Posted By:
mstone
Guest
S.E. Montana 11-05-2007 21:08
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 50-60 Degrees
Just got back from our annual trip out to Montana. Spent two weeks in paradise. While this was mostly a trout fishing trip, we spent two of the last three days there hunting ducks. They had warm conditions up there as well too. We hunted some river bottoms and came out with five ducks for two hunters each day. All mallards except for two widgeon. The locals told us they had some good hunts early and then it had slowed down.They are waiting for another push, which they probably got the day or two after we had to leave. We did see fair numbers of ducks. A good warm up for the upcoming season in this
part of the country. Get ready.
mstone
Posted By:
flyfish37129
Guest
Middle Tennessee 11-05-2007 18:06
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Cooler weather is coming our way! Go shoot a deer so you can have plenty of backstrap and tenderloin in the blind!!
Posted By:
Martin-Hall
Field Editor
Coffee County, TN 10-20-2007 09:05
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
Must be some weather up North, I just now had about 50 Whitefront Geese fly over my treestand. I also had some Woodies whistle by about daylight. The season is only about a week away and things are starting to move. Get ready!
Wind at your back and good friends in your blind. MuddyDucker
Posted By:
Kevin-Stewart
Field Editor
NA 10-19-2007 09:38
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An update for you who like to try and read the future:-)
My Dad and Hunting buddy, and others, made a treck to SW corner of Manitoba this last week.
They faired poor to middlin. Plenty of geese, but few ducks compared to years past. According to the locals, the ducks haven’t come south yet into the southern Canada area.
They saw and shot some local birds, but generally it was thin.
Indicates to me, a late migration again. Go figure.
“Have gun, will travel” – Paladin
[Edited By Kevin-Stewart on 2007-10-19 09:39]
Posted By:
Martin-Hall
Field Editor
Southern Middle Tennessee 10-08-2007 10:26
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Another good weekend chasing the local Canada Geese. I had to go watch Moore County beat Columbia Academy Friday night but Hooter put out a small spread and a layout blind in the field we hunted last week and took two birds out of the one small flock that came in to feed.
We joined forces Saturday and Sunday and hit the local farm ponds. Saturday morning,just after daylight, about thirty geese left the pond and flew to a nearby field to feed. When they returned about eight thirty, we were waiting for them. It was short, but sweet.
Sunday we slept in with the intention of hunting a large roost lake. The birds usually fly out to feed early and don’t come back until just before sundown. We had planned to shoot when they came back to roost, but when we got there around four, there was about 200 geese still at the lake. For some reason they hadn’t left the lake. They were spread from one end of the lake to the other and feeding on the Dallas grass in the pasture. After looking the situation over for a while, we decided to try and pull a sneak on them since they didn’t appear to want to leave the lake. Hooter dropped me off at one end then went to the other end to try a sneak/push. Would you believe not a single one of those 200 flew close enough to either one of us to get a shot? It was still an hour till sunset, so we decided to wait and see if any of them would come back.
Sure enough, they started coming back less than 15 minutes latter. The two bird limits didn’ take long. I’m just glad nobody got a pictue of me and Hooter retrieving those geese in that pink paddleboat. Now that was a sight!!!
Still two days left in this segment of the goose season, so get off the couch and get after them.
Until next time…
Martin
Wind at your back and good friends in your blind. MuddyDucker
Posted By:
Martin-Hall
Field Editor
Southern Middle Tennessee 10-08-2007 09:45
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Another good weekend chasing the local Canada Geese. I had to go watch Moore County beat Columbia Academy Friday night but Hooter put out a small spread and a layout blind in the field we hunted last week and took two birds out of the one small flock that came in to feed.
We joined forces Saturday and Sunday and hit the local farm ponds. Saturday morning,just after daylight, about thirty geese left the pond and flew to a nearby field to feed. When they returned about eight thirty, we were waiting for them. It was short, but sweet.
Sunday we slept in with the intention of hunting a large roost lake. The birds usually fly out to feed early and don’t come back until just before sundown. We had planned to shoot when they came back to roost, but when we got there around four, there was about 200 geese still at the lake. For some reason they hadn’t left the lake. They were spread from one end of the lake to the other and feeding on the Dallas grass in the pasture. After looking the situation over for a while, we decided to try and pull a sneak on them since they didn’t appear to want to leave the lake. Hooter dropped me off at one end then went to the other end to try a sneak/push. Would you believe not a single one of those 200 flew close enough to either one of us to get a shot? It was still an hour till sunset, so we decided to wait and see if any of them would come back.
Sure enough, they started coming back less than 15 minutes latter. The two bird limits didn’ take long. I’m just glad nobody got a pictue of me and Hooter retrieving those geese in that pink paddleboat. Now that was a sight!!!
Still two days left in this segment of the goose season, so get off the couch and get after them.
Until next time…
Martin
Wind at your back and good friends in your blind. MuddyDucker
Posted By:
Martin-Hall
Field Editor
Southern Middle Tennessee 10-02-2007 20:32
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Just in case it slipped up on you folks like it did me, the second segment of the Tennessee Canada Goose season opened yesterday. I thought it opend next weekend. Who’s idea was it to open this season on Monday and close it on Tuesday? Looks to me like if we’re going to have a 9 day season, we could open it on Saturday and close it the following Sunday so we could get two weekends into it. Oh well, there’s brighter minds than mine taking care of those details, I guess.
Well, anyway, once we realized it was open, my hunting partner gave one of our landowners a call to see if there were any geese in his area. He said that there were about a hundred feeding in the picked corn field beside his house every afternoon, so we decided to give them a try this afternoon after work. We knew we might not get another chance with both of us working a lot of hours right now.
We set out a couple dozen full-body Bigfoot decoys and a hay bale blind. When we settled in the blind we didn’t have long to wait. The first flight of about 15 birds came in low and silent from the west and locked in on the spread. There didn’t seem to be any reason to call so we just let the birds come in on their own. The geese started to land at the edge of the decoy spread but at the last minute they decided to pick back up and slip to one side. We poped the lids just as they rose up in front of the blind. The flock split, with half going to each side. Two quick shots on each end of the blind put our limit of 4 geese on the ground in less time than it takes to write it. Don’t ya just love it when a plan comes together?
Before we could pick up our birds, another flight flew into the field, circled the spread twice and landed in the field with us still standing out in the field. By the time we got back to the blind, another flock honked in the distance so we decided to get out of the field and let tbem feed with the hope of getting another hunt out of the field before the season closes again.
After the geese left tbe field at dark, we picked up the spread and went by to thank the farmer who had been watching the show from his house at the edge of the field. He told us he’d keep an eye on the field and let us know if the geese came back to the field to feed. It really pays to spend a little time and effort to keep good relations with your land owners.
It was a great hunt; and to really put icing on the cake, the second bird I shot had a band. As thin as the band is, I’m guessing he’s a pretty old bird.
I do wonder though, why the limit during this season is cut back from 5 the first season to 2. There’s never any migratory geese here this time of year. They don’t typically get here until December or January, if at all. We’re still shooting the “nuisance” resident geese. We could help out the situation more if the limit was still 5 during the second season, especially in the southern-middle part of the state where there’s not many people hunting the residents. Especially during the second season when you can spend a couple of hours putting a spread out for three seconds of shooting and a two bird limit. It’s not such a big deal during the third season, because most people are shooting geese in conjunction with duck hunting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth every bit of effort when things go right. I’d just like to see the limit raised to 5 during this second pre-migration season.
Well folks, get out and take advantage of the seasons and the local geese while you can. Memories aren’t made sitting on the couch. Till next time….
Martin
[Edited By Martin-Hall on 2007-10-03 04:06]
[Edited By Martin-Hall on 2007-10-03 05:03]
Posted By:
Thomas-Quinlen
Field Editor
Mid-South 09-24-2007 15:45
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
It’s still awfully dry here. I’ve heard of some teal success, but nothing of early goose hunting. Dove season was pretty poor. We need water BADLY.
Posted By:
Martin-Hall
Field Editor
Tennessee Waterfowl 09-23-2007 21:46
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09/06/2007 ~ 2007-08 WATERFOWL HUNTING DATES ESTABLISHED BY TWRC
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission established its duck and goose hunting dates and limits for the 2007-08 late waterfowl hunting season at its regular August meeting held at the Region II Headquarters.
The statewide duck season is Nov. 24-25 for the opening session and then will run Dec. 1 thru Jan. 27. In the Reelfoot Duck Zone, the dates will be Nov. 10-11 and the same Dec. 1-Jan. 27 session. The youth waterfowl season will be similar to last year with only a calendar shift. For youth ages 6-15, the Statewide Zone is Feb. 2-3 while the Reelfoot Zone will be Feb. 9-10. The daily bag limit of ducks is six and may include no more than four mallards (no more than two of which may be a female), one black duck, one pintail, two canvasbacks, two scaup, and two redheads. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) made the recommendation to increase the hen mallard limit from one to two due to the increase of the mallard population the last three years and excellent breeding conditions.
Federal frameworks for Canada goose season were extended in two of Tennessee’s Canada goose zones and will allow additional days of hunting. The Statewide Canada goose zone will add two more additional days of hunting to the first segment. The Southwest Zone will be allowed 13 more days, increasing from 59 to 72 days. The Statewide and Southwest zones will be the same with Oct. 1-9, Nov. 30-Jan. 31 segments.
The Northwest Zone (72 days) and the Kentucky/Barkley Lakes Zone (59 days) will remain the same from last season with only a slight shift in the calendar dates. The Northwest Zone segments run from Dec. 1-Feb. 10 while the Kentucky-Barkley Lake Zone is Oct. 1-9 and Dec. 9-Jan. 27.
The blue, snow, and Ross geese regular season will run Nov. 25 thru Feb. 10. During the regular snow goose season segment, standard federal regulations apply. Hunters cannot use unplugged guns and electronic calls. The conservation season segment is Feb. 11-March 10. Federal Conservation Order provisions allow the use of electronic calls and unplugged shotguns after all other waterfowl seasons have concluded.
Daily bag limits are 20 for snow, blue, and Ross’ geese, two white-front geese, two Canada geese, and two brant.
The TWRC next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 19-20 at Paris Landing State Park.
Posted By:
John-Cottenham
Field Editor
MI 09-17-2007 11:24
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DKA check your PM!
jacduck 1st a waterfowler! 2nd a decoy carver! 3rd? well, what ever else matters.
