What Would You Do?

[Mike Franzen]

Today was the last day of the Ohio goose season. It was bitter cold in the early morning but the scouting report touted hundreds of birds were gathering at a small pond in the middle of a corn field. I met Scott at Big E’s house at 5:30 am for the short drive to the corn field. I try to hunt every last day of a season I can. I have come to expect extraordinary things to happen on the last day. As we approached the pond we could hear the nervous chatter of more than 300 geese! Last night they decided roost on the pond and were keeping the water open. It’s 20 minutes til daylight, crystal clear skies and we’re in the middle of the corn field 150 yards out. The birds are nervous and know we are there. All of our gear is still loaded on the 4 wheeler.
If, you had been there and were calling the shots what strategy would you have employed?

[Destry L. Hoffard]

A crawl would have been in order, if there had been any chance of it's success. You give them both barrels, then jam in the shell you're carrying in the corner of your mouth and see if you can't pick up another bird as they fly out. Then you shoot over the cripples, if there are any......

[scott kittredge]

Or just walk up and jump them out with out shooting, like a couple of farmers than set up and hope a few come back in smaller groups. but late season its a gamble they might not return. :) So what did you do??

[Dean Romig]

Had the corn been cut?

[Rick Losey]

its a rare field that is not cut this time of year, the deer and raccoons will be stripping it if not.

i would side with Destry. if they have kept that water open after they fly off - and they will likely go more than 150 yards to feed when driven off. Take you chances on the sneak and then set up by the open water- wind at your back on the off chance that there is no other open water and the may return after feeding

of course this also assume you have a way to recover birds dead in the water

[Mike Franzen]

Here's what we did. We circled back around and got behind the dam. We crawled silently up to the top and leveled our guns to spray hot lead ... No, just kidding lol.

It was Big E's call what to do. I was wondering how it was going to go. He decided first, we would wait and see if they flew out on their own. They didn't so we went ahead and set up near the water with the wind at our backs. His reasoning, like Destry and Ricks, was the birds would fly out and hopefully return at some point to the open water. It was really cool seeing all those geese take off in an orderly manner. So we got set up and first thing the wind changed directions. Then the pond skimmed over. The dekes froze in place. Three birds came in and we killed one but it landed on the ice in the "I'm Dead" position. Several more birds veered off after inspecting their downed comrade. Getting it meant hiking to the other side of the pond, wading in to break the heavier ice so Babe could get to the bird through the thinner ice. That's what we did. We hunted the next 4 hours and killed 4 more birds. The old Parker 10 gauge did it's job with the brass shell loads I had worked up. One of the best things we saw was a Drake Mallard plummet straight down, belly first, and break through the ice. Another thing was watching Babe retrieve and bring us the dead. She was like an ice breaking machine. So, all in all, it was a great last day spent with great friends.

[Fred Slyfield]

If you jumped it your hunt would be over all at once, I would have let the birds leave on their own got set up and waited for their return in small groups ( you hope)

That is what has worked best for me over the years.

We do this a lot even on gigantic water , sometimes we just get in the boat and start crusing the river looking for a big wad of birds, gently let them go from the boat disturbance and then get set up quickly.

Here is a picture from a day when that type of hunting worked well.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk144/cariboucreek/P1190111_zps0c2223f3.jpg (http://s279.photobucket.com/user/cariboucreek/media/P1190111_zps0c2223f3.jpg.html)

[Fred Slyfield]

Mike sounds like it worked well for you

Fred

[Mike Franzen]

It did Fred. We waited awhile for them to leave but they weren't going anywhere. Here's the pic I meant to post

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've played the game of running them off and putting on the sneak too. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I remember the day we waited out 1000 geese on the river, wanting to let them fly out naturally. It took 3 hours but they finally did. We set up and hunted, then finally, they did come back, all in one group, about 30 minutes after shooting hours. Hah!

[Mike Franzen]

That's funny Destry. I don't know about the rest of you water fowlers but the hunting in south western ohio was the worst the long timers can ever remember. Bad weather patterns to blame

[Fred Slyfield]

Great photo, love the look on the labs face!!

[scott kittredge]

That's funny Destry. I don't know about the rest of you water fowlers but the hunting in south western ohio was the worst the long timers can ever remember. Bad weather patterns to blame

Same here in NH, worst that i can remember in 42 years of duck hunting !! :crying:

[Daryl Corona]

Absolutely stunk here in MD!

[charlie cleveland]

we once found a group of geese as ya ll discribe here...we crawled up on them and blasted away...only geese i ever got to shoot and get a few...charlie

[will evans]

Bad hunting this year? That surprises me. The numbers are supposedly up over 40%, if you are to believe the wildlife counts.

[Kevin McCormack]

Fred, that is a "dream bag" you are showing there! - Cans, redheads, scaup, etc. Not many times you get the opportunity to "box the compass" with good ducks! Ditto what others have said; worst duck season here in MD that I can remember in 48 years if waterfowl hunting. No good divers until 2 weeks ago, none using on our creek. Fair weather birds like teal and woodies left early on cue like they always do, then there was nothing but 'turtle food' mallards trading up and down. Duck season ended here last Sat,, goose goes out day after tomorrow. Not much for goose hunting anymore, but I'm going anyway so I can hear my gun go off again.

[Fred Slyfield]

Kevin, We are very lucky to live in an area that has great duck hunting, Sometimes you have to travel a bit but usually within a couple hours of home I can find birds later in the season, We also have excellent mallard hunting here at times.

I run a fully custom built aluminum boat -blind combo with a 115 suzuki on the back, it allows me to hunt many spots others can't. That boat has been the key to success many times.

Fred

[Jerry Harlow]

Mike,

We were faced with the same situation Saturday. Temp in the teens and water mostly frozen. When we arrived twenty minutes before shooting time there were seventy-five on the water. Hunting with a cousin's son for the first time he said he would run them up. I said no, what I have found is if you can drive down to the pond and let the vehicle get them up they will usually come back. If you can't get a vehicle in there, a light makes them so nervous they always get up. A man in camo running them up does not work for me.

As we were putting out decoys at shooting time they came back to the little open water they had kept open all night. We had unloaded guns in the cases, breaking my rule of always loading the guns before the decoys go out. My young cousin got two shells in his gun and I had three. Five shots and there were now four dead birds on the ice. A single came over looking for his lost gang or mate and I brought him down. Believe it or not, my two wounded birds and his got up on the ice eventually and headed for the far bank over the course of an hour. He hunted them down for us and we had five birds. Looking across the field I told him there was a goose about a hundred yards away. Long story short, we shot at six birds and recovered six on a frozen pond. Both shooting Franchi 3.5" autos by coincidence, since I knew I needed all we could get for long range. A lucky day under less than ideal conditions.

[Mike Franzen]

Well now that duck and geese are over I can get back to rabbit hunting and start thinking about turkey's. Ah, the sporting life!