A Late Season Goose Hunt

Last Friday I received a call from my buddy Mike.  I believe his exact words went something like this. "Jason's got 400 geese and 200 mallards landing in a field!  We're meeting at 2:00!  Can you make it?"

With an exciting call like that, I had no choice.  Turns out, he under estimated the true numbers of birds in that field.  What I didn't know when I drove out to meet the boys, was that we were going to be hiding 8 men in that field.  If you are familiar with late season duck and goose hunting, you know that these birds are very smart.  They have seen anything and everything that hunters can throw their way, and are very tough to fool.  Hiding 8 men in a field is nearly impossible when it is tilled up black.

We did our best, digging the blinds into their own little pits.  We found as many corn stalks and corn parts as we could manage, and tucked them into every crack of the blinds.  I thought it looked pretty good, but what would the birds think?

On this hunt, there was no waiting.  Heck the trucks were still parked in the field when the first 200 showed up.  Mallards that is!  Not what we were expecting, but a pleasant surprise.  Too bad we weren't ready.  Hide the trucks, and the hunt was on.  Flock number one turned sour on us at the last minute.  Apparently they saw something that flock number two did not.  Flock number two was not as smart, and came in just picture perfect.  The sight of those big birds putting their landing gear down gives me a rush that I cannot explain.  We dropped 3 out of the group and the skunk was off.

The sad thing about that flock, it was the highlight of our day.  From that point on, we watched flock after flock fly right over our heads.  Literally by the hundreds they came in, but we only managed to trick one other goose into thinking he had an easy meal.  It was a constant wave of birds for about 2 hours.  As textbook as our hunt started, we were humbled by the late season birds yet again.  We watched them circle and land in a few neighboring fields.  Fly back to the roost, and do it all over again.  Non-stop action in every direction other than on top of our decoy spread.  Not to mention the several hundred mallards that came back for a pre-sunset meal.  They too agreed with the geese and thought our offering was less than appealing.

That's ok.  We did bag 4 late season birds, and that is an accomplishment in itself.  We also watched a sight not that often seen in the Minnesota sky.  A sky full of ducks and geese is usually only visible when I head out west.  A success no doubt.  Thanks for that call Mike!