Spread looked pretty good, can't believe you didn't get at least a couple suckered in. Better luck next time.
Being on the X
4
Well with the weather man calling for some substantial wind for Saturday, we decided to try layout hunting for some geese. Last Monday, while doing a boat ride with my daughter, I found a spot that was holding a good number of geese along the lake. I hoped that they would still be there the following weekend.
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I wouldn't get off work Friday till 11:30pm so that would put me at the lake by 2:30 am. The drive wasn't too bad until the end, I was starting to feel a little tired by then. When I arrived I got a couple of things around before I laid down for a couple of hours. 5 am. came pretty fast. My buddy showed up right on time and we went about loading the boat. We've got it down to a science, 20 min to load our gear, the decoys, and the layout boat. We headed out to the ramp. As it would happen, there was a big storm that passed through right when I was finished getting my stuff around and ended when my alarm went off to get up.
We got to the ramp and unloaded the boat. The wind had settled since the storm had gone through and all that was left was that fresh rain smell after a summer storm. We made the journey out the channel into the open lake in the dark. One of the things I love about this sport is those morning boat rides in the dark, where it seems like your the only one in the universe. There were only residual small rollers left from the winds of the passing front. It was just a short distance to where we wanted to set up.
When we arrived, we went about setting up. First, the layout, making sure the anchors were holding and that it was in the right direction for the coming high winds, later in the morning. Then we set about putting out the spread. We had fewer decoys today, only 40. I wanted to set them so the spread looked bigger than it was. We spaced them out a little more, hoping that would work. As we were setting up, we heard some geese calling out in the darkness. We were in the right spot, but now my fear was that they were using the area as a rooting spot. We had the spread in place with time to spare, about 20 minutes. I dropped off my buddy in the layout and headed out to anchor the tender.
Well as shooting time came and it was getting lighter, my fear was confirmed, it was a roosting spot. Oh, there were tons of geese using the area, but most of them were here already. A group of geese started to sound off, I looked to see if they were going to fly. No, they weren't. I saw a fox that had walked up to them on the beach. It had gotten them all excited, and they just swam out into the water a little. Obviously, the fox saw that his goose wouldn't be cooked, so he started trotting down the beach looking for another meal. It was pretty cool to be a witness to mother nature in action.
As the morning progressed we each took our turns in the layout, only to watch groups of geese swim by just out of range. There were three flocks that did fly in, but of course they landed with the 100 other real ones. The only bright spot was the 20 or so mallards that came to the spread in groups of 2's and 3's. We can't wait for big duck season.
As it was the second storm front held off until we were off the lake, but the wind did pick up to about 20 mph. We were tucked in out of it, so it didn't effect us at all. After we decided that we had watched enough geese swim around for the morning, we picked up and headed for the home. We like to use these early trips to work out the kinks in our hunting system. The temperature is a lot more forgiving this time of year if you happen to make a mistake.
The spread.
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Look in the background of the first pic, they're just hanging out.
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The gear.
I wouldn't get off work Friday till 11:30pm so that would put me at the lake by 2:30 am. The drive wasn't too bad until the end, I was starting to feel a little tired by then. When I arrived I got a couple of things around before I laid down for a couple of hours. 5 am. came pretty fast. My buddy showed up right on time and we went about loading the boat. We've got it down to a science, 20 min to load our gear, the decoys, and the layout boat. We headed out to the ramp. As it would happen, there was a big storm that passed through right when I was finished getting my stuff around and ended when my alarm went off to get up.
We got to the ramp and unloaded the boat. The wind had settled since the storm had gone through and all that was left was that fresh rain smell after a summer storm. We made the journey out the channel into the open lake in the dark. One of the things I love about this sport is those morning boat rides in the dark, where it seems like your the only one in the universe. There were only residual small rollers left from the winds of the passing front. It was just a short distance to where we wanted to set up.
When we arrived, we went about setting up. First, the layout, making sure the anchors were holding and that it was in the right direction for the coming high winds, later in the morning. Then we set about putting out the spread. We had fewer decoys today, only 40. I wanted to set them so the spread looked bigger than it was. We spaced them out a little more, hoping that would work. As we were setting up, we heard some geese calling out in the darkness. We were in the right spot, but now my fear was that they were using the area as a rooting spot. We had the spread in place with time to spare, about 20 minutes. I dropped off my buddy in the layout and headed out to anchor the tender.
Well as shooting time came and it was getting lighter, my fear was confirmed, it was a roosting spot. Oh, there were tons of geese using the area, but most of them were here already. A group of geese started to sound off, I looked to see if they were going to fly. No, they weren't. I saw a fox that had walked up to them on the beach. It had gotten them all excited, and they just swam out into the water a little. Obviously, the fox saw that his goose wouldn't be cooked, so he started trotting down the beach looking for another meal. It was pretty cool to be a witness to mother nature in action.
As the morning progressed we each took our turns in the layout, only to watch groups of geese swim by just out of range. There were three flocks that did fly in, but of course they landed with the 100 other real ones. The only bright spot was the 20 or so mallards that came to the spread in groups of 2's and 3's. We can't wait for big duck season.
As it was the second storm front held off until we were off the lake, but the wind did pick up to about 20 mph. We were tucked in out of it, so it didn't effect us at all. After we decided that we had watched enough geese swim around for the morning, we picked up and headed for the home. We like to use these early trips to work out the kinks in our hunting system. The temperature is a lot more forgiving this time of year if you happen to make a mistake.
The spread.
Look in the background of the first pic, they're just hanging out.
The gear.
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More wonderbread, less decoys 
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
