Last Updated: Friday, September 19, 2008 8:55 AM CDT
Outdoors: A trip to honker heaven brings big results
Mark Walters - Columnist
(An Outdoorsman’s Journal) - Hello friends.
I traveled to northwest Wisconsin last week and had a blast on two separate trips.
The first adventure was goose hunting with some new friends in Barron County, I learned a lot and had a great time. Read further for more details.
Monday, Sept. 1
High 91, Low 57
I was hanging out at Indianhead Sport Shop in Cumberland last summer when I was introduced to Justin Anderson, who lives in Comstock.
Anderson, as I was told at the time and would find out this week, is absolutely addicted to waterfowl hunting. To make a long story short, Justin invited me to come hunting with him and today I had the pleasure of doing just that.
Today was opening day of Wisconsin’s early goose season and as it was an incredible experience for me.
Our day started out at 3 a.m. when Shawn Patterson accidentally got us up an hour earlier then planned.
Next, Jeff Lang and Jeremy Olson a couple of local boys that love to drop Canada geese out of the sky, showed up about 4 a.m. and then we were off to a recently harvested wheat field where we set out about 30 goose decoys and then a layout blind for each hunter.
I stayed at Anderson’s last night and consistently heard from him that scouting was the key to each hunts success.
The day before, Justin had been at this field before daylight and knew when the geese would be arriving and where they would be landing.
For extra amusement Josh Nassen, another good friend of Anderson’s, would be filming our entire hunt while hidden in a fencerow close to our setup.
The five of us drank coffee and watched falling stars from 4:45 until about 6 a.m. when we got into our layout blinds in preparation for some serious goose shooting
Two minutes after legal shooting began a lone honker made the fatal mistake of landing into our spread of decoys. Anderson was calling the shots on this hunt and had the pleasure of flushing this bird and sending him to Honker Heaven.
It was kind of funny because Justin and Shawn had a bet as to what time the first bird would come into our spread. Anderson had bet we would get our first shots by 6:45.
Patterson had bet we would not. By 6:45 the five of us had 15 Canadian geese with each of us bagging three and I was in absolute awe of the skills and love for goose hunting these guys possessed.
Our layout blinds were only about ten feet from each other so conversation and laughter were a big part of the hunt as we waited for the next flock to come to our spread.
Lang had not got a whole lot of sleep the night before and had several cups of coffee in him which had him yapping up a storm.
Last summer when I met Anderson I was told that when I miss a goose I would receive a whole bunch of ribbing from the gang. By the end of the day I only had four chances to shoot at geese and punched four holes on my goose permit.
It became intensely hot and that must have kept the birds from flying because until our evening hunt we did not get another bird.
On that hunt, Patterson, Anderson and myself were in the same field and having a great time as we laid in our blinds and watched the sky. We only had one flock of four birds come into our setup and sent everyone to the promised, land.
Besides scouting, Anderson believes in attention to detail on decoy spread, wind direction, proper camouflage and the skill of calling geese, which he certainly has.
This morning while most Americans are not even thinking about getting up, Anderson will more then likely be putting out a spread of goose decoys, pouring a cup of coffee and getting real comfortable in his layout blind while he waits for night to become day and the Canada geese to come and play.
Thanks Justin!
Sunset
| Tell us what you think... |
| Comments » |
The
comments above are from readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Rhinelander Daily News. |
|
| Post a comment
(150 word limit) » |
| We will not post reader comments containing
racial, religious or personal attacks, slander,
profanity, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses,
phone numbers or Web site addresses that are
for personal or promotional gain. |
|
|
| Thank you for your comments! Once your comments
are approved, they will appear on the site. |
|
|
|
| OUTDOORS |
ALL OUTDOORS > |
Lake of the Woods yields no monsters
How does one spell “musky fishing? Some spell musky as “muskie” and others talk about musky hunting rather than musky fishing. Three of us who just returned from a trip to the state of Minnesota spell it “frustration!” For several years we have been listening to the fish stories told by members of the musky fraternity who have returned from a fishing trip to one of the large Minnesota musky lakes. Those stories about huge muskies, which have not received much fishing pressure, caught our attention. A trip was in the planning stages for some time. READ MORE >
Hummers say goodbye for season
|
|
feed
Comments
