Waterfowl hunting for really big birds...

John Robinson

John Robinson

Well-known member
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This is my buddy Neil, my dog Gus and a Tundra Swan in my modified Cackler on Freezeout Lake Montana. We take a trip to Freezeout Lake each year, trying to time the migration which is usually hours in front of the first Artic cold front that comes down out of Canada. If you time it right the hunting is fantastic, but short as the shallow lake will literally freeze up in a day. We were a couple days early this year, but Neil was able to fill his Swan tag which was a real adrenallin rush for me and Gus.

My first dog had a bad experience with a crippled honker when he was young and was always hesitant about retrieving geese after that, so I'm always a little apprehensive waiting to see what will happen when I shoot my first big bird for these young dogs. This was a real big bird, 24 lbs weighed at my house.

Some more pics...
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Gus swimming out to the Swan...

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Bringing the big bird in...

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Me and Gus with the Swan...
 
Wow John, that must be like shooting down a B-52! Oh how I wish Michigan had a swan season - there are 35 of those big boys on my lake right now. How do they taste?
 
Great pics John, thanks for sharing...but honestly you are going down a slippery slope, I forsee the need for bigger decoys...a bigger boat...and a Mastif trained to retrieve :)
 
Great pics John, thanks for sharing...but honestly you are going down a slippery slope, I forsee the need for bigger decoys...a bigger boat...and a Mastif trained to retrieve :)
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I didn't show Neil's hand carved (out of foam) Swan decoys. Here's a pic. They worked perfectly. On a slow almost bluebird day, most ducks were pretty wary, landing out in the middle of the lake, then two Swan locked up on Neil's decoys and came right in. My 65 lb Golden did fine on the retrieve, but I'd hate to see him try and drag the bird out of the water and across land if we were hunting back on land a bit. Then a Mastif would come in handy.

John
 
John,
I've always wanted to try Freezeout. Gary March has had some good hunts there. Looks like a fun trip. They really are big aren't they?

David, The swans i've eaten were fantastic, if not over cooked. I'd take one over a honker any day.
 
What a great looking area to hunt waterfowl. Very nice shots, John. Congratulations on the really big bird.
Al
 
John,
great to see you back on the page. Thanks for the pictures of the hunt. I can say for sure the boat looks big enough, and the decoys look big enough, but I feel for your dog if one of those bad boys picks its head up after the shot.
My dog jumps the ones down here when the chance occurs and he is asking for a butt woopin one day. We are overrun with the things. I think they are shaking eggs but they need to shake some more. 50 at once is just nuts.

But I love the thought of a roast swan for xmass dinner.
Enjoy the eats. Hope it cooks as nice as it looks.
 
I didn't show Neil's hand carved (out of foam) Swan decoys.

John
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Well I was wondering, I saw the pocket bag of duck deeks on the bow, thought you guys were just hoping for a close shot. Good going, and good rig.

Chuck
 
Very nice bird!

Beautiful country out there as well.

I was lucky enough to draw a tag in NC a couple years ago, it was a fun hunt for sure!
 
I've wanted to take a swan someday and definitely would like to have my little girl pick it up!!

Love the boat, bird, decoys, and especially the last pic of Gus!

Thanks for sharing!

Best,
Steve
 
Wow, that is awesome! The retrieving photos remind of some I took of my 90lb. chocolate retrieving a Ross' goose...only the exact opposite (big dog, small bird). This season, I had 3 trumpeters fly over the boat and I'd forgotten just how big swans are until then, they were absolutely huge (and well named when they saw a nearby eagle). Back home the mute swans are a pest, and I know more than one of us would like to see a local season down there! Thanks for sharing.
 
Congrats on the swans! I REALLY like your boat!



Todd
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Thanks Todd,

I haven't posted here much in the past year or so, but it was due to this site and Eric's wonderful tutorial on building his Scaup that I was able to build and enjoy my boat. I have been busy training and field trialing my two young Goldens so haven't had as much time to post here.

Regarding my boat, it is a modified Devlin Cackler, one foot longer, four inches wider and slightly less V in the bottom. I have been using it for over a year now and she works perfectly. BTW I left the wedges off and she doesn't porpoise at all at any speed. I found a very nice used 1985 Merc 50 hp with the old style power tilt, Sam Devlin gave me his blessing to mount and use that motor. I've never tested my speed with a GPS, but my boat appears to be faster than my buddies Snow Goose also with a 50hp on the back.

If you look up classic duck hunting marsh in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of Freezeout Lake. It is a huge complex of shallow water lakes and marshes that is a major stop over on the Central Flyway. The downside is threefold, 1) a lot of bluebird, warm sunny days through October, 2) the local birds wise up pretty quickly and 3) the last few years (don't get me started on global warming), the northern birds have stayed north and only come down right ahead of the first major cold front which also freezes over all the lakes (hence the name). But if you time it right it can be amazing with many tens of thousands of ducks, geese and swans there.

Ps: Wow, I just read the thread on a guys coastal hunt where he and others talk about harassment and competition from other hunters. I really need to better appreciate how uncrowded duck hunters are here in Montana. You could see from my pics how large that pond was we were hunting on. Would you believe that my other buddy and I had the only two boats on the whole complex. Most guys try to pass shoot the snow geese from dikes as they move between the lake and nearby grain fields, but even with that there were less than twenty trucks on over 11,000 acres of marsh.
 
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