Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Chris Jennings: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Ducks on the podcast. I'm your host, Chris Jennings. Joining me on the show today for a light goose conservation order update is Jay Anglin. Jay, what's going on, man?
Jay Anglin: Oh, you know, up here just watching spring kick in on February 6th or 7th or whatever it is.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And you know, I just got my hands on your migration alert that you sent in that, uh, will probably be included in this podcast. You know, this thing's happening fast. It's a freight train right now. I think it's going to slow down a little bit. Uh, we've got some weather that's going to come in up North and, and really make them hit the brakes. But as far as the Mid-South, Arkansas, Louisiana, you know, some Texas, Mississippi, obviously we are seeing birds leaving as fast as they can. What are you hearing on the ground?

Jay Anglin: So, yeah, that's what I'm hearing. And, you know, per that alert, as well as just my normal, you know, contacts, you know, for the last few days, you know, it's literally scouting is okay, but almost borderline useless some days because they're moving so quickly. You know, that leapfrog thing they do when they do these big feeds up through Arkansas and Missouri, Illinois. I mean, they're just leapfrogging each other. And then all of a sudden they just blast off. And, uh, You know, I'm hearing all, I mean, I've seen some snows around here. Actually, I'm right on the state line of Michigan and Indiana. I've seen a handful, you know, poking around and really we lost most of our specs already. So I'm assuming they moved to the Northwest. It's pretty remarkable. It's a real hard push. And what I find really interesting, and it's not unprecedented over the last few years, frankly, but there's an excellent mix of juveniles mixed in with these leading edge birds. You know, everybody always talks about that. And I mentioned it in the alert is And in this year, you know, a lot of the guys I talked to are like, man, I'm seeing so many Juvies. And so the old steadfast rule that we had for years where the lead birds were the toughest, I mean, yeah, sure. They're going to be that tough adults, but boy, there's plenty of juveniles, you know, mixed in. So that's going to make life a little easier for guys that are just kind of you know, shaking the dust off those socks and getting ready to hunt way north further than they would normally, you know, earlier than they normally would.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, you know, and I even saw, you know, Habitat Flats posted, you know, up there, he opened up some earlier dates. He's picking up so many birds. And also in your alert, you mentioned that, you know, Lois Bluff, formerly, uh, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. It is holding 500,000 snow geese right now.

Jay Anglin: Yeah. And I did get, I did speak to a guide yesterday who drove by on his way South because, uh, you know, he's, he wasn't expected to go down and for another week or two. And he mentioned the fact that he drove by and he said, look, comparing it to years past, it looked more like seven or eight to me. So, you know, I, I mean, they're, they're, they're, and Tony Vandermore mentioned that when I spoke to him about, you know, over at Habitat Flats. They're just moving through rapidly. So, um, you know, everybody from Southern Illinois all the way up is probably hoping they kind of just slow the roll a little bit. Um, and you know, typically they do, but this year, boy, they really are in a hurry. That's for sure.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. You know, and w you know, we're sitting around here and looking at that 10 day forecast in this area and it is staying warm. There's really nothing that's going to stop these birds. Now you'll always have, you know, as we've, we've discussed on and off the podcast, you'll always have those late migrants, those late juvie flocks, you know, maybe the Ross's geese will be hanging out in Mississippi and, and you'll see those probably at their typical time, but you know, everything else is going to be North of Arkansas, uh, pretty quick. Would you agree with that?

Jay Anglin: Absolutely. Um, uh, you know, a couple of my Arkansas contacts, um, who are currently guiding, you know, as we speak, they're texting me actively throughout the day. And they're like, you know, I'm watching this thing just roll, just like, you know, like a feed we saw yesterday with a hundred thousand birds, roughly in two sections is gone. And, you know, they're being replaced by smaller numbers, which might make life easier for, you know, the guides, you know, but bottom line is, you know, you're, you're talking all the way in, you know, North Central Illinois, Northwest Missouri, You know, Iowa, they're seeing a few in South Dakota already. Of course, Nebraska is stacked already. You know, I didn't go there with the alert, but, you know, Indiana usually comes in and it kind of has a sleeper in January and February, and they're just draining out of there as fast as they, you know, they might stop for a day or so and then just roll out. So it's pretty remarkable, it really is.

Chris Jennings: Yeah, you were kind of talking about Iowa, Nebraska, Northern Illinois. I mean, those are the winners in this type of situation, correct? The hunters that are hunting those areas. What would be your recommendation for someone who would call you and be like, hey, man, I want to go snow goose hunting. Where should I go?

Jay Anglin: Yeah, you know, that's a tough one. And I don't want to, you know, deny a guy's business in other areas because it could be tough for some of the guys further south that are kind of dedicated to those areas. You know, Illinois, you can't go wrong in Illinois, really. It's a huge funnel. And of course, we all know Missouri has, you know, kind of this polar, you know, they're all over the place, but really that northwest and north central down into that southeast area is good. And of course, northeast Arkansas would always, you know, have hunts, you know, that are cranking for the next couple of weeks. But the reality of it is, it sounds like Nebraska and Northwest Missouri are poised to really pick up the bulk of the birds in a week or two early, if not even two weeks or three weeks early. Um, I'm, I'm leaving tonight. I'm headed to Northwest Missouri and I could have gone anywhere. So maybe it's a bad call. Maybe it isn't, but we'll find out soon enough and I'm not going to miss it.

Chris Jennings: I'll be on my way. Chasing them. That's awesome, man. I'm jealous. Uh, you know, where I hunted the youth weekend last weekend, uh, my place over in Arkansas, we've had consistent massive numbers of geese. And I think we counted 16 total snow geese on our farm. So. Uh, they, they have definitely left that area. Um, you know, while I've got you on here, you know, let's do maybe a couple of quick hitting tips, maybe some tactics here. Uh, just a couple of questions for you. What is your go-to spread look like? If you could basically pull one out of your hat right now in Northwest Missouri, you know, how are you setting your Snogu spread?

Jay Anglin: Well, first of all, excuse me, time constraints for us. And frankly, you know, just the sheer exhaustion of driving, you know, eight or 10 hours one way with a relatively small crew. We hunt traffic. Typically we're getting under a major migration corridor in this case. We do it every year in this spot. And so what we would do is put out a permanent full body spread on a wetland. Like this is in this particular case, it's a wetland reserve. That's, you know, surrounded by grass, and this year it was actually hayed, emergency hayed, so it's nice low green grass with a lot of floaters. And then we'll bulk that up with socks. But what we always do, so in that case we'll have probably 1,200 to 2,000 decoys out. And then what we'll do is we'll keep about 800, you know, 6 to 800 socks in totes. And so if we do chance upon an awesome feed, you know, within a reasonable distance that we get into, we can go do that, you know, and hit them in the morning and then go back to our other spread. It's pretty slick actually. You know, there's always a big debate about socks or full body, socks or full body, socks or full body. And it seems like every other year, you know, a guy discovers full bodies and says, oh man, you just run 250 of these and you're good. But I think at the end of the day, there's so many more variables with snow geese. The height is incredibly, as we all know, incredibly important. Uh, and then, uh, obviously you gotta watch for stupid stuff like shadows, long blinds, and, and, uh, you know, flashing, you know, guys wearing, you know, mirrored sunglasses that are pinging off, you know, the sun's pinging off them. Things like that, you know, are kind of a deal breaker sometimes. And we all know if there's something that they can find, you know, it kind of reminds me of musky fishing. If they can find one thing wrong with your rig, they will exploit it. And snow geese certainly are the same way, you know.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of eyes looking down and, uh, you know, it definitely adds to the, the difficulty of, of decoying, especially this early. Like you mentioned, you're seeing a lot of, or people are reporting a lot of juveniles in some of these early flights. Um, but when you've got five, 10,000 adult birds, some of them 20 plus years old, um, it, all it takes is something as simple, like you mentioned, the sunglasses or, uh, You know, just a sun shining off of a shotgun shell, the brass of the shell, you know, something like that can just ruin the whole day. You kind of alluded to it, but… we're going into it and kind of led into my next question, but are you guys in layouts? Are you hunting A-frames? Are you sitting in the spread and whites? Like what's your, uh, what's your, your choice there?

Jay Anglin: So layout blinds work great in the right cover, of course, and they're comfortable, relatively comfortable. A-frames are super popular and I've been hunting out of both the last few years. Um, you know, A-frames. It's kind of like, it's one of those, the more, the merrier thing. If you have one, it's not done, looks so good. Two looks okay and three looks great. So you can kind of become more like blend into the terrain. So, um, and of course, you know, grassed or whatever with the, you know, the matching the surrounding area, the best you can. This year, uh, I'll be in a pit most of the time. And, uh, of course that's the ultimate. I was going to say, that's pretty fancy there. Yeah, it's a really nice one, and we're completely enclosed, and all those silly things you worry about will pretty much be mitigated as far as heads popping out of blinds and dudes staring straight up out of an A-frame, for example. So we're doing that, but I'll be honest with you, my absolute favorite way to hunt them is to get in the decoys. Lay down, it works great. Birds seem to finish a lot better in those situations where you're underneath the decoys. under some tall stake, you know, socks. And there's just something cool about it where you just lean up and they're right there, you know, you're just out in the open. And I love turkey hunting the same way. So maybe that's why I like it so much, but it kind of brings me back to when I learned how to field hunt when I was a kid. And, you know, we had burlap sacks and, you know, we'd take indoor, outdoor carpet in September and lay on our backs with a blind bag or a pillow or whatever. And it's kind of the same thing, you know, it's cool.

Chris Jennings: Yeah. No, that's, that's a great way to do it. That's how I would prefer. Um, last question and I'll get you out of here. You know, what's your go-to snow goose load?

Jay Anglin: So actually, uh, this morning I, uh, acquired three cases of three inch mag ones. These were an ounce and an eighth, I think. I actually prefer the ounce and a quarter a little bit. I like something that was in that 1400 to 1500 range, you know, FPS. But today I found some ones, and ones are my absolute favorite. They're a good compromise, obviously, between tunes and BBs. Um, of course, you know, if it's an ammo issue, I'll shoot anything, you know, shoot fours or whatever I have, you know, it really depends on that. If you're finishing birds, you know, if you're in a big group and you got a guy calling a shot at, uh, kind of pushing a little bit, obviously BBs are much more appropriate, but, uh, yeah, ones are my absolute favorite for snows.

Chris Jennings: Now, are you changing your choke out or no?

Jay Anglin: Um, you know, with steel, I just run a wad stripper. In my case, I've got a pattern master on my Benelli on my snow goose gun, but, um, Mod works pretty good factory mod. And, uh, you know, if you're shooting one of the, the bismuth loads last year, actually, I shot a Turkey choke with bismuth and that worked really good.

Chris Jennings: Taking those extra long shots there. I got out of feeling you're probably trying to reach out and touch something with that.

Jay Anglin: Well, I was a flanker and, uh, kind of the mop up guy, you know? And so I was like, okay, we can do this. And I pulled out the good stuff. So it worked pretty well.

Chris Jennings: Awesome, man. Well, cool. I appreciate this quick little update, uh, kind of give people a little taste of some snow goose hunting right now. Uh, there's some winners, there's some losers in all this with the, uh, basically a freight train of snow geese moving North for spring migration and, uh, going to need some weather to stop them or send them South again. And I'm not seeing it in our forecast right now, but I'm kind of hearing some rumbles. Um, Hey man, I really appreciate you joining me before I get you out of here. One last question. How's the fishing, man?

Jay Anglin: Well, I'll tell you, I'm standing in a ice cold steelhead stream as we speak. And, uh, we're going to find out here shortly, but it's been pretty good because the same principles that apply to snow goose migration apply to the spring spawning run of steelhead. So, uh, we had a lot of snow and melted off. We had some rain, the river looks great. There's plenty of fish and, uh, water temps are coming up. So game on, man. Awesome. Enjoy.

Chris Jennings: We'll do. Take care folks. Later, man. I'd like to thank my guest, Jay Anglin, for taking some time to join us on the DU podcast today, talking about some snow goose hunting and where are the snow geese during the spring migration. I'd like to thank our producer, Chris Isaac, for putting the show together and getting it out to you. And I'd like to thank you, the listener, for joining us on the DU podcast and supporting wetlands conservation.