News & Photo Gallery
Crazy Midwest Weather to Close out 2010
By Casey Self, CEO Tribal Outdoors & Team Fowl Pursuit
12/30/2010
In a year where killing mallards came as easy as pennies in the local water fountain, the honker hunting has came with a lot of hard days in the field with very smart geese. The number of hunters this year has more then doubled this year and with that comes more pressure on already smart geese. We have found ourselves each week pulling a rabbit out of the hat with different decoy patterns and making at least a couple of changes each day to roll with the punches. As if smart geese weren't enough, mother nature has thrown her best shot at us as well with sub zero temps, a dry enough fall where farmers could chizzle plow all their corn fields making it very tough to hide, and the occasional Kansas 50 degrees and 40 mph winds thawing out ponds over night changing every pattern that we thought we figured out. There was one particular freak warm snap like this after a big sub zero cold period that I want to share with you, as we used our years of goose knowledge to put a plan together, but mother nature had a hole other idea. The story starts 3 days before the close of 2010 after what seamed like a month where 20 degree's would feel like weather for shorts and a t-shirt. Close friend and teammate Shawn Stahl was down hunting in Northern Missouri with my buddy Tyson Stark when they called to see if me and mr. No Right Turn Smolen wanted to join them for a corn field hunt that was holding over a thousand big honks in it. Without hesitation I pulled a vacation day and Ben and I headed out for a short road trip. The weather was calling for mild cold temps and 20 mph winds, but when we showed up at the hotel at 7am we found that the weather men were way off and it was already 45 degree's out side. Shedding clothes and hustling to the field we pulled out into the heavily terraced corn field where stalks were blowing across the field so fast that you could barely walk into the wind without getting smacked in the face. This would be the start to a day I knew would be a challenge, first because it was way too warm for geese to want to sit in a corn field, and secondly because the wind was blowing 35 mph with 40 mph gust and I knew keeping decoys from blowing over would be a huge challenge. Before we knew it was 830am and we still hadn't set the first decoy trying to figure out the best spot in the field to get out of the wind and hide 8 guys and a camera man. Finally we settled on the front side of a large terrace on the downside of a hill with the strong winds to our back coming out of the south. We chose to set mostly shell decoys and putting primarily every full body on the ground because they looked like bobble heads on the stakes. Since we were in a hurry we used my newly found favorite plan of putting 3 guys on brushing blinds while the other 5 set deeks and we were ready to go in less then 45 minutes with fully brushed blinds and decoys set to precision. 930am came and we started seeing flocks erupt out of the roost, and although most of them were looking for water and grass to munch on, we started picking away by aggressively calling and being patient. The first flock came from about 100 yards high dropping strait down like a hairier not even moving forward an inch using the wind as its advantage, when they got to about 3 feet off the ground and 10 feet out, Stahl yelled out SHOOTEM and 7 birds hit the ground. The funniest thing was with the wind blowing like it was almost every goose was pushed about 100 yards before it hit the ground, making for some long retrieves by Trace (Stahl's black lab). After the first group we thought the day was going to be gravy. However it wasn't the case, we soon learned that the honkers wanted to land about 100 yards behind us and since we forgot our flag in the truck, the next hour and a half would be challenging. However after going through everything but the kitchen sink on calling techniques we finally started really leaning on them and getting them to drop in. One group of 3 fell right into our lap and right as we sat up to shoot I noticed a leg iron on the gooses right leg, and you better believe he was the only goose that was even shot at. Soon after we ended the morning with our 24th big honker and we were all smiles taking pictures and laughing it up in the sunny 65 degree weather this coming a day after the high was 17 degrees. The band went out to Tyson's buddy Matt who had permission on the field.
New Years Eve aka crazy weather part 2: Stahl headed back home to celebrate New Years with his family and we decided to give it one more shot for 2010. Just when we thought 65 degree weather and 40mph winds that opened every single pond and water shed the eye could see we were thrown one more curve ball. Ben and I were licking our chops looking at a farm pond that was holding about 300 honkers during the day and with a similar forecast of highs in the 50s and sunny we set the game plan to get the water spread out in the morning to close out 2010. Knowing it would be a good and warm hunt, we called on my nephew J.D. who is on his 2nd season hunting and has stepped up to shooting a 12 gauge this year at the age of 14. Knowing it would be 40 degree's in the morning I woke up in the morning not even putting on long underwear and only packing a hoody and my breathable waders so I didn’t sweat to death. When I left the house at 530am I was surprised to see it was not only raining, but it was pouring down rain and lightning. I left the house hoping the rain would cut off before we started setting up and just happened to look up at my temp gauge in my truck to see that it was only 29 degrees. Shocked by the temps I sent J.D. back into the house when I picked him up to grab his thicker coat. Driving out we both were wondering if we were in for a wet and cold day when all of a sudden the temp dropped 25 degree's and the pouring rain changed immediately to freezing rain and sleet and we were quickly putting my Ram in 4x4 mode as we plowed through more then an inch of ice on the roads. When I got to Ben's it had luckily stopped raining/sleeting but knowing I would be freezing my tail off I borrowed some more clothes from Ben and we headed to the pond thinking how we probably weren't in for the best pond hunt when it was shaping up to be a day when birds would want to feed hard. We decided to stick with the plan since we didn't have a back up plan and got to the pond and started setting up, we kicked a few dozen birds off that were sitting on the pond and by about day break we had our 3 dozen floaters out and about 4 dozen full bodies surrounding our heavily grassed blinds on this cow pasture. The sleet continued but hey, sleet is way better then sitting in the rain, and we got a chance to all try out our new Tribal Outdoors Timber Jackets that are 100% waterproof. Normally in Kansas when its warm and sunny geese just love coming into these cattle ponds and loafing in the grass and it makes for some of the easiest hunting you can find. However on a day when the high is 30 degree's and it’s a low cloud cover after some sleet and freezing rain these birds wanted to eat corn. However sometimes you get lucky with singles and pairs who get lost and then if you wait long enough the birds will leave the grain to get them a mid day drink so we figured we'd be ok if we waited it out. The first flock of 3 big big honks came over the tree's at about 8am and with me only giving them a few lonely moans with my RNT G3 they cupped up and came on a string heading right for the kill hole, I whispered over to J.D. to get ready and when I yelled killem we had 3 dead honkers 10 feet from the edge of the blinds. After giving my nephew a big high five he was grinning from ear to ear while he reloaded my SBE II with 3 inch 2 shot and we watched Ben's black lab Daisy bring back the birds. After about 2 hours of similar results we picked off our 4 man limit of mostly all singles, pairs, and one group of 7 and were soon picking up decoys and taking pictures. Going to miss 2010 to close out the best duck season I've ever recorded, but here is to 2011, may the limits and bands be plentiful!!!
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Starting 2010 Season with a Bang
By Casey Self, CEO Tribal Outdoors & Team Fowl Pursuit
10/22/2010
Early Season is in full swing now and I was fortunate enough to go up and hunt with my long time friend and RNT teammate Shawn Stahl at his goose camp for 5 days in early October along with Missouri's Tyson Stark, Avery's Keith Allen of Missouri, and Iowa's Ben Waples. Unusual warm temps kept waterfowl numbers down, but that wouldn’t stop us as we put on hundreds of miles with 2 or 3 vehicles scouting each night. We struggled each day to find the perfect X but somehow we prevailed and came out with some great opportunities for both early season mallards and big honkers. The first morning was a wheat field chalked full of mallards and a handful of cacklers. We got in early to set up as we knew the mallards would come out for grain at first light and boy was that an understatement. 20 minutes before shooting time as we were finishing up the last minute blind brushing and decoy placement, groups exceeding 100-200 mallards back flapped into the decoys within throwing knife distance. It was 10 minutes before shooting time when someone realized we were set up with 6 blinds when we needed 7. Tyson Stark out of MO was the unlucky candidate that headed back to Stahl's trailer to get the extra power hunter. As he headed back to the truck we sat there in awe of the mass waves of mallards building and building into one huge flock as they swarmed us like bee's. At 7:05 (legal shooting time) we looked back to see where Tyson was and with him still being a few hundred yards away we decided to try and wait just a little longer. Finally at 7:15 Phil (a friend from Kentukey) who had been hunting the area the previous couple days pled his case to "start in on em" before it was too late. With that said we gave one last look for Tyson and as he was still too far away, we hit the ducks with one lonesome hen note from the acrylic Daisey Cutter and as early season ducks normally do, they bowed up right in the pocket finishing over 200 mallards at 10 feet or less, Stahl pipes up "SHOOTEM". For me I had yet to squeeze the trigger on anything other then a clay target so when I popped out of the blind I had to pause for what seemed like a year as I watched the mallards trying to escape out of our spread, thinking to myself this is a great way to start the season. The pause was soon taken over by my killer instinct following 18 quick blast among 6 men emptying their shotguns. This was a very calm morning and like ducks in the timber we had all day to shoot as they scurried to catch air and get out of there. I watched in awe as over 15 ducks fell from the sky. The smoke hadn't even cleared yet when Ben yelled out, "RELOAD here comes more" barley getting the doors closed on my Finisher blind another 100 pack came barreling into the spread, and before I knew it 4 different flocks had finished with similar results in a row before Tyson was into his blind. After some good ribbing to him for what he had to watch in pain from a hundred yards away, we soon finished out a 8 man limit of Mallards making for one of the best duck hunts of my life and some amazing footage for the 9th addtion to Stahl's Fowl Pursuit line up. (see pics below)
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Triple Honkers
By Shawn Stahl
10/15/2010
It was our first hunt of the year. Trace was a little amped up and developed a little case of "break-itus" Breaking dogs are a major pet peeve of mine, so the right thing to do was to put the gun down and do a little dog training.
Once everyone else got done shooting their birds, I handed my Tri-Tronics remote over to Blair to keep a watchful eye over young Trace. You see I still had three birds to go on my limit. The original plan was I would shoot three singles, BUT a huge mondo wad of geese came out. Normally on the first day we wouldn't burn a big bunch, but the field was to be plowed any day and we really wanted them to move to a field we could drive into......Good location, a little magic on the G3, good hide, some seductive FFD imposters and great memories with good friends....Welcome to FP9 "It's All Good"
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OLD FOWL PURSUIT NEWS
Deuce Goes Big Air
By Shawn Stahl
Team Fowl Pursuit's head retriever 'Deuce' goes Big Air at the Dock Dogs Great Lakes Regional held at the Grand Rapids Sport, Fish and RV Show. Competitors from all across the Midwest, including MN, WI, MI and Ohio showed up for the event. Winning a preliminary heat on Friday night with a jump of 19'8" ranked Deuce first in the senior division, and 6th in the Open Division for Sunday's finals. [FULL STORY]History in the Making
By Bob Alfieri
2004 marks the 100th or Centennial Anniversary of the Jack Miner Sanctuary. GK calls is proud to announce its joint venture with Kirk Miner, grandson of Jack and director of the foundation. Together the two have teamed up to create a once in a lifetime offer never to be duplicated. A limited edition Jack Miner signature series goose call. [FULL STORY]
