Casting and Blasting

To complain about the weather is kind of pointless, right? It sucks for ducks. It just does but what are you going to do? Setting decoys up, hoping the random goose or duck decides to drop in is pretty much a waste of time. If you don't have wind and cold and snow to cover up the fields, hunting on the river can and has been, pretty abysmal. So...you might have to go after them and that's what John Chase and I decided to do.   

Last week, while guiding some folks for fish, I couldn't believe how comfortable the geese were with us floating up on them. A quick recall of opportunities and I'd say we could have had a couple limits of geese in an hour or so. In fact, I'd say the best camo for geese is probably a Simms jacket and a fly rod. It's an entirely different story if you put a shotgun in the boat. Somehow they know. We learned very quickly that your best bet was to spot them from a distance and if everything lined up, meaning there was cover along the bank or even better, a cut bank to hide behind, you weren't getting anywhere near them.

Some folks don't really like the idea of jump shooting geese. It seems a little red necky. It's kind of like worm dunking for trout. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) But this season has been so crappy for setting up decoys on the river and I don't have fields to hunt so you got to do what you got to do. I need geese for snack sticks. Yeah, and if you've ever had my snack sticks, you know what I mean. They are delicious and pretty much the only way I'll eat geese. And clients love them so...the last two days we were casting and blasting and getting geese for the grinder. As dirty as it felt, it was pretty fun.

Keep 'em where they live...