Oct 5 my neighbor and I head out to the marsh to get his young female lab some action. She did well on short retrieves and close cripples but still needs work on the long retireves and active swimmers. Poacher, early on, completed a nearly 900 yard round trip chase and capture of a wounded GWT that knackered him. So we saved him for the longer retrieves and let her do the close ones. The big influx of ducks hasn't happened here yet and in scouting yesterday, while I could find thousands of geese, the ducks were very scarce (too bad I'm not that struck on geese). 3 mallards, 2 gadwall, 3 GWT, 2 Spoons, 1 Bluebill, 4 Geese and 4 coots.
Poacher and the "little girl" Jet
Next morning another neighbor who doesn't waterfowl much had a "great" field scouted out that he wanted to hunt. I got my field gear together and we scouted it the night before. Turns out it was a great field BUT the water the geese were coming from was only 300 yards from the field. I told him we'd be better off waiting until the wind was blowing in a direction and hard enough that the sound of ours shots wouldn't be heard by the roosting geese but he insisted we hunt the next morning. (Understandable since his wife is very ill and they have just announced a impromtu vacation for this week out of the blue). He was taking his 8 year old daughter along so I got there early and built them a nest out of the swath to hide in.
Anyway we had one good smash at a flock of 30 that came into the dekes perfectly. Knocked down 3 of them and then I was able to bring down 2 more long ones that were milling about in the confusion. Just as I thought though, the other 500 geese that got up off the pond over the next 20 minutes made it obvious that they were skirting the field and headed for parts unknown. This morning the pond and field was empty as they obviously left the immediate area. Too bad, but both father and daughter were happy with the days bag of 5.
Father, daughter and honkers
Poacher and the "little girl" Jet
Next morning another neighbor who doesn't waterfowl much had a "great" field scouted out that he wanted to hunt. I got my field gear together and we scouted it the night before. Turns out it was a great field BUT the water the geese were coming from was only 300 yards from the field. I told him we'd be better off waiting until the wind was blowing in a direction and hard enough that the sound of ours shots wouldn't be heard by the roosting geese but he insisted we hunt the next morning. (Understandable since his wife is very ill and they have just announced a impromtu vacation for this week out of the blue). He was taking his 8 year old daughter along so I got there early and built them a nest out of the swath to hide in.
Anyway we had one good smash at a flock of 30 that came into the dekes perfectly. Knocked down 3 of them and then I was able to bring down 2 more long ones that were milling about in the confusion. Just as I thought though, the other 500 geese that got up off the pond over the next 20 minutes made it obvious that they were skirting the field and headed for parts unknown. This morning the pond and field was empty as they obviously left the immediate area. Too bad, but both father and daughter were happy with the days bag of 5.
Father, daughter and honkers
