54 Nebraskaland • December 2020
MIXED BAG
A GOOD HIDING PLACE
By Jeff Kurrus
By this point in the year and into January, Canada geese
have seen it all. While the greatest decoy spreads can entice
birds, nothing does better than a great hide. Having written
a number of migration reports for Ducks Unlimited in years
past, the No. 1 piece of advice from guides and hunters across
the nation is hide.
If you can see the birds clearly, then they can see you clearly.
The two images on the page are a prime example. After
seeing a fl ock of geese land into a cut corn fi eld, our group
gained permission and set up our A-frame the next day. While
I believe the A-frame to be an excellent blind, our hide was
not. As seen in the image above, we had too many bare spots
on our blind. The geese came back, just as they did the evening
before, but something wasn't quite right. They buzzed us right
outside of shooting range and were gone.
Two days later, my son and I tried a diff erent tactic. We hid
two laydown blinds in the same fi eld and worked on our hide
even more. The result: The fl ock landed 10 yards from the
blinds, which are both pictured below. A few more minutes of
work made all the diff erence.
Now, if we just could have gotten them to fl y before shooting
time was up.
PHOTOS
BY
JEFF
KURRUS
