Nebraska 2017 Snow Goose Hunt

By Bill Ryan on March 19, 2017 in Everything Waterfowl, Waterfowl Hunting

After missing the 2016 spring season because of scheduling conflicts and weather issues. The Muck Boy Crew along with Gaddy our year old lab, just went on a two day snow goose hunt in Nebraska where we hunted with George Thompson. We have hunted with him in the past but had not in the last couple of years, it sure was great to be in the field once again with George. Make sure to watch a short video of our two day hunt on Youtube.

Cold Front Moving in

Weather – If you have followed the crews hunts over the years you know that where ever we go odd weather is sure to follow and this trip was no exception. Day one was unusually warm with temperatures ranging from upper 50’s in the morning to 77 degrees in the afternoon and it was exceptionally windy all day with gusts to 60 plus mph Plus a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Weather for day two was cooler with temps in the upper 30’s in the morning to the high 50’s in the afternoon. In the morning the wind was not nearly as windy with winds from the SW at about 10mph but around lunch time the speed increased to about 50mph and switched to the west.

A look at the spread

Setup – This two day hunt would be next to an irrigation pond between two terraced corn fields that had been chisel plowed.

Gaddy Checking the Skies

2017 Nebraska hunting, Gaddy with her first snow geese

Gaddy with Snow Geese

3-6-17 – This hunt was slow to say the least because of the hot weather and strong winds, we never did see any large birds moving to feed. A few small flocks gave us a look but moved on. After lunch the wind became even stronger and there wasn’t any action until about four when a dozen or so kept circling the spread as Snows often do, really not giving us a shot. Then they landed above us on the terrace, we got out of our blinds and slowly crawled up the side of the terrace and got within shotgun range before they spooked and took off and we downed four. Gaddy who was at my side during the crawl, took off when the shooting started getting the closet bird. I then called her to heel and gave her a line to another two, one took off when she got close and she ran it down, very cool. The last bird was at the top of the hill about a quarter of a mile away after a long walk in the heat she took a good cast and made the retrieve. On our way back another small flock worked the spread while Gaddy and me laid in the tall grass along a drainage ditch that drained into the pond. When we got back to the spread we noticed that there was a lot of real dark clouds off to the west With the winds getting stronger and colder, we made the decision to pack up for the day. I’m glad we did, because this front actually produced many tornados during the evening in Missouri and Iowa.

Returning from a long Retrieve

3-7-17 – The birds were more active with several large flocks seen moving to the NW. Early there was a flock that worked us for a few minutes before leaving and a couple of singles that basically committed suicide. About ten a group of four wanted into the spread real bad but as snow geese do they worked us multiple times before giving us a good shot, we took all four and Gaddy retrieved three of them, one from the pond, one in the rags on top of the terrace and one that tried to sneak out of the volley to our right, it didn’t make it far. The only bird Gaddy didn’t get is one I almost stepped on when going to the top of the terrace. This was it for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. As we were packing up about 4pm, so we could get back to the hotel for an important conference call. A large flock was spotted to the east and they looked to be heading directly towards us, we all jumped back into our blinds including Gaddy. These snows did something I have never seen a large flock of snows do before, they locked up at about half a mile and came fast, but behind us with some even landing on the water. With no choice we got up turning around as we did to take the shot. As soon as we busted the blinds the birds caught the strong west wind and were out of there. We all unloaded, taking seven. Three were close and in the spread, the others left a trail for over a half mile. Gaddy and me the “old guy” getting them all.