The 2008 MN Early Goose Season opened up saturday (9/06/08) morning around 6:25 AM. The opener found Pete, Logan and I hunting the northeast corner of the island on the north slough. We had mostly clear skies on saturday with a light wind blowing from the south. Goose movement was slow going to start the day. We hardly heard any shooting and saw no geese for the first hour and a half of the hunt. I was starting to worry that Pete drove all the way from MO to shoot doves and clay pigeons. The good news was the number of ducks we where seeing. There where hundreds of Mallards and other puddlers dropping in and out of the slough all morning long.
The first flock of geese showed up around 8:30 AM. Over the course of the next hour to an hour and half we scratched out 5 geese. Below is a photo of Logan with the mornings shoot.
Later that afternoon I managed to put a pigeon in Pete's freezer and we also added another goose to the bag right before sunset. Hardly any geese where moving during the evening. The wind picked up out of the southwest to about 15 mph before switching to a west/northwest right before dark. The single we killed came into the slough with about 5 minutes of legal shooting time left. Pete and I called him directly into the decoys and put him away with a 10 yard poke. Below is a photo of Logan and Pete retrieving the 6th bird of the day. The retrieve was Pete's first of the day!
Sunday morning had us back on the island in the North Slough. The wind switched back to the southwest and was blowing around 10 mph. The sky was clear after an over night shower had passed through. The goose action started right away Sunday morning. We called a flock of 6 birds in about 10 minutes after legal shooting time. After some less than stellar shooting we had 1 goose in the bag. A couple minutes later a pair of geese came in but broke off right before committing to the decoys. I managed to pull down one of the birds with me best shot of the weekend, a 55-60 yard poke.
Things settled down until around nine o'clock. We had two more singles come in and Pete promptly put both of them into the meat wagon. We saw several other flocks of geese but they wouldn't commit to the island after the wind stopped blowing. The weekend ended with Pete and I putting the tacks to one last goose that tried to settle in just outside our decoys. We finished up with 11 geese for the weekend. We probably should have added about 5 more birds to that total, but you can't complain about 11 birds. It was a great weekend and a perfect start to the 2008 hunting season! Logan and I will be back in Western MN on Saturday to try and add a couple more geese to the freezer. Below is a picture of Logan with Sundays kill.
The first flock of geese showed up around 8:30 AM. Over the course of the next hour to an hour and half we scratched out 5 geese. Below is a photo of Logan with the mornings shoot.
Later that afternoon I managed to put a pigeon in Pete's freezer and we also added another goose to the bag right before sunset. Hardly any geese where moving during the evening. The wind picked up out of the southwest to about 15 mph before switching to a west/northwest right before dark. The single we killed came into the slough with about 5 minutes of legal shooting time left. Pete and I called him directly into the decoys and put him away with a 10 yard poke. Below is a photo of Logan and Pete retrieving the 6th bird of the day. The retrieve was Pete's first of the day!
Sunday morning had us back on the island in the North Slough. The wind switched back to the southwest and was blowing around 10 mph. The sky was clear after an over night shower had passed through. The goose action started right away Sunday morning. We called a flock of 6 birds in about 10 minutes after legal shooting time. After some less than stellar shooting we had 1 goose in the bag. A couple minutes later a pair of geese came in but broke off right before committing to the decoys. I managed to pull down one of the birds with me best shot of the weekend, a 55-60 yard poke.
Things settled down until around nine o'clock. We had two more singles come in and Pete promptly put both of them into the meat wagon. We saw several other flocks of geese but they wouldn't commit to the island after the wind stopped blowing. The weekend ended with Pete and I putting the tacks to one last goose that tried to settle in just outside our decoys. We finished up with 11 geese for the weekend. We probably should have added about 5 more birds to that total, but you can't complain about 11 birds. It was a great weekend and a perfect start to the 2008 hunting season! Logan and I will be back in Western MN on Saturday to try and add a couple more geese to the freezer. Below is a picture of Logan with Sundays kill.
2 comments:
Love to see those young'n out there hunting. good blog my friend......
MrB
Thanks for such an informative article, it's been very useful.TIDE APP
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