Thanksgiving Waterfowl Hunt 5

A total of 17 hunters rendesvous'd in the Skagit Valley near Conway on Sunday for the Outdoor Line Thanksgiving Waterfowl combo. The parking lot was full of camo at the Shell station in Conway at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday before the gang from North Sound Waterfowl rounded up our herd of excited hunters for the short drive across the Skagit River to one of their many goose fields. After we stuffed all the four wheel drives into the small parking area I grabbed Bryce Baker for a quick "How ya doin?" before we got going and his response, "We set 2500 snow goose decoys last night." With a wink and a nod he walked off to unload the duck tank. Hocheeeemamma!

The plan was to split into two groups, with a large group of 13 hunters in layout blinds in the middle of 2000 dekes and a second group of 4 placed along a brushy hedgerow next to 500 dekes where the geese had been flying the day before. No walking to the blinds here…we were all taxi'd out our hidey-holes in North Sounds Argo/M1 Abrams duck tank shown in the photo below.  

Here's a quick shot I took of the guys settling into the layout blinds in the middle of 2,000 Sillosock snow dekes.

What's a layout blind? Layout blinds are the ultimate concealment tool for field hunting. Here's a shot of my dad chilling in his blind, most likely sleeping. It's hard not to fall asleep in these things! 

Shooting hour came and went at 7:10 a.m. and we all sat and waited nervously for the first geese to fly off the bay and head inland. After an hour of waiting it started, just a little at first and then a LOT! The first wave was mostly small flocks of one to maybe 8 birds, but then the entire bay erupted and 40,000 snow geese ended up in the sky at the same time. I was sitting along the hedgerow next to Harold Cashman from Bellingham and both of us pretty much just sat there with our jaws dropped in total awe of the whole scene. Half of the massive flock tornado'd around our field as we banged away at them, dropping a dozen or more snow geese from the swirling mass of birds. 

Here's a few of the 21 snow geese harvested on the Thanksgiving hunt. You'd think with all those birds in the sky we would have gotten more, but with all those birds comes a lot of well trained eye balls. With the relatively mild weather we've been having here in Washington so far this winter many of the snow geese and ducks haven't needed to move down from the north. On a normal year with normal cold weather and a flock of over 200,000 snows, half of which are juveniles, Sunday's hunt would have been one for the books. Ah, Mother Nature, gotta love her…pass the beer nuts! 

Seattle firefighter Jared Fields and his dad, fire Chief Tom Fields, grabbed a few nice snows from the flock. Jared got two snow geese on his first time ever hunting waterfowl.

Woodinville fencing contractor Terry Glen got his share of the geese. Notice the ear protection…a very good idea!

Where do I know that guy from? It's John Keizer from Salt Patrol with a couple of Skagit Valley snow's. 

Here's dad and "Uncle" Frank Reed with some snows from our Monday morning hunt with North Sound Waterfowl. I haven't hunted with dad in 20 years…what a great time! At one point this morning we had a thousand snow geese locked up and committed. There's more to this story…tune in to Saturdays show for the full scoop on what happened next. I'll be throwing ma'sef under the bus on this one!

Dad and I with todays snow geese. Nothing like sharing these hunting adventures with dad!

All good things have to come to an end. We spent some time helping Justin and Bryce pick up the massive spread today before heading home.

I have to hand it to the crew from North Sound Waterfowl! They went well above the call of duty for this hunt and worked their tails off to provide the best day possible for our listeners. We also need to give a huge THANK YOU to the great companies that were so supportive of this event. Columbia Sportswear, Outdoor Emporium, Hunter Specialties, Holiday Sports, 4 Wheel Parts, and Otis Gun Cleaning Systems all geared up our hunters in a big way. In addition, North Sound Waterfowl discounted the trip by 15%!

Everyone went home with Goretex waterfowl gloves and hats from Columbia Sportswear, shirts and lids from Outdoor Emporium/Sportco, $50 gift certificates to 4 Wheel Parts, calls/lanyards/camo compacts from Hunter Specialties, and these few lucky folks walked away with a little more.

Billy Dyas, Columbia Sportswear Super Wader Widgeon jacket 

John Keizer, One dozen Greenhead Gear mallard dekes, Holiday Sports

Terry Glen, One dozen Greenhead Gear mallard dekes, Holiday Sports

Harold Cashman, Decoy bag, Hunter Specialties

Robert Aguilera, Tactical gun cleaning kit, Otis Gun Cleaning Systems

Jim Heins, Duck call, Outdoor Emporium

I also need to thank all of you that joined us for the Outdoor Line Thanksgiving Waterfowl Hunt today! I really had a great time with everyone and hope to see you all again out in the field sometime soon. Thanks a bunch guys!

Rob Endsley