I’ve helped with this DNR event for 10 of its 11 years. The event starts on Sunday at Schrader’s Hunting Lodge where the women spend the day learning about goose management, hunting safety, retriever dogs and so on. They also shoot clay birds to practice. The following day they travel to Chino Farms to split into groups to go with one of 5 hunting guides.
My main role has been to guide one party of women. We’ve had varied success over the years, but have gotten geese nearly every year. This year was spectacular with all the women and guides getting their two geese by noon, for a total of 44 geese.
The day started at 5:30 and at 11 degrees as the 5 guides went to their assigned blinds to set up decoys. We met our hunting parties at 7:30 and went out to the blinds. Our party did little at first so the main guy (Greg) called and moved us to a more successful spot. We did really well there with geese flying by nearly non-stop. We got our 6 geese in about 1.5 hours.
We then had a nice lunch, the women cleaned their geese and we all got on the road before a light snow/ice storm hit.