Weiner Arkansas is apparently the epicenter of rice growth
in the United States. Maybe not, I’m not
sure but I do know they are serious about producing rice. And anyone who is familiar with rice farming
or has the slightest notions of the concept knows flooded fields are a basic
requirement. Approaching Weiner the
first thing you will notice is a major push to create water retention. Another thing quickly noticed is the amount
of waterfowl habitat created as a side effect of the agricultural deployments
of said farming practices. Most of the
fields are drained in early February and the pumps are dormant silently waiting
on another planting season. On our trip recent heavy rains had an impact
leaving standing ponds and some fields completely covered with a few inches of
water. As we make our way from Memphis
to the sparsely populated area south of Jonesboro we continually gaze at the
clear horizon looking for our first view of flocks of geese. I expected the skies in Arkansas to be full
of the classic “V” formations of migrating birds traveling the North South
corridor as a part of the migration. I
clearly had a lot to learn about the snow goose and its tendencies.
My education of the Greater Snow Goose had started and would
be well earned. Back to Weiner which is
a small farming community of around 700 hardworking Americans. I’m quite sure
that population swells during duck season if the amount of pits and ground
blinds can be taken as an indication. We
arrived in the small town a few hours before sunset and cruised from one end of
town to the other in a matter of seconds.
We found our lodgings for the evening and went about the general area in
search of snow geese. The fields we
drove by had been vacant at this point and none spotted above either. We stopped by a gas station and filled up and
I asked the attendant “where’s the geese”. She replied I saw a bunch yesterday out near
Grubbs. We had a direction and set a
course which happened to run parallel to the Cache River. I’ve
now learned that snow geese fly with river systems. As we drove along the Cache River we found
the huge flocks of geese and many fields had active feeds going on. We headed back to our camp for the evening as
giddy as school kids with anticipation of the upcoming hunt.
A quick inventory of our gear and our thought’s turned to
the warmer than expected weather and the amount of standing water in the
fields. A trip to the home improvement
mecca provided the needed attire to meet these conditions. We purchased disposal white painters suits
and 2 gallon white painter’s buckets as gear totes. The last thing these good
ol boy’s want to do is lay in the mud all day then climb into pickup truck
covered in said mud. Disposal clothing
is a must in these conditions.
The 4am alarm clock came quicker than expected. It was a quick trip to the decoy layout and
we had to shift the spread to match wind conditions. The field we hunted had several different
decoy styles. Some as simple as cutouts
or socks and some motor driven flying in a circular motion. It didn’t take long for the action to
start. We had a single goose fly in 20’
from the ground out of a patch of fog and immediately we had our first “Snow
Down”.
Snow geese are considered a nuisance in much of the
heartland of the country. In many states
the regulations are relaxed and during a special snow goose season and you can
hunt with a free license and in some cases without a plug restricting ammo
capacity. Many hunters purchase extended
magazine tubes to enhance the experience.
Our first day in the field was a great experience with
mostly cloudy conditions and a low hanging fog.
We used an electronic calling system to lure the weary flocks in
closer. Many times birds would drop in
from out of nowhere for a peak at our decoy spread. It was not uncommon to harvest 4 or 5 birds
from these groups.
Day two we headed back to the same spread a found a much
clearer sky with higher flying geese. We
laid on our backs in the drying field and watched as the huge flocks of
migrating birds headed back North. The
geese seemed weary to the decoy spread and we spent many hours watching a
feeding frenzy in an adjacent flooded corn field. Thousands of snow geese and speckled belly
geese fed alongside many varieties of duck while we peered on with amazement
and wonder. Occasionally the masses
would rise up and fill us with great hope only to drop back down on the flooded
acreage. We speculated on how many geese
a man with somewhat average shooting skill could take from the area with one
shot. It would seem ten or twelve would
be easy from a sky that was dark from the circling waterfowl.
The last day of the hunt we moved to a duck pit located on
the banks of a large lake. It’s hard to
describe the amount of birds we saw heading to other feeding grounds from the
side of this large lake. Shots were far
between on the day but it’s something I will never forget. Imagine looking in the sky in any direction
and layer after layer of bird formations flying across the sky. All the birds were going in the same
direction north, but all with a different bearing. A slow rain began to fall and after a little
while turned into a steady downpour. We
eventually relocated back to our original field and killed a few more geese,
but I now had an idea of what barrel burning action could look like with the
right conditions.
This trip gave me a taste of the snow goose action and left
me wanting to return.
Shelby Byrd
