On the board

By Mac Arnold

ROA photos by Mac Arnold

Sometimes it's all about the shirt.
The lucky shirt was on my back for 
a timely kill in the goose backwaters.

ROA Editor

With the sun easing between the orange-lined clouds and the tops of the reeds, a wispy fog lifted and as predicted with a southwest wind, the honkers came off the pond and right into my lap.

It wasn't the crazy formations of 20 and 30 that had taken off the previous week but three would do.

OK, how about one?

Finally I was able to put enough double BBs into one of those tough buggers on the final day of the early nuisance goose season in Monroe County, Mich.

It headed straight to the ground. But the fun had only begun.

The mark I had locked in my memory banks of where it fell was not as solid as I had thought. After three or four patrols into the marsh without the goose left me soaked and miserable as a wet cat.

All would have been for naught had I a dog ready for prime time. (Augie the black Lab is still months away from making a difference.)

But walking circles through smelly muck was well worth it.

I can't ever recall tracking as
long as I did for a goose or
any other game animal that
was so close to my setup.

Piles of geese are often commonplace this time of year on some of my friends' pages and other sites on Facebook since the daily limit is five per person.

A couple of these friends live the glory and actually are goose guides.

As for this country boy, who basically walks out the back door to the pond, I'm still using the same OLT goose call and G&H shell decoys that I bought in the 1990s. So any in the game bag is greatly appreciated.

However, this could change with the sweet setup I have going on ... at least while it lasts until the eventual progress takes over. And on the sooner horizon, when deer season begins and conflicts priorities.

The regular waterfowl season, which includes a quickie three-day rehearsal on geese Sept. 20-22, kicks off Oct. 11 and runs until Dec. 7, so I'm sure this story won't end here. Hopefully it will include a few ducks as well.

At least the dreaded goose egg, so to speak, has been removed, and I'm finally on the board.

Yep, one will do, for now.