Early Goose Reports

[carpshooterdeluxe]

we had one group land 100 yards out of the decoys.. but those were the only geese we seen the entire weekend. im thinking a 2 or 3 bird early goose bag limit with a possesion limit of 10 woulndt be such a bad idea........

why would you want a lower limit?

typical opener in western minnesota...birds scattered everywhere, multiple small feeds, birds flying low from the roost, birds coming out right at legal shooting time, birds short stopping the decoys. saw some signs of the molt migration in progress. a lot of guys i know back home skipped goose opener to shoot doves. they were thick. I hunted sunday morning for geese, but spent the rest of the weekend shooting doves and pigeons over a mojo mallard.

[old goose hunter]

I had not hunted the early season in about 6-7 years. I hunt Saskatchewan,

and Manitoba, so it got really hard to hunt Mn, with limited number of birds

and lots of hunters. It just has not been worth the agravation. But about

two weeks before the early season, I got a call from my brother-in law. He and my sister farm 3400 acres up in the red river valley by Crookston. He said

he had several wheat fields that were full of geese, and they were starting

to move into his pea fields that have not been harvested yet, and they were

eating and knocking off a lot of peas. He asked if I was interested in

coming up to kill a few. Talked to the wife, she said yea lets go, she likes

to hunt as well, and thought it would be fun. My brother in law took out his back hoe and dug us a trench blind in a strip of grass between a 400

acre wheat field and his green pea field. He took some plywood, covered the pit and brushed it in with grass. This was the most comfortable blind

I have ever hunted out of. We set out 5 dozen full bodies on the edge of the wheat stubble in small family groups like they were landing there and

walking into the peas to eat. Which is what they had been doing. Saturday

we shot 15 for the three of us in less than 30 minutes. We quickly threw the decoys in the pit, and got out of there. Sunday we shot 15 more in about an hour. Monday we shot 15 more, but it took until 10:30am as they

were a little more educated by then, but they wanted those peas!!!!!!And

no we were not over our limit as Sunday night we had a big family dinner

with marinated goose breasts on the grill. It was a great time, my wife

shot her first triple, group of four came in 3 shots, 3 big birds down!!!!! Most of the groups were 5-10 birds, the first day they did not

even circle or hesitate, they were coming off of the red river back water

about a mile away. Most had their wings locked a quarter mile out and

glided into our spread, by Monday they were a little smarter, but they

wanted the peas. I told my brother in law to plant peas again next year and we will be back!