PA Late Season Honkers

**Erik Nilsson** · #1 02-28-2009, 05:33 PM

Date: 2/7/2009

Location: North West PA

Sunrise: 7:23 a.m.
Weather: Over Cast to Partly Cloudy, Snow Cover 12”

Temperature: 26* rising to 46*

Wind: SSW 12 M.P.H
Equipment Used: GHG® FFD Lesser Canada Decoys, GHG® Oversize Shell Decoys, GHG® FFD Crow Decoys, Avery® DIY Lanyard, Avery® Fleece Callers Gloves, Avery® Finisher Blinds with Snow Covers, Avery® Power Flag, and Avery® Finisher Blind Bag.

Hunters: Matt Loomis, Jordan Gretto and Avery® Pro-Staffer Erik Nilsson

Journal Notes:
Snow on the ground, changing weather patterns and unpredictable migrators winging across the sky brings upon the Late Season Canada Goose Season. These wary birds can be a true test of waterfowling skills for us all.
Having taken some time off from hunting, I was definitely ready to get out. I received a phone call earlier in the week from Matt, who found some geese using a cornfield where the farmer was spreading manure almost daily. These geese, being true late season birds, were coming to the field at various times through out the week. Here today, gone tomorrow only to show again a couple of days later.

A much needed warm front was approaching from the south, so we decided that our hunt today would be a good opportunity for them to feed early. I met Matt and Jordan at the field and we quickly began to unload our gear into the sleds. The farmer came to meet us at the beginning of the lane and he informed us that all the geese were in the field yesterday late in the afternoon and said that they were in there thick right before dark. We thanked him again for allowing us to hunt and off we went to get ready for any early arrivals.

Initially, mallards circled overhead while we set up the decoys and we all wished that duck season was still in. I had brought with me a dozen GHG® Fully Flocked Crow Decoys because there were several crows using this field as well and we figured that if the goose hunting was slow, we would take advantage of them.

As we made our way to where we wanted to hunt, we came upon several goose tracks. It was obvious where the geese were digging through the snow for available food and that’s where we wanted to be as well. Setting up our spread and adding few cornstalks on the snow covers made the blinds disappear for our hunt. Off in the distance, we could hear geese loafing on a nearby watershed and we began our wait for our first arrivals.

While hanging out around the blinds, we enjoyed good conversations and quite a bit of ribbing between the hunters. As time passed, we could feel the temperature rise and shortly a small flock of six winged way out in front of us. Aggressively we called to them, waved the flag, and soon we had our first flock on a fast approach to our spread. Locking up, they dumped air and committed right into the hole we left for them. We raised the guns and our volley gave us five birds in the snow. Quickly we gathered our birds and began our wait for more to show. Another flock of eight came from a different direction and again committed to the spread. Seven birds fell to the guns and we were only three birds shy of our limit.

Spending some time with out seeing another goose, we had a few crows come over to check out the spread. Two committed to the crow decoys and I made sure that they didn’t have the chance to leave.

Off in the distance we could hear the distinct sounds of a pair of geese double clucking back and forth as they were making their way again out in front of us. A little coaxing on the calls and they also committed to the hole. Matt indicated to Jordan and I that we shoot the pair, we both sat up from the blinds and with one shot each we downed our birds. Matt retrieved them and informed me that the bird I had shot was banded. One more bird left to go, we had a small flock swing wide of us and Matt picked out a nice big bird and finished up the day for us.

Quickly we picked up the spread to get out of the field, so that it would offer another days hunt. Back at the trucks, the geese began to show up and land in the field as if we were never there.

My Banded Bird

Banded 2005 Ontario, Canada

Hero

L-R Jordan and Matt