Gary Greene’s Memories from an Old Hunter.…#47
I have previously written that traditionally the early Canada Goose season has not been highly successful for my son Nate and I. We find it difficult to find the birds and if I do scout and find feeding birds, I can’t secure permission to hunt on those private lands. The owners are either anti-hunters or have given hunting rights to others.
Of course, we have had a few successful hunts including seven and five bird harvests, but those are few and infrequent.
Nate and Gary Greene and his lab Nyjer with one of their few successful early season Canada Goose hunts. (9/01/17)
This year, I did more than my share of scouting Walworth County for cut fields and feeding geese and again I didn’t get landowner’s permission to hunt those fields. So this year, we set up in a public owned cut hay field about a mile north of a feeding field. My health has been fading so Nate had to set up the four dozen full bodies and shells and then grass in our two layout blinds and the Mut Hut for my lab Nyjer. After hiding my truck, I just watched as I took a knee. We were hoping some of the spooked geese from the southern feeding field would come our way. About 6:10am, a silent flock of eight come out of nowhere and gave us a look and we dropped two with one flying about two hundred yards into the thick, chest high grass field to the south. Nyjer made a routine retrieve on the goose that landed in the decoys and then Nate ran him over to that downed bird and he easily made that tough find.
Nate, Gary, friend Justin and Schmiddy after another early season hunt. (9/09/17)
As soon as Nate returned, we had another flock of fifteen geese come from the west and circled our dekes numerous times but wouldn’t commit, so we dropped two from those high flyers and both flew another two to three hundred yards to the northwest in the same thick field. Again, with Nate on the run, he lead Nyjer back into that field and again he picked up both far flying injured birds. As Nate was walking back with geese in hand and Nyjer by his side, I had another flock of fifteen Canadas give our dekes a look, and again something in our setup was not accepted by the geese. One loner did break off and came around for a fourth look and I dropped it in the tall grasses behind me to the west. Nyjer had another bird to find but this one was at thirty yards.
So we finished with five geese and about 20 minutes of adventure as the skies became quiet by 6:30am.
My hunting position when a snake attempted to crawl into my hunting boots. (9/11/17)
Days later, I had been scouting a little public pot hole and found that a small number of geese left the roost around 6:20am and came back to loaf on the water after 10:00am. Nate and his fellow UW-Madison Veterinarian School friend Justin arrived one morning after the geese left that roost. We put in our canoe with five floaters and four full body decoys, my three year lab Schmiddy and two hunters with Justin trailing in a kayak. We set up in the cattails exactly where the geese had been loafing for several days and we waited for their return. It was 10:05am and a flock of a dozen came from the south and made a big circle north as Nate worked his call. They came through a second time and Nate worked his comeback call as they made a big swing south. They still were too high to shoot as they flew past us a third time and headed north as Nate again worked his comeback call. This time they came in lower but still at a high speed, so we decided to shoot and we dropped three as Schmiddy made a tough retrieve in the thick Lilly Pads. Nate picked up the other two geese with the canoe.
A few days later, and still observing that same water hole, I again noticed the geese came back to loaf in the late morning/early afternoon. Due to my failing health, I am not strong enough to drag or handle the canoe, so I put my kayak in the water and made my way over to the same location that we previously shot the three geese. I didn’t bring a dog or any decoys as I just planned on sitting on the “X”. I got out there around 9:30am and it was hot and quiet as I stretched out on the life jackets in the kayak and read some waterfowl hunting magazines. I was almost asleep as I felt something on my left thigh. I opened my eyes to find a two foot snake, about the width of a shotgun shell, making its way into my left hunting boot. I jerked, but proudly, I don’t recall screaming like a school girl as the snake was as startled as I was as he back tracked his escape. That incident made me alert for the remainder of the hunt.
At 11:15am, two geese came in quickly from the south and circled into the “X” and I dropped the lead bird and took another shot through thick cattails at the second as he escaped the scene. I stayed out there for another two hours but no other geese returned to loaf.
As I was in the middle of writing this memory, I have been walking our labs in the adjacent fields near our home. My wife Chris was not entirely thrilled when I returned home with our three blacks after they met the tail end of a skunk. Our relaxing Sunday morning suddenly became a dog cleaning marathon.