'Goosed' so far for 2014

ROA photos by Mac Arnold

Well, maybe I can't knock down any Canada geese but at

least I look the part. But there is plenty of season left.

By Mac Arnold
ROA Editor

This season more than ever has "goosed" me.

Probably because the access to the spot in Monroe County, Mich., is ... well ... effortless or so I thought.

For the most part I've been outsmarted the four days I've been on point. I missed two shots Thursday, Sept. 4, and two more Friday, Sept. 5.

But the craziest part happened after Thursday's hunt. Led by a tip from my "scout" in an upstairs window, I was basically told don't look now but there was a blue boy parked a few yards over from where I was, "and they have dogs!" She even texted the photo of it to me for proof. Bigger than you know what, there they were.

Yikes!

I remembered one of my dearest friends when we were mere second-graders jumping up and down on desks while being chased around the classroom by our elderly teacher, shouting, "What did I do? What did I do?" This is exactly how I felt but you know what? I didn't feel like finding out by having a couple of state troopers slip silently in on me with guns drawn, so with it being 9:30 a.m. anyway and the stifling heat of late summer coming on, I packed it in.

It was irritating no less because of all the precautionary work I did to get written permission, making sure I had legal distances from houses and obviously the proper hunting tags. But away I skulked much like a buck who has been pushed from his territory.

Later, after a closer look from the crow's nest myself, it appeared the troopers were actually conducting dog training.

This is a total "It happened to me story." No way could I make this up.

Anyway I decided to zoom over on the 4-wheeler (another excuse to use the quad, oh yeah) and just find out for myself.

Sure enough, after talking with the state boys, that's exactly what they were doing: dog training. The goon-sized one even asked, "Did you get anything?" Sadly, I had to confess no.

But the best part of the ordeal was I could talk over the distances from the houses (have to be 450 feet away) because the hunting area does have another nearby subdivision. And I was told, "Nope, you're good but we'll probably get calls anyway."

Stay tuned.

Despite midday heat, I was

still able to land a nice bass.