THE GOOD GUYS FINISH FIRST

Tom Harpstreith

The annual 2-Shot Goose Hunt has been held in Torrington the second weekend in December beginning in 1988. My late friend and mentor, Tom Harpstreith, was instrumental in the formation of the hunt. Tom was a driving force behind the continuation and growth of the hunt. The rules of the hunt are 2-Man teams get two shots per person. A perfect score would be four geese. If there is a tie, it goes to the four geese with the highest total weight.

The 2-Shot is a major supporter of many charities in Goshen County. Proceeds from the hunt fund scholarships for deserving local students as well as providing financial support for enhancing local waterfowl refuges and many other community initiatives.

Tom was obsessed with winning the 2-Shot either as a guide or as a participant. As a shooter in the event he never drew a quality pit. Tom has the premier pits in Goshen County. When he was the guide, his shooters were always less than stellar. Consequently no wins.

This year Tom's son, Grant, won the competition as a guide from Tom's favorite pit west of Lingle, WY. He and his two shooters were the only team to record four geese!

My dear friend you did it! There is a snicker in heaven today.

GEESE LOVE GREEN GRASS AND CORN

You don't have to be an avid ornithologist nor a devoted waterfowl enthusiast to know that Canada geese love green grass. Drive by almost any golf course and you will see geese. Out here our green grass is winter wheat. Following the bean harvest in September many farmers plant those fields with winter wheat. The primary purpose is to prevent excessive wind erosion of soil during the winter months. The benefit to the geese (and to us) is the green shoots of the wheat emerge just before the "snowbirds" from the north come to spend the winter in our tropical clime. They are on it like their city brethren take to Kentucky blue.

When it gets really cold here, and it does occasionally, they go for the corn. Corn is a higher octane fuel for them than green grass. Kinda like their own green energy ethanol initiative. Van Jones must be so proud.

Sometimes geese want corn so badly they pay no heed to their natural instincts. They figuratively and occasionally literally lose their heads. They don't listen to their gut instincts. For this goose, corn was responsible for a real pain in the stomach. Literally!

Dave Kalinski, Mayor of Silver Summit, Utah, and goose with corn fetish

                    

FROM PRACTICE SQUAD TO JUNIOR VARSITY

If you have been following this blog you know of the journey that my puppy Molly has been on. From being banished to Utah and then back again; to having issues during training; to getting her first "live fire" hunt a couple weeks ago.

She was doing fine on marked retrieves on the river but was having issues with blind retrieves. I knew what she needed was to have success on the blinds. This past Wednesday may have been her breakthrough.

I had two clients and we were targeting geese. Molly was named to the starting lineup. You are on your own girl. No back up today.

It was quite warm in the morning and the geese started coming off the roost shortly after shooting time. The first bunch was six Canadas. They dropped into the pocket at 20 yards. Shortly after I called the shot, four geese hit the ground. Molly was sitting outside the pit in the decoys. She remained rock steady just like we had done hundreds of times in training.

Ken - Molly - Nate

Three were dead and we had one walker. I assumed Molly had marked all of the geese, but I wanted to get her on the live one first.  I walked her to the side of the decoy spread. Heeled her up and gave her a line. She fired out like a 1500 fps shot shell. She was at slightly less than warp speed when she ran over the goose. She wheeled and picked up the goose and brought it to heel and delivered to hand. Maybe all that practice is finally paying off. She nailed the three other geese in similar fashion. Proud Papa indeed.

As I took her back to her assigned location in the decoys, she kept looking to the north of the spread. When I told her to sit she came around to heel and it was obvious she was locked in on something. Then I saw it. A fifth goose had fallen and she marked them all. I gave her the command and she retrieved the fifth goose. The last three geese for our limit were retrieved in the same manner.

Proud Papa and Labrador Retriever

Limit by 8:30 and a Labrador Retriever that may have grasped the play book.

FRIENDSHIP

"Happiness is time spent with a friend and looking forward to sharing time with them again."
Thomas Jefferson


I have been truly blessed throughout my life with close friends.  I receive phone calls or texts almost daily from a number of my high school friends. We are very involved in each other's families. We share the accomplishments and the travails of our lives and those of our children.


Many friendships have been formed through my hunting and fly fishing associations. From fellow fly fishing guides to cherished friendships with many of my clients, I appreciate them all.

This time of year is now twinged with sadness as well as great joy. The joy is the arrival of the waterfowl. The sadness is for the loss of my good friend Tom Harpstreith. From the middle of October to mid February, Tom and I spent almost every day together. It was never an issue that Tom was closer in age to my parents than to me. Our love of the outdoors and the anticipation of upcoming waterfowl seasons honed our friendship. Tom taught me everything I know about hunting Canada geese. One of his many "Tomisms" was "I have to hunt every day because every day is different."


Countless hours are spent preparing blinds and pits.  A thousand decoys have to be moved from storage to their respective locations. Furniture and heaters hauled to each spot and the salamanders, toads, snakes, frogs and spiders that have been inhabiting the pits all summer must be relocated or eradicated. Hours of cutting grass and tweaking the camo on the pits and blinds. Those hours turn into days of preparation. 

I could not do it without a group of my friends from Utah and Colorado.

                                                                  

Petey Peterson, Dexter, Eric Lobdell, Cass, Garrett Klein, May, Joe, NP Dave Kalinski (Off being Polish)


These friendships were born many years ago on the ski slopes of Park City. They were cemented by a love of waterfowling. Every November the crew makes the eight hour drive to Torrington to help with setup and then again in February to help take down the spreads and store them for the following season. When the guys heard that we had lost the river blind to the flood, they built a new one.  It is not easy to build a blind to Tom Harpstreith's standards, but they did it.

The highlight of the trip is having dinners with the Harpstreith family. Tom's wife, Lovie, has continued the tradition of hosting the Utah gang for dinner. Lovie is an amazing chef. She has attended numerous cooking schools in Europe. She learned her craft well! The downside is the dinners always occur the same week as Thanksgiving. If this continues, I may lose my position in the "Chippendale's Western Revue".

I don't think that the arrival of my friends from Utah and the arrival of the waterfowl is a coincidence.

Thank you Eric, Garrett, Dave and Petey.

Thank you Tom.  For everything. We miss you, my Friend.

FROM BAGDAHD, KABUL AND THE TRACTOR SUPPLY TO THE NORTH PLATTE

I had the great pleasure of guiding the Staggs brothers the past three days.  They drove from Memphis, TN, to hunt the North Platte. Leonard runs a Tractor Supply store and his brother, Logan, is a Marine recruiter.

Logan first contacted me in July of this year.  He indicated they were interested in an October duck hunt. I told him we normally don't have mallards until the middle of November.  Logan told me he had contacted several other guide services and no one mentioned we don't have ducks in October.  I didn't need to ask.  We communicated several more times by email during the fall and we settled on Nov 17, 18 and 19.  

When they arrived in Torrington,  I went to the Holiday Inn to meet them. I have never had hunters who were more excited to hunt than the Staggs brothers. Logan told me that he had done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. All the time there he dreamed of hunting the river he had heard so much about. 

He and his brother, Leonard, had been on several guided waterfowl hunting trips before that were less than successful.  Needless to say they had high hopes but were understandably cautious. 

My Dad, Michael, joined us on the first morning. When we had finished setting the decoys, I took the 4-wheeler back to our parking area as the brothers were behind the blind organizing their gear.  Most of you know that Michael is quite good with his Carlson duck call.  It was about five minutes before shooting time when the first flock of mallards came up the river. Dad gave them a high ball and they broke down immediately. He continued to coax the flock of 100 mallards with distant greeting calls, lonesome hen and low end closing calls. The flock circled downwind and dropped over the trees and into the decoys. Most of them were inside twenty yards.  Ducks don't decoy like that in Fallujah.

The Platte River specialist, Dani, was the lab on duty for the morning.  I will put her up against any dog on the North Platte.  After thousands of retrieves on this river she knows where the ducks and geese are going to go before they do. We had a wing tipped drake heading downstream. As Dani got close to the bird, he began to run/fly/swim as fast as he could. Just like an LA auto chase, the chase always ends the same way. After a 300 yard run downstream, the drake made a fatal error of heading to the bank. Never ever ever leave your vehicle and run! Dani and the drake disappeared into a log pile. A few minutes later, Officer Danielle was coming across the sand bar with the duck in handcuffs.

The day continued pretty much the same way. A limit of mallards and one Canada goose. The second day was a carbon copy of the first. Limit and a goose. I did manage to trick a flock of 500 into the decoys.  200 landed in the decoys, There wasn't room for the remainder. We did not shoot. I don't need to educate that many at one time.  Pretty sure the brothers had ever witnessed that!

Saturday, the third day, dawned with a couple inches of snow on the ground. I love snow and mallards. When snow is on the ground mallards have the need to feed. The sky this morning looked like the Santa Monica Freeway at rush hour. Ducks were moving in every direction. The feeding chuckle sounded like an OWS chant minus the drum circle.  By 8:00, ten fat greenheads were doing the bicycle in the decoys. Another great day on the North Platte.

                            Leonard and Logan Staggs with North Platte Mallards


The Staggs brothers were on the road back to TN by 9:00. Safe travels and hope to see you again.

SLEEPLESS IN FAIRBURY

Last night I had the pleasure of talking to two of my very best  friends Kaylee and Cassidy.  They live in Fairbury, NE. They have the nicest mommy and daddy. I am blessed to have all of  them as friends.  I stay with them on their farm during the snow goose season.  Kaylee and Cassidy are also good friends with my son Brayden. When Brayden visits the farm they show him the chickens, goats and cattle. Several times they have had to put new born calves in the bathtub to get them warm. Their mommy is not happy when that happens.

I can't wait to see you girls in February.

THIS WOULD MAKE STEVE WINWOOD PROUD

I am back in the high life again, all the doors I closed one time will open up again, I'll be back in the high life again.


It is true that all my ducks left last Sunday.  It was so bad I elected to cancel a group scheduled to hunt today.  It was a new group and I didn't want them to have a bad hunt. Turns out I shouldn't have called them off. They can leave over night and they can show up over night. I went down to the river this morning and it was non-stop mallards up and down the river. The first wave of Canada geese also arrived. This morning the lake held big and little Canadas along with many mallards and wigeon.  Snow geese have been migrating all day on their way to warmer climes.

I hear you Steve buddy!