I learned firsthand that Canada goose numbers are good in Kent County this year. Thousands of geese were in sight throughout the morning after Thanksgiving Day, as well as pleasing numbers of ducks.
The hunt took place on a farm near the Chester River, not far from Rock Hall.
Norbert Wagner, who has rented the hunting rights to this wonderful spot along the banks of Lankford Bay for at least a decade, invited me and Dick Broden to join his father, Norbert Sr., Henry Rouseman, Eddie Wood, Tom Thalheimer and Steve McBride to enjoy a morning of waterfowling.
We met for breakfast at Vonnie's, a traditional waterfowlers' hangout off Route 213 near Kennedyville. The place was packed with pre-dawn duck and goose hunters inhaling breakfasts of eggs, chipped beef, pancakes and all that other great-tasting stuff that spins my cardiologist on his ear.
Wagner introduced me to McBride, saying, "We're going to be hunting out of a ground box that Steve has invented, and I think you will find it to your liking."
The ground box is a lay-down blind resembling a bathtub. It is made of lightweight polyethylene that is practically unbreakable. Take it from someone who has laid in his share of muddy fields, this is an idea whose time is long overdue.
It, and other useful waterfowling gear, is available through Hunter's Moon Enterprises, 2415 Harford Road in Fallston, or by calling (410) 877-7735.
Upon arriving at Wagner's farm we loaded a couple of dozen lightweight, full-body decoys into our individual ground boxes and pulled them effortlessly to a grassy strip dividing two cornfields.
In no time we had the decoys set to our front and back and were nestled down in our portable blinds. McBride had brought camouflage-patterned covers that made us practically invisible. Burlap covering, I think, would serve the same purpose.
By legal shooting time huge flocks of geese were moving off the Chester River in the distance to our front, and into nearby cornfields to feed. A number of ducks were working the Bay area to our backs and a couple of blinds in that area were enjoying some great shooting.
Moments after we had settled down in our comfortable tubs, a lone goose made a surprising drop straight toward our decoy spread. Wagner began calling (probably needlessly) and McBride said, "I expect someone to shoot this foolish bird."
Almost immediately Thalheimer's 12-gauge boomed once and the first bird of the day was in the bag.
Wagner had told us that the largest numbers of geese would begin flying "like clockwork, at 7:30," and he was exactly right. Geese by the thousands filled the sky around us.
Within 15 minutes a half-dozen broke off from a huge flock numbering well into the hundreds. Wagner, McBride and Rouseman began their enticing calls. Minutes later these geese angled off our set and committed themselves to a pit a couple of hundred yards to our front.
Gunfire erupted from the below-ground cornfield pit and five geese dropped.
"Well, those guys are out of here -- there were five of them in that pit and with the one-bird limit they managed to rack up a 10-minute goose hunt," Broden said.
Broden and I both connected on relatively easy shots at geese that approached from our backs and committed to set down into the decoys to our front. Our faces were into the wind.
The goose that I bagged took a full 12-gauge magnum charge of steel T-shot in the neck area and still required a finishing twist.
In fact, none of the geese bagged that day were killed cleanly despite our divided use of T and BBB 3-inch 12-gauge loads. No shots were taken beyond 35 yards.
The Canada goose season resumes Wednesday and continues through Jan. 14. The daily bag limit will increase from the present one goose to two daily on Dec. 31.