went goose hunting yesterday

[Bubba]

We went before sun-up .. set out 70 decoys and waited... we had snow drifts of 3' out in the field .. there was two feet of snow INSIDE the blind and it was only 11 degrees... we sat without seeing a bird until 9:30 AM... then it was like someone turned on a switch .. the birds got up and were flying and looking for somewhere to land and to eat ... we had 4 guys in the blind and had our 8 birds by 10 AM. It was great ... When they finally started flying the action was non stop for a half hour and more. We were picking up decoys and the blinds around us were still killing birds. I think everyone in the fields around limited by 10:30 or so because on our way out of the area we passed 4 other blinds and everyone was picking up decoys.

[jmarriott]

Most of my hunts start and end like yours started cold snowy and no birds.

Here they do seem to follow the highways south like rivers out east. All the overpasses have water areas and the fields are plenty, I don't have enough decoys myself. I have 6 and 4 are resting downers. Still these are almost enough for 2 people maybe so few decoys help because we do get smaller v formation coming in often. While the full v formations never seem to stop for us.

After we pond jump a few year round locals the flyway seems to be west of me in central indiana but they do come down in my area. The closer to the highway the more of the non locals we see. Now the uncles farm creek always has ducks at one part. You are not going to sneak in on them walking cause it is to open. You have to crawl up to them in the morning to get a shot.

[Bubba]

We use (at times) 18 Stuffers (real stuffed birds used as decoys) but we have to pick our days to use them. If it's wet or snowing we can't set them out because they'll fall apart and the feathers will fall out.

I have 5 doz silloetts(sp), 6 doz shells and 3 doz full bodies... plus 2 doz full body duck decoys. It all depends on where and what time of day we hunt as to what we set out. Sometimes we just set out the full bodies, sometimes a mix but most of the time we have no less then 5 doz decoys set out. We tend to have the best shooting over the stuffers and full bodies ... we kinda mix the stuffers among the full bodies and it's like a magnate to geese. We'll usually set the full-body duck dekes out in a place by themselves ... most of out duck shooting here is over water but sometimes we get them coming in to eat with the geese. I shoot a few over a field each year.

My crawling days are over... LOL ... if I ever get down on the ground, it'll take a crane to get me back up... LOL ... We usually hunt public land ... we have our good spots and no-so-good spots. Most of them have standing blinds or pits. I guess I stopped "jump" shooting duck 20 years ago because of health reasons.

[Bubba]

Well, we packed up the truck with most of our decoys 3 days last week and tried one of the public hunting areas ... we didn't get drawn in the public lottery each day. So we went to plan "B" and hunted a friends farm for the afternoon shoots. The closest a bird got to our spread was about a mile away and a quarter mile up. They just didn't want to even look us over.
Public hunting areas are getting so OVER CROWDED it's pathetic. For 11 blinds on this one area there was a total of 25 parties... the last morning it was a little more bareable. For 11 blinds there were 12 parties and guess who didn't get drawn? ... Yep it's our luck. I think next year my 2 hunting partners and I are going to lease a place to hunt. I'll start looking around now and maybe by next season be able to find somewhere. The problem is, land around here goes for BIG money for hunting leases. Like a couple thousand dollars for a hundred acres of hunting land ... that's a bunch of money. I sure long for the old days when you could go knock on a farmer's door and ask him to hunt his property and the only pay he really wanted was a couple dressed geese or a few deer steaks and a roast. Time's are changing I guess.