Take a Youth Hunting!

It was late January, 2001, the ponds, lakes, and even many rivers were frozen. To make matters worse, we had a sizable snow fall making it tough for birds to forage for food. Birds don't normally hang around if they can't find food. Benny, my trusted golden retriever, and I had pretty much exhausted our scouting resources. It looked like that dreaded time was upon us. It was time to put our toys away!

Usually when I get out the decoy bags Benny would get excited, but it was as if he knew that this time they were to be packed away. He lay his head on the garage floor as I dumped out the first bag of full body goose decoys. I could tell we were both reminiscing about our golf course hunt when several blades of green grass tumbled from the bottom of the bag. Yes, what a fun September shoot! The next bag of goose shells had several  corn stalks in it mixed with dried brown earth from Stewart's field. We eventually bagged a few limits there, but we paid the price with severally mornings of empty sky's and frozen toes. Bag number three got Benny's attention right quick as a field mouse came scurrying out of the bag and out the front door. If the cement were not so slick, I think the dog would have won the race to the opening, but not today. It was about this time that I heard a truck door close. Down the driveway came my former defensive back and fellow outdoor enthusiast, Chis Brown. "Hey Coach, I've been trying to catch ya. Goin' hunting?" "I can't find any birds Chris!" I lamented. "Well Russell and I have birds! They're all over the place over at Ohio Power." 

"When are we going?" I asked. We agreed on 4:30 am the next day. The shift was on from pack up to gear up. Benny and I had that excitement yet again. 

The boys showed up on time. They managed to scrounge up some old white bed sheets, and a mat to lay on in the snow. It was quite a drive to the Ohio power lands area east of us. I would provide more detail but I have no idea how to get back to that specific spot! 

I followed the boys' directions. As we came up on a nice looking field marked "public hunting", we had arrived.  I found a gentle mound in the middle of a field and instructed the boys to unload here. We got the bags and guns out of the car and here came the geese. I had to calm the boys down. "Relax guys. We're going to shoot decoying birds. Put your guns down. Here, go hide the vehicle. Chris, help me put dekes together." 

We worked quickly and set up for the hunt. Russell returned on a jog. I instructed the boys to lay down in a line facing downwind. We did not wait long before the first flock of Giant Canadas appeared over the trees. They locked their wings and coasted all the way from some 500 yards. To the boys, it seemed to take 10 minutes as the group of 20 birds looked over the spread. Wearing white in the snow made us nearly invisible. Even Benny had a white towel over him. The birds glided in low as I continued to make soft grunts and clucks. "Take 'em ", I hollered! I dropped two of the feathered 757's. I saw one more fall and a fourth start down, but regained its strength and joined back up with the group.

I gave the command and Benny was off like a rocket! He had the second bird half way back to me when I heard a honk. I looked up to see 25 Giants locked up coming right at us. "Benny, down!" I hollered. All of us immediately laid down in the snow. Benny did as well, but the goose was not dead and it was trying to get away. Benny, using some ingenuity, put his front paws on the bird to hold it down and crawled on top of it and laid on it. Benny weighed in at 100 pounds, so that goose was trapped! 

Two geese fell from that flock. One flock and 10 minutes later, we were "high fiving" and picking up gear! What a fantastic hunt. The boys were recounting each flock and every shot they took. On the way home, they gave me full credit for teaching my dog to lay on that goose. I told them that was all him. They had never seen anything like that. To tell the truth, I hadn't either!

It did my heart good to see these boys get excited about goose hunting! I realized later that we don't have a season devoted to youth hunting geese as we do other species. However, it doesn't have to be "Youth Season" to take a youth hunting!