2022-2023 Waterfowl Reports

[jkern]

Setting up tomorrow. Has been afew whites hanging around, no big numbers. Has been some hanging out daily in front of the pit. Crossing my fingers that we will start seeing more birds Sunday afternoon/monday. My favorite birds of the spring is the very front edge before they mass.

 

[nebgoosehunter]

Not much to report from my part of the state. We got 2-4" of snow but we are jumping right back into the 40's by the weekend. Time will tell if the adults will push in with the remaining snow cover still. I am chomping at the bit to get after some snows!

 

[Huskermut]

Had to make a trek east but finally was able to get on a snow hunt this season. Hunted all day and ended with five birds, including my first blue. We were hunting a pond/pasture spread. Had roosts on both side of us where the birds kept the water open. Our pond had froze shut except for a small portion where the ice eater was running. Saw thousands of snows (mostly adults) all morning. By early afternoon, they were done flying in our area. Didn't see or hear many until well after legal.

 

[nebgoosehunter]

I finally got out for snows yesterday evening. It was a beautiful sunny day with southwest winds while we were setting up. Right when we got sat down the front hit and the wind changed to northwest and cooled right down. Two annoying rain showers passed by soon after as well. Needless to say I think that prevented any birds coming up from the south as we were set up for migrators. There was a big roost to our east about a mile and a half and it looked like half snows half darks but the snows went east and the darks came our way. I don't think there is going to be much movement around here all week but the weekend is now looking a little nicer than it was.

 

[jkern]

We had 2 bunches today that if we had sunshine, we probably would remember the day the rest of our lives. Hunting out of a pit is a true game changer with snows!!!

More and more juvies showing up and I don't see them heading north for quite awhile.

 

[nebgoosehunter]

Ahh hunting snow geese. Frustrating and still fun, that is what it is. We had about 2,000 decoys over my pasture pond hoping to target migrators yesterday. Typically there are quite a few roosted just to our east and when they get up we stand a good chance at getting some. There were none roosted over there. Typically we also get a good morning flight from birds that roosted in the river valley that night in other locations, most are flying west up there river and some back east. Sometimes I call them migrators because it seems like they are just passing through and other times they actually set down and feed in the area. There was a good migration of birds going west between 7-9, more than usual for that time period, but they were all north of us about a mile out of the river bottom, so not many actually flew over us. I think we worked a few singles and pairs but couldn't get them down, which surprised me with 2,000 decoys, but they are adults after all. The dark goose roost to our east started filling back up after the morning feed and a few hundred snows went in with them. A coulple eagles went and stirred them up a couple different times and the second time they must have pushed them off because the whole flock fought the wind to come up to our pond. As they were working in we had quite a few attempting to land behind us 10-15 yards, but my buddy did not call the shot because he didn't think we could get around on them so they swung out wide and then came over about 25-30 yards high. In the strong winds they got out quick so we were only able to drop three, not ideal, but at least we got the skunk off. In hindsight we all said we could have got turned around fine, so we should have take the ones behind our shoulder. Typically again, we have migrators between 10-2, but we only saw about five flocks come up river and only two worked us. They both dropped out of the heavens quickly and the first flock gave us a pass at 50-60 yards but I said don't shoot because I thought they would swing again. They didn't flare or spook and they just kept on flying. I had to get going at 2:00, but the other guys only added one more that evening. I am going to try and go Wednesday again and target migrators over the water.

 

[NJC]

Got a Tactacam this year and got out for snows a couple times- this was my favorite clip, got 4 out of this bunch. And a pic with the hound…was sometime late Feb.

 

[nebgoosehunter]

This snow goose season is the toughest one I can remember for me. I don't have much of a report so I'll keep it short. Huskermut and I and two of my boys hunted yesterday. Had decent hope of catching migrators over water with good wind and very warm temps. The wind didn't come until about noon but even then it was inconsistent. It kept switching directions and gusting and then dying out. The early migrators didn't want anything to do with us with no wind and once we had wind the mid day migrators were so stinkin high they didn't even skip a wing beat. We finished with three so no skunk at least.

 

[BCLA]

Got a Tactacam this year and got out for snows a couple times- this was my favorite clip, got 4 out of this bunch. And a pic with the hound…was sometime late Feb.

Quality video and handsome dog. You ever have any times where you whiff on those big flocks?

 

[NJC]

Quality video and handsome dog. You ever have any times where you whiff on those big flocks?

Absolutely