- Canon XHA-1 HiDef Camera
- Panasonic Luminix
- River Bottom Goose Calls
- Haydel Goose Call
- Berretta Xtrema 2
- Avery Sporting Dog Trainer’s Lead
- Kent Fasteel 3” #4
- Avery Full Body Harvestor Pack Goose Decoys
- Medalist silkweight raglan crew in Realtree AP
- Medalist Woman’s Cheyenne pants in Realtree AP
- Medalist Cheyenne Shirt Realtree AP
- Medalist Silvermax hunt gear cap in Realtree AP
- Medalist microskin gloves
- Medalist Silvermax light weight socks
- Cabela’s Bobble Head Decoys
- Drake Waterfowl neoprene Shot shell belt
- Drake waterfowl Shoulder Blind Bag
- Final Approach X’Lander Gorund Blind
- Final Approach Dog Blind
- Dogtra 1900 ncp Field Star e-collar
- Easy Tree Lone Dove Decoy
- Federal 3” 7 ½ Game Loads
Most of you know by now my passion for waterfowl hunting. This being my fifth season I think it will be my most memorable.
I have been longing for the Pennsylvania opener of Canada goose season for quite some time. This year brought on a new meaning to the day. It would be my son, Jimmy’s, aka Spike, first year he would be able to engage in the actual harvesting of waterfowl.
Jimmy has been tagging along the rivers, marshes, and laying in ground blinds for the past 4 ½ years through all types of weather. Don taught him how to use duck and goose calls and through the years he always helped calling the geese in. Patiently waiting for his chance to interact as a hunter. Even though he was unable to shoot while on our outings, he developed a sincere passion for the waterfowl hunting.
Some people get buck fever…my son just gets the fever! Jimmy has the tendency to become so overwhelmed in the anticipation of what might occur he becomes ill. So ill to the point he literally gets sick in his stomach. It has happened when we took him hunting turkey and deer. Don and I have prepared him for just about any situation. Engaging him in preseason scouting, gun safety, preparation in coming out of his ground blind, and simulating actual shooting scenarios with training rounds. But even with all the training and preparation, nothing is like the actual hunt.
One evening when coming back from scouting, Don and Jimmy made a bet. Don bet Jimmy he would be so worked up opening morning once he heard geese he would become sick. Jimmy insisted he was over all that and accepted the bet. Jimmy even decided the night before the hunt he was going to take some Pepto Bismol. Which he did. Well, needless to say, Don won the bet. Just at daylight, while we were set up Jimmy heard geese. He started breathing heavy, taking deep breaths, and I looked over at him. He was white as a ghost and under his face mask I saw sweat beads. Don and I looked at each other and he said, “He’s getting sick!” and I know it sounds cruel but we laughed quietly. Then Don told him, “Buddy if you need to go behind us in the bushes over there go ahead and take care of business.” Jimmy handed him his gun walked over to the brush…and threw up. Then It WAS all business, within one minute the geese started to fly in and we gave Jimmy and Bob’s boy Zeth first shot. Jimmy was settled in enough and harvested his first goose. We were so excited. Then the action started happening. I was able to see Jimmy take another great shot and down a goose right out in front of us a few minutes later. He and Zeth each had dropped a bird. Only then did I decide to take a shot at one of the other birds in the flock and dropped it. I was more excited and caught up in the moment I was sharing with my son then worrying about shooting!
The whole gang with our morning harvest. (Left to Right, Justin Miller, Snickers, Zeth Koch, Jimmy aka” Spike”, Drake, Don aka “Dropshot”, Back row: Bob Miller aka “goosehunter”, Scott Heverly, Brandon Ott aka “Deerhntr”, and me.
Then the moment arrived…we had 6 geese down and it was time to put Drake to the test. While Snicker’s was retrieving a bird Bob had downed, I sent Drake out on Jimmy’s bird. This was icing on the cake. Drake made the retrieve and right back to hand and heeled. Just itching to go out and get the other birds down. Each one he came back with a perfect retrieve. This day was so far perfect in my eyes. Jimmy was so proud of himself, but I don’t think he could be any more proud than I was at that moment! While sitting in the brush with Drake on one side and Jimmy on the other he said, “Mom, this is great! But I lost my bet!” We both laughed. Over all we harvested 12 geese in our group for the morning hunt.
Drake retrieving Jimmy’s goose.
Snicker’s on a retrieve.
Jimmy’s plan for the past year now has been he wanted to hunt geese in the morning and dove in the afternoon then geese in the evening again. That is just what we did. We hunted Dove around 12:30 PM. The doves weren’t flying well where we were, but Jimmy still managed to take a dove with his first 3 shots fired. He was thrilled. The doves flew by wide and then circled back right over his “dove tree”.
That topped the cake! His dove tree decoy worked. We hunted until 2:30 and headed home to get Drake and the gear for our evening goose hunt.
Jimmy with his dove.
Jimmy cleaning his dove so he can fry it up for lunch.
Our final destination for the day was over an hour away from home. Once we arrived, we all helped set up the decoys and blinds.
Jimmy, Scott and Brandon.
Bob and Snicker’s
And like so many times in the past…we figured the birds would be arriving in about 7:00 PM, so we were standing chatting about past hunts, upcoming hunts, the morning’s hunt and
I looked out over Bob’s shoulder and saw wings waving in the horizon. I yell out, “Geese! Right over the trees headed right in!” We all jump into our blinds. I say to Jimmy, “Ok buddy, be sure of your muzzle! This is it boys here we go!” Bob and Jimmy do the calling and a small flock of 5 birds come in like being pulled on a string. They bank and circle behind. At this point our calls stop, all you hear is their loud honks and strong wing beats! They bank again and circle right in front of the spread and Bob yelled out, “Take ‘em!” Shots rang out and we managed to drop 3 of the 5. Then the dogs went to work. Snickers bolted out his blind and out to the first retrieve. Drake followed eagerly. Both dogs worked great!
Drake back from his retrieve holding the goose.
Our total for the opener was 15 birds among the group. We all agreed… overall it was one of the best days hunting we ever had! Not in the sense of the number of birds we harvested. We have done much better than that on different occasions. But a wonderful day spent with family and close hunting companions who in our eyes are considered family. Just enjoying each others company, laughs and jabs at each with no mercy even for poor Jimmy. While he was “taking care of business in the bushes that morning, we all glance around at each other and started to laugh at him. Jimmy walks back immediately after his throw up episode to the group and states, “I’m good!” and proceeded to kill geese moments later! Ahh…this is what memories are made of!
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