any info on fir island

[bigelkmoma]

i got drawen for sat the 19 i dont have a clue any info

[Dustin07]

i replied to your other thread. if you google fir island and wdfw together you get quite a few pages. wdfw has a lot of background on the quality hunts and whatnot listed on their site. I didn't know about the drawings prior to this year or i would have applied for sure.

do you have decoys? I think legally you have to have at least 2 snow deeks, i *think*..?

[Bob33]

http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/snow_goose/index.htm

[CP]

Which field do you have? 

[Dustin07]

http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/snow_goose/index.htm

yup thats the page I was refering to:

Decoy hunting mandatory: All hunters on these quality units must display and hunt over 2 or more “snow goose-like” decoys intended specifically to lure these birds.

although that is pretty liberal. you can spray paint an existing goose shell or something if you needed.

[Snowgoose1]

The birds have not been in that field yet.  They got close the other day.  I will let you know before the weekend. We need cold weather to get them in field 19. No ducks either, I get a report on that area daily.

[Dustin07]

The birds have not been in that field yet.  They got close the other day.  I will let you know before the weekend. We need cold weather to get them in field 19. No ducks either, I get a report on that area daily.

Unit 19 would be stanwood, rather than fir, isn't it? I thought he meant he got a field on fir on December 19th.

[Snowgoose1]

Dustin07, good point with the information about where he is at.  Two days last week I saw birds within shooting range of all quality fields on Fir on both days.  I was in one of them and cycled guys in and out shooting numerous birds that day with friends.  We had a good time all day. I was with my son on Thursday and we got a four person limit really quick in the afternoon.  On Friday the birds didn't really go into Fir Island that well.  I saw the most decoy set ups that I have ever seen at one time though.  The birds were not really buying it all and went north up over the hill and along Dry Sough and Moore Rd.  On Sunday afternoon there were a lot of birds in fields 1, 2, 3, but nobody could hunt it was Sunday. For all the days I have hunted this year I would have to say patience is the best advice. They move around a lot from geese and people who can walk in and shoot them up.  I would rather decoy them or low pass shoot rather than balst them out of a farmers field. I have gone in to several fields during the week when most all the decoy hunters left and had a great day. The Stanwood fields have not really been used much by geese yet this year. Lately the geese have not been going too close to the rags, but I did get them in real close with 40 flocked head Hardcores and 6 Feather Flyers with a good wind last week. If you do have a huge spread you could probably get away with rags. I have also gotten them by only using 2 decoys and getting in between the hops at very low crossings in the quality hunts. I always take the hunt if I can and if you get hungry and thirsty the Conway Tavern is ready and waiting close by.

[Dustin07]

I have only hunted snows a couple times but it seems to me like the birds learn patterns very quickly. If you have 600-1000 decoys like everyone else, the birds figure that out and look for the spread that looks different than the spreads that have been shooting at them. So I would believe you that a small spread of a few dozen good quality decoys would do just fine when you are surrounded by 600+ rag spreads that are blasting them every day.

additionally, I've heard good things about a particular spread of 3,000 full body deeks in Missouri and a guy with a 10ga routinely taking 2-3 birds with one shot 

How crowded are the quality hunt zones tues-fri? I may try to get in there during a non draw day. I will be lacking in size of spread so hopefully a few good ones will get me a couple shots. I'm with you, I'd MUCH rather get the landing gear down than pass shoot. I really dislike pass shooting. Watching the birds decoy is half the fun!