Many of you will recognize the Icelandic translation for Chicken Salad. More salad today. Snow, freezing mist, 30 mph northeast wind, not a chance of getting snow geese today. Except they didn't consider who they were dealing with. The last two hours at Knoble's pond was some of the most spectacular shooting of the season so far. Huge bunches of 500 - 1000 birds finished in the decoys. We had birds in the water and the rest looking for room to land. It was glorious!
All of the birds in the last two hours were full of corn. I suspect they were all local birds who spent the day in local corn fields and then went looking for water and a place to rest for the evening. 26 of them are resting in peace tonight.
My black lab Dani was the retriever of the day. She made the swim across the pond and back at least six times today chasing cripples. She is simply amazing. Earlier in the day I watched a cripple make it to the far bank and head off into the woods. During a lull in the action I sent Dani across the pond on a blind retrieve. When she reached the bank, I gave her the whistle command to sit. I then gave her a hand signal to go down the bank to her left. Even though the bird had crawled out of the water more than an hour earlier, she picked up the scent and disappeared into the woods. Two minutes later she emerged from the woods with the goose. She then made the swim back across the pond and came to heel and delivered the bird to hand. Dani loves snow goose hunting more than I do. She thrives on the high degree of difficulty.
Petey and his crew were at the Church pond today and harvested 18 birds. Heath guided our third group today at Barber's pond and they bagged 17. I think 61 birds for the day is definitely not kjúklingur skít!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Chicken Salad
The time tested adage of making chicken salad out of chicken s**t is appropriate for yesterday's hunt. Cloudy, snow flurries and the beloved east wind all combined to make our prospects for a successful hunt seem quite dim. However the snow flurries were light and scattered. The east wind was just a whisper and low and behold we experienced one of the unique phenomenas of spring snow goose migration. A reverse migration! We had birds coming from the north going back south all afternoon. I think they ran into the snow line and frozen lakes in northern NE and southern SD and decided they need to head back to Squaw Creek and wait awhile.
The good news is we now get three chances at them. One, on their first trip north; two, on their way back south; and three, on their way north again. At 2:30 yesterday we had 10 birds. We finished with 28. The last volley was with fire belching out of the barrels in the near darkness. Our three groups bagged a total of 60 birds yesterday.
Not bad for a chicken s**t day!
I have to give a shout of high praise to my yellow lab, AZ. Those of you who have hunted with her know that she is not blessed with blinding ground speed. A running back she is not. A bit more like an offensive lineman. What she does have is the sweetest personality that any retriever could have. I used the term retriever because that is what she is. A world class retriever. She is steady to shot. She will never leave until I give her the command to go. She is like a rock even when 1500 screaming white banshees are spiraling like an F4 tornado above her head. She unfailingly marks up to seven birds. She takes hand signals and whistle commands that allow us to put the 500 yard sailers that fell in the corn field into the bag. I am blessed to have such a hunting partner.
The good news is we now get three chances at them. One, on their first trip north; two, on their way back south; and three, on their way north again. At 2:30 yesterday we had 10 birds. We finished with 28. The last volley was with fire belching out of the barrels in the near darkness. Our three groups bagged a total of 60 birds yesterday.
Not bad for a chicken s**t day!
I have to give a shout of high praise to my yellow lab, AZ. Those of you who have hunted with her know that she is not blessed with blinding ground speed. A running back she is not. A bit more like an offensive lineman. What she does have is the sweetest personality that any retriever could have. I used the term retriever because that is what she is. A world class retriever. She is steady to shot. She will never leave until I give her the command to go. She is like a rock even when 1500 screaming white banshees are spiraling like an F4 tornado above her head. She unfailingly marks up to seven birds. She takes hand signals and whistle commands that allow us to put the 500 yard sailers that fell in the corn field into the bag. I am blessed to have such a hunting partner.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Ifa coulda shoulda
The weather continues to be on the side of snow goose survival. Yesterday the east wind blew all day and it was cold. Not conducive for decoying migrating snow geese. My crew was at Knoble's pond and we got three birds. Petey and his gang were at Barber's pond and they bagged 20. Not a good day for Central Flyway's Best. But not a total bust either.
Today we have three groups out. The weather is awful again. Low 30's and light snow flurries. It is now 2:30 pm and my guys have bagged 10. Have not heard from the other groups. Will update tonight.
Forecast is for our weather to improve by Thursday and mid-60's next week. That should be fun!
Today we have three groups out. The weather is awful again. Low 30's and light snow flurries. It is now 2:30 pm and my guys have bagged 10. Have not heard from the other groups. Will update tonight.
Forecast is for our weather to improve by Thursday and mid-60's next week. That should be fun!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Kinda sorta but not really
Yesterday ended up being not a bad day all things considered. Petey and his crew bagged 32 at Knoble's pond and my guys culled 30 from the herd at Barber's pond. 62 is not bad at all for what we had to deal with.
However, today the bad luck curse is still around. The biggest issue is that we are dealing with east wind. An east wind is just bad for decoying waterfowl. Anytime anywhere. It is like having the yips in putting. You know nothing good is going to happen no matter what. The next thing we had to deal with this morning was when the east wind blew the ice that had stacked up on the east side of the pond back into the decoys. In short order all the decoys were stacked on the bank in front of the blind. Gee, had to reset the spread again. Not looking good.
Still hoping Friedrich was right.
However, today the bad luck curse is still around. The biggest issue is that we are dealing with east wind. An east wind is just bad for decoying waterfowl. Anytime anywhere. It is like having the yips in putting. You know nothing good is going to happen no matter what. The next thing we had to deal with this morning was when the east wind blew the ice that had stacked up on the east side of the pond back into the decoys. In short order all the decoys were stacked on the bank in front of the blind. Gee, had to reset the spread again. Not looking good.
Still hoping Friedrich was right.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Nietzche was a snow goose hunter
One of the greatest periods of my personal growth came during my cherished albeit brief stint in college. Kearney State afforded me the opportunity to expand my knowledge of 19th century existentialism as well as the artistry of modern brewers. The brewers evidently won the scholastic tug-of-war. However, Philosophy 101 was not a total waste. I have always held a strong belief in Friedrich Nietzche's pearl of wisdom, "What does not destroy me, makes me strong".
Hence the German dude was definitely a snow goose hunter. The white devils of the north kicked our butts yesterday. Petey had a group at Barber's pond and they bagged 16. I was at the Church pond and my hunters shot 2! Yep, one more than one and one less than three and half as many as four. They did well to do that. We had a swarm on the ground to the east and another massive swarm on the ground to the west. Birds traded back and forth all day long just to the south of our location. There were a few migrators yesterday, but those were also sucked into the "white" holes before they got to us.
On top of that we had 25 - 30 mph winds that kept the decoys on the move all day long. Many trips with the boat to retrieve and untangle the spread. Dogs are getting growly. Yesterday almost destroyed me.
Hope Freddy knows what he was talking about.
Hence the German dude was definitely a snow goose hunter. The white devils of the north kicked our butts yesterday. Petey had a group at Barber's pond and they bagged 16. I was at the Church pond and my hunters shot 2! Yep, one more than one and one less than three and half as many as four. They did well to do that. We had a swarm on the ground to the east and another massive swarm on the ground to the west. Birds traded back and forth all day long just to the south of our location. There were a few migrators yesterday, but those were also sucked into the "white" holes before they got to us.
On top of that we had 25 - 30 mph winds that kept the decoys on the move all day long. Many trips with the boat to retrieve and untangle the spread. Dogs are getting growly. Yesterday almost destroyed me.
Hope Freddy knows what he was talking about.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Blizzard After the Blizzard
The weather has calmed after last week's storm. This week we have had another 'blizzard'. A storm of white geese. Tuesday and Wednesday the skies were filled with migrators. We had two very successful days of hunting. Tuesday we had three hunters on Barber's Pond. They bagged 35 birds. We decoyed several flocks upwards of a thousand birds. The dogs got a great workout and as usual we didn't lose a bird.
This morning brought cold and windy conditions. The wind kept the pond open but the wind had coated the decoys with a thick layer of ice. It would have been a futile effort to clear the decoys. In fact there never was a time we didn't have birds working. As you can imagine the birds didn't finish well at all. The big groups would get to about 80 yards and slide off. So my two hunters greased up the full chokes and took some a little tall. Now the dogs love this because we do get a few sailers. 200 - 400 yard marked retrieves as well as long blind retrieves were the norm for the day. When they stopped flying today the bag total stood at 30.
The word on the migration is that a few scout groups are moving into South Dakota but they can't go far as the state is snow packed and lakes are still frozen. Squaw Creek in Missouri is holding nearly a million birds.
Lots of birds still to come.
This morning brought cold and windy conditions. The wind kept the pond open but the wind had coated the decoys with a thick layer of ice. It would have been a futile effort to clear the decoys. In fact there never was a time we didn't have birds working. As you can imagine the birds didn't finish well at all. The big groups would get to about 80 yards and slide off. So my two hunters greased up the full chokes and took some a little tall. Now the dogs love this because we do get a few sailers. 200 - 400 yard marked retrieves as well as long blind retrieves were the norm for the day. When they stopped flying today the bag total stood at 30.
The word on the migration is that a few scout groups are moving into South Dakota but they can't go far as the state is snow packed and lakes are still frozen. Squaw Creek in Missouri is holding nearly a million birds.
Lots of birds still to come.
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