Believe it or not. While driving to work this morning on HWY 14 between Kasson and Dodge Center, I encountered a flock of snow geese heading south. Estimated number of about 30. I thought maybe they were just pigeons or something at first so I tailed them for a little bit to get a closer look. I wish I had the camera. 
I believe you we shoot about 20 to 30 snows every year in the northern part of iowa, mainly howard and mitchell counties.
I believe you we shoot about 20 to 30 snows every year in the northern part of iowa, mainly howard and mitchell counties.
Birds showed up here in central and SE Nebraska in huge numbers this past week. With all the snow cover gone now south of I-80 birds are packed in here thick! The rainwater basins are just plain loaded with birds and some great decoying is happening as I type. Days with high wind and fog seem to be best but any day with a south wind this time of year will have new migrants arriving from the south. Had buddies out hunting everyday last week in Clay county as well as Gage county and reports were great. They took over 300 birds last week and all were over decoys not jumping or pass shooting. I am glad I just found this hunting part of the forum as I have only been checking out the fishing side of things as I have a few friends who are field staff on the fishing side. Lets get some of that over here on the hunting side of things. Get out and get em guys!
Layne Monroe
Birds showed up here in central and SE Nebraska in huge numbers this past week. With all the snow cover gone now south of I-80 birds are packed in here thick! The rainwater basins are just plain loaded with birds and some great decoying is happening as I type. Days with high wind and fog seem to be best but any day with a south wind this time of year will have new migrants arriving from the south. Had buddies out hunting everyday last week in Clay county as well as Gage county and reports were great. They took over 300 birds last week and all were over decoys not jumping or pass shooting. I am glad I just found this hunting part of the forum as I have only been checking out the fishing side of things as I have a few friends who are field staff on the fishing side. Lets get some of that over here on the hunting side of things. Get out and get em guys!
Layne Monroe
Just talked to my buddy yesterday who was north of Squaw Creek for 4 days and he shot 38 by himself in 2 1/2 hours on thursday afternoon. He said that everyday after that there were less and less birds. They drove by squaw on saturday and he said the numbers dropped significantly from the first day. They ended up killing 98 birds before packing up before noon on sunday. He talked to a ton of people down there(guides&hunters) and he said they were out shooting them so I guess they did something right. He lives in Sioux Falls and said that he didn’t see any birds on the drive home so they must have found a different flight path than I-29. Word has it that Neb. is packed but that is just internet buzz. The SD game page said that there are a decent number of birds in the state, but in the next couple of days I think that will change.
Hopefully some birds will fly into Rochester again so I can put out the spread a little closer to home and only spend 3 bucks(or whatever) on the license. Was outside grilling yesterday and heard a Speck fly right over the house with, of course, a couple of canadas so that’s a promising sign. I’m heading out to SD on thursday and if I get access will throw some reports out while I’m there.
Just talked to my buddy yesterday who was north of Squaw Creek for 4 days and he shot 38 by himself in 2 1/2 hours on thursday afternoon. He said that everyday after that there were less and less birds. They drove by squaw on saturday and he said the numbers dropped significantly from the first day. They ended up killing 98 birds before packing up before noon on sunday. He talked to a ton of people down there(guides&hunters) and he said they were out shooting them so I guess they did something right. He lives in Sioux Falls and said that he didn’t see any birds on the drive home so they must have found a different flight path than I-29. Word has it that Neb. is packed but that is just internet buzz. The SD game page said that there are a decent number of birds in the state, but in the next couple of days I think that will change.
Hopefully some birds will fly into Rochester again so I can put out the spread a little closer to home and only spend 3 bucks(or whatever) on the license. Was outside grilling yesterday and heard a Speck fly right over the house with, of course, a couple of canadas so that’s a promising sign. I’m heading out to SD on thursday and if I get access will throw some reports out while I’m there.
Best report I’ve ever heard was at 1:30 on Friday afternoon on the Sodak hunter infomation line while we were driving through Souix Falls……”One small flock of snows has been reported along I-90 near Chamberlian”…..apparently that was enough to keep everyone at home cause we only saw 3 other hunters all weekend, and not a single other MN license plate……but boy did we see GEESE!!!! 
Saturday between 10-1pm was one of the largest migrations I’ve ever seen…..pretty sweet.
Between 3pm Friday afternoon and noon on Sunday, two of us were able to pile up 40 in the ditch 
.
One of the funnest weekends I’ve ever had out there as far as lack of pressure and numbers of geese!!!
Can’t wait until thursday to do it all over again (in the dekes this time)…….The whole state should be covered up by then….That snow line that everyones been talking about is already gone (whatdaya know? 60deg weather will do that )……I’d expect the first reports of snows on Sand Lake by Tuesday or Wednesday.
It’s gonna be a zoo out there next weekend……can’t wait…..see yall then!!! 
P.S. Bring your boot driers!!! Every field has standing water in it…..some feilds look like you could launch a boat. Gravel roads were sucky at best too.
Best report I’ve ever heard was at 1:30 on Friday afternoon on the Sodak hunter infomation line while we were driving through Souix Falls……”One small flock of snows has been reported along I-90 near Chamberlian”…..apparently that was enough to keep everyone at home cause we only saw 3 other hunters all weekend, and not a single other MN license plate……but boy did we see GEESE!!!!
Saturday between 10-1pm was one of the largest migrations I’ve ever seen…..pretty sweet.
Between 3pm Friday afternoon and noon on Sunday, two of us were able to pile up 40 in the ditch .
One of the funnest weekends I’ve ever had out there as far as lack of pressure and numbers of geese!!!
Can’t wait until thursday to do it all over again (in the dekes this time)…….The whole state should be covered up by then….That snow line that everyones been talking about is already gone (whatdaya know? 60deg weather will do that )……I’d expect the first reports of snows on Sand Lake by Tuesday or Wednesday.
It’s gonna be a zoo out there next weekend……can’t wait…..see yall then!!!
P.S. Bring your boot driers!!! Every field has standing water in it…..some feilds look like you could launch a boat. Gravel roads were sucky at best too.
Sweeet. Good job Jake! Any jewelery in the group? 
Sweeet. Good job Jake! Any jewelery in the group?
Two Quick South Dakota Reports
just got off the phone with two of my buddies that are out in South Dakota right now…..phone conversations went something like this.
Buddy #1……”Just north of …..Holy [censored], there are [censored] geese EVERYWHERE!!!…..We’re in the ditch right now…..gotta go!!!”
Buddy #2…..”just west of ……Gawd there’s Geese EVERYWHERE…..(explosion of geese in the background)…..[censored]…..here they come…..gotta go!!!”
Is it 4pm yet???? Gonna be a GREAT weekend boys…..go get em
Kill Whitey!!!
Two Quick South Dakota Reports
just got off the phone with two of my buddies that are out in South Dakota right now…..phone conversations went something like this.
Buddy #1……”Just north of …..Holy [censored], there are [censored] geese EVERYWHERE!!!…..We’re in the ditch right now…..gotta go!!!”
Buddy #2…..”just west of ……Gawd there’s Geese EVERYWHERE…..(explosion of geese in the background)…..[censored]…..here they come…..gotta go!!!”
Is it 4pm yet???? Gonna be a GREAT weekend boys…..go get em
Kill Whitey!!!
birds are pretty thick…….I had to come back to MN to give the truck a rest, freeze/process birds, replenish my ammo, and sleep…..but I plan on going back out after the weekend commotion is done with. We saw much more pressure in NE with much less birds than SD…..kinda odd. Like jake said…..its a MUD HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very little open lakes/ponds due to ice. Most of it is sheet water….which makes things fun/hard at the same time. I even saw fence lines UNDER water. Two-plus feet of snow melting in 2 days will do that!
I am liking being unemployed during the month of march! although, trying to follow the migration is costing more than I can afford!!! good luck to the guys going out there.
birds are pretty thick…….I had to come back to MN to give the truck a rest, freeze/process birds, replenish my ammo, and sleep…..but I plan on going back out after the weekend commotion is done with. We saw much more pressure in NE with much less birds than SD…..kinda odd. Like jake said…..its a MUD HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very little open lakes/ponds due to ice. Most of it is sheet water….which makes things fun/hard at the same time. I even saw fence lines UNDER water. Two-plus feet of snow melting in 2 days will do that!
I am liking being unemployed during the month of march! although, trying to follow the migration is costing more than I can afford!!! good luck to the guys going out there.
Here is our luck for this spring. Hunted in the pouring rain both days but still killed them.
Here is our luck for this spring. Hunted in the pouring rain both days but still killed them.
Just got back last night from 5 days in central South Dakota.
Had a great time with some excelent decoying action!!! Many a goose Tornadoes were witnessed……Monday and Tuesday we had mulitiple flocks of 100-500+ on the deck at 10yds, unfortunatly there were only two of us left hunting those days or we could have really put up some nice numbers.
Ended the trip with 143 birds……with 22 coming on the two sneaks we tried, and the rest coming over the decoys. Very consistant action with two days of 30+ birds and the worst day being 18. Two of us were able to kill 17 Tuesday morning in a 40 min flurry…..pretty much the most awesome experince ever 
Friday was the largest migration I’ve ever seen by far…..3 solid hours of wave after wave of geese…….we had some fricken incredible tornadoes goin on over us……fun to watch, but as soon as a few of those single/pairs of juvies would drop down we had to take the shots.
Monday was our best day, with two of us bangin down 30 birds…..3 more guys and we would have easily been around 45-50 .
I’d say the main push of birds was north of us as of Sunday…..still plenty of birds left in Central SoDak, but I’d look for the main migration to be up around Aberdeen/Southern North Dakota now. Pretty amazing how fast they blew through this year.
Can’t wait to head back out in a week for some killer juvy action 
Just got back last night from 5 days in central South Dakota.
Had a great time with some excelent decoying action!!! Many a goose Tornadoes were witnessed……Monday and Tuesday we had mulitiple flocks of 100-500+ on the deck at 10yds, unfortunatly there were only two of us left hunting those days or we could have really put up some nice numbers.
Ended the trip with 143 birds……with 22 coming on the two sneaks we tried, and the rest coming over the decoys. Very consistant action with two days of 30+ birds and the worst day being 18. Two of us were able to kill 17 Tuesday morning in a 40 min flurry…..pretty much the most awesome experince ever
Friday was the largest migration I’ve ever seen by far…..3 solid hours of wave after wave of geese…….we had some fricken incredible tornadoes goin on over us……fun to watch, but as soon as a few of those single/pairs of juvies would drop down we had to take the shots.
Monday was our best day, with two of us bangin down 30 birds…..3 more guys and we would have easily been around 45-50 .
I’d say the main push of birds was north of us as of Sunday…..still plenty of birds left in Central SoDak, but I’d look for the main migration to be up around Aberdeen/Southern North Dakota now. Pretty amazing how fast they blew through this year.
Can’t wait to head back out in a week for some killer juvy action
Sounds like a good time Jake. From the reports I have been getting sounds like just North of 94 in North Dakota is a good place to start. Any truth to that? A lot can happen in these next couple days I am thinking with the temps reaching the 60’s.
Keep up the good work.
Sounds like a good time Jake. From the reports I have been getting sounds like just North of 94 in North Dakota is a good place to start. Any truth to that? A lot can happen in these next couple days I am thinking with the temps reaching the 60’s.
Keep up the good work.
Just got back from a trip in SD. Hunted friday afternoon through sunday mourning and picked up at 1. Ended up with 125 and two bands. Mostly juvies but we did pull some adults down as well. We hunted just to the north of Sioux Falls and we had very good decoying shots(anywhere from the deck up to 35 yards). Saturday was nice, pretty much non-stop flocks for most of the day. It was nice not to have too many hunters around as the snow goose hotline was stating the birds were at the border, so I would assume most, if not all, the jumpers and sneakers and ditch shooters were not around to bother us this time. Sunday wasn’t bad but if you’re heading out for the weekend then I would definitly head farther north as 90% of the flocks were headed that way. Sand Lake should be pretty full after a south wind yesterday and today’s gusty north wind they should be at a small stand-still for a day or 2. I would’ve loved to be up there this weekend for those juvies again but that darn Return of the Robin Hockey tournament is this weekend.
LARS
Just got back from a trip in SD. Hunted friday afternoon through sunday mourning and picked up at 1. Ended up with 125 and two bands. Mostly juvies but we did pull some adults down as well. We hunted just to the north of Sioux Falls and we had very good decoying shots(anywhere from the deck up to 35 yards). Saturday was nice, pretty much non-stop flocks for most of the day. It was nice not to have too many hunters around as the snow goose hotline was stating the birds were at the border, so I would assume most, if not all, the jumpers and sneakers and ditch shooters were not around to bother us this time. Sunday wasn’t bad but if you’re heading out for the weekend then I would definitly head farther north as 90% of the flocks were headed that way. Sand Lake should be pretty full after a south wind yesterday and today’s gusty north wind they should be at a small stand-still for a day or 2. I would’ve loved to be up there this weekend for those juvies again but that darn Return of the Robin Hockey tournament is this weekend.
LARS
Just got a report from my buddies out in southern North Dakota….123 geese before noon for two guys!!!
Almost all adults, and on the deck
and I had to cancel my trip this weekend due to massive amounts of homework and lack of funds 
but there’s still time to kill whitey for those interested!!!
Only 6 months left…..See ya’ll in the fall!!!
Just got a report from my buddies out in southern North Dakota….123 geese before noon for two guys!!!
Almost all adults, and on the deck
and I had to cancel my trip this weekend due to massive amounts of homework and lack of funds
but there’s still time to kill whitey for those interested!!!
Only 6 months left…..See ya’ll in the fall!!!
Today’s report from Southern North Dakota….foggy, raining, and 263 geese by 1pm!!!!
That’s a helluva shoot for 4 guys….I REALLY wish I was there!!! 
Today’s report from Southern North Dakota….foggy, raining, and 263 geese by 1pm!!!!
That’s a helluva shoot for 4 guys….I REALLY wish I was there!!!
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