Post by bsutravis on Sept 15, 2006 21:24:45 GMT -5
The story will follow later in the wee hours of the morning when I am at work. I've gotta get to bed, but here are the pics.
Killed.....3 geese. AWESOME final hour of the late season, probably 200-300 geese within view in the final hour. More details will be added overnight while all you little goose & duck hunters are asleep, dreaming of opening day in October!
OK, I wanted to get to the tale of our fateful trip earlier, but when I got into work I was asked to go shoot a fatal motorcycle accident on I-65.... for you riders out there, wear your helmets. I wont go into details, but heads tend to explode when the make impact with concrete walls at high speeds! Anyway, I digress...
Yesterday morning I was joined with supr87gt (Tom) and JWKimber45 (Josh) for a morning public land hunt. After half-a-mile hike in waders, each carrying at least a dozen dekes and all the other gear that us waterfowlers MUST have with us...we inadvertently spooked a huge flock off the water. They were roosted right where I wanted to be. We kept stopping along the way to listen for them through darkness, but we got too close and off they went into the foggy early morning sky. We had a good time swapping stories and feeding caught insects to the dozens of HUGE garden spiders that had spun their webs all around us overnight. A shot was fired (by yours truly) at a fast moving teal....I don't even recall shouldering the gun as Josh yelled "teal!!!!", I swung at the bird skirting the surface of the water...and all I managed to do was scare the bejesus out of it as my shot rained across the placid water. For me at least, the best moment was watching a beautiful sunrise through the standing timber while woodies (Not you Woody) screamed throughout the morning. After what seemed to be an even longer hike back to our waiting trucks, we parted ways with our tails between our legs having never even heard a goose except for when they erupted in the dark....and a very annoying tame goose that enjoyed honking from a nearby farm. Oh yes, we dang well would have taken it had it somehow managed to escape and bring it's orange-bill into our spread!
Fast forward to 5pm.....to a location that I don't dare disclose on this site for the threat that the people running to 911's honey hole would surely be equal to Sutter's Mill post 1848. The day would have been better served laying back in my neighborhood pool watching the geese fly over laughing at me while I down a Honey Brown brew. What I'm saying fellas is that it was HOT, way to stinking hot to be out waterfowling....but thanks to 911's ever-caring wife, she quickly arranged for a gallon of semi-cool water to be brought to our location to parch our thirst. Now THAT is service! The spread looked great and the anticipation was great since 911 had touted that his spot would rival Stuttgart in late December.
Not a sound had been heard until out of nowhere a LOUD volley of honks coming at us from our "six"!!! As my head snapped around we see Kyle sitting in his rig from the road, laughing his arse off at us for thinking he was a goose coming in hard and heavy! After a brief visit and look over by the Avian Master Kyle, he gave his approval to the deke setup...and gave us a demonstration of how John prefers to set up his goose shells. (I'll get that pic on here eventually) We all nestled in again, waiting for the blasting sun to get behind the trees to cool things down a bit. Still no action, BUT...we were seeing ducks flying....first one or two......then 5-6 at a time.....eventually there were full blown flocks coming from all directions. Oh the feathers that would have flown had it been late October. John was starting to worry....he had built up this hunt as THE early season hunt...and nothing had happened. He had to do something and he had to do it NOW! So....he went and got his little girl Morgan. I dunno, some guys carry a rabbits foot.....John carries his daughter (he has 4 to choose from at any given time!). So, now with Morgan in the mix things will certainly get better.......and they did.
The first flock, I'll estimate was about 15-20 came in low from our "six"......I called the "Take Em!" as we opened up on them. Geese rained down from the heavens to John's delight! Tony managed to snag one from the sky at an incredible paced off distance of 80 steps!!! I've never seen a goose dangle it's guts out like that as he brought it back to the blind....I'm certain he hit it with a deer slug which makes his shot even more impressive! Tom plucked his Canadian with his trusty semi-auto quickly after dropping his banded laynard sporting his assortment of high dollar calls.....oh yeah, do tell us about how that band on your laynard came to be Tom! Morgan made an effort to retrieve the goose that I dropped, but like any pup she still needs some field work on the retrieve. She wasn't gun shy though, never making a whimper as the shots rang out. 911 threatened to put the shock collar on her, but Tom convinced him not too.....and the thought that I would have a camera crew out there before dark so that he would be tonight's top story. After Morgan ran back to the blind Tom informed me that I was the new owner of some jewelry.....which in my mind is more valuable than anything I could have gotten down at Zale's....my wife, now she would differ from that thought. Excellent.....my first piece of 'bling' from a goose or a duck. That goose now is in the deep freeze awaiting my rookie taxidermy skills to resurrect it onto my game room wall.
Amazingly....that first round of birds was all we got shots at. Perhaps it was the long red blood trail that Tony's goose spilled out from where it landed to our blind...perhaps it was some pink fabric that Kyle secretly snuck into our setup....but something was flaring the birds off. We had dozens upon dozens come in, and they all ended up setting down at another location that I cannot disclose. We took away some great memories afield, and some great knowledge that will undoubtedly be used once waterfowl opens back up. It was a terrific time, and even though we never came close to getting a limit....I personally limited out on the thrill of the hunt with the guys (and girl) on our final day of Early Season.
To arrange YOUR guided hunt to 911's honey hole, contact his operations manager (me). Each hunt will only cost ya, mmm, say....$50 plus trophy fees...plus taxes, titles, freight and destination. Go ahead and make the checks out to "BSU Travis" and I'll be sure that after I take my 20%, John will get his 70%. Oh, you are adding that up and it doesn't come to 100%, well....surely Kyle is gonna want 10% also! And don't even get me started about Art!!!!!
Holy crud that was long!!!!
Killed.....3 geese. AWESOME final hour of the late season, probably 200-300 geese within view in the final hour. More details will be added overnight while all you little goose & duck hunters are asleep, dreaming of opening day in October!
OK, I wanted to get to the tale of our fateful trip earlier, but when I got into work I was asked to go shoot a fatal motorcycle accident on I-65.... for you riders out there, wear your helmets. I wont go into details, but heads tend to explode when the make impact with concrete walls at high speeds! Anyway, I digress...
Yesterday morning I was joined with supr87gt (Tom) and JWKimber45 (Josh) for a morning public land hunt. After half-a-mile hike in waders, each carrying at least a dozen dekes and all the other gear that us waterfowlers MUST have with us...we inadvertently spooked a huge flock off the water. They were roosted right where I wanted to be. We kept stopping along the way to listen for them through darkness, but we got too close and off they went into the foggy early morning sky. We had a good time swapping stories and feeding caught insects to the dozens of HUGE garden spiders that had spun their webs all around us overnight. A shot was fired (by yours truly) at a fast moving teal....I don't even recall shouldering the gun as Josh yelled "teal!!!!", I swung at the bird skirting the surface of the water...and all I managed to do was scare the bejesus out of it as my shot rained across the placid water. For me at least, the best moment was watching a beautiful sunrise through the standing timber while woodies (Not you Woody) screamed throughout the morning. After what seemed to be an even longer hike back to our waiting trucks, we parted ways with our tails between our legs having never even heard a goose except for when they erupted in the dark....and a very annoying tame goose that enjoyed honking from a nearby farm. Oh yes, we dang well would have taken it had it somehow managed to escape and bring it's orange-bill into our spread!
Fast forward to 5pm.....to a location that I don't dare disclose on this site for the threat that the people running to 911's honey hole would surely be equal to Sutter's Mill post 1848. The day would have been better served laying back in my neighborhood pool watching the geese fly over laughing at me while I down a Honey Brown brew. What I'm saying fellas is that it was HOT, way to stinking hot to be out waterfowling....but thanks to 911's ever-caring wife, she quickly arranged for a gallon of semi-cool water to be brought to our location to parch our thirst. Now THAT is service! The spread looked great and the anticipation was great since 911 had touted that his spot would rival Stuttgart in late December.
Not a sound had been heard until out of nowhere a LOUD volley of honks coming at us from our "six"!!! As my head snapped around we see Kyle sitting in his rig from the road, laughing his arse off at us for thinking he was a goose coming in hard and heavy! After a brief visit and look over by the Avian Master Kyle, he gave his approval to the deke setup...and gave us a demonstration of how John prefers to set up his goose shells. (I'll get that pic on here eventually) We all nestled in again, waiting for the blasting sun to get behind the trees to cool things down a bit. Still no action, BUT...we were seeing ducks flying....first one or two......then 5-6 at a time.....eventually there were full blown flocks coming from all directions. Oh the feathers that would have flown had it been late October. John was starting to worry....he had built up this hunt as THE early season hunt...and nothing had happened. He had to do something and he had to do it NOW! So....he went and got his little girl Morgan. I dunno, some guys carry a rabbits foot.....John carries his daughter (he has 4 to choose from at any given time!). So, now with Morgan in the mix things will certainly get better.......and they did.
The first flock, I'll estimate was about 15-20 came in low from our "six"......I called the "Take Em!" as we opened up on them. Geese rained down from the heavens to John's delight! Tony managed to snag one from the sky at an incredible paced off distance of 80 steps!!! I've never seen a goose dangle it's guts out like that as he brought it back to the blind....I'm certain he hit it with a deer slug which makes his shot even more impressive! Tom plucked his Canadian with his trusty semi-auto quickly after dropping his banded laynard sporting his assortment of high dollar calls.....oh yeah, do tell us about how that band on your laynard came to be Tom!
Morgan made an effort to retrieve the goose that I dropped, but like any pup she still needs some field work on the retrieve. She wasn't gun shy though, never making a whimper as the shots rang out. 911 threatened to put the shock collar on her, but Tom convinced him not too.....and the thought that I would have a camera crew out there before dark so that he would be tonight's top story. After Morgan ran back to the blind Tom informed me that I was the new owner of some jewelry.....which in my mind is more valuable than anything I could have gotten down at Zale's....my wife, now she would differ from that thought. Excellent.....my first piece of 'bling' from a goose or a duck. That goose now is in the deep freeze awaiting my rookie taxidermy skills to resurrect it onto my game room wall.Amazingly....that first round of birds was all we got shots at. Perhaps it was the long red blood trail that Tony's goose spilled out from where it landed to our blind...perhaps it was some pink fabric that Kyle secretly snuck into our setup....but something was flaring the birds off. We had dozens upon dozens come in, and they all ended up setting down at another location that I cannot disclose. We took away some great memories afield, and some great knowledge that will undoubtedly be used once waterfowl opens back up. It was a terrific time, and even though we never came close to getting a limit....I personally limited out on the thrill of the hunt with the guys (and girl) on our final day of Early Season.
To arrange YOUR guided hunt to 911's honey hole, contact his operations manager (me). Each hunt will only cost ya, mmm, say....$50 plus trophy fees...plus taxes, titles, freight and destination. Go ahead and make the checks out to "BSU Travis" and I'll be sure that after I take my 20%, John will get his 70%. Oh, you are adding that up and it doesn't come to 100%, well....surely Kyle is gonna want 10% also! And don't even get me started about Art!!!!!
Holy crud that was long!!!!
