Duck, Duck, GOOSE

The temps felt more like winter this weekend which keeps my fishing partners indoors and make me want to hunt something. Fishing last week BB and I noticed some public land with a mess of ducks and geese just kicking about. We got to thinking it would be a hell of a place to set up and hunt. I was itching to get my waterfowl hunt on having missed every opportunity this year for one reason or another. We recruited my nephew and my buddy Scooter for the adventure then went to work getting gear together. This one was gonna cost us a bit, none of us have our own decoys and everyone else we hunt with using theirs we were gonna have to bite the bullet and get our own. After giving bass pro half a weeks pay we had decoys and a bag. I also threw in a goose call just for fun and also it turns out to drive my dog ape shit. We left out late a little after 4 and arrived at the ponds by 5:45 which would have given us plenty of time to make the long walk lugging our gear and my kayak. Some young bucks got the jump on us and were on the pond we were gonna hunt which added another half mile to our walk and put us hauling ass to get decoys set up and a blind constructed. As it turns out the ducks fly early and I was still paddling out the decoys when the first mallards showed up. They weren't to impressed with the camo fat decoy in the middle of the spread and promptly tore ass out of sight before a shot was made. The geese flew in not to long after as I was removing the yak from the water. I think they caught my blind mates dozing because again no shots were fired. An hour into our hunt I noticed birds landing further down the pond and decided that maybe I could change our luck by taking a little paddle down (and get some blood pumping in my cold hands). I jumped 2 geese with no chance and a little further on I bumped the rest of the flock out at the end. I decided to sit and see if they would come back. By this time we heard a steady flurry of shots coming from the other pond where we had planned to sit, but hey that's how public land works you gotta get there early.On my paddle back our luck finally changed I stopped to relieve myself on shore and heard my guys light em up. They had a group of 5 head in and only one would make it out. Also as it turned out the spot I chose to rest backed up to a smaller pond where our mallard friends were hold up. I busted them but I had the wrong gun in my hands so to speak. It sounded like the guys and girl at the other pond were having an epic day with shots coming right up until lunch. We had a few more birds fly by but nothing would commit. We wrapped up the day around one and began our long trek back to the car. it was an awesome day and we learned plenty about our new spot and what to do better next time. Grins were worn by all and we cant wait to get back on em. We ended our day with 4 geese, one for each of us. The other group only had 6 geese and 2 duck with one duck banded. The y shot a whole lot for only 4 more birds than us but i guess that's how ya learn I'm certainly in no spot to pick on someones wing shooting. I'm still surprised when I pull the trigger and one drops out of the sky.

my paddle down the creek

nephew fixing our spread

birds in the boat

checking out the wing span

Cant wait for goose stew in the crock pot this week.