Opening day for early season in Michigan.

SuperSeal110

SuperSeal110

New member
Sept 1st is the start of Michigan's early goose season. We had numerous birds in the areas a few weeks ago, but since molt migration happen, a lot of birds left the area for now...

We locked down several wheat fields, but with the last minute of scouting that my crew did on Saturday didn't turn up the results we were hoping for. Most fields only had a flock or two in them and we didn't want to set up for a few birds.

Sunday, the day before the opener, two buddies located a mother load of geese in a wheat/grass field. Permission was granted for our crew.

Monday morning came quick. We had a 7 man crew and we were limited out by 8am. This was by far one of the better openers we've had in the last two years.


 
Very nice!
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Back at the geese this morning. We decided to setup on this pasture pond for a mid day roost. With all the current hunting pressure, this mid am loft was getting loaded up with birds!

4 man limit this really afternoon.One band in the bunch. Waiting to get the info back on the birds.




 
Great job. I remember when shooting a couple of geese was a big deal. Was looking at the South Dakota regulations (where I used to hunt) for 2014. Early season Canada geese 15 per day! Amazing how the population has soared in most of the country. Is fun watching those big birds fold up. Keep at em.
 
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Holy Mackerel!

I've only hunted Geese a few times but I have to admit, the sight of one of those B52's setting down on top of you certainly gets the blood flowing.

Two questions,,,,, 1) what do you do with all that Goose meat, and 2) how come your grass is still green? It's brown and drier than granny's you know what around here.

PS,,, you do realize that hunting Waterfowl in shorts is unnatural,,, right?
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ADT, I've noticed the limits in South and North Dakota for residents is 15 birds per person. I couldn't imagine shooting that many geese per person. We're actually looking into possibly doing a North Dakota trip which non residents can shoot 8 birds per person.

Blood hound, They're spotty around the area, but we have a handful of us that live in 3 different counties, so we're spread out a bunch and able to scout my areas that way.

Charlie, I hear you about those B52's putting their landing gears down and rolling them. My heart was pumping good this morning with them wanting to land in the "X".

To answer your questions, #1, all the meat I take is turned into goose jerky. It's mighty delicious! I use High Mountain mesquite jerky seasoning. #2, everything stays green till late Oct to early Nov. At least the grass/alfalfa.

We shot a 3 man limit this morning. I had vacation and so did my other two buddies. At first, birds weren't working our spread correctly due to the weather/decoy placements. Birds wanted to be in the middle of the hay field, but we couldn't hide even low pro's with the hay being less then 3". Digging in wasn't an option. After making a few adjustments to our spread due to the goose body language, we started picking up geese.

Farmer started to run silage the day before, but unfortunately only made one pass. We used the standing corn to conceal us and placed the decoys in the hay field. Out of 15 birds, I ended up shooting one band. This bird was banded in '09 in Polk City, Iowa.



Mesquite goose jerky.
 
Another good job, I was was in Des moines (about 10 miles from Polk City) about 6 weeks ago and there were geese all over the city. Spoke to an old school buddy in S.D.. His kid and some friends invited him along for opening day- 5 guys-69 honkers-6 short but still crazy to me. You'd need an extra trailer to haul the geese. Not sure about N.D.. For S.D. my favorite time of the season always seemed to be end of October/start of November. Getting tired of killing roosters at this point and then the northern flocks start to come down. This is the time when you get the great tornado like flocks of mallards and snows. Kill ducks and geese in the morning then go get your roosters and then back at the waterfowl in the evening. Be careful if you get under one of those tornados-easy to go over your limit in one or two shots.
 
David,

Nice job! I like the added coon as a bonus.

Monday was our last day for early goose and to my surprise, I was sick that day and had to call in, cough, cough. Should of had our two man limit, but made a few rookie mistakes that cost us birds. My black lab got a decent workout though.
 
110,

That is still a real good morning anytime you get birds down you have to be happy. I understand that growing up in North Dakota has really spoiled me as far as waterfowl hunting goes. It is still interesting to see how people hunt (different methods) in other parts of the country. Those floater decoys look real nice too by the way.
 
Charlie,

Send me your addy and the next batch I make, I'll ship some out to you. I took a bunch into work today and everyone loved it. I'll be making another batch in the next few days for an up coming salmon fishing and duck/goose trip next week for a whole week.

David,

I also enjoy looking at other people's pictures to see there area and their methods to harvest geese. Those floaters were Dakota fully flock floaters. We only ran 4 and did minimal calling since the geese wanted to be in that loft. No sense in over calling.
 
I was just funning ya bud but I'd love to try some if it isn't to much trouble.
I'll pm my addy.
No hurry and don't go overboard. My dogs will expect me to share if they suspect there's an ample supply hiding somewhere.

Buncha d-m freeloaders!!!!
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That is just amazing.. You must be a good shot.. I just couldn't imagine plucking all those feathers.
I would have to invent something to do it, unless you just pop the breasts or skin them.
 
Originally Posted By: Tbone-AZI just couldn't imagine plucking all those feathers.
I would have to invent something to do it,

That's probably what the folks that work at Foster Farms are thinking too.




Sorry but you led with your chin.
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