Geese hunting2021

super mario · #1 09-01-2021, 10:50 AM

Season Opener 2021 Four Old Timers

JBE · #2 09-01-2021, 11:08 AM

outstanding

simpatico · #3 09-01-2021, 02:36 PM

It always nice to see your annual goose thread Mario! Stay safe and continued success!

Tony

super mario · #4 09-02-2021, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simpatico

it always nice to see your annual goose thread mario! Stay safe and continued success!

Tony

thx

24shooter · #5 09-02-2021, 01:08 PM

Guess you had a nice time. Congratulations

NFTrapper · #6 09-03-2021, 11:00 AM

Me and the kids had a blast opening morning. All done by 6:45am!

bessiedog · #7 09-03-2021, 02:52 PM

Good job boys!!

Mario!! I KNEW you’d blast a bunch quick! Well done sir!!

alacringa · #8 09-04-2021, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by super mario

Season Opener 2021 Four Old Timers

Nice cans!

astepanuk · #9 09-06-2021, 04:34 PM

Good Work Mario great to see. I was able to get out this weekend with my daughter Abby and some great friends we got a couple limits of Honkers

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super mario · #10 09-07-2021, 08:51 PM

Congrats she is growing so fast

threeforthree · #11 09-07-2021, 10:45 PM

I was waiting for this post!!!!! Thanks and congrats

roper1 · #12 09-08-2021, 08:45 PM

[QUOTE=astepanuk;4411290]Good Work Mario great to see. I was able to get out this weekend with my daughter Abby and some great friends we got a couple limits of Honkers
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-c

Always look forward to this pic!!! Well done!!

astepanuk · #13 09-08-2021, 09:44 PM

[QUOTE=roper1;4412011]

Quote:

Originally Posted by astepanuk

Good Work Mario great to see. I was able to get out this weekend with my daughter Abby and some great friends we got a couple limits of Honkers
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-c

Always look forward to this pic!!! Well done!!

My girls are growing so fast!! Girl can’t get up for school but hopped up out of bed at 4:30am lol.

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bessiedog · #14 09-08-2021, 09:54 PM

It goes fast fellas.
All my kids r now grown and gone. Years of hinting partners and good memories….

Cherish pics and moments like these.

sns2 · #15 09-09-2021, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astepanuk

Good Work Mario great to see. I was able to get out this weekend with my daughter Abby and some great friends we got a couple limits of Honkers

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I love seeing pics of this dad and his girls. Their smiles are beyond priceless. Look forward to them every year!

32-40win · #16 09-26-2021, 01:47 AM

Finished off a week with 6 shoots in it, one on honkers with a few specks, 5 more with straight specks.

Had a new pup along in training, 6mos old, black Lab named Brant, he provided a lot of entertainment, and learned a lot, and progressed thru the week in learning about retrieving geese.
My lab, Tuck, is 9-1/2 now, they got along fine, old dog can't keep up to the youngster, but, they honoured each other OK and got along fine.

We used a cheapie Cabela's willow blind all week, worked well for us, nice to use too. Tuck just laid by my feet and peeked out the side. We dressed it up last year, only used it 2-3 times, used it all week this year, only added a couple handfulls of fresh grass to it. We had a third for a couple of days, ain't getting 4 in that blind comfortably with two dogs.

Worked with 4-1/2 doz FFD FB specks, 2 doz ffd Speck shells and 2 doz Canada FB's.

Birds worked awesome all week, we even shot decently til the last day. Brant figured out how to retrieve the birds, still needs a bit of work on that, which will happen again in another week, he's definitely willing. Tuck got a 500yd or so retrieve in the first day on the honkers, found one in a weed patch for us. My partner Matthews Archer and I both got a twofer each. Really a good week with the way those birds cooperated, can't ask for better, even with bluebird, no wind, they worked for us, also had a couple of days with good wind, cloud in front of the sun. And that nutty pup provided a lot of entertainment.

super mario · #17 09-30-2021, 08:47 PM

Congrats

pintail flyer · #18 10-02-2021, 03:05 PM

Great photos everyone.Nice to see the side by side in the field.

marky_mark · #19 10-02-2021, 06:21 PM

Looks like a lot of fun
Congrats

super mario · #20 10-03-2021, 02:21 PM

October geese fest

bessiedog · #21 10-09-2021, 06:10 PM

Finally! I can post here!

We weren’t on X… but we made it work.
The word was our nemesis flock of 200 snows were in the area.
Sure enough… they came in perfect…. Our shooting.. not so perfect .. lol.

Old pooch retrieved all birds… including a 1/2 field chase down.
We’ll get em next time!

Good times with great friends!

astepanuk · #22 10-12-2021, 03:54 PM

Got the call on the way back from my elk hunt that the snows were stacking up east of Athabasca a quick drive and a call to the landowner the hunt was planned. Couldn’t have asked for a better hunt always a bit nervous hunting along the highway but worked out great.

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super mario · #23 10-12-2021, 07:04 PM

Congrats

32-40win · #24 10-14-2021, 12:38 AM

We got out for another 4 days last wk, it was something of a bust. Birds were not cooperating at all, changed fields completely and most wouldn't even give the field they were in for the evening feed, so much as a look the next AM. We actually did get skunked one morning, we think that was the first time ever. We got a bit torqued about that and did an evening shoot that same day, it worked reasonably well, had some fun with it.
Part of the issue was only two huntable flocks in the area, and they were getting shot up pretty good. Essentially no new birds, maybe 30 snows mixed in with 3-4000 specks in one flock and another 100 in the bigger flock, just not enough birds around, not much roost water either.
I'm not 100% sure we'd have done any better with layout blinds, but, they definitely did not like the willow blind. They were flaring at the 200 yd mark the one morning. They were also coming late, 1/2hr or more after legal, bluebird AM's and no wind, lot of the time the birds that did come over were at the 300ft mark, just flew by without any intention of investigating what they saw below. many that did come in low enough did so at max velocity and we missed some that way, long shots at birds motoring right along.
However, that's speck hunting, sometimes it doesn't work the way it is supposed to. I'll start scouting again here Wed, see if the little bout of weather changed anything in the way of new birds.

densa44 · #25 10-14-2021, 07:55 PM

Lots in Settler no hunters and many snows. We could use some shooters

waldedw · #26 10-20-2021, 09:31 PM

We stacked up a few tonight, the geese were a bit slow but the ducks co-operated nicely, going to try for geese again in the morning
geese.jpg

jwelds191 · #27 10-20-2021, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 32-40win

We got out for another 4 days last wk, it was something of a bust. Birds were not cooperating at all, changed fields completely and most wouldn't even give the field they were in for the evening feed, so much as a look the next AM. We actually did get skunked one morning, we think that was the first time ever. We got a bit torqued about that and did an evening shoot that same day, it worked reasonably well, had some fun with it.
Part of the issue was only two huntable flocks in the area, and they were getting shot up pretty good. Essentially no new birds, maybe 30 snows mixed in with 3-4000 specks in one flock and another 100 in the bigger flock, just not enough birds around, not much roost water either.
I'm not 100% sure we'd have done any better with layout blinds, but, they definitely did not like the willow blind. They were flaring at the 200 yd mark the one morning. They were also coming late, 1/2hr or more after legal, bluebird AM's and no wind, lot of the time the birds that did come over were at the 300ft mark, just flew by without any intention of investigating what they saw below. many that did come in low enough did so at max velocity and we missed some that way, long shots at birds motoring right along.
However, that's speck hunting, sometimes it doesn't work the way it is supposed to. I'll start scouting again here Wed, see if the little bout of weather changed anything in the way of new birds.

Willow blinds in fields can be risky, in my experience. But when they work, they work great.

waldedw · #28 10-21-2021, 02:39 PM

We stacked them up again this morning, 40 minutes and the 3 of us had our limits, we were covered up in birds, they were still trying to land in the decoys while we were packing up.
Geese1.jpg

32-40win · #29 10-23-2021, 11:48 AM

Back ftrom another 5 days out chasin birds, had a great time in a new area, did a few things I hadn't tried before. Found an area with a nice mix of Snows, Lessers, Honkers and Specks. It kept building in numbers all week, not sure it really helped us a hell of a lot, but, it was good to see. Even the reservoir the birds were on was probably 6-8ft down from the high water mark. I included one pic of a nearby roost that has dried up in the home area as an example of a lot of what we see around here. I did two drives thru local scouting areas and found only one flock of birds in the whole area worth hunting, a morning scout and an evening scout, 35mi thru an area that shud be thick with birds, only daw two flocks of under 200 ea until I got to Hanna, then, a snow flock that had at least two groups of hunters looking at it already, and it was only maybe 5-8000 birds.

Shot 3 barley fields and a corn field in this area. Corn was a first for me, just laying out in whites was a first as well. The two of us went in and put out 20doz Sillosocks & about 200 Silos that nite after spotting it, went back the next AM and put out about 16 flappers and a rotary and 16-18doz Skyfly socks, set up the e-caller, that part went pretty good. Birds of course changed fields and for the most part went around us without looking as usual. But, we had some start circulating back to us and some stop by on returning to water, so, it got interesting, managed a few birds out of it.
Used the layout blinds on one barley field, used the willow blind on the same field a day earlier and on two different fields the days before that.
When we got there on the first AM, there was a fella hunting with his grandaughter set up where we could watch what went on, he was a local so we invited him to come hunt with us, he came over and hunted with us two times last week.
Matthews Archer was working his new pup, he progressed thru doing his first water retrieve and dealing with wounded geese and learning about working out of a field blind with layouts. Would have been nice if the ducks had been more cooperative, they were just following snows out, managed a few, but, nothing too inspirational for the dogs. Tuck spent a lot of time snoozing beside me. Brant was getting bored and showed it, puppies need birds to work on, and he has a bit of an overabundance of drive yet to work on. He understands what is going on out there and is definitely wired to work.

Good trip overall, had a lot of fun, got frustrated by obstinate birds, got some revenge against a few of them, met some good landowners and locals, dogs had a good time together. Even had reasonable weather for this time of year, had one day hunting at dawn with a light jacket, jeans and just a T-shirt and shirt on. Had reasonable winds in the AM shoots for the most part.

waldedw · #30 10-23-2021, 08:22 PM

3 of us were out again yesterday morning first shot fired at 7:32 last shot fired at 7:51 - 19 minutes 24 honkers down, we just sat in the blind and watched the show until 8:30 we were covered up in geese, unreal.

At one point I walked out of the blind and sat down in the decoy's I had birds landing within 15 yards, never have I seen that before.
Geese3.jpg

Geese4.jpg