Family Groups Congregate To Make For Productive Days
Early, Early Start To Our Honker Season!
Our first “Early Honker” seasons were always opened September 1st and we were fiven a brief kick start to our Waterfowling season chasing some B52 behemoths. These majestic birds in flight can inspire awe as they soar over you, put on the breaks in mid-air, and drop right in front of you. The air whistles and you can almost feel the breeze as they frantically flap on their web footed drop into the landing zone.
TakeEm!
And the feathers fly.
When the North Dakota State Game and Fish Department started opening the season earlier, August 15th, my initially reaction was SWEET!, 2 more weeks of chasing Honkers.
Only one problem, often times in those earliest days of the current season, that is exactly what we are doing:
Chasing!
Family Friendly
As paired up Giant Canada Geese progress through the breeding season and into the summer, there sole driving force of life is to rear their young. These monster birds (some tipping 16-17 pounds) can be very protective of their brood and make very good parents to the chagrin of many agriculturally employed people. When the young get their flight feathers and start their maiden voyages, it usually coincides with the earliest Winter Wheat and Barley crops being harvested and those fields become their airport landing strip.
That parental drive remains strong and often times you will see, in the early season, a field speckled with small groups of Canadas and not bunched up into one small area.
The Duck Show
On days when the Honkers win the day and hoodwink us, usually the duck show is worth the price of admission and getting up at 4 a.m.! We have experienced some spectacular Duck performances so far and the upcoming waterfowl season would appear to be sizing up to be a great one. Grab the opportunity to tag along with DevilsLakeFishingReport on a North Dakota Field Duck hunt.
Northern Flight Guide Service: Call 701-739-9616
Alternative Decoy Setups
This behavior requires us to get a little creative in the early season, setting up smaller, scattered spreads and really trying to utilize some sort of cover until they start to bunch up into larger groups, which usually occurs the last week of August into the first weeks of September.
That bunching up period is where a group of hunters can really start to pile up the numbers. One of AllFlockedUp Outdoors’ Guides (call 701-230-9173 for bookings, still a few dates left before the 15th of September for you to come along for the ride) stacked up 60 of them today. I don’t care who you are, that is a Great Day!
From here until Early Honkers closes on the 15th of September, we look to have some slobberknocker days in the field.
Back-To-Back
Normally when a hunting season comes to a close, sadness and depression sets in shortly thereafter. Not the case in our ‘NO OFF-SEASON’ Sportsman’s Paradise that is North Dakota.
We will be given about 12 hours to hang up the Honker Dekes for 2 weeks and dust off the Sandhill Crane decoys.
This is fast approaching and we have already spotted the first migrators of the year. Five Pteradactyl looking ‘Ribeyes of the Sky’ made their presence known the last two morning with their tell tale trill call and their slow wing flap glide.
There is nothing like attempting to decoy these wary, keen eye-sighted birds and it just may be my single favorite species to try to lure into shotgun range.
If you would like to join a Sandhill Crane adventure, there are a few dates still open with Northern Flight Guide service and you can schedule that hunt with them by calling 701-739-9616!
