Snow Goose Madness with Habitat Flats

**Mike Bard** · #1 04-01-2009, 10:44 AM

DATE: February 28 – March 6th

LOCATION: Missouri

SUNRISE/SUNSET: Varied

WEATHER: Varied Daily – Not much precipitation throughout the week

TEMPERATURE: Varied from low teens to 70 degrees

WIND: Varied Daily – Few no wind days and a couple high wind days

EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® Finisher Blinds, Avery® Pit Blind Bags, Avery® Calling Gloves, Avery® White Fleece Skull Caps, Avery® Floating Gun Case, Avery® Neck Gaiter, and Greenhead Gear® Snow and Blue Goose Full Body Decoys

HUNTERS: Various Clients throughout the week. Camera Men: Chaz Lyle and Avery® Pro-Staffer Field Hudnall. Guides: Zach Simon, “Big Gun” Bob, Aaron McCauley, Ira McCauley, Avery® Pro-Staffers Ben Fujan, Mark Bloss, Eric Stanke, Tony Vandermore and Mike Bard.

JOURNAL NOTES:

It’s hard to summarize my week in Missouri with the crew from Habitat Flats into something as short as a journal entry, even difficult to determine the best place to start the story. I guess most everyone reading this has heard of Tony Vandermore and his success hunting spring snow geese along with Tyson Keller, Ben Fujan and many others you may have seen in the Zink video Snow Storm. Well what you may not know is that Tony, along with the McCauley brothers and a fourth partner started an outfitting business called Habitat Flats, which allows others to come out and experience firsthand what many have only seen in videos. With all that being said, Tony, Ira, and Aaron put together a crew that I was lucky enough to be a part this spring.

Now, I have chased snow geese in the Atlantic Flyway for several years, but we just don’t see the numbers as they see in the Midwest and I haven’t had the opportunity to hunt over a giant spread of quality decoys during the spring migration either… so this was different. The season has always been closed in my area during the spring flight to the north…until this year that is, but that is a whole different set of stories to be told. After being approached to join the crew back in the early Fall, this was the trip I looked forward to the entire season, even knowing that I was basically going to work for a week and may not get to hunt every day. I was excited to hunt and work with some of the best in the business, in my opinion, not to mention see the huge numbers of snows migrating back through and get in on the action.

I started out on Thursday, February 26th driving down to PA to crash at my buddy, Dave Rearick’s place and then stuck around long enough on Friday to get a late season resident goose hunt in with fellow Avery® Pro-Staffers Rusty Hallock, Erik Nilsson and Dave. We had a good time, despite the rain and put some big resident birds on the ground. From there I made it as far as Indiana, before I was asleep more behind the wheel than I was awake, so slept for a few hours and then got back on the road arriving in Missouri Saturday morning.

(See Erik’s JE for more on the PA hunt -http://forum.averyoutdoors.com/showthread.php?t=54804 )

Immediately after arriving, Ira had me meet him to jump in on a hunt and help out with his clients, as he was running solo that morning and needed some help for the afternoon. Soon after meeting up and getting settled in the field there was a change in the weather, which turned on the geese big time. Huge flocks of snows poured into the spread all afternoon and at several points it was hard to get my gun loaded before the next group hit the hole. As the afternoon wore on it became difficult to hide the harvested geese due to the sheer number of them and at the day’s end we had well over 100.

Pretty low light and all I had was my cell phone, seeing I hadn’t even unpacked yet, but I think you’ll get the idea.

After a short night’s sleep, we were back at it again. I paired up with Ira again for the morning and after getting things set up in the dark, we were joined by Chris Akin and his friends that have a duck club in Arkansas together. The morning was filled with snow goose action and fantastic dog work by the retrievers Chris and his crew had brought along for the hunt. Late morning, the decision was made to take a lunch break, so I headed off to help set up a spread where Tony had found some birds that morning. Once that spread was set and Tony’s clients were situated, I headed out to meet up with Ben Fujan to finish out the day with him. We caught the evening feed flight and took several out of the breeding population.

A scene from the spread

Our take for the evening

**Mike Bard** · #2 04-01-2009, 10:44 AM

The next couple days were a blur… not much sleep and a whole lot of picking up and setting out decoys. The weather had changed and so had the bird’s patterns, so we put in a lot of scouting hours to keep on the birds.

Here’s a pretty hot field we found

I didn’t get a chance to get out and chase the snows over these couple days, but I did get to stop into the client’s lodge and check it out… pretty sweet digs.

Even the bathroom was pretty cool

**Mike Bard** · #3 04-01-2009, 10:45 AM

A few of Tony’s friends from Grey Bruce Outfitters arrived Tuesday night and I had the opportunity to get out and fun hunt with them on Wednesday and Thursday in-between my other duties (moving spreads and scouting). Great guys to hunt with and the birds continued to put on a show for us.

Wednesday morning, a few of the Habitat Flats crew was able to spend a few hours together alongside the boys from Grey Bruce. Not a barn burner morning, but a good time none the less. After the morning flight, we picked up the spread and got a bite to eat before heading out for an afternoon hunt.

The morning’s take

For the afternoon, we hooked up with a few more of the Habitat Flats crew that were on a hot field and were looking for a few more guns. The afternoon was filled with migrating geese and a strong evening feed flight. You just can’t beat snow geese landing at your feet.

Some of the crew after the afternoon hunt

The boys from Grey Bruce with the birds from the afternoon

**Mike Bard** · #4 04-01-2009, 10:45 AM

After another short night of sleep, Thursday arrived; this would end up being my last day in the field on this trip. Again I was able to get out for another fun hunt with the guys from Grey Bruce and another member of the Habitat Flats crew, Zach Simon. The weather was very warm (in the 70’s mid-day) with little wind, so we all got a nice sun tan and had some less than great pizza for lunch…oh yeah… we put together a nice pile of geese too by day’s end. Despite the weather not being in our favor, we finished a good number of geese and an added bonus was a mature blue sporting a band.

Little pre-lunch hero shot

The “Blue” – Which Zach (not Luke pictured) ended up getting to take home by the luck of the draw.

The final hero shot of the trip

After wrapping up Thursday’s hunt, we decided to go out for a nice meal and relax a little Thursday night, something by this point we all needed. Friday was a day filled with running some errands, scouting, and moving decoys around, then Saturday morning it was on the road for NY to get back home in time to catch the spring migration of snows in the Atlantic Flyway.

One other quick note, Field and Chaz were in camp for several weeks filming an in-depth documentary on snow goose hunting, so definitely a video to be looking for later this summer, when it should be released.

Thanks to Tony, Ira and Aaron for having me on the crew this year and to all the guys I was able to share the experience with.

www.habitatflats.com