(Adam) coming up tonight on KSL Outdoors.
(guide) take them now! (shots)
(justin) heck yeah!
We head East for a spring white goose hunt.
(adam) and we crown a state duck calling champion. I’m Adam Eakle and this is KSL Outdoors.
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(Adam) Thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. Along with our Camp Chef crew, we’ve come five hundred miles. Matt what are we after? (matt Anderson, Camp Chef) Snow geese. (adam) Little vendetta for me. I was up in South Dakota last year got my butt handed to me. (matt) we hope our luck has changed. (adam) You’ve got us a good guy to go with. (matt) absolutely. (adam) we’ve already seen some in the air. (matt) yup, all over the place. (adam) alright, back into Colorado we go.
(upbeat music sting)
(Trevor) let them hit the ground.
For five years my buddies and I have been chasing snow geese. It’s taken us to Delta, Corrine, South Dakota and today
Northeastern Colorado.
(Artie Perez, Webbed Feet Down Outfitters) right now we’ve got a north wind so if we have geese coming in, they’ll be coming in from right here.
(Jeff Adams, Delta Waterfowl Brigham City Chapter) Yeah we are just hoping to build memories, that’s what it’s about. Good times with friends and family members and hunting somewhere new it’s great.
(Artie Perez) If they are going to see anything it’s your face. So you make sure that if you are going to stick right over that broom straw get that had right down there, right there, alright.
(Artie) Has everybody loaded up?
We are hunting with two fathers and sons. Jeff and Justin Adams from Northern Utah and Guy and Riley Perkins from Camp Chef. The pit blind we are hunting out of is the best I’ve ever seen.
(Mike Adams Webbed Feet Down Outfitters) We are between two large bodies of water where the birds trade back and forth and come out to feed. So we’ve got birds over us virtually all the time.
(Mike) It’s just a matter if they decide something looks good and they are going to come see us.
(Artie) We’ve got a group, they are looking, they are looking hard.
[Notes:I think you can shorten this bite by :02 by taking out some umms and ohhs?]
(Mike) we use top quality equipment, we run Avery decoys, shells, the full bodies, we run some big foots and then in this spread today, there is about 1500 decoys, some are staked down, some are moving.
(Mike Adams) Make it look as real as possible. We’ve got rotary machines that we move throughout the spread, depending on wind direction and just go for them.
(Artie) alright, they want in here, they want to look us over real hard.
(Artie) ok, they are going down wind of us, that’s a good sign.
While these birds look close, they still probably about 80, even 90 yards out, just a little too far when you’re shooting over decoys. Let them come in a little closer. You’ll have better success and you’ll wound less birds.
(Artie) they are coming right here on this corner here.
(Artie) You guys ready? (goose calls)…..Take them now! (shots)
(Artie) Good shooting guys, good job.
(Guy Perkins, Camp Chef) You can sit a long time and have one bunch of geese come in and it makes it worth it.
(Riley Perkins, 1st snow goose hunt) (adam) first snow goose hunt, first snow geese? (riley) yeah. (adam) what do you think of them? (riley) delicious. I may not of shot them, but I’ve eaten them and I love them.
(Justin Adams, Corrine) look at that. (adam) first blue? (justin) yeah. (adam) pretty bird. (justin) that’s sweet. Heck yeah.
(Riley Perkins) fours a start, it’s a slow start but it’s a start. There’s thousands of the dang things.
(music sting)
(Adam) Did you even shoot? (guy) No i was sleeping. (adam) No you shot. Hey couple of Juvies and you got the blue you wanted. (justin) yes sir. (adam) even if he is a juvy but you still have a chance at an eagle head tomorrow. (justin) yeah, one more day. (adam) one more day that’s right. The rest of our hunt coming up from Colorado, but first tonights Burt Brothers quiz question.
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(Intro) Welcome back to KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. You know the last couple of years that we’ve been chasing these snow geese it has been tough. Yesterday was no different. Today a change in the weather and hopefully a change in our success.
(Mike Adams) unbelievable, when you get a tornado going, and you’ve got 1500 birds, to 2000 spinning over the top of you.
(Mike) It’s cool to watch them drop out of the stratusphere, they can basically park on top of you and just parachute straight down.
(shoot them) (shots)
These spring snow goose hunts are considered conservation hunts. That’s why here in Colorado you are allowed to use un-plugged shotguns, electronic callers and take an unlimited amount of snow geese. The reason is… there is just too many of these white birds. They are literally eating themselves out of house and home on theirs and other migrating birds nesting areas. Utah is now following other states and adjusting their regulations.
(Blair Stringham, Utah DWR Waterfowl Coordinator) Yeah we made several changes this year to try and increase harvest of snow geese this year. We allowed people to use electronic callers and unplugged shotguns. Also increased the bag limit to twenty this year so a lot more opportunity and definitely increases your chances to shoot more birds.
They can also damage farmers fields.
(Mike Adams) They will devastate a winter wheat field, you get 1500 to 2000 snows on a winter wheat field. Snows just don’t eat the top, they pull everything out by the roots.
(Jeff Adams, Corrine) living in Corinne like we do, we have some relationships with farmers out there that are good friends of ours.
(Jeff) When we were hunting last Saturday.
(Jeff) the farmer pulled up and grabbed a shotgun and shot a few times and got the geese off of his field trying to save his crop. So they can be really devastating.
(timelapse and music)
(jeff) I hate these birds, I hate them!
Today the birds are giving us a look, but are
that’s too high.
just out of range.
(Matt off camera) those guys are turning back, they’re turning back.
(Matt Anderson, Camp Chef) Oh look at those three maple leafing, they just dropped a bunch of altitude. (jeff) that’s a lot of birds.
(Matt) if he comes back in that wind, you guys jump and take him.
(matt) he’s coming around on your end. He’s over there.
[Notes:Cool shot of goose falling in camera on Go Pro 49 at :09]
(matt) next pass? Take him guys, take him. Lead him, lead him. (shots) there you go.
(Matt Nicely done.
(Matt) there’s seven of us, I get like a seventh of a breast. (jeff) no that’s four birds now. (matt) oh true. We are up to..each get a breast. (jeff) we are rolling. It’s all up hill from here.
Snow goose hunting can be tough. This year was really tough, but I’ll be back, because we still had a lot of laughs and good times with our friends from Camp Chef.
(Adam) you know when you are so dependant on power like we are when we are out shooting a show. Nothing better to have than my favorite product the Yeti 150, you’ve got AC/DC USB right at your fingertips. Charging up my phone, camera batteries and my Go Pro out in the field. Perfect for the goose blind.
Time now to turn it over the to guys at Fish Tech for tonights Fishing Report.
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(Adam) Welcome back KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. You know last week at the ISE some of the best callers in the west were here in Utah vying to be the best duck and goose caller, both regionally and here in the state of Utah.
(Cody King Dir. Best of the West Calling Competition) The Best of the west calling competition is a calling competition we hold all over the US. It’s a duck and goose competition. We bring callers in from all over the country.
(Bill Schaefer, High Desert Waterfowl, Grand Junction) Grand Junction Colorado made the four hour drive this morning.
(Bill Calling)
(Bill Schaefer, High Desert Waterfowl) There are some really solid callers here, goose and duck.
The Best of the West Calling Competition holds different levels of contests throughout the International Sportsmen’s Expo. The open goose and the Utah state goose championship was won by Chuck Carpenter and paid out a thousand dollars.
(Chuck Carpenter, Mendon, Utah) it keeps me on my A game in the off season, and that’s what it’s all about. I’m a water fowler and I’m a water fowler 365 instead of just during the season.
And this year, for the first time, they held what is called a regional duck calling qualifier. John David Stanley the third…. won and punched his ticket to Stuttgart, for the World duck calling Championship.
(Cody King) very tough competition, we’ve got callers from multiple different states coming to call in this competition.
and they also were set to crown a Utah state duck calling champion, who would represent Utah at worlds Championship.
(Brett) Brett Wonnacott, Sunset, Utah, Utah State.
Last year Brett Wonnacott was Utah’s champion.
(Bret Wonnacott, 2013 Utah Duck Champion) There’s so much history back there, when you step out on that stage it’s almost like ghosts of the past just appear.
(Bret Wonnacott) Everybody that you’ve idolized as a child has walked across that stage.
(Bret Wonnacott) I just really want to go back to Arkansas and do really well. I want to finish top 10.
(Cody) it was developed in Stuttgart, Arkansas. It’s a different style of calling, it’s called main street calling.
(Cody) They’ve got 90 seconds to blow a routine.
(hale call)
(Cody) They are all calling the same routine, basically the routine they are getting the ducks attention.
(Cody) they are bringing it in.
(Greeter call)
(Craig Wilson, California Judge) you go into a feed.
(Brett feed call)
(Cody) they loose it, so they’ve got to call it back and then they finish it in the hole. So that’s kind of the picture they are painting in the judges brains.
In the end, it came down to Bret and 2008 Utah state calling champion Dave Barnhart.
(Adam on mic) and the man representing Utah in Stuttgart, returning to Stuttgart, first place Dave Bernhardt. (applause) congrats Dave. How about a big round of applause.
(Dave Barnhart, Utah State Duck Calling Champion) The biggest thing is running as clean as you possibly can, it’s hard to do.
(Dave Barnhart) The more guys we get the better it is, the funnier it is, the more competitive it can be, it’s really a lot of fun, you get to meet a lot of good people doing calling.
(Adam) you’ve been to other regionals? (criag Wilson, California Judge) yes. (adam) how would you put this one against some of the others? (Craig) up and coming. I like this.
(Craig Wilson) Last year I came and it’s probably doubled in size this year and hopefully next year it will double again.
(Adam) The competition takes place right around Thanksgiving. Have you already warned your wife? Is she here? (dave) yeah she here. (adam) she just realized Thanksgiving is all messed up huh? (dave) yeah, absolutely. (adam) We’ll be sure to let you know come Thanksgiving. Coming up on KSL Outdoors our ever popular snapshot of the week, but first tonights Utah Field Guide.
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