Bands in the Barley....

**Ron Zega** · #1 09-25-2008, 08:35 PM

DATE: September 13 & 14, 2008

LOCATION: New York

SUNRISE/SUNSET: 6:35 / 7:20

WEATHER: Foggy, Overcast, Rainy

TEMPERATURE: 70’s

WIND: Calm

EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® Power Hunter Blinds, GHG® FFD Feeder Lessers , GHG® FFD Feeder Actives , GHG® Pro-Grade Lookers, Avery® Floating Gun Case, Avery® 6 Slot Decoy Bags, Avery® Guide Bag, Avery® DIY Lanyard, Avery® Power Flag, Avery® Field Caps.

HUNTERS: Arliss Reed, Rob Vellucci, Avery® Pro-staffer Ron Zega

JOURNAL NOTES:

With the September goose season being open for almost 2 weeks now, it was getting increasingly difficult to find a group of geese on a consistent pattern. A combination of corn and other grain fields being harvested daily, and significant hunting pressure was keeping the geese… and us…. guessing where they were going to be tomorrow morning. On Friday evening, we found ourselves scrambling to find a field for Saturday morning, after the local geese threw us another curveball. That was until….. Arliss, in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and a full count, came up big and locked up a “dynamite” barley field whose owner did not exactly appreciate the geese damaging the newly seeded field.

Saturday morning, we woke up only to find ourselves socked in with fog. It was slow driving to the field, but we made it there and were set up with plenty of time before first light. The FFD lessers looked great in the field as the first signs of the sun poking over the horizon were visible. Not long after, although muffled by the fog, we could hear the first flocks of geese getting up from the roost. Luckily the fog worked to our advantage, and most of the groups decoyed without hesitation. Geese were rapidly accumulating around the blinds and as I ran out to retrieve the birds from the last flock, I yelled back to the guys to get a count on the birds. This temporarily distracted Rob and Arliss and they did not notice that all 3 birds I had retrieved were BANDED!! When I made it back to the blinds and tossed each of them their banded geese, the celebration that followed rivaled most Super Bowl trophy presentations!! Upon closer inspection we discovered that the three bands were actually in consecutive order!!! This was especially noteworthy, as we all shot for different areas in the 40 bird flock. We finished out the hunt with 24 geese, quickly left the field and by the time we were pulling out of the driveway the geese were already pouring back into the barley.

Sunday morning was more of the same, just without the fog…. We bulked up the spread a bit, hoping to give some of the wary geese a bit more confidence to land. The well hidden Avery® Power Hunter Blinds did the trick again, and the big resident Canadas were once again stacking up around the blinds. Sunday ended even quicker than Saturday and once again we loaded another limit of geese (and 2 more bands) into the trailer.

(L-R) Avery Pro-Staffer Ron Zega, Arliss Reed, Rob Vellucci

(L-R) Rob Vellucci, Arliss Reed, Avery Pro-Staffer Ron Zega