about a foot everytime I go out to set decoys. I freaking hate this stuff. We manage to set out all the floaters and some shell decoys on the mud. Once we are walking in the water, the mud isn't as bad. But the transition from mud to water is a real pain. Realize that I forgot to charge a battery last night and Andy forgot his e-caller. So between the two of us we managed to get a e-caller running. Managed to decoy in 1 snow goose.

Went and picked Will up from the airport...aka as lumpy2181 from DHC. Andy shot a goose over the decoys while I was gone. Will settled into his layout blind and the bsing began. He managed to get some shots at some snows but wound up with only 2 total. Watched 20,000 to 30,000 birds fly overhead to the other end of the lake. Roosting birds on the lake managed to suck in all the other birds with us getting marginal shots on some birds checking us out.


Monday the 18th

Left the decoys out overnight. Went back out to the same spot, settled into the layout blinds. Andy wanted to go jump a small group. He managed to scratch out 4 with his first band. We pick up all the floaters, layout blinds and head back to the house and head to central MO to find some birds. I send the dog out after a floater that is trying its hardest to break free. After about 100 yards of running thru the mud and water, my 2 dollar mutt grabs the decoy and brings it back. With him running thru the water it shows me how shallow the lake really is. I could probably walk across the whole lake if I chose to.

In the afternoon we wind up in central MO. We find a promising feeding flock in some winter wheat. We put them to bed (meaning the odds of them roosting there that night in the winter wheat are extremely high). We locate the farmer that owns the property and head to his house. We attempt to knock on his door various times but no one is home. Not worth it to sneak on private property we don't have permission on. Me and Will make the decision to head north up around the Grand Pass area. We wind up in a cheap motel not too far from there about 930 at night.

Tuesday the 19th

Wake up call is about 500. We head to grand pass and set up a small spread, it is brutally cold. Wind is kicking. We watched over 100k roosting snows get up that want nothing to do with our small spread. We get cold about 10 am and head north towards Swan Lake. Don't find much up there except Habitat Flats has a fulbody spread set up right against the refuge. We do find a massive feeding flock on the way back towards my house feeding right against a 4 lane highway. We talk about it but finally pull the plug on trying to sneak them. Not worth having cripples running around the highway with traffic zipping by at 70mph plus. Head back to the local lake and figure we could put out a spread. Drive by the north end of the local lake and see that a guide has set up two spreads. We stop and I glass over his spread, him and another vehicle coming racing out of the field towards me as I'm easing down the dirt road. I keep waiting for them to chase me down to no avail.

Wednesday the 20th

Figure we would go set up on the local lake. The weather changes overnight and when we get to the lake, the lake is frozen solid. Me and Will can stand side by side and just have the ice crack slightly under us. I'm not a fan of chopping ice and ask the guys if they want to put out a sleeper spread of shell decoys. They don't so we spend some time scouting. We head north towards towards Squaw Creek and wind up about 15 to 20 minutes away and don't find any huntable birds. We call it a day about 3pm and head towards the house to wait out the snow storm.

Thursday the 21st

Snow, Snow, and more Snow. We get anywhere from 8 to 12 inches of snow. Good day to bum around and sort gear. Not much was going on.

Friday the 22nd

Went scouting and found huntable numbers of geese. Stayed in a roach coach of a motel and made the call to TK to come meet us. We were going to go hunting in the morning. Either by setting a field spread or jumping them.

Saturday the 23rd

Spent a few hours in the morning scouting birds, driving back roads and find the right field to jump and also where we could get permission from the farmer to get on his fields to hunt. We find several flocks in fields but can't find the farmers name to either call and get permission or the farmer isn't home. We find the right field and located the farmer. The sneak was on. Me, Will and TK load up and begin a long sneak on the birds. We walk in snow camo slowly towards a pond dam we can get behind. And from there we plan on easing up under the birds and get a jump on them. When get to the end of the pond dam and terrace, we find out there is a no man's land of about 40 yards between us and the sentry snow geese. We race across to a snow drift and manage to scare the birds up. We wait for them to jump back up and come back since it is a feeding field they want in. The whole group doesn't come back to that particular area of the field but enough come back for us to scratch out 5. I go back to let my 2 dollar mutts of the expedition and my oldest makes several long retrieves on a couple cripples.

We head to lunch and TK has to head home. Me and Will decide to head towards home and scout on the way back. I realize that I had left my wifes camera on the hood of the expedition while taking pictures. Me and Will head back to the field we had hunted and slowly drive down the dirt road, and don't find the camera. We notice the birds get spooked out of the field and run into another guy out jumping snows also. Come to find out he had watched us jump the field that morning. Good thing we had waited and got the farmers blessing to hunt the field.

On the way back home I notice that my battery light is coming on. We find a field with permission and jump it, only to have all the birds fly off. My expedition dies and I have to get it jumped by some guys out running dogs for coyotes. We head down a dirt road about 1/2 mile way straight line distance from the field we jump. I leave the expedition running and it dies on me again with no one around. I call up state farm insurance to get a tow with my roadsided assistance and my father in law. While I'm waiting for either state farm to call me back and/or my father in law to show up, we get out and watch geese fly over us. As we watch geese fly over us, Karma gets birdy and heads out into the field 100 to 150 yards from us and finds a snow goose we had shot from the other field that had flown off. State Farm calls me 45 minutes later after the inital call I placed with them that they couldn't find a tow truck in my area. Yeah I was out in the country but not too far from a decent sized town. My FIL shows up and we put another battery in the expedition. I follow him about 45 minutes out of the dirt road back to Leavenworth via the moonlight with no headlights. Glad I didn't run into a cop and glad there was a full moon to drive by.

Sunday the 24th

Expedition was down, had to put an alternator in it. Good day to sort gear and bum around again. Slept in, poured some egg sinkers

Monday the 25th

Went to Rogers Sporting Goods, checked out some gear. Took Will to the airport and I headed home.



Wound up with only 12 birds, 1 was banded and watched my 2 dollar mutts make some impressive retrieves on some cripples with the mutts retrieving 8 birds.

(Shamelessly stealing some pics from Will to post up)

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[Redbeard]

Cool detailed write up. Spending a week off scouting and chasing birds like that around the country side with good friends sounds fun

[Fowlplay]

Sounds like y'all had a good trip, despite the troubles