late season snow goose hunting

greg setter

greg setter

Well-known member
Supporter
View attachment heading out 218.JPGI decided to give it one more go yesterday as I had nothing to do. I like to try and go once or twice in late January or February when cabin fever starts to get ot me a little. So I loaded up the boat with my dozen floaters, my trusty dog Rose, and headed down to the ramp. I am not used to seeing anyone this time of year, so I was surprised when I got to the ramp and saw there were at least 10 vehicles and trailers there. It was about 1:15(in the afternoon, that is), just about the right time for me to head out on a winters day. The tide was dead low, but my AA Wigeon was able to get me through the back creeks. Here we are heading out
View attachment heading out 218.JPG

There were a lot of ducks around, you can see the specks in the picture above. I took a few minutes to gather a few oysters then found a place to set up as the geese were starting to fly pretty good.
View attachment a few flying.JPG

Didn't take long and I had 4 come in and was able to scratch one down. Rose was happy to get after some feathers.
View attachment 1st retrieve.JPG

They really started flying after a bit

View attachment quite a few flying.JPG

I had three in the boat and one more that had sailed a little bit back in the marsh, so I picked up and went off looking for that bird. Snow geese have a tough time hiding in a salt marsh. Spied it out on a mud flat and sent Rose off for her last retrieve of the season.
View attachment last retrieve.JPG

Good dog! Rose is about 60 lbs so a goose is really a mouthful, but she loves to hunt and has it figured out pretty good. I got back to the ramp about 4 and most of the trucks were gone. A group of three other people came in right after me with oodles of decoys stacked up in their boat along with their layout blinds. They had gotten 12 and been out since first light. ,I watched a few thousand ducks and several thousand snow geese, got a few for the table along with a few oysters,a great way to end the season.
 
Wow thanks for sharing. Have only seen a few Snows. Not so common up here in n central mass. Those look like good sized flocks.
Best - Paul
 
What a great way to end the season, Greg. Congratulations on your most successful hunt. I enjoyed those shots.
Al
 
Hey Greg,
Nice photos, and good job..
Where were you hunting? And is the snow geese season over or you just are unable to hunt again?
Just curious, I'm heading up state NY in about a week and a 1/2. And wondering if these snows are on the move north??
thanks..
 
Greg,

It looks like you had a nice hunt. I have always wanted to give Snow Geese a try but we don't get any around here.
 
Al-thank you, I am getting better with my point and shoot. But I appreciate that coming form you, one of the master photog's, of which there are several, on duckboats.net.

JayMo-I am in Southern New Jersey and hunt along Delaware Bay, there are many thousands of snow geese that spend the late winter in that area. It is really a unique area to hunt them because the salt marsh is a much different style of hunting from the classic 4 million decoy field hunts. I do admit that I go exceptionally light, but I usually get a couple and always see many. I am just wrapping it up. The season runs until maybe April(?), but I have a fishing boat I keep down at the ocean that I need to start working on soon so I have something to do this summer. But you could keep hunting here for a while yet and have pretty good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top