Wrapping it Up

By Ryan Cook
Zink Calls Staff

With the Indiana waterfowl season just a few days from wrapping up, we were in panic mode. Ducks were already out and finding geese that weren't sitting in a housing addition was starting to become a tough order. I know most of us have some of the same problems as the season starts to wind down, we have either shot out our local birds or the birds we have been on have started to pick up and move on. We were in one of those situations when I decided to scout "just one more place." I had a good feeling about the little gravel pit and quietly pulled in to the plant. "Got em'" I said over the cell phone to a couple buddies, "It is not a big group but enough for a decent shoot after I get out of school tomorrow." With only 2 days left of goose season, I was really glad to have some birds to hunt. The clock was getting ready to run out on us and another season would be in the books.

As we pulled into the pit the next afternoon, the place looked like the Dead Sea, not a sign of life. We all knew the game with these pit geese, they were hard hunted birds that were about as predictable as our mid-west weather, but they were the only game in town and were going to go down swinging! We quickly got the spread out and snow sprayed the blinds taking every precaution to make sure nothing looked out of place, one mistake with these late season birds and it would be over before it started. As we patiently waited for the birds, we talked about the season. It had been kind of a slow year compared to some, but it was a season that had created a lot of good memories. The layout boat hunts for big water divers, the bonus snow geese killed on the creek, a couple of "first" birds for some young kids we took out, and of course a couple of funny falls into the frigid waters of the White River for a few of us. It was a season where it had taken a lot of effort to kill birds but we had battled them to the end, and I think all serious waterfowl hunters know the satisfaction of a season where you have given it all you had, how many total birds that were killed really doesn't matter much.

After about an hour of 0 activity, I decided to get out of my blind and adjust a couple of decoys in the spread. Just as it happens almost 100% of the time, I had just cleared my blind when someone said "Geese." I wish I had a dollar for every time birds came when someone got out of the blind or we started to pick up decoys, I guarantee you I wouldn't have to teach anymore! After doing a "Pete Rose" back into the layout blind I picked them up, about a quarter mile out and closing in on the pit. The short line of birds came on, and as they crossed the river, I picked up the Little Man and got their attention with excited clucks and moans. The small group of birds banked hard into the wind and without hesitation, locked up and dropped into the decoys. The shooting was quick and close, 5 birds hit the water and Jammer started the retrieves from the icy waters of the pit. We had one bird left for the limit and hunted out the rest of the evening with no luck. It had been a good hunt with good friends, another hunt to put away in the memory bank. Sure, it was a hunt that had only produced 5 geese. There had been many other hunts with a lot more birds killed or a lot more action as far as numbers of birds to hunt, but it was special to all of us. We had worked as hard as we could in the brutal cold, we had dealt with snow and ice, and put in the extra effort it took to make the hunt happen. Just like it always is at the end of a season, we picked up the decoys with a little bit of sadness. We were all tired from the grind of the season, but it is always a good tired. We would all be anxiously waiting on next season, doing all the things we do to pass the time. We all would hunt turkeys throughout the spring, fish in the summer, paint decoys, retie decoy lines, and work on duck boats; but in the end we are waterfowl hunters and that passion to put in the work and hunt hard will never fade or burn out!!!