Christmas Eve Success

by John Francis Sunkler
Zink Calls Field Staff
28 December 2009

One of my favorite things about waterfowl hunting is spending time with great people. Two of those people are Tim and Jim Kohl, both I consider my family. I look forward to the days spent in the blind all year, so when they called me about a Christmas Eve hunt I was very excited. The last week had been extremely difficult to hunt because of the blizzard that hit the East Coast and gave the Eastern Shore two feet of snow.

On Christmas Eve we set up on a pond. We set out ten dozen FFD lessers and life-size full bodies and sleeper shells along with two dozen floaters. While sitting in the early morning light, Ringnecks dove into and out of the spread, yet none would come back at shooting time. From first light, we could all tell there was going to be something special about the hunt.

As we sat in the blind passing Christmas cookies and jerky back and forth, we heard the unmistakable sound, a large flock of snow geese heading our way. The flock of about 500 snow geese "tornadoed" down towards the hole we had in the ice. Jim called the shot when the birds slid over top of the blind at 5 yards. We dropped 24 birds. As soon the labs had the birds retrieved, the next flock of snows started to tornado down. This awesome display of waterfowl continued for two hours and when the snow geese stopped coming trying to come in, we had shot 65 birds in 6 tolls. This was absolutely amazing especially since only 4 of the birds were juvenile.

Once the snow geese stopped coming to our spread the Canadian geese started to fly. With soft moans and clucks from my Birds Eye Maple SR-1 and the crisp double clucks and honks from Kyle Hitchen's Money Maker the geese slid right into the kill hole. We soon had a nine-man limit of Canadas with help from the Greenhead Gear Decoys and Zink Calls.

We finished the day and picked up the spread. This will be one of the top hunts for this season and possibly my life. The Kohl family has taken me under their wing and accepted me into their family. I cherish the time I have spent with them and look forward to many more hunts and memories.