# Still birds - Snow Goose Pictures from May Spring Hunt



## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

My friends dad and another guy went out on Saturday and shot 50+ over decoys before they ran out of shells. They said that all the birds were juvies and came right in without hesitation. Said it was one of the best shoots of his life. So there are still birds around if you can find them.


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

Gandergrinder,I went out saturday and sunday.Shot 8 saturday and 13 sunday pass shooting.I also ran out of shells.All of the birds I shot were juvies with the exception of an adult ross goose.I only seen one goose flying high both days.Most of them wer right on the deck.


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## Bartman (Apr 22, 2003)

I saw a field of white this morning on my way to school. On the way back i stopped to check it out and sure enough there was about 200 mature snows n blues feedign in a cornfield. Might have to take a day off tomorrow and hunt them. They were in the same field all last week but friday i did not see them feeding and figured they had left. Good thing they havent.


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## Brad Anderson (Apr 1, 2002)

Oh yah, I can verify that there are still birds around. Saw about 2-5000 yesterday. Loading up the boat last night when all the sudden, BANG BANG BANG. Next thing I knew about 500-750 got up out of the field right across the road. Not sure if they got anything??


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

I think we're going to give mallard's spot a run. With the number of juvies flying around it's kind of hard not to. Kiedrowski, a good buddy of mine moves back to Fargo today from D.C., so he's pretty pumped that he's going to experience some spring hunting after all.

Only problem is sunup time and the distance to travel. We're going to have to leave around 1 a.m. oke: :lost:


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

The fact that you guys are going hunting. The juvies are around and there is no way that I could possibly go with the amount of tests that I have is proof that god does not love me. More than anything I would like to get out for awhile but I just can't. Good luck gentlemen and if you shoot a bunch please do not tell me untill after finals.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

awww.....you know I'm going hunting tomorrow when I give live updates. 

Still plenty of birds, just got off the phone with mallard. So far 1 field of about 2 grand, mostly juvies...and a second field that's got double that...........mostly juvies. He's still got a couple more to check.

Just a heads up for those of you going tomorrow!


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

This Going to be the BIG weekend? I hope so!!!


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

We got permission for the posted field...we're ready to go!


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## nickle ditch (Aug 26, 2002)

Well i'm jealous. Convinced me to go for a drive and look for some around here though. Good luck guys.


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## Bartman (Apr 22, 2003)

So how'd you boys do this morning?? A friend and I got 18 this morning in the dekes, shoulda had more but i was too excited to actually shoot snows out of the decoys again. Gonna try em tomorrow morning too, if anyone in the Lake region area wants to "try" and have a good time, let me know and we will see what we can do.


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

What a twisted morning.

We got on the road around 1 a.m., few of the guys on zero sleep. Got to our plan A spot and the birds stayed there overnight. We had a plan B spot with half as many birds...and decided to go after them instead of pushing the birds and hoping.

We set up about 500 windsocks or so next to a flooded lowspot in the field. Here's the middle of the spread:










The birds didn't come for around the first 45 minutes, and we started to get nervous. A few ducks and canadas flying, but no snows. Than the first flock was spotted...wow where they coming low. It turned out to be the pattern of the morning. Scattered small flocks came for about an hour and a half, and everyone of them approached about 10 yards off the deck. Many of them came so low they were almost dragging their bellies on the ground. The second they entered the north end of the pothole (top end of bottom pic), they'd either drop the landing gear and try to land in front of us or bank up and over us at 25 yards. Haven't seen birds do that since Sask. We ended up with 50 birds between 5 of us. About 12 or so were ross's, about 8 were matures and the rest juvies. Here's a pic showing 43 of the 50:










A great morning to end the year. Wish I would've known and took advantage of these earlier. Here's a couple nice blues taken, both in the white phase (notice the "I'm running on 3 hours of sleep" look):










:beer:


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

I had a blast!! It was just like SASK. With zero hours of sleep in the past 34 hours, im going to hit the sack. Wish snow's would always decoy like that.


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## Qwack (May 25, 2002)

Very nice! :thumb:


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Ouch,
That hurts boys. All my dekes and I'm not even in them. Good job. Wish I could have been along.


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## duxnbux (Feb 25, 2002)

Double ouch,
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I feel your pain GG...To the rest of the Nodak Crew who made it out..."Now that's what I'm talkin' about"! Great work guys, this was the day we have all been working for all spring....glad to see that you guys took advantage of the opportunity even though some of us had to miss out.
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Sweet looking spread too! GG be proud, it looks like your sweat and tears paid off...even though you couldn't be there
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Who knows, I haven't heard the fat lady sing yet.....so anything is possible as these guys proved on Saturday!
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GG give me a call we can drowned our sorrows together :beer:


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

I decided to stay out there for the weekend and ended up hunting alone as the other guys had commitments at home.I ended up shooting 10 more that evening.The way Doug and GB3 were shooting that day we could have gotten another 50 in the evening.Had one flock of about 20-25 land in the deeks(I was outside of the blind taking a leak when they came in).Today wasnt as productive.I hunted the wrong field(guessed which one they were using the night before).They were in a field a mile away.I still managed to get two birds though.Saturdays hunt was unreal.It seemed for a while like you couldnt reload fast enough.There were birds laying everywhere and Dougs dog was going nuts because he wanted to go after them.That was the fastest action I have ever seen goose hunting.To bad we didnt do it earlier.I had my eye on that area for two weeks prior to this weekend.


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## Matt Jones (Mar 6, 2002)

Man, I really wish that I wouldn't have had to work this past weekend!!!! Nice to see you guys puttin' the grind on 'em. Gotta love how those late flocks come in---On The Deck! Once again very nice. :beer:

Hustad, did you guys ever give me a ring? I was at my buddies house, but left his number in case you called. I think I ended up passing out at like 2:00ish...don't really remember though. :roll:


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## Fetch (Mar 1, 2002)

Wow !!! thats unreal - this time of year :beer:

Oh !!! to be young again :-?

All I got was stuck trying to move my old trailer :eyeroll:

When does it end ???


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

The last day you can hunt is sunday this coming weekend.


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## Brad Anderson (Apr 1, 2002)

yah, there are still a good chuck of "local birds" around. Was in the vacinity of the Mauvee, saw approx 500 in a shallow slew. Almost sure there are still huntable numbers around.


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## Bartman (Apr 22, 2003)

Brad, what part of mauvais were you in the vicinity of. If its along hwy 19, those birds have moved out after the rains on tuesday. A buddy and I hunted them on saturday and ended with 18. I wish they were still around, they decoyed excellent for a good 3 to 4 hours, too bad we couldnt shoot real well. :sniper:


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Birds wont migrate in rain, they probably moved to a different roost/fields.


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## Decoyer (Mar 2, 2002)

All it takes is a couple hour window in a rain storm for them to migrate. They can easily cover a lot of ground if given the opportunity.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

I guess we will find out tomorrow. ITS TIME TO WACK'EM AND STACK'EM!!
I cant wait


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Mallard shot 31 this morning by himself.

They should do well again tomorrow.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Unreal. Was it in the decoys?


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

Yup,I got them in the decoys.I actually hunted a field that wouldnt have been my first choice . I knew that a few of the nodak crew wanted to hunt the next day and I figured we would hunt the best field then.I expected to get maybe 5 geese if I was lucky.Boy was I wrong!For an hour it was a repeat of the previous weekend.I didnt shoot into larger flocks and only took close shots,I didnt want to educate the bigger flocks so that they might be easier to decoy the next day.After I shot my thirty first bird,I ran out of shells and got out of there quickly.GB3 and a couple of his buddies showed up a little later and we went back for an eavening shoot.Not near the action compared to the morning.We ended up with 2.GB3s buddie Dan was almost hit by a dropping goose that ended up missing him by 1 1/2-2 feet.All the while we watched aproximately 4,000 geese(GB3s estimate) pile into field #1.It looked like a slam dunk for the morning shoot,that is when the hay bale blind hunter showed up. He set up on the roost ponds to the east of field #1and was riding his ATV around on the field roads on Saturday eavening.This morning we seen maybe 5-10% of what was in there the eavening before.I could care less if I shot another goose this weekend,I shot enough and had a blast Saturday morning,I wanted to see the other guys get into them. This is the first year I have ever seriously tried hunting snows.I not only shot my first,I shot a heck of a lot more also.I put a few thousand on the ram scouting them this spring and it has payed off more times than not.I can see how snow goose hunting can be addicting.Well I had 3 hours of sleep last night and I finally finished cleaning everything up.Time to hit the sack.Mallard


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

You know, The one weekend I don't go with you guys and you get into them! I was thinking of pulling an all nighter but i think I've pulled enough of those. Good to see it though Tyler has been working his *** off for it.

Glad I didn't go the second weekend though, herd it was a rough one for the team that made it out here!!

Mav....


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## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

I hear ya MAV!! hahaha!!

Finally got a chance to get a on line and check out some most recent forums, good to see everyone still keeping it reel..Sweet pictures of alate spring hunt....

Keeep it reeel..
MAdison


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