Rochester MN Goose Hunt

The good news is...

Well with all the rain we had last week we went out to hunt some flooded fields. Man it was slow at first but around 9am the ducks started to fly we decoyed a pair of mallards and my partner and I pull up to take the shot when I drop my duck and his duck is hit hard and I watch it sail off and go down across the field. We set out across the flooded field and start to get close to where I thought the duck fell and noticed my partner was walking way to fast in a flooded field. I thought I should tell him to slow down when all of the sudden he goes completely under. He stepped in a ditch and the worst thing is he dropped his gun. Now his gun is at the bottom of a ditch that is over his head with no way to get it out and he is soaking wet we had to leave and not get anymore ducks. The good news is that the water went back down now and he found his gun today.

Hunting

Well the regular seasons for New York waterfowl is over can't wait for late season. I am headed to New Jersey on Jan 6 for a 3 day goose hunt. Can't wait it should be a blast. Well with the regular season over it is still muzzleloader season so i went out today and got a 6 point buck. It being the second to last day of deer season, needing meat in the freezer, plus it being my first buck with more that 4 points i put him down with the ol' smoke pole. It was also a big bodied deer.

Tough times in Oklahoma

After finally getting some new ducks in just about everything that could go wrong did. Spent the weekend of the split scouting and let me tell ya, man we found the ducks. Found an area holding a couple of thousand teal and several hundred mallards. We were really optimistic about the opener of the second season. A couple of days before though we had a big cold front move in. Most of the water where we had found the ducks was frozen the day before we were set to hunt. After breaking through ice with the boat though, we found the perfect spot. A large area where the water was not frozen with great cover on the bank. Oh yea, and about a thousand ducks. So we get to the boat ramp in plenty of time, motor out to our spot, and wouldn't you know it, someone was already set up where we wanted to hunt. So know we have to change the game plan. We move to the hole we had originally wanted to hunt and started breaking all the ice with the boats. After we are satisfied with our efforts we set up decoys. Once on the bank we realize that cover was sparce. So we started building a blind out of buckbrush. After getting the blind about as good as it was gonna get we set up and hoped for the best. Right off the ducks started flying into the hole. Singles and doubles mostly we started dropping everything that came into the NO FLY ZONE. Thinking everything was going our way, we hit a snag. After the sun got up the ducks were seeing us, and the Mojo had stopped working with the white side of the wings up. The Mojo was in to deep of water to reach, so we decided to relocate to another hole about ten minutes away. Afterall that's what the Duck Commander would do. Get all the decoys loaded up and we're off. As soon as we made it too our other hole we see that someone is set up in it already. Not being the kind to give up we move to a spot where we had jumped some mallards on the way over. After being in there about an hour we had shot one teal and the birds just were not flying, so we called it a day. I guess next time we better get to the hole a little earlier.

Mallard Migration Status

Even though duck season is over for some of us, the season is still open for our fellow hunters to the south! Good luck guys (and gals!).

Every week, over 100 biologists, wildlife managers and other experts rank the progress of mallard migration in their areas.

Check out the link: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/hunt/wtrfowl/migration.php

These rankings do not depict mallard abundance; they indicate the relative progression of the fall migration. Estimated peak numbers of mallards may be lower or higher than average numbers during previous years due to annual variations in local wetland and environmental conditions. As a result, a dark color does not necessarily mean that lots of mallards are present in that region

These maps depict real time estimates of migration without the benefit of waiting until the completion of migration before providing assessments. Some variation in results may also occur depending on the number of experts reporting for a given week.

End of one season, Beginning of another

Well duck hunting is over in my area and it ended on a low note. The last month of duck hunting was very slow and there were very few birds around. On a high note late goose hunting started and i have been seeing a few flocks of honkers flying around. It will be a hard late goose hunt because all the lakes have at least 8 inches of ice on them and full size truck are already driving on some smaller lakes. Hopefully i can tie into a couple this season. Good luck to all with a season still in progress. Thanks

The Last Bang

Had a great opportunity to hunt Rochester MN on Saturday morning. I must preface this by filling you in on what Rochester is. This city was voted, I believe in wildfowl magazine, as the #6 place in the country to live and hunt. The recent, and now 3 time world live goose calling champion, Scott Threinen has hunted geese all over the country and has stated that Rochester geese are the hardest geese to hunt. We found this out on Saturday.
Woke up in a panic on Saturday as I over slept my alarm and hurried out the door to pick up a couple Junkie members in St. Paul on my way down. After a two - two and a half hour drive we met up with Adam H., another Junkie member. He has permission to hunt the 20 acre bean field we were going to set up in .
After introductions and a napkin sketch of the field we were off. Once there we found that the snow had drifted pretty deep and with the truck in 4 wheel drive we plunged through with the trailer and kept the pedal to the floor until we made it in. Once there we started to set up 18 1/2 dozen decoys and the blinds. Once set up we dashed the trucks and hunkered in.
It wasn't long until we herd shooting in the distance, a lot of shooting. The guide services were pounding them hard. After a while we finally had the geese working our way but after 2 big flocks flared off we knew we had to make a move. We moved the layouts and half the spread about 75 yards to better accommodate the way they wanted to fly, and it turned out to be the best move.
Lots of birds were flying during the move and as I hopped one one leg trying to run back and forth we got settled in and had a couple groups come in just like we wanted. It wasn't long before we were 2 birds short of our 4 man limit. We did have a deadline on time so we were anxious to get one more flock. We had a solo come from behind us and as it came in so committed that it almost landed I stood up and said "I have this one!" I pulled the trigger the same time as Matt and feathers flew. I took out the left side and Matt hit the right and the bird almost landed in Scotts lap. Now we need one more and when it comes to that I always seem to struggle, almost like the birds know. It was pretty slow and at about 10:45 we decided to pick up because Adam had a family function and needed to leave at noon. Of course once you start picking up the birds always know. We left the guns loaded but with 2 trucks and a trailer in the middle of the decoys are not welcoming to geese.
The morning was great and we had alot of fun. We learned that theese birds are extremely hard to hunt because they are so educated, but all the calling we ahd to do didin't go to waste. Matt had his camera with and was able to get some great shot that I will be posting up on the picture page when I get the disc from him. The one I am looking forward to, if it turns out the way it looked on the camera screen, is a live action shot where you can actually see the shot pattern right before it hits the bird. All and all it was a great hunt and well worth the drive, and hopefully next season I get to make a few more trips down there to do it again.