Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 34

After gunning for waterfowl along Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where goose hunting for both snow and Canada geese is a way of life, and having spent considerable time in the blinds with Mason-Dixon goose hunting fanatics, Uncle Tim has become well-schooled in some tricks of the trade. At Tim’s supervision, we arranged our four and a half dozen decoys in a horseshoe pattern with our three individual “coffin” blinds filling the crest of the shoe and the decoys stretching out from either side like a pair of embracing arms. Once the pattern was set, Skiles examined it with a critical Eastern-Shore eye. “It needs to be wider,” he judged. “The idea is to have the geese land right here in front of the blinds and we have to give them room to do that.” We adjusted the spread but Tim wasn’t quite satisfied. “That end is pinching in a little too much and some of those decoys are facing the wrong way.” With the sounds of geese honking in distant skies and dawn giving way to daylight, we made a few more quick adjustments as Tim placed one oversized magnum decoy in the center of the shoe to give incoming geese a “landing target.” Our blinds faced upwind and, because geese prefer to land into the wind, any Canadas we managed to lure into our decoys would find themselves squarely in our shotgun sights. Tim had one more trick up his goose-hunting sleeve — Mr. Flap — a silhouette decoy (aka Wing Waver) fitted with a pair of arching plastic wings that are connected to a string of line that, when tugged, imparts a frantic flapping motion to the decoy wings. Tim ran the other end of the line into his blind where he would serve as the designated flapper. Dedicated goose hunters understand that such motion helps to get the flock’s attention and provides a measure of confidence as the geese approach, encouraging them to set their wings and toll out of the sky. The most common application of this technique is flagging, where a hunter, hidden in his blind, merely waves a black flag back and forth. One strong advocate of flagging is professional goose hunter Sean Mann of Easton, Maryland, a world champion caller who manufactures his own line of goose calls. I attended a goose hunting seminar hosted by Mann where he preached the virtues of flagging and the advantages of silhouette decoys. While every goose hunter has his favorite methods, Mann advises setting up decoys in the shape of a large X with the hunters’ blinds placed facing into the wind at the intersection. Mann adds that it doesn’t matter which way the decoys are facing and often places them pointing in all different directions. Of course the primary tried and true technique for tricking geese is the old reliable goose call. Calling was my responsibility on this hunt and I could only hope my trusty Glynn Scobey call would hit all the right notes. We all hunkered down in our individual blinds and awaited the first action of the morning. And, depending on how you define the word “action,” it didn’t take long. The skies overhead were filled with flocks of geese winging their way all over the Brandywine Valley and in every direction. Some were small flocks headed to local feeding grounds. Others were high flyers assembled in classic V formations as they sailed on to more distant destinations. We had set up in a stretch of grassy floodplain that served as a popular feeding and staging area for both local and migrating flocks, as evidenced by the plentiful tracks and ubiquitous goose droppings blighting the area at nearly toxic levels. Yet, despite Tim’s flapping and my calling, the flocks, for the most part, completely ignored us. Every now and again a group would come in low, circle once or twice, GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010