One-Third of our spread
in thehorrendously
muddy conditions

The Scout waits attentively
for the next flight

Scout with one
of his many retrieves

Gene, Mike and Scout
with some of the trip's birds

Gene scanning on the skies
on the pass shooting day

Mike relocated a couple of times to optimize his position

Emma watches a flock
of passing whitefronts wondering "Why the hell
isn't he shooting?"

Emma and her guns.
It just wasn't meant to be

March 2008—Spring Snow Geese
Hunters: Jeremy F, Gene S, Mike B (with Scout) and Emma & I.

Weather: Varied from sunny and warm to cloudy with snow

It has been a couple of years since I was able to get out and chase the snow geese in the spring. After essentially a two-year hiatus from waterfowl hunting, in hindsight I think related to Emma, I was bitten by the bug this winter. My friend Gene and I pieced together a spread of Texas rags, silos and an electronic caller. We planned to travel to the geese, but thanks to Mother Nature the geese came essentially through my backyard. A combination of heavy snow in the eastern part of the state, no snow out west (which meant no sheet water) and a distinct snowline to the north set the path of the geese to migrate within miles of my house.

Last week my friend Jeremy and I had found a flooded cornfield that the geese were using and secured permission to hunt. We failed to shoot a goose last week but thought it would be a good place to start. Thursday we woke to dense fog conditions and I had a feeling the day was going to be a good one.

After several trips to get our gear out in the field and an incredible amount of effort wading in the mud to set out the spread, we set up the blinds and waited. Within very short order the first lone snow goose of the day cupped and came right into the spread. I managed to whiff on all three attempts, and nearly scared Jeremy to death. He works the night shift and had hunkered down in the comfort of his field blind and promptly fell asleep. My shots startled him to wake up, but after that he was ready to go the rest of the day and shooting like he meant it.

Throughout the morning we were regularly treated to steady action, and thanks to the help of the fog consistent decoying birds. At around noon the birds began feeding in the field across the road from us and in short order there were tens of thousands of snow geese less than a mile away. Our paltry spread of 500 rags and silos quickly looked ridiculous compared to that number of live birds and so we decided it was time to take a break, recharge the battery on the e-callers and grab some lunch.

Jeremy was heading south for Easter, which left Gene and I for the evening hunt. The fog had lifted a great deal and while the action was not nearly as fast and furious as in the morning, we still were able to decoy a few birds into the spread.

The next day was forecast to be a washout with rain and snow. Gene and I gambled by leaving the decoys in the field from the night before and knew we could have a mess on our hands if the field flooded further. Mike was coming to town and I called to tell him he may want to postpone. Scheduling and excitement got the best of him and he left the Twin Cities in front of the snowstorm knowing the day may be a bust.

We awoke the next day to little or no precipitation, clouds and a north wind. Our “brilliant” plan to leave the decoys in the field proved not to be entirely smart as the wind had wreaked havoc on the rags overnight and nearly the entire spread needed to be reset.

The vast number of birds that had been present the day before seemed to have disappeared. We still had a few birds in the area but nothing like the previous day. Gene took the first bird of the day, a high flyer that checked the spread out a little too close. The bird dropped far out in the standing water and Scout made a perfect retrieve. Watching him bust into the water with unbridled enthusiasm made me remember how much I missed chasing waterfowl with a dog…it was going to be a good day.

Midway through the day we had a high-flying flock turn and begin to circle the decoys. That flock turned into flock after flock circling overhead. I had seen a snow tornado many times from a distance, but this was a first for me directly overhead. I sat in amazement for several minutes at the unbelievable scene unfolding above me, a pair finally put their feet down and committed to the decoys and I called the shot. Two days of slogging through mud was made more than worthwhile by the spectacle of the spiraling flock.

The birds kept just active enough to keep us interested as we debated whether to pull up and look for a new field or commit to this spot for the rest of the day. We ended up staying and giving Scout several more opportunities to shine. With two hours worth of decoy pick up ahead of us we picked up early, which may have been a mistake. While we were picking up and loading the truck an endless stream of low-flying snow geese filled the sky. While our guns were cased, it was a sight to see.

After two days of exhaustive hunting in a field much too wet for Emma we decided to end the trip with a pass shot in an attempt to get the Chessie girl a bird. I had incredibly high hopes that by having three guns in the field we may have a chance of getting her a goose. Unfortunately the snows had other plans, as they just were not in the area. We could have limited out many times over on specklebellied geese as well as Canadas and a number of ducks. The snow geese just didn’t materialize. We waited them out for a couple of hours, which is at the upper limit of Emma’s ability to stand in the chair before we called it a day. The trip ended without us shooting a bird as we all went our separate ways for Easter.