Rollo Family Goose Hunt

Subject: Goose huntin
Author: Rollo WunderDog (aka Big Rat)

It was a glorious cloudy weekend. Most people hope for a warm sunny weekend, but goose hunters prefer the cold cloudy snowy blustery days..
Pete Stromme accompanied Rollie Ruby and Reid Thomas on a goose hunting weekend near the Horicon marsh. Rollie's brother Tom Thomas lives in the town of Brownsville in the heart of goose country. The brothers have hunted geese together for close to 40years. Tom is an excellent goose caller, His old Ken Martin goose call sounds sweet to the honkers looking for a place to sit down and have a free meal.
October 22 was an overcast day with hints of snow in the air and on the ground from the previous nights white-out. The geese were flying early; you could hear them as we put out our spread of outlaw decoys. We placed three dozen decoys in a corn field that was picked two days earlier. We headed for cover in a fence line and waited. It was a short waitThe geese spotted the decoys and made a beeline like grandmas to a garage sale. From the time we set up, until we quit hunting, there was only one five minute span when there were not geese over the decoys. We filled all our tags, and just watched as flock after flock would stack up and try to land. Tom was more of an air traffic controller, than a caller. I will remember this hunt with a few memorable hunts that stand out in the last 40 years. Tom's wife Jane had a big part in our hunt being successful. Not only did she feed the ravenous hunters, while managing to sneak a day of hunting on Saturday, but was the designated church goer, and prayed for a good hunt on Sunday. The geese were definitely coming in on a wing and a prayer.