Throwback story - once in a lifetime waterfowl hunt...

Originally written by Corey Suter in January 2011

January 29, 2011

A long waterfowl season was winding to a close, and I was reflecting on the past year. My passion for this thing we love to do was skewed a bit, as my old retriever Maggie was showing...and feeling her age, and I found it easier to head for the deer woods, than to watch her hobble around the house after a hunt. Her drive and her passion were still there, but it wasn’t in my heart to push her. I decided early on that I would hunt her on the easy hunts; warmer temps, easy walks, land only, etc. Rough January weather coupled with freeze up, and no birds on my little slice of heaven led to little hunting, but no complaints.

I was able to squeeze in a few good shoots, and then the bitter cold hit and the birds in my area were heavily pressured.  Though I scouted almost daily, I saw so little to motivate me. In fact, after a below zero day in which myself and my goose partner Carl yielded not even a goose spotted, the wind was vacated from my sails enough that I skipped several days in a row, and quite frankly....I didn’t miss it.

It was on Wednesday before the last weekend of the season that I noticed the calendar and realized our season was nearly over. I thought about Mags, and as much as I hated to think about it...I thought that she may very well be in her final season and though I was hopeful she could trudge along as a veteran semi-retired dog with the young pups picking up the slack,...I was not ready to give up just yet on the season.

I was shocked to find several birds using a little hole and a creek leading up to it, a frozen pond with a hole the size of a large hot tub, and a 3-4 foot wide creek with a fairly wide 15 yard open spot of 2" deep water/mud. The forecast was for a slight warm up and so it was on for me, so I called the "troops" and organized a morning hunt.

The next morning met with much optimism as we set the decoys and talked of things to come. I had Carl and my dad, Steve, along for the morning. We were met with mostly clear skies and warming temperatures into the 30's, but with only one goose spotted from dawn till noon, we decided to break for lunch. Carl had to leave and he reported all birds still sleeping on the normal roost out on the ice. Dad and I returned at 2:00 p.m. and by 2:15 p.m. we had seen our first geese, a small flock of four. Soon after we heard a distant single goose that was literally clucking his head off. We ducked and covered and I got on the call and the bird came to look, circling high the first time, then lower, then seemingly leaving for the corn field, before turning and coming back from 200 yards away, locking up and sailing right over my head, one shot and our first dead bird... finally!!!! Mags made a short retrieve and I savored every second of the old dog lumbering out for a bird. That single triggered a mass goose flight and for the next two hours we had endless flow of honkers. Unfortunately they were all headed to the corn. We were working a bunch of birds that were high, when out of nowhere a single appeared, 30 yards high right over us, I started working on him specifically and soon he was locked and committed. We popped up and dad shot him, as Maggie made the chase the bird leaped up and ran across the ice right at me where I finished it with a shot to the base of the neck.

We had one more real close encounter, three birds came and did it right but they were trying to work from behind us and I couldn’t figure it out, I passed on em at 20 yards and they never returned...after they left I realized the wind had turned 180 degrees and our spread was basically backwards. We worked several other flocks but two was it for the night.

I had already discussed hunting the afternoon only with Carl, and dad, but before we even made it to the driveway I had talked it over with dad and decided, to meet at 8:30 A.M. Just in case some birds flew early, because no two days are the same. Carl had texted me and planned to join us in the afternoon, and good friend Jeff was in for the morning hunt.

January 30, 2011:

I was really nervous we would be too late setting up, when I awoke Sunday morning to overcast, foggy conditions, and my fears worsened when Jeff, showed up at the house and reported birds in the air in the river bottoms.  Soon after my dad arrived with a similar report, and before I was even in the truck I received a call from Carl who had seen geese flying in town and abandoned his afternoon hunt plans and headed out to join us early.

Jeff, dad, and I put decoys out and to our dismay/excitement we were ate up by several small bunches of birds. Carl arrived as we were finishing up and we hid the trucks and hunkered down, two layout blinds on the edge of the pond overlooking the now smaller hole in the ice, with Carl and dad behind and to our side in snow camo. It was literally minutes and we were working geese. Wave after wave came and the first customers looking for water came and worked, approximately 15-20 birds worked us and just as I was gonna call the shot they picked up to make another swing, this time three made the mistake of getting feet down right in front and I called the shot, we made quick work of the the three birds with maggie and brew cleaning up the carnage.

There was no time for celebrating as wave upon wave continued. There were geese from the west, from the south, occasionally from the north and east, most of them were interested only in corn, but we managed to pull another group of four, they came right at us but started to slide at the last moment, instead of calling the shot, I tried clucking at them and they immediately flared, at which point Carl informed me they were just off the ground right out in front of him in range when they flared!

I did not mention at that time, but I honestly got caught looking a little too hard. Carl had mentioned that a co-worker had seen a yellow neck collar on a bird that roosted with the birds we were hunting, and Jeff and I joked about shooting a banded bird and I found myself wanting to get them CLOSE so I could look them over real good, and it cost us a shooting opportunity.

No time to fret as we literally had no time to even get out of the blinds and we were working the next bunch, this time a group of three came in, hovering right over us dropping, but again trying to slide away, I peeked out of my blind and picked out the farthest right bird, when suddenly just as I was to call the shot I noticed something...something on the neck of the bird...KILL EM!!!! I threw the top and shot one time folding the bird and following it to the ground with my gun as Jeff shot at the other two...unfortunately he got tangled in his blind a bit, and did not hit any other birds, I leaped up and yelled "I THINK THAT BIRD HAS A COLLAR! THAT BIRD HAS A COLLAR!!! I do not think anyone believed me and as I walked towards the bird I could see the collar and yelled back, he does!...But then I noticed something strange, something I have never seen before...I was shocked when I realized the bird was wearing a GPS TRACKER on his back! Complete with leg band, tracking unit, and neck collar, I was holding a once in a lifetime bird!!! We celebrated for a while, and then it was back to the blinds for more action. We called a pair in and took one bird, had a trio just appear while working another flock and took another bird, then four in tight and knocked down another bird. We ended the day on a slight downer as Dad tried to finish his last bird on a close pair, but it just did not work out, but all in all we finished with seven dead geese and a story for the ages!!!

Dad, Jeff and I after the hunt

The "transmitter goose"

A little history behind the bird, updated after this story was written.  The bird was tagged in Minnesota as part of a federal study on bird/plane collisions.  It was one of 12, and at last report 2 were harvested, counting this one.  The head researcher was a waterfowler himself and he helped supply a dummy transmitter for the mount seen below.  The original transmitter was returned for re-use.