Finally...a BIG cold front

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2007/11/14 11:59:05 (permalink)

Finally...a BIG cold front

If you guys can get out tomorrow, it ought to be a great day.  60 degrees today and winds along with cold temps, NW winds howling, and snow tomorrow.
 
Birds will be on the move.
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    IUP30
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/14 13:08:43 (permalink)
    Looks like Friday will be the day for me -- a co-worker and I are discussing where we are heading for a morning hunt and then head into the office.  We were thinking Pymy...where you headed?
    #2
    Guest
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/14 14:21:57 (permalink)
    Gonna hit a 4 acre farm pond in Southern Butler Co. tomorrow & Friday morning before work.  There have been close to 1,000 geese and a couple dozen mallards on two adjoining properties (that I don't have permission to hunt) the past 2 weeks.  Been a couple years since there have been this many around for the start of the season in the south zone where I hunt.  More hopeful for a good year than I have been for awhile. 
    #3
    Wally Cat
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/14 17:05:57 (permalink)
    With the far north finally getting some cold wet weather the next week or so should push a lot of birds south. Your favorite pond will no doubt be visited by some new birds soon.

    Enjoy Life, Be Happy, Go Fish - Often!

    "God has blessed America - may He continue to do so, even though we are not worthy of it".
    Author..... Wally Cat
    #4
    crappiefisher
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/14 19:11:16 (permalink)
      If I can get my butt out of bed in the morn. I'll prob. hit a farm pond within walkin dist. by myself. I can hunt till 12:30 every morn. but can't get into it goin by myself. Takin the kids out on Sat. I hope.
    #5
    Storm Warning 2
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 09:15:36 (permalink)
    Looks like the weather man nuts that up again.  Its 38 degrees, no wind, and lots of rain.  Not near the morning I was hoping for.
     
    I think IUP is right, tomorrow may be the day with an increased NW upper level flow and maybe snow.
     
    Pymy might not be bad, but still very low on the water level.  I was thinking more east of there...
     
    Divers should show there faces soon, butterballs, some ringbills, a few bills, and a smattering of redheads.
     
     
    #6
    Ax
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 09:20:54 (permalink)
    Thinking of going to Pymy tomorrow also.  Need a day off work.  Might be a good day to draw for a blind too.  Maybe the snow will keep some guys away lol.
     
    IUP30 where you plan on hunting at Pymy.  I will be with my father but if you want to get togther maybe we can meet up.  We have 6-7 dozen decoys and 3 layout blinds.  Should be a good day.
    #7
    IUP30
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 09:36:10 (permalink)
    Ax - actually, I've never hunted or even fished Pymy before but I'd be going with a guy I work with who knows the area a little better.  We'd be hunting out of my boat most likely since I have a pop-up blind that I made.  Here's a pic of it during early season goose before the reeds behind us turned (we kinda stuck out a little that day but still killed). 
     

     

     
    With the wind and my boat, we'll probably be hunting the north area of the lake.  We've got a layout boat too that we might use -- just not sure yet.  How do you hunt there Ax with the layout blinds -- just up against shoreline with the dekes out front or are you talking goose??
    #8
    Ax
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 10:54:58 (permalink)
    We usually hunt the fields around the management area.  Or I know a few other private fields that geese use too.  I have never hunted them from a boat.
     
    But your set up sure does look sweet.
    #9
    IUP30
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 11:06:16 (permalink)
    Thanks! 
     
    I'm mainly a duck guy but have been getting more into goose now too.  I've got a layout that I've not used yet and just got some shell decoys also for field hunting.  The guy I hunt with from work has a trailer full of full-body dekes and shells for field hunting the geese -- just looking for the time to get after them. 
     
    We were mainly going to Pymy for the ducks but I'll go for anything....Have you been doing any scouting down there?
    #10
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 13:05:40 (permalink)
    All I can say is WOW!  At 7:45 flocks of 50-75 geese started coming off the cut corn 1/2 mile away and right over my head.  Steady flights till 8:00.  I would guess easily over 1,000.  Only problem was, they were headed to a little bigger lake about 1/4 mile further west of the lake I was on and the real birds outnumbered my decoys by a wide margin.  Managed to call in a smaller flock & whiffed.  Saw lots of ducks this morning, with one whiff on a pair that buzzed my dekes early.  Also saw two flocks of snow geese flying REAL high.  Have only seen them once or twice in my neck of the woods before.  Awesome morning to be out.  Only thing better would have been to take a couple home.  Oh well, maybe I'll head back out for the evening flight. 
    #11
    startinout
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 13:25:02 (permalink)
    I can't say I've seen many snow geese, but I hear numerous flocks fly overhead while I'm in my treestand.  They must be REAL high. 
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    Ax
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 14:52:07 (permalink)
    All the snows I have ever seen are always real high.  I remember about 7-8 years ago hunting for deer in the ANF seeing thousans upon thousands of them fly over about 2 miles high.  Even when hunting at Pymy they always fly high.  Cant say I have eveer seen any snows on the ground in PA.  Hopefully tomorrow that will change though lol.
     
    Any one know how the blinds at Pymy have been doing?  Are there many no shows?  I am gonna try and draw an unclaimed blind tomorrow and then if i dont I will be hunting in the fields right across from the management area.  I was there the first day and we had geese trying to land all day long.  But unfortunately all the other guys around would shoot before they hit the ground. 
    #13
    Storm Warning 2
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/15 15:36:38 (permalink)
    Startinout...What you are hearing is Swans.  There were a bunch that moved through this am.  There was a flock of about 75 on Conneaut Lake this am.  There are never many snows that come through NW PA, a TON of swans but VERY few snows.  We are just not in their flyway.  There are a ton of snows east of us and many well west of us, very, very few through here.  I whiffed on one two years ago, but that was the only one I have ever had near range.  There were 2 or 3 I belive shot at the Goose Mgmt. area last year. 
     
     
    IUP pm me ASAP.  I think I've got a hunt to put you on.
     
     
    #14
    wilbur_83
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/16 09:21:12 (permalink)
    Yup - Swans...
     
    You guys are lucky...RSQUARED...Sitting here at work reading that....
     
    You going tomorrow?
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/16 14:05:39 (permalink)
    This morning wasn't near as good as I'd hoped.  Missed a goldeneye that slid in like an F-18.  Had a pair of mallards or blacks cup up early and flared on the outside edge...I hate judging distance in the early light.  Had a flock of mallards drop from the heavens but flared about 10 yards out of range and landed 100 yards or so to our south and had a few more fly bys, but not anything like I had expected.  Very few divers, very few geese...no geese remotely close.
     
     
    #16
    creel
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/16 15:45:42 (permalink)
    Storm, I know what you mean about judging distance in the early light, a guy I used to hunt with up Pymy always said birds don't die unless bb's fly, I still think about that when I am up there, I didn't make it up last year, but plan on making it up a couple times this year, we are talking about maybe Monday.  Good luck this year.  John

    thats a good fish, they are all good, some are gooder than others
    #17
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/16 17:27:29 (permalink)
    Hmmm, now that I think of it, those snows I thought I saw might have been swans.  Very strange call - kinda more owl-like than goose-like, and not very vocal at all.  Seems to match up with what I've seen on a few hunting shows a few years back.  Maybe one or two called while they were flying over.  They were so high, all I knew was that they were white. 
     
    Got out in the evening Thursday with a friend and his 14 year old son.  Had probably 200 geese ignore us, and I was working two mallards for the boy that flared at the last second with no shot for him.  He ended up with 2 geese that we flushed off the pond for him.  Happy birthday to him. 
     
    This morning was a completely different story than yesterday.  Got to the same spot at 7:45 and saw maybe only 3 dozen geese and no ducks.  Drove past where they were all landing yesterday, and very few there.  Must have been most of the local birds heading south yesterday.  Going away for the weekend for work.  See what's cookin' early next week. 
    #18
    IUP30
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    RE: Finally...a BIG cold front 2007/11/16 20:35:55 (permalink)
    We didn't do that great either...hunted the marsh in a new location for my hunting partner (I'd never hunted the marsh before).  We had some birds in range and probably could have shot but they were working the decoys and then buzzed off -- must have not liked something.  Oh well...we'll be hunting the peninsula tomorrow morning and should be gunning out of the layout boat.  Just waiting on the phone call...
     
    Good luck tomorrow guys.
    #19
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