Short changed-Early season Honkers

[Kyle]

This happened last year consistently until the corn was off. Birds come in low, on a string, seemingly committed, and then land at least 60yds away from the farthest decoy from the blinds. We set small family groups of roughly 6 decoys, at least 15-20yds apart from the next group. Anyone else experience this?

[Finlander]

You didn't set up where the geese landed! Dig your blinds in so they don't stick out and surround it with decoys so they can't see you with only two-three decoys and see what happens! Worked for me!

[H0LE HOPPER]

Either concealment or im going to guess that's where they were to night before and you were off the X if that isn't it it could be the condition of the dekes???

[Kyle]

Tonight we sat in a very poorly harvested wheat field. It definitely wasn't a concealment problem. If the standing straw wasn't 1.5ft tall I would have dug the blinds in... I personally think the "X" is more used as a reference for a particular field or area, not so much 105yds west of the 14th tractor tire track in that 120 acre field... We have been watching birds in the field for the last 2 weeks. One day land in a corner, the next in the middle, and the next in the opposite corner. For a creature with such a tiny brain they sure are good at making me feel like an silly-me..

[Tyler Voss]

I personally think the "X" is more used as a reference for a particular field or area, not so much 105yds west of the 14th tractor tire track in that 120 acre field...

I think of the "X" EXACTLY where they were feeding the previous time in that field and try to setup on that spot everytime. I don't think your scenario involves being off the X though. From my experience, small family groups usually just dont like landing by other groups during the early season. They need to be shot at a few times before they actually group up. This may sound bizarre but next time if the birds are going to land short, let one round off right before their feet are going to touch and lay back down in your blind. I've done this dozens of times, and the birds will actually keep flying right into the pocket.

[Tubitz]

something we do more often than not throughout the season is set up for crossing shots, this does a couple things. 1. keeps birds eyes off of the blinds seeing as they are concentrated on the decoys 2. if getting shorted birds are still in front of the blinds and killable if you set your spread 20 or 30 yards upwind of the blinds and 3. birds more often than not back peddle to get out of the hole and while set up with a cross wind your shot distance stays relatively the same from the first shell to the third. So if a north wind we would set up facing west so the sun is at our backs which helps the hide tremendously with the wind going from right to left and let birds work in in front of the blinds and if birds continuously land in the same area and short the decoys adjust blind placement for being shorted.

[Feathers Rainin]

If they keep doing it you could try to sit 60 yards downwind of your spread. If they land short you will be on em. If they head to your decs they should still be in range when they go over you. Let us know what you do and how it turns out for you.

[CANOPY SAM]

I'd chalk it up to weather conditions. It's SO doggone nice out they have no urgency, or pressure to land in any specific area. They're content to see your spread (other geese in the field) so they land wherever it's convenient.

I like the advice posted by Feathers Rainin. Get your blinds well concealed 50-70 yards downwind of your decoy spread. If they drift over you cupped and committed on the decs...your golden. If they drift in 50-70 yards short of your spread...your golden. If they want to land 100 yards short of your spread...your still pretty darn close to "in range".

I don't know where all you folks are hunting, but up here in NW MN I'm still not seeing any geese in the air. I've got farmer friends up around Agassiz and Mud Lake, and they're not seeing any geese in the air either? Is it the heat? Late hatched broods? Molting? I literally haven't seen a goose in the air for at least 6 weeks.

[Kyle]

First and foremost I cannot believe the moderator on this thread actually took the time to change the last word on my last post. Check the usage much..? I'm glad to see big brother is ever so carefully watching for word usage like the one I used. (another word for dummy, but starts with an "I")

We hunted this morning. Set a few less decoys, and spread them way out. The geese still shanked us short.

Tyler,

I agree with you, and have thought about that being a very logical reason for birds doing this in the early season. I think they are just way to dumb right now to know what safety in numbers means.

Canopy Sam,

I'm in Fargo/Moorhead. There are virtually no birds around here either. I spent the summer working(agriculture) between here and fergus falls, and after basically driving every road from here to there, I believe the majority of the birds moved out of the west/NW MN area due to the heavy rains and cold temps all the way into June.

I wish the DNR would have not created an extra early season. I vote to up the daily limit to 5, and move the duck season back by 2 weeks so we can actually have a chance at some late season migrators.

[aanderud]

First and foremost I cannot believe the moderator on this thread actually took the time to change the last word on my last post. Check the usage much..? I'm glad to see big brother is ever so carefully watching for word usage like the one I used. (another word for dummy, but starts with an "I")

Words like i diot (and worse) like are automatically replaced by the forum software -- no moderator intervention required. Shouldn't be a big enough deal to be first and foremost on the list, I wouldn't think. It's not like the computer can easily scan for (and understand) context to see if you're calling yourself one or calling someone else one. Just helps keep the forum PG and friendly is all.

[Kyle]

It is, and should be first and foremost. It feels like censorship... There goes having actual conversations with people on this site. If the system or moderator doesn't like what you have to say, even if it's in no way offensive toward another person, they will simply change your words. I'm not in favor of disrespect, profanity, or anyone ganging up on others but this is a little extreme. It's just disappointing I guess.

[CANOPY SAM]

Actually Kyle, I think Aanderud answered with a very articulate and tactful response. The software is simply programmed to slightly change, or delete, certain, potentially offensive words.

I don't know if ringing the "censorship" bell is in order. There has to be a system of redundancy in place to protect the eyes and ears of younger folks, or even older folks that simply don't desire to see inappropriate language or comments. If there weren't, it would be virtually impossible to monitor, and/or stop the really offensive stuff before it was viewed by potentially thousands of readers.

Even live television and radio isn't "truly live". There is a momentary delay built in to delete offensive or profane comments or words.

I wrote a post a while back referring to myself as an i diot for yet another one of the river of dopey things I'd done. I was a little surprised and confused when reading it later I realized I'd referred to myself as a "silly me". Not exactly the most manly wording, in my mind, but I wasn't offended at all that the system had "auto-changed" the word.

This is intended to be a family friendly site. As stated earlier, the software isn't able to interpret the "intent" of the writer. It can only identify key words, and make somewhat more appropriate word choices as alternatives. It is in accordance with the site rules and regulations.

I think your post about early season goose hunting, and the respective bird's behavior is a very good topic. Don't leave over such a minor detail. Let's keep it going.

Only a day or two after I posted last that I hadn't seen any birds in the air in our area, I was very pleased to see 3-4 nice sized family groups landing in a freshly cut wheat field only a few hundred yards from our house! I think these geese are just jumping up off the nearby river bottom only a couple hundred yards away.

We've got a couple hundred acres of field corn in front of our place, and a harvested wheat field across the road from that. As I know both land-owners I'm hoping to fill the freezer this fall with ducks, geese, grouse, and deer all from only a rocks throw from my front door.

[Quackaddict9]

When this happens...I get on my call hard and cry to make them come. Worked some days, other days calling less worked. It's part of the game.

One guy said set up further downwind of your spread...that would be a good idea to try.

[Kyle]

Canopy Sam,

I can't argue with you. Your right. It's logical for the system to do that. I guess it just struck a nerve. I'm over it.

Good luck with those fields by your house. I am excitedly anticipating the corn harvest, as I also have access(freshly gained) to some fields that year after year hold a lot of birds.

At this point I'm just really really ready for the big guy up stairs to flip the fall weather switch. 95 with a 77 degree dewpoint is excessive!

[aanderud]

At this point I'm just really really ready for the big guy up stairs to flip the fall weather switch. 95 with a 77 degree dewpoint is excessive!

I can't imagine goose hunting in tropical weather like we saw today or what is on tap this coming week. Holy smokes, talk about a change. Where was this weather in July? I moved into a new house July 27 and the high that day was like 62 degrees LOL.

[CANOPY SAM]

Some of the birds I was referring to earlier actually flew over our house last night on their way out to the field! The sight and sound of geese in the air is one of my very favorite things in this humble life. I'd be happy to just sit and watch and listen to geese all day long.

I'm actually a little relieved this heat held off until now. It's so blasted hot and dry our viney crops are wilting in the heat. Had this stuff occurred in July most of our gardens would've withered and died before they could even put on fruit. I'd imagine the row crops would've taken a pretty big hit as well.

At least it's the END of August. We can only hope it doesn't keep up like this thru Sept-Nov. It certainly does make "dressing" for waterfowl hunting difficult.

A friend of mine was doing a bit of scouting up north by our refuges and said he found almost nothing in the area? Some are starting to murmur that the bulk of the birds have moved west into the Dakotas where there is more food and water available?

[waterfowl101]

being south of the intensive harvest zone has pushed alot of new birds to our area.

[Kyle]

I wouldn't doubt the birds moved west. I'm an agronomist, and let me tell you, I was very happy with the mild temps of July for my personal comfort. However, with all of the late planting, and then slow root progression, we were already looking at a fairly late corn harvest. All of that mild weather in July really slowed the crops down as well. This heat has been a godsend as far as pushing crops along, but we could have used a few inches of rain in early August.

I wouldn't expect to be in a corn field before late october or early Nov. Last year, as hunters, we got lucky to be in corn in late september.

[CANOPY SAM]

Yes, I agree. I'm afraid there will be many, many thousands of acres of corn that simply don't yield a lot of seed. We've only got a few more weeks till we see the first hard frosts, and once those set in there won't be much growing in the fields anymore. If we don't get some more moisture in our area we'll have whole corn fields with little or no yield at all.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm really hoping to see some very heavy rains in late October this year. I haven't had the great pleasure of hunting flooded corn and stubble fields for many years.

We gotta get some more moisture over here if we're gonna have any chance of seeing some ducks come down our flyway. Seems like every big t-storm we see is dropping all it's moisture in the Devils Lake or Valley City area. I love hunting NoDak too, but those darn non-resident licenses are getting expensive, and I really miss being able to hunt the whole season rather than two allotted time periods.

[Kyle]

+ 1 Sam.

[Shane Z]

As someone mentioned earlier, a lot of these small family groups NEED to get shot at at least once, before they start seeing a "safety in numbers" mentality. I wouldn't advise taking a Ghost shot, but to each their own I guess.....I would guess that this weekend they'll start working a little better for you.

Early season with small family groups are unpredictable as you know. The urgency for food is not what it is like later in the month, so milling around here and there is common.

Two years ago we had a group land about 80 yards downwind of us and we saw another group headed their way (Def. not a good feeling) The second I saw the lead bird looking for a place to land with the live geese i hammered on the spit note cadence and surprisingly they picked up and came right into us. Don't hesitate to over call in a situation where you positive they'll land short.

[Kyle]

Finally had some birds decoy last night. In the last weekend, the birds have flocked up a little bit, and seem to be flying better in the last 2 days with this break in the hot weather.

[skee0025]

love hunting NoDak too, but those darn non-resident licenses are getting expensive.

Minnesotas not far behind ND when it comes to NR fees. Minnesota costs over $100. The only good thing is that you get the whole season where ND gives you 14 days.