My good friend Jim was down with his boy, Kyle, and I was wanting to get my other nephew, Nick, in on a good snow goose hunt.
Nick was the lucky one to team shoot our only snow goose of the very first spring season Idaho offered. We often laugh about the way it came to pass.
We were hunting Wayne's farm and had cobbled together about two hundred cardboard decoys, changing the paint from black Canada decoys, to white snow geese. We were so excited to finally get a chance at snows.
We set up early in the morning and had Nick, his dad, Gary, a friend of ours, Larell, and Wayne and I for the hunt. Snow geese flew in waves over us but totally ignored us the entire morning. At noon Wayne suggested we make a lunch run into town for burgers. I was happy to break the boredom and accompany him.
We took our time and returned to the blind in a couple of hours, greeted by cheesy smiles from the remaining guys.
"We got one!" they announced as we handed burgers and fries to them.
"Yeah right, and I'm the king of England," I replied back.
Nick reached down and produced a sparkling white snow goose!
"No way!" I responded
The story was that a flock of swans had come straight at the guys and they were having fun observing the big birds as they flew past. Suddenly a very small "swan" broke out of the flock and sailed down into the decoys. It took them totally by surprise, and at last they realized it was a lone snow goose that had been flying with the group of swans. They opened up on it and between them all had our first snow goose, and... it was the only one we shot the entire season.
Nick has the brag of getting our first and only snow goose that year.
Things have now changed. The boys have helped make dozens and dozens of snow goose decoys. It did not take long to realize that a couple hundred decoys just doesn't work for the white birds. They fly in flocks of thousands, and ignore a field with just a sprinkle of decoys in it.
Nick had to work around his baseball schedule and asked to bring his hunting friend, Harry.
"You bet. Bring him in the morning. Jimmy and your Uncle Jim will also be there to help with the shooting.
The snow geese had been migrating through and the numbers were gaining each day. It should be a good shoot... but snow geese are so unpredictable, time would tell.
Jimmy was waiting at the field, and Jim showed up with the boys shortly there after. We raced in the darkness setting the decoys.
It seems there is never enough time to get all the decoys ready for opening light, and as I raced around I told the boys to get shells in their guns, shooting hours was just minutes away.
Nick now set with a flock of more than a thousand decoys around him. A good change from that first day years ago.
The Snows trickled in all day and we shot till our barrels nearly melted down.
Big flocks would circle around and around until it seemed they were right in the blind with us. It was exciting and the best day of the season so far.
The boys did some good shooting and the geese were piling up in the blind. Text messages and pictures were streaming out of the blind to family and friends as the day progressed.
We took a break at noon, and unlike that first hunt had a nice barbecue near the blind. Each day it seemed we had to race into the blind as snows came decoying in with smoke billowing from the barbecue. As long as we stayed hidden we could shoot geese while making lunch.
What a great time we had that day. Nick finally getting in on a good snow goose decoying day.
Jimmy was also enjoying himself as it was his best hunt of the year. It seemed one of those magical days when things just lined up right.
Oh sure, we should have had many more birds on the ground, but it seems that snow geese are the toughest of all waterfowl to hit. I can shoot and shoot at those birds with very limited results. I need to go to snow goose shooting school to learn with I'm doing wrong.
I've learned to just bring a blind full of young hunters and they make you look good with the birds dropping in front of them!
At least I now feel like I'm getting the snow goose bug into my Nephews. Some day when I'm old, I'll just show up in the morning just as shooing hours roll around and park my nice chair in their blind and tell them to "Bring on the birds. I'm ready for a good hunt!"
I'm so thankful for the chance to be able to do all these great things with family and friends.
Harry, Nick, Kyle, Jim, and Jimmy
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