2022-2023 Waterfowl Reports
- Thread starter Huskermut
- Start date
Huskermut
Senior Refuge Member
Yep. Six degrees for a high Sunday. Might just chase rabbits instead.Extended forecast for the last weekend of goose season looks like crap. Was hoping for 40s-50s and some dumb reverse geese...looks like back to the freezer we go...
Huskermut
Senior Refuge Member
Went out goose hunting Saturday. Fair amount around (all Cans). Figured with the wind and the weather, they'd be looking to decoy better. They flew in spurts most of the day: a good flurry at daybreak, another good flight mid morning, and then a lull. Birds would give the spread a look at drop down but wouldn't fully commit. Ended up getting three and packed up with an hour to go as I was sitting outside for almost 12 hours at that point and windchills dropped into the negatives. As I walked out, the geese showed back up in full-force with a half hour of shooting left. Should've just waited them out.
nebgoosehunter
Elite Refuge Member
We have a load of snow around still, but some ridge tops and fields edges that have winter wheat are just starting to show with this warm up we've had. There has also been a slight increase in birds it seems. Temps in the upper 30's but windy and then mid to upper 40's Wednesday may bring up another trickle so I am going to try and hunt the last day of season on Thursday and maybe hope for a speck or snow with some dark geese. Weather looks miserable though to sit in a field with morning temps in the low 20's and gusts to 40 mph.
nebgoosehunter
Elite Refuge Member
I took a scouting drive this morning to see if I could find a hunt for tomorrow. I was surprised at the amount of snow geese I saw with the amount of snow in the fields. There weren't any masses but scattered flocks of a dozen up to 1,000. With the amount of snow in the fields finding one that I could even drive into was a challenge. I did find one feed with some darks and snows that I think I can drive all the way to or almost all the way to. Getting permission will be difficult as it's an absentee landowner and I'm not sure I'll even try. I kind of want to save my hours for snow goose and turkey season and I don't really want to use a whole day. I'm afraid if I take just a morning off they will fly late with the very cold wind chills and if I only take the afternoon off they will already be in the field. Decisions decisions haha.
nebgoosehunter
Elite Refuge Member
Man this morning was brutal! The wind was unrelenting, walking through the snow drifts you would post hole just about every step, and my face is wind burned bad, but it was well worth it! I was able to drive most of the way but had to walk the carry the decoys through drifts about 80 yards. The geese were quite finicky actually, big surprise on February 9th I know! Birds would line up for approach way out about a quarter mile fighting the wind and they would be feet off the deck. They would get to 60-100 yards and then just slide off. Having said that we did decoy two real nice groups in close. All the others were a half dozen or less or singles. It didn't take me long to get my dark limit but Benjamin struggled quite a bit. I had to dig the layouts into a snow drift and between that and the decoys actually being below our line of vision in the blinds he was having trouble getting up on them. He still got three so he did great! The snow goose was the last bird we shot. Two singles came from behind us and I missed the first one and the second still came at us (I actually think it was more the wind pushing it to us). I shot the second pretty much straight behind me in the layout, the gun wasn't even on my shoulder that I remember haha. I am beat, but I'm glad we went and had another memorable hunt together!
nebgoosehunter
Elite Refuge Member
Sounds like the east half of the state is seeing great reverse migration. I've been seeing a lot of pics of specks being shot the last few days. First day of the CO today and I'm sure there are enough snows in the state now that someone is sitting in a spread somewhere.
nebgoosehunter
Elite Refuge Member
Yep, looks like more snow next week as well.
