Sure, I like to catch fish and shoot stuff – I like it lots! But the passion is fed by many factors. For me, the most important is wanting to understand as much as I can about the environment, habits and behaviour of the animals and aquatic life I come across, not just the ones I want to catch or shoot.
I lived in ignorant bliss that I was able to fully understand the behaviour and habits of my quarry … that was before I got the honker hunting addiction many years ago and learnt that what you observed during the day was only half the story!
Canada geese numbers were on the rise throughout the country and, even while still classified as a gamebird and under the management of Fish and Game, the gloves were Well and truly off when it came to keeping numbers under control. Normal regulations based around sporting and ethical harvest were put aside to minimise the negative effects that Canada geese were having on agricultural practices, and this included being able to hunt geese 24 hours a day.
Geese had adapted to avoiding daytime hunting pressure by feeding at night with the aid of moonlight, so we too changed our habits and took to putting in some serious “Layout blind time” at night during well-lit nights. We initially had some great hunts under the moonlight but very guickly the goose adapted to the night hunting pressure and altered their habits, which made night hunting even more challenging than day hunting. But what we did learn from our nocturnal pursuits was how to increase our chances of success on our day hunts, by understanding what geese were doing during the
