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Goose Hunting in September

2K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  duckmann 
#1 ·
Awoke this morning about 4:00 with my heart pumping about 1000 beats a minute. . .. AHHHH . . . goose season. Loaded up the truck, picked up my neighbor and headed to the pond. Had to make our way through some major pea soup on the way to our blind (almost hit an island). . . but made it to our spot about 5:00. Fog hung in for about 4 hours and didn't really start to clear beyond 40 yeards of visability until about 9:00.

From 5-9:00 we were impressed with the number of ducks that we were seeing. Teal, Mallards, Blacks, Woodies. . . man thought we were going to have to beat them off with sticks for awhile!

Unfortunately however we were not so lucky on the geese. We saw about 40 or so but that was only becasue some guy in a canoe was taking 60 yard pop shots at them on the water (about 7:00) at the other end of the pond. Those geese must have hit almost 80 mph by the time they flew by our blind at about 150 yards! I called and called BUT nothing seemed to talk them into returning to the shots of gun fire. :)

We finally called it quits about 10:00 when we hadn't seen or heard any more geese since 7:00. All in all a great day in the blind. . . morning was beautiful and the ducks were fun to watch and call.
 
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#3 ·
We hit a cut hay field. Our farmer friend made a nice blind out of bales. A flock of a bout 25 cruised by at a distance at 5:40. A flock of 5 came right to us at 6:00 - none left. We saw another flock of about 15 at 8:00. I could of probably reached out with the Tungsten-Matrix #1's, but thought we could turn them.

I got a triple out of that flock of five. My partner got his double - and had a shell left in the gun. One of mine was banded - my first. Quite an opening day!
 
#4 ·
We set up before daylight in a farmers field that geese had been frequenting. Of course nothing showed today. We managed to spot and stalk a small group and got one out of that bunch.

Set up in the afternoon on a small stream that connects into Machias bay. Saw quite a few geese and did manage to get one more.

Hope to head out again tomorrow and see what happens.
 
#5 ·
My daughter and I went out this afternoon to one of my favorite spots for early geese.. When we arrived we found a flock of about 80 birds resting about 40 yards off shore. We put the sneak to them when we got to about 40 yards they spooked. I took the closest goose and dropped that one. the flock then flew down the pond as they always do the turned and flew right back over our heads at about 25 yards. I took 2 more that almost landed at our feet. The dog made an excellent retreive on the first goose that tried to swim off, he went out about 125 yards chasing this bird until finially catching it...all in all and excellent time with my daughter,dog and 3 geese...
 
#6 ·
Baggedout,

Excellent photo, it is great to see kids out hunting as I think it is something that hasn't been being passed on. . . nice geese also!

My goose hunting has not gone so well I have come up short everytime I have gone out. Just seem to get unlucky. I was out after work the other night around 4:00 and had a chance to set-up right ot left well I picked left and wouldn't you know it the damn geese went right. . . how my whole season has gone. The one goose I get a bead on after three days of hunting I let my little brother shoot (well it was on his side off the blind) so far nothing for me. . . BUT I do still have some time left AND the mornings and evening have been beautiful so I guess I can't complain to bad!

Hey good luck to you (and you daughter) the rest of the resident season and be sure to post more pics if you bag any more this weekend!

DuckMann
 
#7 ·
Finally got to test out the new (to me) sculling float. I think I like it! We sculled up to within 20 yards of these 2 geese, before they even knew anything was up. Got close to alot of ducks, too.


Here's the float brushed-up, as we were launching it.
 
#10 ·
RD,

Nice shots of the float. . . you guys did a great job on the camo. Work has me in RI for a few days BUT the wife called and had to tell me that 20 plus Canadians swam over to her at the pond in back of the house and watched her and the dog swim for over 30 minutes at about 20 yards. . .

I have still yet to get a goose BUT my damn brother now has two. . . of course it is my own fault I have missed a few easy shots (just got to excited). Last chance is this weekend so I am going to put in a full day and hope for the best!

Take care and good luck to the young fella on the youth day!

DM
 
#11 ·
I have to thank my wife for her "extensive" scouting as she was the one that informed me of a LARGE group of geese that had been hanging out in a small pond where she walked the dog in the evenings. She said that 30 had actually floated over to her (about 20 feet) and watched the dog swim!?!

Well, it was the last day and approaching the last hour (4:30 PM) of the early resident goose hunt when my brother and I had 13 of the geese my wife spotted earlier float right up to us. We had watched them hangout at the other end of the pond for about 3 hours before they finally made a move and floated right into the decoys. FYI, thought you would find it interesting that we only called a total of 4 times just to have them know where we were and we are pretty sure they saw us set-up when we first came in. . . pays to never give-up and be patient!

We each dropped one on the water and one in the air and used the remaining shot to scare the hell out of the others. Reloaded and shot two more times to finish cripples. . . was a GREAT shoot and was really excited to FINALLY get my goose!

 
#15 ·
Duckmann,

I took some customers of mine on a resident goose hunt up in Northeastern PA. We used 2 dozen stuffers in two different cow pastures with the aid of Final approach eliminator ground blinds.

We were flagging geese at long distances but as soon as they got close the stuffers worked their own magic. It was non stop shooting both mornings and I think we shot as many migrators as we did residents.

All in alll it was one of the best goose hunting trips I've been on in a while.

If anyone ever has any interest in hunting in this area in the early season drop me a line and I'll hook you up with my buddy who is a guide in the area.

PA has very liberal limits on early geese so it's a great beginning to the waterfowl season.
 
#17 ·
Dukhtr,

Hey you should know be better than that I have been posting here for a long time . . . I tell it exactly as it is good or bad. I have told this group time and time again that I am a terrible shot and this is in spite of the fact that I "attempt" to make myself better by skeet shooting, using hevishot, improved chokes, etc. I don't like having to shoot cripples (do you know how much that hevi shot costs!) but I just can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Yes, I shoot ducks on the water and sometimes even wait for them to land even if they are close enough to take in the air. It is partially tied into my poor shooting ability and also my lack of confidence with getting a good kill shot on a moving object.

With that said, I did manage (by some miracle) to shoot a nice drake mallard out of the air this morning at about 30 yards and even kill it instantly with a single shot. The whole thing was SPECTACULAR and the guy I was hunting with (also a poor shot) talked about it all morning now obviously if I could I would certainly do that all of the time.

I know you are only busting my stones but I wanted to make sure that others on the forum didn't think I was bragging about swatting them on the water or having to shoot the cripples.

Take Care,

Duck Mann
 
#19 ·
Dukhtr,

No worries. . . I knew you were just yanking my chain BUT I wanted others not as familiar with my posts to understand the total background.

Also, (if you can believe it) some people get reall upset about the whole wackin em on the water thing! NEXT, I suppose you will be bustin my stones for shooting hen mallards instead of only drakes! :)

Take care man, I hope your season is going well!

DM
 
#20 ·
I have no issues with anyone's personal take (you know that Duck, but others may not understand our 'closed' humor!)

As far as hens......NEVER been an issue with me!!!!!!! A limit is a limit......and such is based on a total kill expectation determined by our national biologists (ya....like they really know what happens in the marshes!!). I may try to take drakes, but I have no qualms about taking hens.....every Canada hunter certainly takes alot of geese that are not ganders.....teal drakes only? Wigeon drakes only? Gaddy's??. Why is it that peeps make such a big deal about mallard and pintail hens!!!???

Again.....keep taking those shots you are currently not sure/confident of.....the more you take them, the better your percentage will be!!!!!!

D-
 
#21 ·
Dukhtr,

Was down on Merry Meeting Bay for the opener and was questioned by a student and a biologist from Bowdoin it appears that they are doing some huge duck survey this year. . . I guess the last one was done in the early 80s and there has been no data since then!?!?! It ties into what you were saying that the biologists have NO idea what is going on in the marshes.

I am still haunted by Brad White's comments earlier this season that "the state bag limits are not based on BIOLOGY but on public opinion." OUCH!

I have to see ducks first! I think the weather needs to get COLDER. . . I am just not seeing huge numbers of quackers.

Duck Mann
 
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