first time goose hunter with waders, no boat / no dog

[silveragent]

I'm going to get my feet wet coming up for snow geese (or Canadas if they are there). Am I setting myself up for failure if I am just in waders with no boat or dog? I have a dozen snow and canada decoys on order. I'm in the LML and probably will be setting up in Ladner with a small group of us.

Should I bring a gaff pole or something like that?

[silveragent]

BTW I will be scouting a week in advance so I guess some of that will answer my question.

[silveragent]

also I'm practicing calls and I probably sound like a ******ed goose

[GirthBrooks]

I was in the same boat as you last year. Best thing you can do is get out there and be optimistic. I downed two snow geese and one of em was banded. Hopefully beginners luck treats you as good as it did me.

[boxhitch]

Waders are a drag when it comes to swimming

[Foxton Gundogs]

Don't shoot over water if you have no dog or boat.

[guest]

Try to secure some land from farmers to hunt on ....... It's a tough one

[silveragent]

Yea a bit late for me to approach farmers.. It was a spur of the moment decision when I looked at the schedule and noticed there was no hunting for awhile.

As with a lot of things I just want to get out there first and experience it and find out what I don't know.

[silveragent]

My group of newbs and I visited Roberts Bank this morning and I got to try out a nice spike seat and also my new waders. They performed pretty well. We marched around the muck for 30m to get a feel for the place. I'm getting excited. Next task for me is to build a blind. I've seen some very simple setups I'm sure I can execute even being not someone who does a lot of fix it projects.

[silveragent]

I've made my blind.. I had some camo blind material from some other project and created two fences with bamboo spikes (thanks for the advice!) and I buttressed it with tomato netting so I can thread straw through it that I can find at the marsh. I thought I might need to break up the shape a bit so I put in some burlap strips.

[kyleklassen]

give'em hell

[silveragent]

thanks! I'll need luck

[silveragent]

So extremely early this morning my group and I set up at the tip of Roberts bank. It was hilarious how ill prepared some of us were even after talking about preparations so much. One of the party didn't have proper waders. One didn't have good camouflage so we put him behind our 'blind' and our blind stood out like a sore thumb.

It didn't really matter as we sat in with water up to our asses for three hours with no luck. We had momentary excitement when we thought we saw a flight of snow geese almost immediately after setting up but we wisely waited until they were closer before confirming they were swans. We thought we were done right away!

We saw another group of three hunters and didn't hear them shoot either. We saw snow geese far away only accessible by boat or maybe scuba. Our sad half-dozen snow geese decoys were hilariously inappropriate. They were feeder decoys but the water was so high they floated as if dead. Regardless, we never saw any snow geese who were remotely near. We heard them cackling and honking in the distance.

However, after we struck our blind and had already made a trip back to dump the useless decoys with the cars at around 8am we suddenly saw a massive wave of Canadas heading toward Westham. Excited we got back into position and waited. Finally one V that was closer headed over our position. Unfortunately, it was still a bit too high. I estimate more than a 100m. The four of us fired around 3 each but neither of us got the range right or if we did it was ineffective. The V dispersed after we fired on them and got away. We saw two other big Vs but either they were way off the path or they were in the wrong direction and we would have been firing inland.

All in all a fun experience. My clothing and waders were pretty adequate though I overprepared and my big bag took a dump. I might have lost a small camera to the salt water. Also my gloves got soaked and it chilled my hands until I abandoned the gloves so they could dry.

We are going to go back but in a different position and will try for dusk this time.

[wingmaster]

100meters!!!!!, 20, hell even 15m is a long way to be shooting. not gonna make many friends with other groups in the marsh sky busting like that,

try to wait till their a little closer , we try to set our farthest decoy out the maximum distance we want to be shooing, till you get a feel for judging distances on birds it would be worth ranging even measuring this out beforehand.

think about it similar to deer hunting, you wouldnt take a long or bad angled shot at an animal if you are not comfortable or confident you will make a lethal kill. show the birds the same respect and wait for them to be in effective range or a range that you are comfortable shooting at until you have the experience to make longer shots.

get out there and try again, but make sure yo know the effective range of your guns and be patient till the birds are well within your comfort range.

[lorneparker1]

So extremely early this morning my group and I set up at the tip of Roberts bank. It was hilarious how ill prepared some of us were even after talking about preparations so much. One of the party didn't have proper waders. One didn't have good camouflage so we put him behind our 'blind' and our blind stood out like a sore thumb.

It didn't really matter as we sat in with water up to our asses for three hours with no luck. We had momentary excitement when we thought we saw a flight of snow geese almost immediately after setting up but we wisely waited until they were closer before confirming they were swans. We thought we were done right away!

We saw another group of three hunters and didn't hear them shoot either. We saw snow geese far away only accessible by boat or maybe scuba. Our sad half-dozen snow geese decoys were hilariously inappropriate. They were feeder decoys but the water was so high they floated as if dead. Regardless, we never saw any snow geese who were remotely near. We heard them cackling and honking in the distance.

However, after we struck our blind and had already made a trip back to dump the useless decoys with the cars at around 8am we suddenly saw a massive wave of Canadas heading toward Westham. Excited we got back into position and waited. Finally one V that was closer headed over our position. Unfortunately, it was still a bit too high. I estimate more than a 100m. The four of us fired around 3 each but neither of us got the range right or if we did it was ineffective. The V dispersed after we fired on them and got away. We saw two other big Vs but either they were way off the path or they were in the wrong direction and we would have been firing inland.

All in all a fun experience. My clothing and waders were pretty adequate though I overprepared and my big bag took a dump. I might have lost a small camera to the salt water. Also my gloves got soaked and it chilled my hands until I abandoned the gloves so they could dry.

We are going to go back but in a different position and will try for dusk this time.

This may be the best post ever.

[silveragent]

Yea ... 15m.. wow I think I would have had a died of excitement if I thought any of them were going to get that close. That initial flight of swans we got excited passed within 25m overhead. Magnificent birds. These Canadas were staying really high and were just on their way to Westham (where I heard some luckier hunters going at them). Those other hunters we saw had no luck either; I think they shot at some of the same ones we saw. No hope. I don't think those Canadas had any reason to come down where we were.

[silveragent]

I went out again with a mate and this time at dusk hoping to get the geese on their way back from whatever juicy stuff they wanted on Westham. We had even less luck but had the funny moment sitting in our blind when two hunters got within 25m before stumbling onto us. I guess our camo worked for humans, at least. The Friday before we were falling asleep in that blind and suddenly this beautiful white lab burst in on us and wouldn't leave before getting all the pets.

Back to Sunday before light was out we abandoned our blind and walked out to the edge of the bank, slipping and sliding trying to see if we could at least see the snowies we'd been hearing all that time. I think they were still a mile or so out but we did get to see a beautiful sunset. On the way back we discovered someone had built bridges across some of the channels in the muck which gave us the idea to repost our blind further out into the bank. Only question is whether we could get out there in one piece. It was treacherous enough at low tide!

I dropped my shotgun a couple times so when I got home so I had to strip, rinse and oil the thing again. Marching through salt water mush is something new to me.

[deltawaterfowler]

LOL! If that was you out last Sunday, then I think we were the ones that stumbled on to your blind.

If you want the snowies you gotta work for em! I think the key is to be out early and setup much further out on the marsh; you guys were way too close to the shore/dyke to be effective. Being so close to all the joggers and dog walkers, just won't work as the geese will steer clear of any human. Also, don't forget there is that 100 M restriction along any dyke in our management area, so be sure to double check the regs!

I've spent most of my first two seasons along Boundary Bay which is a cake walk, but that marsh along Roberts bank is a bitch to walk through. I don't think I'd want to be doing that in low light, it was tough enough getting through at low tide in broad daylight. We did manage to get fairly close to the snowies though and man those were some big honkers! I thought they were swans until I saw the black tipped wings. My buddy pulled a John Rambo and crawled up on them in the mud, but he couldn't quite get close enough. I had a lucky break and had some low fliers over head that came within 30-40 feet of me so I took two shots at them, but missed.

Good luck next time and have fun out there!

[silveragent]

crap I didn't think the 100m was in that area. Thanks for the warning. That was funny you guys coming up on us. We tried very early in the morning on that Friday and I think we're going to sneak up there on Sunday morning and get a lot further out. We basically walked in your bootsteps before sunset to see where you guys came from and reached that conclusion. I just don't know if the marching out there is going to be too scary as far as walking through the muck and over those fissures in the ground.

I'd be interested in trying out Boundary Bay in the fall.

Thanks for your advice.

[silveragent]

Between the five of us who were researching this you would think one of us would have caught this: "In MU 2-4 in the Municipality of Delta, the open season DOES NOT apply to the area within 100 metres of any dyke. The 100 metre restriction does not apply to that portion of Delta known as Westham Island." Well I'm happy no CO was around those two days.

[Foxton Gundogs]

100meters!!!!!, 20, hell even 15m is a long way to be shooting. not gonna make many friends with other groups in the marsh sky busting like that,

try to wait till their a little closer , we try to set our farthest decoy out the maximum distance we want to be shooing, till you get a feel for judging distances on birds it would be worth ranging even measuring this out beforehand.

think about it similar to deer hunting, you wouldnt take a long or bad angled shot at an animal if you are not comfortable or confident you will make a lethal kill. show the birds the same respect and wait for them to be in effective range or a range that you are comfortable shooting at until you have the experience to make longer shots.

get out there and try again, but make sure yo know the effective range of your guns and be patient till the birds are well within your comfort range.

You may wait a while to get them into 15 yards, 3" BBs flying at 1550 fps I would think you would be good to at least double that, but then again I could be wrong.

[silveragent]

Dale told me to get 1700fps so that is what I was shooting. When we opened up on a flight the first day I could make out their little feet and fat bodies when they were almost overhead. Outside my skill or outside my range; they just shook the fire off and veered away.

[fowl language]

just to be clear, the effective range of any shotgun is forty yards..an experienced shooter such as the world renown jim fox would make it work out to 50 yards but after that your wasting your time and educating a bunch of birds. I understand it is hard to restrain your self but it works....dale

[Foxton Gundogs]

just to be clear, the effective range of any shotgun is forty yards..an experienced shooter such as the world renown jim fox would make it work out to 50 yards but after that your wasting your time and educating a bunch of birds. I understand it is hard to restrain your self but it works....dale

I heard a vicious rumor once that a 10 gauge with 3.5" shells will kill geese at 95yds, I wonder if there is any truth to that???
CAUTION boys and girls DO NOT try this at home LMFatAO

[silveragent]

Okay we're going to try again.. going to work on getting as far out as we can

[silveragent]

Went out for the last time this season by myself in Roberts Bank again. The previous two times all we could do was look enviously at what looked like a couple hundred hanging out on the farmer's field beyond the park. I decided to try again but unfortunately none of my partners were able to make it that Sunday morning. So by myself I dragged out my decoys and then went back to my car to grab the rest of my gear.

When I arrived at around 8:30 there was heavy fog but above the fog I could make out hundreds of snowies coming in for a landing. There were already a couple hunters who were popping away at them. I was convinced this was going to be my day.

I met a Russian hunter coming out who joked that I must have forgotten my 'rifle' but this was when I was going back to my car to get the rest of my gear. Unfortunately by the time I got back to my decoys the snowies had already settled in. In fact the hunters who had been there were packing it in (and it looked like they didn't have any luck). I figured then I wouldn't do any better but decided to set up for the morning anyway.

I settled with my back on my hunting pack with my shotgun on my knees and read a novel waiting for something to happen. In between chapters I had a great couple naps. The last one was interrupted when I heard a goose calling very close nearby. I popped up and it was the same Russian hunter who was laughing at me because I had fallen asleep and he was stalking my decoys. We had a fun chat ("Hi Yuri!") and I packed it in at about 1pm. On the long slog back to my car with decoys hanging all over me I noticed that the snowies who had been in the field had somehow sneaked away - maybe when I fell asleep.

I think each time I went out I learned a bit more so I will be back in the fall, hopefully with better preparation and better timing.