Opinion Needed 2007 snow goose success poll

[south of 41]

This is a subject that came up in another thread yesterday. And I would be interested to see how other's would rate their season last year.

Would you rate the 2007 season compared to past years

• excellent
• above average
• average
• below average
• very poor

For me and my group it was below average.

[J.D.]

Average.

[parker20]

good we changed locations and had alot of decoying birds

[Alex T.]

Average. I will add that I didn't hunt nearly as much as I wanted to.

Alex

[quackwacker]

VERY POOR

I would rate our season as the worst ever to date. It's not that we didn't see birds or that we weren't set up in the right spot. They staged south on the snow line for so long that when they came they didn't stop until they hit Dakota.

[gooseh8r]

I wanted to kill myself by the end of my stay in the basins last year. Wasnt due to the birds killed but more due to a "series of unfourtunate events".

On the killing side I would say it was pretty much average in the basins. Ended up with just under a 30 geese per day average in the basins. Wasnt there to take advantage of the late Juvie flights and was still setting up when the front edge started...they decoy almost as good as juvies.

When I started hunting around home it was about average on the killing side. But above average on flocks landed...we just had a period of afew days that we shot like complete morons. Had acouple 30 bird days that should have been twice that or better.

Doing quite afew things differently this year to keep the daily average where it needs to stay. I will also be in the basins from the start to the bitter end this year. Starting to wonder if 7 cases will be enough.

[akareddog]

below average

[Diver Mike]

With 10 years of CO notes and numbers, last year was down 11% for the number of days I spent afield. I would say average.

[NEHONKERS]

Average. A couple of above average days with not enough shooters.

[Hillbilly]

Below average. They blew through very quickly. The year before was a solid 6 weeks of hunting with some very good juvenile hunts late. Every year will be different depending on a multitude of factors.

[Catfishsteve]

There we go! I've added a poll so we can track this better! If you'va already voted, please go back and mark your choice in the poll above!

[J.D.]

Originally Posted by Diver Mike

With 10 years of CO notes and numbers, last year was down 11% for the number of days I spent afield. I would say average.

Nice - its good to see someone else that has actually been hunting the spring for a while. Do you have any records of your hunting on Feb. 13th 1999 (opening day). This was the day I believe that the most snows might have ever been harvested in a single day in Nebraska.

Most people only have the last few years to compare to so its hard for them to say if it was average or above average. They have no idea how good the hunting was back when the CO first started, or even before that when there was just a spring season that ended March 10th.

[south of 41]

feb 13 1999 warm 70s to be exact killed 17 birds

I like the next day better only in the 60s but we killed 34 birds that day.

I must of been hunting out of season if that was opening day cuz i have notes starting feb the 11th that year....

Wish they were as easy to hunt now as it was back then...

That year we only hunted 17 days but killed 210 birds our spread was about 3 to 400 tx rags'

Then their was march 11th 2006 a day I will never forget. Can still vision a monster flock of ross tornado
inside of 30 yards with 5 guns a blazin

Yep i have all my snow hunt logged

[J.D.]

South - I could be wrong on the date........I just remember it being opening day and the basins were stacked and had been for a week or so when the season opened. The birds were real relaxed.

[Catfishsteve]

Apparently you can't see the results of the poll until you vote. Some interesting numbers there at this point!

[Diver Mike]

I was by myself on openning day in 1999, it was Feb. 11, on the border of private lease that abuts public ground in York county. My scouting trip the day before was very prodcutive, found a good concentration of birds and since my vacation days were limited and I was going by myself I opted for a pass shoot that morning instead of deploying decoys.

When I arrived the wind was blowing from the north over 20 mph, when I opened my truck door it nearly blew off the hinges. I climbed into my chestwaders at shooting time and strung my bandolier over my head with 25 rounds and stuffed the shell loops full in my quad parka and had a few extras rolling around in my pockets.

The wind increased and light snow sleet started as I got into postion very near the fence line and laid myself down upon a muskrat house, birds were trading over my postion for at least 10 minutes before I took my first shot, almost a half hour past shooting time. The easiest legal birds to identify were the adult blues with their contrasting dark bodies and lite colored heads. Being 200 or more yards from the main concentration of birds the sounds of my shots hardly bothered the roosting birds and they served as my defacto decoy spread. Average shot that morning was 20-25 yards as I soon realized much past that and I was chasing wounded cripples thru the cattails or missing completely.

Flocks of every kind of waterfowl that morning flew over my postion, it was truly spectacular, pulling my gun up as I saw the birds approaching my position, some mere feet away from the end of my gun barrel.

I was out of shells in less than two hours and I broke my gamestrap on my way out of the marsh that morning. Shortly after I started home the sleet and snow turned to rain and roads were covered with ice. I had a new truck on order and just about wrecked once as I was going around another accident just east of Seward on Hwy 34, nearly taking out a "No Passing" sign on the shoulder.

Another buddy of mine hunted Pintail I believe that morning, same story, but he had other hunters to contend with, I was all by my lonesome with the trusty SBE, a day I will never forget.

My perusal of weather archives to follow, wind gusts to 45 MPH

Temperature:Mean Temperature30 °F / -1 °C 27 °F / -2 °C Max Temperature37 °F / 2 °C 38 °F / 3 °C 75 °F / 23 °C (1951)Min Temperature24 °F / -4 °C 16 °F / -8 °C -26 °F / -32 °C (1899)Degree Days:Heating Degree Days3439 Month to date heating degree days440 Since 1 July heating degree days4245 Cooling Degree Days00 Month to date cooling degree days0 Year to date cooling degree days0 Moistureew Point30 °F / -1 °C Average Humidity79 Maximum Humidity96 Minimum Humidity52 Precipitation:Precipitation0.23 in / 0.58 cm 0.02 in / 0.05 cm 1.74 in / 4.42 cm (1965)Month to date precipitation0.18 Year to date precipitation0.85 Snow:Snow0.00 in / 0.00 cm 0.20 in / 0.51 cm - ()Month to date snowfall2.2 Since 1 July snowfall17.1 Snow Depth1.00 in / 2.54 cm Sea Level Pressure:Sea Level Pressure29.94 in / 1014 hPa Wind:Wind Speed24 mph / 39 km/h (NNW) Max Wind Speed39 mph / 63 km/h Max Gust Speed45 mph / 72 km/h Visibility6 miles / 9 kilometers EventsFog , Rain , Snow T = Trace of Precipitation, MM = Missing ValueSource: NWS Daily Summary

[Diver Mike]

Feb 13, 1999



Actual:Average :Record :Temperature:Mean Temperature32 °F / 0 °C 28 °F / -2 °C Max Temperature45 °F / 7 °C 39 °F / 3 °C 70 °F / 21 °C (1967)Min Temperature18 °F / -7 °C 17 °F / -8 °C -26 °F / -32 °C (1905)

[BPbowhunter]

Originally Posted by Catfishsteve

Apparently you can't see the results of the poll until you vote. Some interesting numbers there at this point!

You can, you have to click on the see results link thing in the right hand bottom corner.

[kaiserduckhelm]

I remember that day.......We sat on 5 gallon buckets and shot them from a fence line with a hundred blue goose rags (snow on the ground).

I also remember the year before you couldn't use ecalls. Shot them over buckets cut in half and shopping bags tied to corn stalks. No big numbers but at 16 years old it was great.

Been at this since the start,...........above average year.

[mtgreenheads]

Was 1995 or 1996 the first year for spring hunts in NE?? Cant remember for sure....was reading this post and thinking about the good old days, spring break from the university of wyoming, hunting over 100 texas rags laid on the ground with a washer tied in the head and about 50 big white feed sacks for our supermags that would really draw the geese, a few of us even splurged for Big River snow goose calls. Im not too upset, but sometimes wish I had stayed in that "economy" style hunt....