Had our one year old pup out for her fist official hunt this morning. Unfortunately, it was a very quiet morning today, little wind, no current, few birds. Had a half dozen or so Goldeneye teasing us all morning at 87 yards and a few Bufflehead swimming by.
About the time I decided to whack a couple of Buffies (momma intently watching them through a hole in the driftwood blind) for the pup, I heard a lone goose honking longingly, first one of the season. I honked back a few times, swapped my #4 lead shell for a 3 1/2" #2, and saw it lock up on my Mallard decoys. It landed out quite a ways but was slowly swimming toward us. I saw it hesitate, I'm guessing since there were no geese, and decided to shoot. It was out a little farther than I thought. I hit one of my shots leaving some feathers and the bird only gained about 10 feet of elevation as it flew across the bay toward another island. Knowing I had hit it, we went home and I launched my boat to go look for it.
Several miles later, I saw the goose tucked back in a little cove (off to the right in the picture with the Buffleheads) between a couple of docks with its head under its wing. I slowly slid the boat into shore, about ten feet away, when it finally looked up and tried flying away, key word, tried.... :-)
Since I was out anyways, I decided to cruise around and see if I could use the, now increasing, wind to my advantage. I managed to drift in on another goose and a pair of Scoters and Oldsquaw. The Oldsquaw drake had a tail over 9 inches long!
Bummer the dogs didn't get to work, but my best day of the season.
