Steve Horswell
Member
The gripping saga continues for your reading pleasure. From time to time I will post additional trials and tribulations…SRH
Tales of The Old Crony---Mad About Geese
Geese made me mad. Not angry mad. Rather, somewhat take-leave-of-my-senses mad. It started during a time when geese, particularly Canadians, were seen as trophies rather than “sky carp”. Someone crawling through mud or snow to ambuse geese? I was that guy. Some nut set up in aerator holes on otherwise frozen lakes? That was me. A dark spot on the ice? Guilty.
Knowing this, you can understand why extreme measures were required when the skybusters launched volleys at every goose that even came close to shore of a nearby watering hole. Mad about geese and angry at other hunters, there had to be answers on how to fool geese and foil skybusters. Suprisingly, the answer came to me via the U.S. Postal Service. Late in the summer, I was looking through a recent edition of a waterfowling magazine and…voilla!...there it was, “Lay-out for Delaware Geese”. Excited, I called The Old Crony and we began to plot the geese’s demise.
We had few immediate options as the season was fast approaching. The plan was to use The Old Cronies’ jon boat as a tender and my “Humburg” pumpkinseed as a layout boat. The Humburg, named after a local builder, was similar to a Kara. We attached shell body goose decoys to the Humburg to hide the cockpit and outline. For a reality check, we hauled both boats to a nearby lake, anchored the Humburg well out in the lake, and used an extension ladder to get a “goose’s eye view” of our setup. From our perch in the trees, the decoy-festooned Humburg didn’t look too conspicuous in the open water.
The Opener found us out on the lake well before any hint of light. We anchored the Humburg a couple hundred yards offshore, set out our meager supply of floating Canadian goose decoys, and waited. At the first hint of light, I crawled into the Humburg, and The Old Crony motored to shore. Around sunrise, several geese passed over but were intent on going out to feed. An hour later, The Old Crony and I exchanged places. Shortly thereafter, a small flock of honkers came over the lake and began circling the rig. Although reluctant, they dropped low enough for The Old Crony to knock one down. Eureka! We were able to successfully hunt geese without the skybusters’ interference. We had moderate success the remainder of the season.
Fast forward a year…we’re better prepared for the goose opener. We’d increased our goose flock from 12 to 36. And I’d spent the previous winter building a true layout boat using plans from a gentleman in Ohio. We were ready!
That Opener found our flotilla on the lake long before there was any rumor of daylight. There were four boats and three hunters that day. The layout boat was perched across the cockpit of my Black Brant and the Humburg was in tow behind. The Old Crony’s boat was overflowing with goose decoys. The twilight was fading before we had everything set. We had become an expedition.
We were hunting a relatively small, tree-lined lake and had set up in the open water as far from any shoreline as possible. Our set was immediately visible in all directions as geese cleared the treeline. To our great satisfaction, every goose coming over the lake that day worked our set. If memory serves me, The Old Crony got a “scotch double”. I don’t believe any shots were fired from shore at geese that day.
We continued to successfully use the layout set to take early season geese during the next several years. However, each year the layout boat got less and less use. Perhaps that was due to the “expedition-nature” of using a layout boat. Or, perhaps, I grew less mad about geese.
To be continued…
© All rights reserved. Steven R Horswell 2016
Tales of The Old Crony---Mad About Geese
Geese made me mad. Not angry mad. Rather, somewhat take-leave-of-my-senses mad. It started during a time when geese, particularly Canadians, were seen as trophies rather than “sky carp”. Someone crawling through mud or snow to ambuse geese? I was that guy. Some nut set up in aerator holes on otherwise frozen lakes? That was me. A dark spot on the ice? Guilty.
Knowing this, you can understand why extreme measures were required when the skybusters launched volleys at every goose that even came close to shore of a nearby watering hole. Mad about geese and angry at other hunters, there had to be answers on how to fool geese and foil skybusters. Suprisingly, the answer came to me via the U.S. Postal Service. Late in the summer, I was looking through a recent edition of a waterfowling magazine and…voilla!...there it was, “Lay-out for Delaware Geese”. Excited, I called The Old Crony and we began to plot the geese’s demise.
We had few immediate options as the season was fast approaching. The plan was to use The Old Cronies’ jon boat as a tender and my “Humburg” pumpkinseed as a layout boat. The Humburg, named after a local builder, was similar to a Kara. We attached shell body goose decoys to the Humburg to hide the cockpit and outline. For a reality check, we hauled both boats to a nearby lake, anchored the Humburg well out in the lake, and used an extension ladder to get a “goose’s eye view” of our setup. From our perch in the trees, the decoy-festooned Humburg didn’t look too conspicuous in the open water.
The Opener found us out on the lake well before any hint of light. We anchored the Humburg a couple hundred yards offshore, set out our meager supply of floating Canadian goose decoys, and waited. At the first hint of light, I crawled into the Humburg, and The Old Crony motored to shore. Around sunrise, several geese passed over but were intent on going out to feed. An hour later, The Old Crony and I exchanged places. Shortly thereafter, a small flock of honkers came over the lake and began circling the rig. Although reluctant, they dropped low enough for The Old Crony to knock one down. Eureka! We were able to successfully hunt geese without the skybusters’ interference. We had moderate success the remainder of the season.
Fast forward a year…we’re better prepared for the goose opener. We’d increased our goose flock from 12 to 36. And I’d spent the previous winter building a true layout boat using plans from a gentleman in Ohio. We were ready!
That Opener found our flotilla on the lake long before there was any rumor of daylight. There were four boats and three hunters that day. The layout boat was perched across the cockpit of my Black Brant and the Humburg was in tow behind. The Old Crony’s boat was overflowing with goose decoys. The twilight was fading before we had everything set. We had become an expedition.
We were hunting a relatively small, tree-lined lake and had set up in the open water as far from any shoreline as possible. Our set was immediately visible in all directions as geese cleared the treeline. To our great satisfaction, every goose coming over the lake that day worked our set. If memory serves me, The Old Crony got a “scotch double”. I don’t believe any shots were fired from shore at geese that day.
We continued to successfully use the layout set to take early season geese during the next several years. However, each year the layout boat got less and less use. Perhaps that was due to the “expedition-nature” of using a layout boat. Or, perhaps, I grew less mad about geese.
To be continued…
© All rights reserved. Steven R Horswell 2016