Great Start to the New Year!

9 Geese (limit) & 2 Ducks

Had a great hunt this morning with my best little hunting buddy and two great friends. We were hunting a big pond that both geese and ducks frequent so we set out our spred with ducks on one side of us and geese on the other. I’ve been very successful with this layout as both geese and ducks will usually come right into the hole between the two groups.

We had 4 big honkers come and sit down about 25yrds in front of us – the only problem was that it was 10 minutes before shooting time 🙁 They slowly swam away and there was nothing we could do but watch. We didn’t have to wait long. About 25min later we had a group of about 30 geese do a half circle, they locked up about 150 yards out and sailed right into our faces! I gave the “take’em” when they were about 3 feet off the water with their feet dangling. The pic pretty much tells the rest of the story! We were still in the process of reloading and taking care of some stragglers when a group of about 20 gadwall came sailing in. Unfortanately we weren’t completely reloaded so we only managed to bring 2 out of that group.

We stayed put for about 20 more minutes only to watch two more geese sail right in to us, but we were limited out so once again, we had to just watch them swim away! We decided that it would be best to clear out so they could come back in if they wished and give the pond a break. It’s been an extremely mild winter up to this point and we really don’t have many migratory birds in the area. It’s in these times when scouting is of utmost importance as there aren’t necessarily a lot of opportunities. Thankfully, we made the most of our opportunity today and ended the morning with a great bag of geese and even a couple of ducks!

Happy New Year to You All!!