Had some feed back from some hunters, that are not sure of, my honesty on Sundays shoot. This brings up another shoot, that took place on Nov.3 1974. This was one of my daughters birthday, and I was supposed to come to town, early, for her birthday party. Well I remember her 10th birthday, way better, than she remembers it. See this was before there was phones in the blind, and even if there would have been one, I am not sure I would have had the guts to use it. Good thing that a women, can only get so mad, cause mine reached that point that day, and when I am asked what she said, I always answer "if you leave out the cuss words, not a damn thing."
There is still a dispute between Ralph and I as why things happened they way they did, but I am sticking to my story. This is what I remember; there were more blinds on the East side of the Lake than there were on the West side. Any way, we open the day on the East side, and we were shooting ducks, but there was some high flying Snows and Blues. Ralph kept saying, "If we were only on the other side we could kill some of those Geese". This is where the dispute between RK and me. I say there was not enough room for all of us to go to the other side, and he has no reason, why we all did not all move at that time. I am guessing at about 10:00 Ralph and his hunters moved to the West side. This crew, was from Minneapolis, they had been hunting for a few days and could only hunt until noon and then was heading back home.
The geese were in small bunches of 5 to 50, and one flock right after another. At almost any time you could see 10 to 15 flocks, and all were very high coming, and this is the way they flew throughout the day.
The crews on the East side continued to drop a few ducks, while the crews on the west worked on geese. At that magic time for us: (12:08), they had talked a small flock of S&B’s, into range, and took 5 blues. The remaining 3 rolled over us on the East side and we, dumped them into the lake. This crew from Minnesota packed up, for there trip back home. Ralph, came around and told us guys if we were smart, we would pack our gear and move over to the other side. My story again: because there was enough room for all of us now. So we all pack our gear and moved. We had only got settled in and guns loaded, when the first, "Lets Go" was given. That was the last time everybody was in the pits when the next shot was called. A few guys would pick up the close ones and get back in, and someone would go for the one that sailed out a few yards, when they started to "call" you would lay down. When the next flock would start to decoy, all the flocks that was in sight, would start decoying too. They were so high that before that flock was in range we would have a dozen or more flock in a tornado or spiral, getting down to us. When the shot was called, a crew would run out and pick up birds and the crew that was on the run from the preceding flock would charge back in the pits for there turn to shoot. This is the way the day went, all the way, to sunset. Total geese was 74, and all shot after 12:00 noon.
Of course there would be a sailor or two every once in a while and I remember being with Ron Jenkins, another "weekend hunter" from Blair, making a trip, picking up flyer's, that made it south of the east-west road south of us. We had cars setting on that road just watching, and they even help gather up and locate downed birds. Some hunters from Kopecky Hunting, pack up their gear and moved south for a closer look. We found out later that the only geese that got shot at that day in Burt county, was at Kohler’s lake. The next day, I had hunter, who hunted south of us, asked me, what we were shooting at because they had not seen a bird that was low enough to decoy. We had, and logged some great memories, that is going to last, me and others, for a lifetime. If you doubt this story, just ask Ralph and I can give you other names about a November 3rd hunt
No hunters today so had time for an old story. Say a prayer for all our HERO who are protecting our rights.
See ya Carl
No comments:
Post a Comment