Decoying Snows in South Dakota

[Tyson Keller]

After a busy hunting schedule the past 3 weeks in Missouri with Tony Vandemore, I finally had a chance to test the South Dakota luck on Spring Snow Geese. On Thursday, March 16, a heavy cold front along with snow pushed many of the Northeast SD birds back to the southern border. After scouting Thursday, and seeing countless flocks heading back south, I knew it was time to get set up somewhere. I received a call from a local friend, Casey Nixon, and he told me that a field 5 miles from my doorstep and only 300 yards from his house was holding over 15,000 birds. I did not see the field because I scouted the opposite direction, but I soon took him up on the offer. The beauty of the field was that it was only 2 miles from the Missouri River, a heavily trafficked migration route. I immediately hitched the trailer and headed to the field at 10:00 pm. When I arrived to the destination, the roar of waterfowl made my skin tingle, and I knew that we were in a good area. After three of us set the spread of about 500 GHG fullbody decoys and 7 finisher blinds, it was 1:00 am. We woke on Friday morning to sunny skies and no wind. At 6:00 am, the birds were on the move to feed. Tens of thousands of geese rolled off the river for 3 solid hours. About 9:30 am, endless flocks of migrators followed the river up from the southeast. Friday’s flight was one of the biggest that I have seen yet with endless flocks from sunrise to sunset. We were able to decoy feeding birds in the morning and migrators all afternoon. The endless flight was hectic, only allowing us to leave our blinds for bird retrieval and a short lunch. Flock after flock spiraled from a mile high to the ground level, leaving the bottom birds with feet hanging. Our overall harvest for the day was 130 birds all less than 30 yards, and a day that none of us will forget. With the bird traffic and forecasted weather, our hunting party decided to leave the spread in the same field for the weekend. Our luck on Saturday and Sunday followed with about 80 birds and 50 birds, respectively. I was not able to capture any photos on Saturday and Sunday due to dark evening skies.

Tyson Keller, Avery Pro-Staff

The Hunting Group( from right to left): Kyle Hubert, Casey Nixon, Micah Likness, Brandt Becker, Blake Hermel, Avery Pro-Staffer Tyson Keller, and Lynn who was taking the photo.

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/5344/tkimg6246b8ab.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

An approaching Blue

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/7203/tkimg6033b2df.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Getting the flock started

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/402/tkimg6050b2nt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tyson Keller]

A few more photos...............

The tornado is getting closer!

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/1632/tkimg6053b6cf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Spiraling overhead.........

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/6851/tkimg6106b1si.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Flocks boiling off the river.........

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/6805/tkimg5991b0mh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Chris Holleger]

Tyson,

Nice pictures. it looked and sounded like some good hunting.

Chris

[Keath Wetovick]

Way to go, Tyson!

[Tyson Keller]

More Pics............

An overhead Blue.......

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/5283/tkimg6032b7dc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

A committed Snow........

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/5792/tkimg6115b8yi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

A juvy Snow........

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/760/tkimg6165b9xp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Tyson Keller]

Silhouettes of dangling webbed feet in the sun.........These are definitely committed!

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9100/tkimg6160b9me.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/3319/tkimg6169b5jh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Keath Wetovick]

Tyson, how many bands did you inquire on this trip?

[Doug Steinke]

Very cool Tyson.

[Jeremy Abbas]

Sounds like a weekend full of "grindin". Well done Tyson.

[Cody Frazier]

Those pictures are AMAZING Tyson!
I sure would like to hunt some snow geese.

[Jeremy Kriese]

great pics tyson! congrats on the hunt!

[Mark Brendemuehl]

Very nice pictures! Sounds like a great hunt.
Mark

[Rick "Willis" Turch]

Tyson,

Sounded like a great hunt! Thanks for the post and the pictures. Tony and yourself have really put a hurt on those light geese!

[Travis Mueller]

Where was Tony?

[Mike Hungle]

Mind-boggling! Great action.

[Cory Johnson]

Sounds like an awesome hunt !!! Great pictures..

[Brobones]

WOW fantastic pictures, thanks for sharing

[cackler_killer]

hey sounds AWSOME im getting ready to move to raoid city here soon so im gonna have to get use to the snow call lol well cant wait for the snows!..when does season get over??

[Jeff "Pitboss" Coats]

very nice!


jeff

[NDboy]

Awsome pics Tyson.

[Rich Good]

Nice pictures Tyson, looks like fun

[Brett Beinke]

Nice pics. That Hermel kid sure gets around! Whats up Blake?

[Eric Larsgaard]

Thanks for the post, Tyson. It looks like it was a great hunt.

The birds should be thick depending on the snow.

Give me a call when it gets hot next week. I will be back in town.

Eric

[Aaron Hitchins]

Bet it took you a while to clean those babies

Aaron

[Jude St.John]

Incredible!

Some great photos of a great hunt!

[GVGoose]

Tyson, You sure do a great job of taking pictures and a heckuva job shooting up the snow geese! Keep it up!!

[Duckslayercam]

Great pictures thanks for sharing them with us, looks like ya'll had a great time.

[MNhardcorehunter]

You did it again great job and keep the pics coming.

[Grind Em']

How many of those did blake wack Tyson? Most of them I'm certain. Thanks for the deke use buddy, us KS boys owe you big!

[Brad H]

Once again Tyson thanks for letting us use part of your spread!!!! Blake sure did take care of us up there!!!!!

[beretta man]

I love it when you guys post pics of decoying snows. I have a co-worker who insists that is impossible to decoy snow geese, so I always pull up your guys' stories and pictures to prove it to him. Then I get the "well if you wanna put out that many fullbodies than I guess you can decoy em". No one said it was easy.