We took another trip out to Eastern Colorado to gather up a goose, a couple of drake mallards and topped it off with a few elusive pheasants.
To start our adventure, we set up on the South Platte River where there was no ice and the current was just a nice slow trickle from the help of a local beaver. Shortly after the set up, consisting of one and a half duck decoys and about four dozen goose shells, we heard roosting geese a little ways down stream and had fairly large groups moving around out of range above the tree tops. Once the roosting geese got up they flew upstream and one lucky man was able to have one drop on the other side of the blind. The other geese just didn’t quite give it up enough to have an opportunity but we sure did see a lot of birds and the majority of them ended up being snows.
After lunch, we checked out more of the river and found a large group of ducks and geese hanging out only a few miles from our first set up. The decision was made to give it another shot and we set up again on the Platte. This section of the river was ninety percent frozen and the current was heavy. About a half hour passed and the ducks began to show back up in small groups. Having a limited shooting area, due to the ice, we were only able to get two drakes and the geese didn’t commit enough until after shooting hours when they were flying 15 feet over our heads while picking up and once we finished they were landing, of course.
The next day the boot tread met the field and we pushed for the end of the season wily pheasants. Fortunately enough, a few ended up flushing right in the heart of a nicely patterned gun and in the vest they went. There were hundreds of hens and most of the roosters ended up getting up at the end of the field before there was even a chance, even with a blocker. We also ended up flushing a couple of small mule deer bucks and saw a few white tails as well.
All in all, Colorado goose, duck and pheasant hunting are a blast and even when you do not win them all it’s still fun!!!
