Last weeks goose hunt...

Today was the day I finally had a paying goose group out at the farm. I was set up in a buckwheat field hunting out of a pit that I have hunted the last eight years. I knew this was a test of my new Final Approach Lesser's that I picked up this year before the season when I was put on their Field Staff. Paul, the owner of Burbank Goose Club was nice enough to let me give them a shot...

I ended up hunting right next to my buddy and fellow goose guide Jeff...he and I have been friends for a year or two now and if I was gonna hunt next to anyone on my maiden voyage with my FA's then he is who I would want it to be next to...he is a good guide and we don't have the usual love to hate each other mentality that you see with some of the guides that hunt against each other. We were sitting on 500 plus geese that were rested the previous day. I was told later that the geese were using his side of the field, but that was irrelevant on how our success would go that day. First flock circled me and dumped right into him...neither of us were calling, our agreement before the hunt to give us both a fair shot. I assured my dudes that after they finished out which they did in quick time, we would move over to Jeff's spot to get our share of shooting...Jeff finished up and we moved, the sun started to come out, this shows how fast he and his guys were getting there geese in and we started getting our own share of the geese.

The old story of "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" fits right into goose hunting...I had several geese "backwing" into the decoys, call the shot to only watch my goose that I would pick to shoot fall in desperation and the other four guns drop just one...We always stress to pick your bird and make your shots count, but the fella's seemed a little rusty with there old trusty's if you know what I mean...I have seen "go's" in the past go like this and usually you can talk them into relaxing, but geese were coming consistent enough to have shooting every fifteen minutes or so.

There comes a time when a good guide has to "pull the plug" this is when the clients have shot at there fair share of geese and we need to rest the field for the next hunt...Usually this is after four good size flocks of under 50 birds...our limit is four geese and this gives them the chance to harvest their birds...one group at a time. I give the guys the heads up prior to the hunt that if they get an opportunity to shoot one goose per go then I have done my job...well we had one more go and as before the guys dropped a few and we were done...there were no limits this day. The guys scratched out a few a piece and I am sure were happy with the way I gave them the opportunities.