HUNTING-ALIVE LATE

The last couple days of the Minnesota Canada goose season can be some of the hardest hunting you will ever find. You are either going to get some of the harshest weather you can endure, or you are going to get the hardest to hunt birds you ever want to find. Either way, its going to be tough but you have to go. It's goose season. 

This late in the year you are not really scouting for an "X" you are scouting for a hide. A hide that has a few going over it. That's all you can ask for when the birds know the safe fields and have been in them for weeks. Get a flight line, and then more importantly get a hide that will work. A hide that will make you invisible. 

After so many years in the dark, it was time to bust out the Dave Smith Decoys. They are really the only decoy this late, with no wind, and no real weather that will decoy birds to the ground. Pretty much everything we shot was landed in the decoys. We also wore gloves when calling, this helps keep the tone at the natural level. To much calling, and more importantly too loud of calling is a giveaway. You have to keep it real, especially when its a three swing approach. 

Three swings when hunting hard birds. The first is to circle around the whole spread and to get in-between you and the sun so they can see everything. Second they start looking for the sound and see if they can pick the hide, and then finally on the third swing its a straight pigeon wing drop from 30 to 50 yards high straight down. Something about having to call real, with a real tone and having a hide so good that even 50 yards above and behind you they get excited. Its Hunting-Alive.