12/30/10 - Runnin' Traffic

[John Akehurst]

Thursday, I was able to get off work about mid morning for the remainder of the holiday break.  I went home and picked up my son and we started scouting.  The very first place we looked we found a field holding about three thousand geese.  This field is less than a mile from one of our farms and we decided to stop scouting and head to that farm.  It was getting cloudy and it was around 1:00PM.  I had the feeling that it was going to be an early flight this evening due to a very minor front coming through the same night.  

This was going to be the first time my son hunted from a layout blind.  Temps in the 40''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''s and a slight south, south east breeze.  

We had put out about 4 dozen dekes when I noticed the first flocks leaving the field we had watched previously.  I said to my son, lets forget the rest of the dekes and get this truck out of the field.  So we raced out and parked.  We were halfway back out to the set - up when 2 geese pitched into the dekes.  As we walked up the hill they nervously left ... still too far away for a shot, I knew, we were going to have a good afternoon running some traffic into this small beanfield.



With layout blinds just laying out in the beans and hardly any time to camoflauge them, the birds were moving.  We had tons circling but they just would not commit.  The beanfield provided little in the way of cover.  


Between each flock that would circle, I was out of the blind frantically raking bean stalks to stuff on our layouts.  Not really happy about the results of my efforts, I kept getting interupted, to jump back into my power hunter.  At the same time, we had three more gunners (My brother and his two boys) arrive to join us.  In between flights  my nephews scrambled out to our spread, while my brother waited in the hedgerow to switch out later with a successful gunner.  Before they really got settled in, it was on again.  I worked three birds into the hole.  When I called the shot, I folded two of the three and I was tagged out.  It was 3:36 in the afternoon.

I switched out with my brother and my son and I retreated to watch the rest of the show from the hedgerow.




 

[MDL32]

What an awesome memory there for you and your son. Great job!

[NZgoose]

 John do you have access to the farm you talk of for yourself or is this your farm.
Now is getting permission to farms in your area easy. 
Do you feed out to bring in birds on the farm or just follow the birds around the country side on their preferred feeding area
at the time
And man your country side looks beautiful plus nice looking spread
nice job all round   

[John Akehurst]

Russell,

It is really hard to get property to hunt around my area. Most farmers sign leases with hunters. In our area a good goose farm will run around $7,000.00 dollars for a season and on the low end around $3,500.00.

I am just blessed to know a few farmers across the area that don''''t really charge me.  This gives me immediate access to 7 farms. 

As far as where I hunt, I scout around and set up on the farm that I have permission on closest to where I find the most birds and we run traffic.  Sometimes one of the farms is on the X and that is even more fun.  Then on top of that, over the past two plus years with CFC I have gotten quite a few contacts that have opened up a few more properties throughout the area.  Occasionaly I get a call from someone who has birds on their farm and I head towards them.  Of course, I always try to return this favor to keep that relationship of sharing open.

It is illegal to bait for waterfowl in the U.S.  the fines are severe plus the authorities can confiscate your gear, vehicles and equipment.  They can also put you in prison for very severe cases.