Waterfowl Information Sharing Thread

engineerbrian said:

Worton MD. Had our limt by 9:30ish and were drinking Natty Bohs shortly after

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remrug said:

Nice!!
Hunted in the two bird zone yesterday eve(Carroll Co) and never got a shot.I watched as flock after flock,landed in a field not even a half mile away.Probably had 2 thousand birds land there.

Was the first time hunting there.The field I was in is pretty small and I wasnt sure if birds would even land there so I took 10 stuffers.I only had one small flock give me a look.The rest went straight to the other field and pitched right in.10,50 200 at a time.When they left at dark.....it was LOUD...lol

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kstone803 said:

I know the exact field you're standing in. Assuming ur in a club over there since most of worton is leased. Lots of snows over there this year.

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fabsroman said:

Last week, I saw thousands of birds in the air on Thursday all up and down I-70 from Ellicott City to Mount Airy. The past couple of days, I have not been able to find them. Guess they are all in Carroll County or maybe you saw some more coming down from up north.

When you say the field you are hunting in is small, how small?

Also, when you are competing with hundreds, if not a thousand plus, birds on another field, 10 decoys just aren't going to cut it.

I was hunting in Melrose.Most of the flocks were coming from Codorus and Prettyboy direction.The field is about 75yrds wide x 200 yrds long....its doable i think.Last year it was pasture grass.I deer hunted there on the last day last year and a lot of small groups were flying around looking for a place to land.
When the owner told me he planted corn....I wanted to give it a try.

I had no idea that every goose in the area was using the other field ....I def felt very small with a few decoys.If I try here again,I will use as many decoys that I have time to put out

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remrug said:

fabsroman said:

Last week, I saw thousands of birds in the air on Thursday all up and down I-70 from Ellicott City to Mount Airy. The past couple of days, I have not been able to find them. Guess they are all in Carroll County or maybe you saw some more coming down from up north.

When you say the field you are hunting in is small, how small?

Also, when you are competing with hundreds, if not a thousand plus, birds on another field, 10 decoys just aren't going to cut it.

I was hunting in Melrose.Most of the flocks were coming from Codorus and Prettyboy direction.The field is about 75yrds wide x 200 yrds long....its doable i think.Last year it was pasture grass.I deer hunted there on the last day last year and a lot of small groups were flying around looking for a place to land.
When the owner told me he planted corn....I wanted to give it a try.

I had no idea that every goose in the area was using the other field ....I def felt very small with a few decoys.If I try here again,I will use as many decoys that I have time to put out

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Bigger spread will help some with smaller groups. But trust me you'll never put out enough decoys to outcompete live birds in a field next door. U may pull some singles and pairs but most will bee line right to live birds. Best option is kick them off the field (if you have permission) so you don't have to watch birds fly over you all day and land with them.

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remrug said:

fabsroman said:

Last week, I saw thousands of birds in the air on Thursday all up and down I-70 from Ellicott City to Mount Airy. The past couple of days, I have not been able to find them. Guess they are all in Carroll County or maybe you saw some more coming down from up north.

When you say the field you are hunting in is small, how small?

Also, when you are competing with hundreds, if not a thousand plus, birds on another field, 10 decoys just aren't going to cut it.

I was hunting in Melrose.Most of the flocks were coming from Codorus and Prettyboy direction.The field is about 75yrds wide x 200 yrds long....its doable i think.Last year it was pasture grass.I deer hunted there on the last day last year and a lot of small groups were flying around looking for a place to land.
When the owner told me he planted corn....I wanted to give it a try.

I had no idea that every goose in the area was using the other field ....I def felt very small with a few decoys.If I try here again,I will use as many decoys that I have time to put out

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Hunt with more people, and others that have decoys too. The more decoys you can put out in that situation, the better the chance of killing something. I try to goose hunt with 3 to 4 guys to make life easier. Only been out once this year, but it was great hunting with my dad and my son. We had all the decoys out in 30 minutes or less and it was enough to convince some groups to break up and circle us. Enough to get a group of 4 to break out of its group of 10 and land in the decoys, and good enough to get a group of 50 to come within 30 yards. All this while there was at least 1,000 birds across the street in a cut cornfield and we were hunting a wheat field that had been planted after the field had been plowed (e.g., no beans or corn stubble left on the field). The large group across the street got up at one point and we had a good amount of smaller groups come by us while we were picking up decoys after limiting out.

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kstone803 said:

remrug said:

Bigger spread will help some with smaller groups. But trust me you'll never put out enough decoys to outcompete live birds in a field next door. U may pull some singles and pairs but most will bee line right to live birds. Best option is kick them off the field (if you have permission) so you don't have to watch birds fly over you all day and land with them.

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All he needs is two birds per shooter. You are correct, he will never pull all the birds over to him, but all he needs is some to fly within 50 yards.

The field seems to be large enough, but barely. 75 yards by 200 yards is a little narrow, but doable.

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remrug said:

Thanks for all the advice.I know that no matter what,this is a tough situation.....small field and the X being so close.This is the only field that I have permission to hunt and there is a ton of birds in the area.I used to hunt a farm close to B&D in Hampstead and killed a lot of geese there,but owner died and his widow now leases the farm to some other guys.

All I can do is hope a couple birds get close enough for a shot(no sky busting).I set up the decoys away from me,so I didnt flag.I think if I have that option,along with some motion decoys,I might have a chance.

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remrug said:

Thanks for all the advice.I know that no matter what,this is a tough situation.....small field and the X being so close.This is the only field that I have permission to hunt and there is a ton of birds in the area.I used to hunt a farm close to B&D in Hampstead and killed a lot of geese there,but owner died and his widow now leases the farm to some other guys.

All I can do is hope a couple birds get close enough for a shot(no sky busting).I set up the decoys away from me,so I didnt flag.I think if I have that option,along with some motion decoys,I might have a chance.

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AlBeight said:

My Roberts Field backyard is the cornfield across the street from Jos A Bank, is this the one? The pay-to-shoot guide service beats the heck outta the geese a few times a week, from the lone oak tree up on top of the knoll. The birds were pretty sparse early on this year but have recently come back in large numbers, and it’s deafening most evenings when they’re not shooting. As a (mostly former) waterfowl hunter it pains me to not be able to hunt that field. Just don’t feel like paying, and tipping, and being guided 274 yards from my back door. Still fun to watch from my living room though.

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Racer Doug14 said:

I had a lot fly over my 5 dozen bigfeet this past Saturday. Some 20+bird groups have us a look but all seemed to head over to Melrose. I was just off watertank rd. I could put out 4 dozen more but only two of us hunted. First time out this year and my calling was rusty for sure. Heck, I haven't gone out for 3yrs! Started deer hunting, plus WF friends have not been reliable. Their always busy or don't want to get up super early.

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tallen702 said:

Did a float on the Monocacy this week. Geese were plentiful, especially near gravel bars. Only saw 4 ducks though, 3 mallard drakes and 1 black duck drake. Didn't bag any, unfortunately. I'm new to waterfowl and boy do those suckers fly fast!

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fabsroman said:

lol - if you think those were fast, wait until you see woodies moving through the trees, teal, and bufflehead. Those suckers have afterburners and can go completely vertical.

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fabsroman said:

I was talking to my wife about something like this. We are looking at houses and one backs to a farm that has a ton of geese in it at times. The development has a pond as part of the HOA, and the geese are in that pond a lot too. Told her I would probably go insane or go to prison for shooting the geese. Waterfowling/hunting is a terrible addiction for me. I would be waiting for one of those birds to make it into my yard, and then BOOM. lol

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