Early Goose Reports

[tracker x-2]

How did everyone do? we had one flock of five come in and got four... here's a few photos

[certified jumbo]

Nice action photos!

[fishersofmen]

We had a flock fly over us on the way in and then another one on the way out.

[Stringerless!]

Nothin. Hunted half the morning on Saturday with my head light on still. Wondering why they wouldn't finish ?! Today, Only saw about 8. one pair. Rest were singles. Had one circle twice, lock right up and come straight in. Missed all 3 shots. Note to self : " Sharpen up, you old fool !!! " Not much shooting around me either.

[theiceman]

We hunted Saturday morning saw around 50 birds, but no shots just out of range.

[dan z]

Seen plenty of birds a loner did the dance and now is not alive. I was on public water. A buddy mine did really well with limits in a field.

[Kettle]

We picked up six on sat in a rye field in Northern MN. All came in flocks of 2, had one flock of about 2 dozen but just didn't quite get close enough. Nice way to start the year though

Kettle

[crawler harness]

We managed to get a few in a sweet corn field, should have limited both days but rusty skills. Had 4 guys on Saturday get 11 birds with 3 having bands. Shot all 3 from the last flock to come in. Setup in same field this morning with 3 guys and managed 11 again, definitely not as many flying this morning.

[Wanderer]

It was just nice to be out this weekend.

Translation: no birds killed but we had some pretty good pass shooting opportunities. I don't seem to be leading them enough. We didn't have a place to decoy them so it made it a bit tougher. Once the beans get cut we'll have a nice field to work though.

Just had two flocks go by the house as I typed this post.

[NAMASafetyDirector]

Had a phenominal morning on Saturday, 8 guys in the blinds got our limits by 9:00. Lots of birds up this way. This field was about the only cut barley field in the area so far, so the birds were using it heavily for the entire week before season. Had in the neighborhood of about 300 birds coming in regularly. Opening morning was no different! Probably the best morning hunt of our lives.

[Wanderer]

Now THAT's getting it done.

Very nice!

[TattooedHunter]

I'm hoping this weekend they are moving good around the princeton area. Going to be the first goose hunt for the wife and I.

Nama - That's a mighty fine looking haul.

[Rip_Some_Lip]

Nice hunt NAMA and Nels!

[Ebiz]

Did make it out Sunday in the north metro, landing was packed when I got there at 5 and thought about turning around and going home, but dumped the boat in anyways and managed to find a spot.

Set-up on a point and stashed the boat about 100 yds down the shoreline under a tree, went back to set out decoys. Right about shooting time the mosquitos came out in full force, slogged back to the boat to get my bug dope turn around and watch 7 fly right over my spread....

That was the only real shot I would have had, there were a few singles and doubles flying around throughout the morning but between all of the hunters molesting their calls and guys fishing all over it was pretty futile and I packed up and left around 9:30.

Hoping that the change in weather will get the birds moving a bit and at least keep the fishermen at home, that or try and find someway to get access to one of the fields on this side of town but haven't had much luck with that yet either.

[Roosterslayer05]

Went out yesterday with three friends and set out the migrator spread expecting some new birds to push down with the strong north winds. The local geese wanted nothing to do with the setup, like usual, but some migrators started showing up around 8:30.

Decoyed a flock of 5 migrators and dumped 4 around 8:30. At 9:30 my friends had to leave so they were packing up their gear when I noticed a flock of 50-75 migrators a couple hundred yards high locked up and coming towards the spread. They jumped back into the blinds but all of their guns were cased. I had to flag and call myself and the whole flock finished right into the decoys. Because of some questionable shooting I only dumped one out of that flock. After that my friends stayed for 15 more minutes and we got a single to commit. After they left I hunted solo and decoyed a flock of 25 and another flock of 9 migrators. My gun jammed when the flock of 25 came in so I only got one but I redeemed myself with a triple on the flock of 9.

We ended the day with 10 birds. It was a small migration. There were 3 pushes of birds throughout the morning for about a 5 minute window each push. I managed to decoy one flock of migrators every push. It was a good morning to be in the field.

[Quackaddict9]

Hunted close to the Indian Reservation and there were lots of birds coming off a lake on the Reservation, first time hunting the area. Many larger flocks than these family, pairs and loners I would see in a different area I have hunted the past. We shot a 5 man limit on Saturday morning and ran traffic with 4 guys Sunday morning and shot 12. Back at it again this Saturday, fields looking really good with new birds in the area.

[Quackaddict9]

A pair we knocked down Sunday morning.

[CANOPY SAM]

That's a GREAT picture!

[Stringerless!]

Saw a pair,a single and a flock of 4. No shots. Nothing close. Thought more would be getting bumped around because of Youth day. Not many shots heard. No kids out or no ducks ?

[Quackaddict9]

another 5 man this morning and a band, lots of birds around. Here's a little clip...sorry the audio is not the greatest. Can't figure out how to get good audio with the GoPro with the case on.

[Ebiz]

Stringerless - that's interesting, I didn't even bother going yesterday because I figured that with youth day going on it would be a warzone here locally.

I've never paid too much attention to the dates before but if I remember right, is this the first year that youth day fell on archery opener as well? For some reason I always thought bow opener was usually the week after...

[Stringerless!]

Can't help you Ebiz. Sorry, I don't pay attention to anything but waterfowl dates. Only a waterfowl hunter.

[Ebiz]

Yeah, I was just wondering if bowhunting didn't win out for a lot of guys over taking out the kids