Sept 4th Early goose season 2010

[Marc]

Well it's hard to believe it's waterfowl season already, I was fortunate enough to spend the morning out with John & Tanya and their nephew Russ.

Russ only being 12, he wasn't shooting this morning so I figured I'd take advantage of the situation and get him to take some video of the hunt. He did manage to capture a bit of footage of the geese coming into the field/decoys and I was quite pleased to see that he had captured my first double of the season on a pair of geese.

Lots of missed opportunities waiting for Geese to decoy and should have tried them on the first pass but we did quite OK with 8 geese between 3 of us.

Video to follow once I've got the birds cleaned and chance to edit the video.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/John_Tanya_Russ.jpg

[d6dan]

Looks like a perfect morning Marc,Tanya,John and Russ. Looking forward to the video...

[Crazy_Farmer]

Great start to the season, cant wait to see the video. We tried to get a cousin who normally hunts with us and also videotaped hunts but sleeping in was looking like a better option lol.

[lorneparker1]

Nice pile!

[303Brit]

Nice work Marc, looking forward to the footage

303

[Marc]

OK here we go, during the editing I realized I had actually tagged both birds with the first shot and probably didn't need the second shot but I guess it didn't hurt.:mrgreen:

Russ did a good Job for his first time on the camera and I'm sure if given the opportunity he would improve now knowing what he needs to do from seeing the footage.

Had a great time out with John, Tanya, and Russ and I'm sure the dogs enjoyed the day as well.

Enjoy the video clip guys.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHuntingBC#p/a/u/0/X7yVGeHxk7M
(http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHuntingBC?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/X7yVGeHxk7M)

[d6dan]

Good video Marc, to bad the geese didn't play by the rules..Thanks for posting...

[Marc]

We missed a few easy shots hoping that they would tuck their wings and landing gear down but it never materialized. I guess early season birds don't decoy as well as the ones later in the fall. We had probably a couple hundred visit us this morning so we cut that bunch down by 4%.:mrgreen:

I'm going to make a log and try and keep track of the number of birds that hunters in the Valley, particularly Duncan, to see how much we contribute to cutting the number of resident geese. It's estimated that there are around 10,000 resident Canada's just in the Cowichan Valley. If we can provide numbers to the percentage of hunters it may be feasible to allow hunters to control the population for free instead of having to pay someone to try and manage the problem.

I forgot to mention that these birds were a bugger to pluck as they all had pin feathers, some less then others but a couple of the birds looked like they needed a shave even after they were plucked. Going to be some tender eating once the skin comes off.

I had one mangled one in the bunch, not sure if it's the goose that John and I tag teamed or if it's the one Tanya and I mangled.:mrgreen: I'm going to pick off the edible portions and toss this one in the pressure cooker with some fresh potatoes and carrots from the Garden for supper. Never tried to pressure cooker other then for canning so it should be interesting.

Marc.

[Crazy_Farmer]

I guess early season birds don't decoy as well as the ones later in the fall.

Great video Marc. You know geese will be geese, it happens, sometimes they just want to be in another part of the field or something didnt feel right in that setup or spot. Lots of things can happen but I gotta disagree with that sentence.

To quote my brother from yesterday morning....geese fresh out of the shell aint that smart yet.

Good luck and I hope you guys get some more chances at these honkers this early season!

[Marc]

I guess what I mean to say and have observed in the past month or so is a lot of the time the family groups stay separated from each other. Where I take my dog for training there is a field, I saw 5 family groups of geese and they were all separated from each other, closest group was maybe 50 yards from the other groups.

The pairs came to the decoys no problem but the family groups and one big gaggle tended to stay further out. We ended up pass shooting the majority of the geese we got, but it wasn't so much of a problem as they were only flying maybe 10 feet off the corn when they came over us. We did have two dogs, and a young fella out for his first time so there probably was a bit of movement that kept the bigger flocks away.

We also had the problem of the geese coming over the corn to the grass field and the decoys where only 12-20 yards off from the edge of the corn so they may have not seen the decoys.

Might just me but I've found later in the fall these geese get less shy of each other and seek protection in numbers. Who knows.

[lorneparker1]

Great shoot and vido Marc! Loved it!


In my experience, if geese are landing in the same field as the setup but not with your spread, its usually one of couple of things. 1. You are setup up in the worng part of the feild (ex. they have landed in the nw corner for the last few days, and you are hunting the southeast corner. Geese tend to land in the same spot over and over again until they feed it out, they land close to that spot, and so on) 2. They see you but want in the field bad enough that they will tolerate it as long as they are far away. After watching the video a couple of times and reading your posts on the thread is, they might have seen some movement(they arent flaring hard, but defintly don't like something), and the wind doesnt' look right for that set up as most of the flocks are lighting right to left, which means they would have to hook out over the corn and to some kind of crazy acrobatic to dump into the spread facing into the wind. Would make for some ok pass shooting but in your face would be near impossible. Pairs and singles will always decoy better then flocks. more eyes, more opinions. and all it takes is one of those lead birds not to like it and they are all gone.

Just my imo. Sweet shooting the double with one shot!.

Lorne

[Crazy_Farmer]

I sortof knew what you meant by your post Marc, the early season are definitely into family groups still and they will do as you said landing away from each other.

You could then play to that strategy and do 2 or 3 smaller family groups for decoys. maybe a dz in each and leave big space inbetween each group leaving plenty of room for new flocks to split the difference and land closer. Maybe you did something similar but its a sound plan for early honkers still split up.

[f350ps]

I've found that it's tough to get large flocks to decoy close to standing corn, they know where the coyotes hang out. That field would have been deadly with coffin blinds or a pit. Nice shootin! K

[Crazy_Farmer]

Funny you should say Kelly, just on friday morning watching them come in. Around 730 a coyote came out of our corn field and ran straight for the geese. I was in the truck and let out the biggest clap and it stopped dead turned and saw the truck then ran back for the corn.

Didnt want it to scare off the geese the day before opener. But it came out a bit later and ran at the geese. One small group just flew and landed further in the field but the rest held their own and stood charge and the coyote ran away.

[Marc]

I've found that it's tough to get large flocks to decoy close to standing corn, they know where the coyotes hang out. That field would have been deadly with coffin blinds or a pit. Nice shootin! K

We don't have Coyotes on the Island yet and little to no wolves around the farms, these birds stay on the Island year round so it's not something they would be tough to be scared of I would think.

Layout blinds would have been deadly but the birds were sitting right where we set up not 24 hours the day before so we saw no need for them. Definitely something to think about next time.

I picked up a layout blind two years ago and have yet tried hunting out of it. Most people I hunt with don't have them so it makes it a bit hard to use it. Who knows maybe this year might be the year to try it out.

[shotgunjohn]

When I scouted this field the geese were spread from one end to the other. Then on Saturday some came straight in and landed in the one part of the field where there were non on Thursday. I,ve found that just when you think you have geese figured out they do something different. Oh well that's part of what makes it so much fun.

[Qwa-honn]

that's why it's called hunting.

[835]

good show!

Let the season begin!

[field marshal]

Shotgun John has got it right!!
Anyone claiming to know exactly what geese will do in all situations is just a tad arrogant :confused:
Cheers, Field Marshal.

[Crazy_Farmer]

But they have brains the size of a pea:wink::wink::wink:

But their instinct not to die is pretty strong too haha

[f350ps]

Shotgun John has got it right!!
Anyone claiming to know exactly what geese will do in all situations is just a tad arrogant :confused:
Cheers, Field Marshal.
I just re-read this whole thread and can't figure out what you're getting at??:confused: K

[Marc]

I think the most fascinating thing I've ever seen a goose do was totally diving under water to get away from a dog. Who da thunk something that buoyant could dive and stay under for so long.

[835]

I think the most fascinating thing I've ever seen a goose do was totally diving under water to get away from a dog. Who da thunk something that buoyant could dive and stay under for so long.

Arent ducks known to grab sticks on bottom to keep them down and away from the dogs? Maybe geese do it as well?
Just something I thought I picked up somewhere.

[Marc]

Arent ducks known to grab sticks on bottom to keep them down and away from the dogs? Maybe geese do it as well?
Just something I thought I picked up somewhere.

This guy was diving then poppin up 20 feet away. Finally Marshall put his head underwater and managed to grab one of the gooses foot and drag it to shore

[835]

Wow! Thai IS a Doosie! I've had Buffle heads do that lots, But a goose?!
Funny stuff