Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Wildfowl

BEN TYLER WAS HUNTING from his layout boat in a flooded 500acre cow pasture at Oregon’s Chimacum Valley. Air temperatures were in the 40s and the humidity caused a ghostly mist to linger above the watery stillness beneath an overcast sky. It was the perfect day for hunting ducks in November 2018, with the hunt the truest test yet of his newly minted watercraft, constructed over the summer specifically to overcome the difficulties of this very spot. “For some reason, ducks like to fly right at legal shooting time,” he said. “I could hear mallards, wigeons and pintails calling all over the field. The water is only 2 feet deep and there is no cover. It’s either grass or water on top of grass. I dropped the boat and decoys…

OUR SPREAD OF 18 dozen Big Al’s silhouettes looked perfect in the gray dirt field. The brand new lesser decoys and big honker silhouettes were loosely spaced and spread far, with plenty of landing pockets between. The field was atop a plateau. The geese were roosting on ponds in a valley below. We hunted in the evening and knew the geese would be coming in low, hopefully locking on to the field as soon as they gained enough elevation to crest the rim. The sun would be at their back, too. Because of these details, we chose to go with an all silhouette spread. It worked. Once geese started flying, we shot limits in less than an hour. Don’t underestimate the power of silhouettes when it comes to September goose…

Talk to me goose! Most of you know the scene in Top Gun, where Maverick asks his navigator “Goose” to help him find the target. For the last 33 years, I’ve used this phrase lightheartedly to help me find my favorite target—high numbers of geese of many species. I have chased, scouted for, called to, hunted for, guided for, cleaned and stuffed geese my entire adult life—5 species and 9 subspecies of geese in 25 states and 4 provinces. An obsession, or pretty darn close. And so my good friends at this fine periodical asked me to round up my favorite places to hunt geese in North America, so here we go. First of all—I apologize if I missed your area and don’t mention your specklebellies in the timber (I’ve…

❶ BAND #: 1286-07035HUNTER: Auston Garrison, Muscatine, IASPECIES: Northern Shoveler (D)BANDED: 1/4/2022 | Hayes, LARECOVERED: 12/04/2022 | Bluff Park, IA ❷ BAND #: 1226-52808HUNTER: Don Eckrod, Sunbury, PASPECIES: Wood Duck (D)BANDED: 9/21/2017 | Fergus Falls, MNRECOVERED: 10/15/2022 | Caketown, PA ❸ BAND #: 1256-29468HUNTER: Chris Duffy, Carlsbad, CASPECIES: Northern Pintail (D)BANDED: 12/21/2020 | Alamo, NVRECOVERED: 1/28/2023 | Niland, CA ❹ BAND #: 2087-81198HUNTER: Barry Pratt, Flushing, MISPECIES: Mallard (D)BANDED: 8/22/2014 | Big Point, ONRECOVERED: 11/30/2022 | Saginaw County, MI ❺ BAND #: 1937-59618HUNTER: Johnny Brosam, Decatur, ILSPECIES: Greater White-Fronted Goose (M)BANDED: 7/14/2009 | Deadhorse, AKRECOVERED: 1/27/2023 | Neoga, IL ❻ BAND #: 1225-07510HUNTER: Josh Simmerman, Sanford, FLSPECIES: Blue-Winged Teal (D)BANDED: 8/4/2018 | Yorkton, SKRECOVERED: 1/29/2023 | Brevard County, FL ❼ BAND #: 1547-38179HUNTER: Hunter Staniforth, Bayboro, NCSPECIES: Surf Scoter (D)BANDED:…

I was 15 in 1979. A year away from getting my driver’s license. A freshman at Newton Falls High. That year, Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy by Bad Company, along with the hit, and I use the term loosely, Makin’ It by David Naughton were on the radio. Naughton, for those who might remember, starred as the real hairy guy in the cult classic, “An American Werewolf in London.” Honestly, he should have stuck with acting. I killed my first Canada goose in ‘79. Standing, I was, at the edge of my Dzedo’s—that’s Slovak for grandfather—sweet corn field, holding my old man’s 1966 Mossberg M500 pump, the Poly-Choke screwed down to XTRA-FULL, and filled with three 3” #2s. Lead #2s. The geese, 15 or 20 strong, were on their way to…

Throughout the season, you’ll find certain spread designs and sizes just flat-out work. Whether you’re hunting lesser Canadas in the wheat fields of Texas or giants in the vast cornfields of South Dakota, there’s almost always a spread that will work more days than not. The weather conditions, timing within the season, group size and hunting the “X” versus traffic birds will always play a critical role in determining the spread size, layout, and location within the field. A word to the wise, relying on hitting the location of the “X” in the field may not always be your best option. Several times you will watch birds jump field to field while snow goose hunting, Canada geese hit different areas of fields when weather conditions change, and stale birds make…

IN HIS CLASSIC WATERFOWLING TALE “Pothole Guys, Friz Out,” the late great Gordon MacQuarrie penned a line or two in one humorous essay that still brings a chuckle all these years later. As he sat in a Wisconsin duck blind and talked hunting with Al Peck, the lovable Hizzoner character and president of the Old Duck Hunters Association, the topic was whether or not Mac and his father-in-law might take home a brace of mallards, or maybe even a black duck or two for the dinner table. After another group of greenheads flew by, MacQuarrie spun his humorous tale. “They would swing in high over the open water and look it over,” he wrote. “They did not care for any part of our point blind in the snow. “Wise guys,”…

JOEL MEETEER’S PASSION FOR hunting sea geese (Pacific black brant) was ignited by a first-time hunt on their southernmost wintering grounds in Baja, Mexico. “The bird’s responsiveness to decoying and calling made for quick and fun hunts, but it was their delicious table fare that gave me love at first bite,” he says. He was also fortunate enough to collect 2 bands, which appeared in our “Passages” section (December 2017-January 2018). Upon returning home he ordered several dozen brant decoys and pursued the birds during Washington’s limited three-day season. Bitten by the brant bug and unfulfilled by the brief local season, Meeteer soon jumped the border again, this time to hunt British Columbia’s 10-day spring season in the Boundary Bay staging area. On the last day of that hunt, he…

GROWING UP my waterfowl hunting consisted of pass shooting high-flying fowl along the countless miles of marsh that penetrate the Great Salt Lake. I understand now that pass shooting is looked down upon by waterfowl purists, but I didn’t know any better, nor did I have the funds to purchase decoys. Hell, I could barely afford to fill up my truck and buy a box or two of shotshells. However, one thing is for certain—the time spent in the marsh during my teenage years kindled the hunting flame that now consumes the majority of my time, thoughts, and energy on a daily basis. All waterfowl hunting accelerated my proficiency with a scattergun and before too long I was regularly bagging limits of ducks with the cheapest steel loads I could…

WHILE THERE ARE MANY causes of dropping at hand, one of the most prevalent causes is incessantly throwing marks and then on the return, grabbing the dummy out of the dog’s mouth as it runs by, and immediately throwing another mark. Rather than bringing the current retrieve to a completion, one act blurs into another, thus the dog is thrown off. I have observed and listened, and as a trainer attempted to justify this by verbalizing that this was building the dog’s “prey drive” by having the dog retrieve, retrieve, retrieve, retrieve, and that these multiple retrieves are the name of the game while completely ignoring any semblance of obedience. My take on this different style of training program is it advocates that at an early age the dog should…