Honker Hunt
This was a great hunt
This hunt took place at a duck club in District 10, a
spectacular basin that fills with ducks and geese every fall. The amount of waterfowl that
are present here in the months of nov-mar is staggering. There are several duck clubs in
dist. 10 that cost more a year than I make in two!! Erik’s father has a place that is right on
the edge of the basin, and I am proud to say that this place is where I ‘learned to hunt
ducks.’
This day was normal for this year which I think was the 91 season.
Geese were everywhere. Usually we get a handful of geese off the club every year, but this
year we shot them almost everyday we hunted. I think that Klamath froze early this year
and pushed all the resident birds down.
We got out to the blind early, spooking
up thousands of ducks and probably as many geese off the ponds. Shooting light started
with a frenzy of activity from sprig, but this year you could only shoot one so we choose
our shots carefully, looking for a big bull. The teal came next, and boy did they come. For
probably the same reason so many honkers were there, teal were not only abundant, but
were traveling in flocks of 100+. A flock of 150 teal screaming into the decoys is enough
to frazzle anybody’s nerves. We shot a bunch of holes in the sky and managed to drop a
few, but now the fun began.
It starts as a faint noise, far in the distance and
often mistaken for a dogs bark. However, to the tuned ear it is unmistakable; the call of
the Canada goose. As we spied this first flock of the morning, it was clear that they were
intending on heading back to the pond where they fed all night. Fortunately, we were
sitting in the middle of it. I would like to say that it was our tuned vocal chords that did
the magic since both Erik and I call geese with our mouths, but we probably could have
stood up and shouted. They were headed straight at us.
Watching honkers
approach for more than a mile is unnerving. We had more than a few minutes to hunker
down and get excited. With every flare of their wings there was a fear that would just slip
out of their pattern and slide away. Didn’t happen. Onward they came, ever decreasing
altitude. By the time they got over the dozen 747 goose decoys we had out, they were no
more than 20 yds. up and out. I still vividly remember how their necks kept going into an
‘S’ shape as they prepared to land. The flock was rather large, probably about 40 birds.
Well we came up and blazing with a sky full of honkers. Four shots, four splashes, and we
had a limit of honkers each.
There was lots of high fives and backslapping, but
sadly realized that our goose hunt was over. Not to worry, we still needed a few ducks
and for the rest of the morning we would just call to the flocks of honkers and see how
close we could get them. I still have pictures of the flock that landed in the decoys.
I have always treated the Canada goose as the king of waterfowl, but that year
made me think more about it. Those honkers were no more wary than any of the mallards
that we shot. It is not that I lost respect for them, but the specialness of shooting a big
honker was never the same after that year. I used to average maybe three or four honkers
a year, but that year alone I killed over twenty. However, in recent years I have shot
relatively few. Maybe it is just natures way of keeping my average the same.
Christmas Hunt 92
Colusa Refuge opener
Partner in Crime
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Email: michael_ireland@monterey.edu
