waterfowler22 said:
Last week end of early season was my worst weekend of hunting ever!!! The geese wouldent go to the same field more than 1 time so scouting was pointless. So we tried to just traffic them. That dident do anything either. We never shot a goose all weekend. What did I do wrong what could I have done differently? Thanks for any addvice.
Constructive Critisism
1.) Geese don't always go to the same field to feed. There are many different reason. All the food is gone, something scared them out, heavy wind or rain will make them go other places. They figure out what means hunter. Meaning if they ssee headlights in the morning that throws a red flag for them. Also slamming doors.
2.)Scouting is a must. I don't scout as much as I should simply because I do not have the time and I live at least an hour from where I hunt. With that being said, I do socut year around and use google earth to find out where birds are roosting and go from there. Also birds tend to have the same roost year after year and they also have a pattern of what they do. Even if you don't have the time or moeny to scout. Go to a field set up all of your looker dekes(no more the you can fit in your vehicle so you can pick up quick and find where there birds are) and just see what is flying and where and they go after then. I have done this many times and have killed bird and found where they were feeding too. I say use the lookers because it looks like they just landed and found a new food source. The is my opinion though.
3.) Running traffic isn't easy but it is rewarding. I think that there is an art to it though.
4.) Just because you didn't pull the trigger doesn't mean you did anything wrong. It just means that you didn't do your homework on the birds or you just had some bad luck. Every hunter(except the people who call themselves hunters but actually shoot penned in animals) has had weekend evens weeks where they don''t pull the trigger. Last year I would set up in fields trying different thigns just to see how the birds responded. I would suggest do this with a friend so it doesn't get boring. Learn what works and what doesn't and then try to figure out why.Besides if you always got something it would be called killing not hunting. I hate this quote but it is true. You have to taste defeat to truely understand why winning taste so good.