I posted this on the MD Duck Hunting forum, but I figured I'd post it in a few other forums that get more views as well.
A few of my buddies and I got into waterfowling a few years ago after being primarily deer hunters and the bug has bit us pretty bad. We got a chance to do some geese and sea duck hunting this week.
Monday was overcast, somewhat cloudy, and pretty windy. We setup our decoys with, as usual, very little clue as to what the hell we were doing. We had buffleheads coming in and out all day, and we had some geese come to our decoys. We ended up with 3 geese and 5 buffleheads. We had one period of insanity with geese swimming up to the spread, geese flying into the spread, and as we were figuring out what to do about the geese, several sets of ducks came in. Bluebills and we think redheads. For all 3 of us, it was the most fun waterfowl hunt we'd ever been part of.
Tuesday morning was insanely windy. On the several hundred yard walk out to the blind, the canoe we were pulling with our gear got sent airborne and dumped our gear into the water. Bad start. We got out there and the wind was absolutely nuts. Weather radio said 25-35 sustained winds with gusts from 45-55. We had geese come in, but 2 of the guys guns wouldn't feed shells after they fired (the guns went into the drink when the canoe went airborne). We only ended up with 1 bufflehead in the morning. Me and 1 other guy went out that afternoon and the winds were more reasonable (25-35). We had geese in the air everywhere, and even manged to call in one group that was headed away from us - and we dropped 2 geese. I have to say, actually turning the geese with our calls, and having them cup up to our spread was awesome. Like I said, none of us really know what we're doing - we're just learning as we go.
Wednesday morning was to be our last hunt. It was dead calm. When we got out to the blind, we realized there were 30 geese IN our spread. We couldn't avoid busting them unfortunately. We heard geese ALL around us, and when it started to get light - we saw them.... thousands upon thousands of geese, swans (not snows), and ducks. Mostly canadas. They were in a group that was probably 1/2 mile long. They were 90 or 100 yards from us. For the next 3 hours, thousands upon thousands more geese came into this big group. Our little spread just couldn't compete, and they were too far away to shoot. It was an awesome thing to witness, but we unfortunately didn't get in any shooting.
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A few of my buddies and I got into waterfowling a few years ago after being primarily deer hunters and the bug has bit us pretty bad. We got a chance to do some geese and sea duck hunting this week.
Monday was overcast, somewhat cloudy, and pretty windy. We setup our decoys with, as usual, very little clue as to what the hell we were doing. We had buffleheads coming in and out all day, and we had some geese come to our decoys. We ended up with 3 geese and 5 buffleheads. We had one period of insanity with geese swimming up to the spread, geese flying into the spread, and as we were figuring out what to do about the geese, several sets of ducks came in. Bluebills and we think redheads. For all 3 of us, it was the most fun waterfowl hunt we'd ever been part of.
Tuesday morning was insanely windy. On the several hundred yard walk out to the blind, the canoe we were pulling with our gear got sent airborne and dumped our gear into the water. Bad start. We got out there and the wind was absolutely nuts. Weather radio said 25-35 sustained winds with gusts from 45-55. We had geese come in, but 2 of the guys guns wouldn't feed shells after they fired (the guns went into the drink when the canoe went airborne). We only ended up with 1 bufflehead in the morning. Me and 1 other guy went out that afternoon and the winds were more reasonable (25-35). We had geese in the air everywhere, and even manged to call in one group that was headed away from us - and we dropped 2 geese. I have to say, actually turning the geese with our calls, and having them cup up to our spread was awesome. Like I said, none of us really know what we're doing - we're just learning as we go.
Wednesday morning was to be our last hunt. It was dead calm. When we got out to the blind, we realized there were 30 geese IN our spread. We couldn't avoid busting them unfortunately. We heard geese ALL around us, and when it started to get light - we saw them.... thousands upon thousands of geese, swans (not snows), and ducks. Mostly canadas. They were in a group that was probably 1/2 mile long. They were 90 or 100 yards from us. For the next 3 hours, thousands upon thousands more geese came into this big group. Our little spread just couldn't compete, and they were too far away to shoot. It was an awesome thing to witness, but we unfortunately didn't get in any shooting.
