Sunday, March 14, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Arkansas 2010
Well I know I'm about a week late but been pretty busy.I made my anual snow goose trip to Arkansas last week.We arrived at our hotel(the Econo Lodge in Jonesboro) around 0300 on Friday morning.
After a few hours sleep and some breakfast we were off to the hunting grounds.The intention on Friday was to scout and find the area with the most birds,then hunt them hard on Saturday. Since I had never been to Arkansas this late in the migration I was planning on doing a lot of driving before we found good huntable numbers.
The area that was first on the list to check was the first area that I hunted in Arkansas in 1999.There have been years that there were just a few birds there,and even a few that I didnt make it due to good numbers in other areas,but it was worth a look.
Not to far into the area we found a field with good numbers of birds.After a short conversation with a guy that was hauling grain,we were in the ditch making our first sneak of the trip. After the "50 more yards" call several times we shot and pulled out a few.Now that we had killed some and were not gonna get skunked,we were off to find the land owner.
After an introduction and a few hand shakes we had permission to hunt "all these fields around here". A quick tirp back into town for lunch and to pick up two more members of our hunting crew for the weekend we were back in the field setting decoys.
With our spread in place we started brushing in our blinds,and we were almost done when the evening flights started,somewhere around 3 p.m. We lay in our blinds and watched thousands of birds"tornado" above our spread. As far up as you could see there were geese circling overhead.After several groups worked our spread and then loosing intrest right before we could shoot,and after we let some go waiting for "one more pass" we moved our blinds a few times to take advantage of the way they were working our spread.
Soon the roughly 30-50k snows,blues,and Ross geese that were in the area were feeding in a field 1/4 mile away from our spread.With every flock that we can see heading right for the live geese,and knowing that our meager 300 decoy spread was not going to intrest any of these flocks we quickly came up with a plan to get the flock into the air.
We ended up pass shooting a few while enroute to the major gathering of birds,and after a short sneak on the flock we had some more dead birds in hand.I believe the total for the day was 18,not to bad for the reports of the mass exodus of birds that i had been hearing.
The next morning we were back in our decoys,about 45 minutes later than we should have been,partly due to me getting moving late,having to stop for gas,and not knowing exactly when sun rise was,but anyway......we did have a new member in our group,and birds were flying and expectaions were high.
We killed a few from our spread,but the major consentration of geese were again 1/4 mile away.
After a short drive and a quick planning session we were in a ditch moving towards a BIG flock of geese.As we were getting into position we noticed that the geese were feeding WITH the wind not INTO it like they are suposed to.
When the birds were 40 yards away the shot was called and dead and dieing geese rained from the sky.All 5 guns were emptied and the 3 virgin "ditch slippers" were in awe as the cripples were chased,shot,shot at,and other wise taken into possesion. After some help from agroup of local guys and a black lab,we were standing over a pile of 122 SOB's ! Not to shabby considering I wanted to wait till they were 20 yards closer.
A short drive up the road and another short stalk we had 68 more in the back of the truck.
The decoys that evening produced a few more geese bringing the total to 198,an a trip into the next town and some skilled driving from yours truley added one more to the bag bringing the total for the day to 199 and a grand total of 218 !
Not to shabby for atrip that almost didn't happen. Thanks to all that had a part,some old friends and some new ones.
After a few hours sleep and some breakfast we were off to the hunting grounds.The intention on Friday was to scout and find the area with the most birds,then hunt them hard on Saturday. Since I had never been to Arkansas this late in the migration I was planning on doing a lot of driving before we found good huntable numbers.
The area that was first on the list to check was the first area that I hunted in Arkansas in 1999.There have been years that there were just a few birds there,and even a few that I didnt make it due to good numbers in other areas,but it was worth a look.
Not to far into the area we found a field with good numbers of birds.After a short conversation with a guy that was hauling grain,we were in the ditch making our first sneak of the trip. After the "50 more yards" call several times we shot and pulled out a few.Now that we had killed some and were not gonna get skunked,we were off to find the land owner.
After an introduction and a few hand shakes we had permission to hunt "all these fields around here". A quick tirp back into town for lunch and to pick up two more members of our hunting crew for the weekend we were back in the field setting decoys.
With our spread in place we started brushing in our blinds,and we were almost done when the evening flights started,somewhere around 3 p.m. We lay in our blinds and watched thousands of birds"tornado" above our spread. As far up as you could see there were geese circling overhead.After several groups worked our spread and then loosing intrest right before we could shoot,and after we let some go waiting for "one more pass" we moved our blinds a few times to take advantage of the way they were working our spread.
Soon the roughly 30-50k snows,blues,and Ross geese that were in the area were feeding in a field 1/4 mile away from our spread.With every flock that we can see heading right for the live geese,and knowing that our meager 300 decoy spread was not going to intrest any of these flocks we quickly came up with a plan to get the flock into the air.
We ended up pass shooting a few while enroute to the major gathering of birds,and after a short sneak on the flock we had some more dead birds in hand.I believe the total for the day was 18,not to bad for the reports of the mass exodus of birds that i had been hearing.
The next morning we were back in our decoys,about 45 minutes later than we should have been,partly due to me getting moving late,having to stop for gas,and not knowing exactly when sun rise was,but anyway......we did have a new member in our group,and birds were flying and expectaions were high.
We killed a few from our spread,but the major consentration of geese were again 1/4 mile away.
After a short drive and a quick planning session we were in a ditch moving towards a BIG flock of geese.As we were getting into position we noticed that the geese were feeding WITH the wind not INTO it like they are suposed to.
When the birds were 40 yards away the shot was called and dead and dieing geese rained from the sky.All 5 guns were emptied and the 3 virgin "ditch slippers" were in awe as the cripples were chased,shot,shot at,and other wise taken into possesion. After some help from agroup of local guys and a black lab,we were standing over a pile of 122 SOB's ! Not to shabby considering I wanted to wait till they were 20 yards closer.
A short drive up the road and another short stalk we had 68 more in the back of the truck.
The decoys that evening produced a few more geese bringing the total to 198,an a trip into the next town and some skilled driving from yours truley added one more to the bag bringing the total for the day to 199 and a grand total of 218 !
Not to shabby for atrip that almost didn't happen. Thanks to all that had a part,some old friends and some new ones.
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