Male: It’s 5 am, hours before the sun rises. The sleepy kids being ferried in that truck managed to keep their eyes wide open once they’re snug in their blinds, there’s time for a nap. The serenade of geese in early morning is music to one’s ears.
Kevin: It’s like being out of the woods and hearing that elk bugle first thing in the morning. It’s the same thing when you’re out there in the dark and you hear those geese coming in and you see those big flights.
Male: About the only thing that could get the kids out of their warm sleeping bags this early is the second annual Sabola youth goose hunt.
Chris: Oh, the goose hunt started 2007, as approach by the property manager of Sabola refuge to lend a hand finding some guys that wouldn’t mind helping take some kids goose hunting.
Kevin: It’s very important to have the youth involve in the outdoors, you know, it’s the overall experience of spending a day in the field with a young child. But, you know, beyond that, it’s, this kids are our future, you know, in 20 years, these are gonna be the kids who are voting on land issues and these are gonna be the kids that are dealing with wildlife issues. So it’s, once you get involved in this, you got to understand it’s really big, big picture that you’re, that you’re looking at that you’re working with these kids. So it’s been really rewarding for all of us.
Male: And if this event is any indication, the future is in good hands.
Mike: And so I see this is being a really big deal. This one youth hunt, not only draws them out for the hunt, but they come out here and they could experience shooting bows and arrows in the archery range. Pick up a BB gun and try to hit some clay targets or, you know, just experience in general what it is to be out here in the wild.
Chris: And lo and behold, it went from 22 kids last year to 52 kids this year and we’ve hunt Saturday and Sunday morning.
Male: That flapping you see over by the blind, it’s called flagging. And it’s just one type of decoy used to lure birds to within shooting distance.
Chris: Oh the decoys, they’re an attractant for the geese, we do the calling, you have the decoys, we have flagging, the flagging mimics the goose flapping its wing in the ground, and you mix that in with the decoys, coz the geese see the decoys from a distance and it’s, they want to come into what they’re feeding on and they wanna join the group if they’re feeding in a corn field or alfalfa field like this, if they’re hungry, they’re, since their friends are here, they hopefully come down and have lunch with them. And we just to mimic that whole situation. To call a goose in and, you have to read what the goose is doing, are they coming right at you or going pass you, are they circling. If they’re coming right at you, how to call a goose and it’s really, you’re listening to what the goose is saying. If the goose honking, you’re honking, if you honk and honk, wait for his honk, honk back to him. Now if there’s a flock of them, they’re making a lot of noise, try and duplicate what they’re doing. And typically, when the geese start getting closer to you, they start to slow down and they’re calling and you just, a lot of times, you just try to mimic what they’re doing, you wanna talk back and forth. You just want to, listen to what they’re saying, they’ll tell you what they wanna hear.
Male: Of course the kids came up with their own unique way of calling geese.
Kids: Here goose, goose.
Kevin: And at the conclusion of last year, we talk as a group and said, wouldn’t it be great if we could also have the island unit next year and hunt ducks as well. Refuge was able to do that for us, they close the entire refuge, we bump it up to 48 kids, Sabola sportsman’s club here in Sabola, was very generous, donate some of their private blinds this year. So, in probably like a month and a half to go, we bumped it up from 48 to 54 kids.
Male: Duck island is a short drive from the geese fields. Like our goose hunters, our duck hunters enjoyed a breathtaking sunrise while waiting for their quarry. The mentors for both youth hunt have place the decoys in a sure fire pattern to attract the ducks. But sometimes a little adjusting is needed.
Kevin: A lot of the kids who are coming out of this have never even been involve in a water fowl hunt at all. Which, it’s, you know, last year, my first time in the blind with some kids out here in one of these weekends, I mean I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how the kids would be, I mean, a lot of times, it’s cold, we leave in the morning, it’s early it’s dark, it’s cold, you know, there’s not a lot that happens at first, sometimes the birds don’t for a while. I tell you, the kids, the kids are, were so excited to see all the thousands of geese flying over in the morning and everybody I talked to said, regardless whether the kids get to harvest anything or not, that the overall experienced, I mean, it’s something that they’ve never seen before, or something never would. And it’s, it’s, even if you’ve been around a long time, it’s hard not to get excited when you hear the geese first thing in the morning.
Chris: It’s been a great time, all the kids have fun, lot of camaraderie, the way it should be. The best part for me about the youth hunt would have to be getting the kids out here and actually calling the birds in for them and watching that first reaction in kids, they’re first time shooting a goose or a duck, that’s better than anything that I could think of , even my hunting career. Watching the kids for the first time hit their first goose or duck. There you go.
Male: There is a saying, that when the geese honk high, expect fair weather and when they’re low, expect foul. With no geese and only two ducks taken, maybe today’s just too beautiful of a day. But the kids understand that this is hunting and there are no promises. Sometimes it’s just enough to get outdoors and enjoy one’s self. The department provided an avian influenza check station for successful hunters.
Mike: It’s a two day event, it’s a really good event, boy, it really bring the youth out. And shows them kinda what the outdoors are about. Gets them pretty much out of the house and home and away from the TV and gets them back into the, into the outdoors which is where we like to start, start them young these things. We put on a camp style setting with food, beverages, we have apples, everything’s free, it’s been a great success so far.
Male: But thanks to the many sponsors of the hunt, no kid went home empty handed.
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