If there’s a root strategy about tackling the abundant outdoor opportunities of the Mississippi Delta, it is this: Keep your options open! Tony Holeman, an avid waterfowl and rabbit hunter from Pisgah, used that mantra to produce a memorable weekend hunt near his duck lease in Humphreys County.
“The plan was to scout for ducks in the final weekend of the season and for the youth weekend, but it quickly became something else,” Holeman said. “We had been seeing a lot of ducks in our old catfish ponds but when we got in there that morning we didn’t see a single duck. Not one duck.
“One of my buddies did shoot a speckle-bellied goose that came out of nowhere. Man, he dropped it with one shot and I told him that was like knocking down to big ribeyes with one shot. That’s good eating.”
As the morning wore on, it became obvious that it would be the only shot they fired at the duck hole.
“It was really dead and I mean D-E-A-D dead,” Holeman said. “We didn’t even see any ducks in the distance. But it wasn’t so much what we saw but what we kept hearing.”
They kept hearing geese flying in somewhere in the distance.
“It sounded like there were thousands of them.” Holeman said. “I finally saw a new wave of them flying in and I watched and saw them go down beyond the back of the property, across the levee, in this big field on my neighbor’s land. I had permission to hunt there, especially for geese and I decided I had to try.
“I turned to the other guys, three men and a youngster, and told them that it was not going to be easy. It was going to be a hard hike across a muddy field, staying low and slipping up behind that levee. It was a long way and a lot of work but I convinced them it would be worth it.”
The youngster opted out and stayed in the truck while the four men started the hike. Thirty minutes later, when they reached the levee, they bumped the thousand or so snow, blue and Ross’ geese sooner then they had planned, or wanted.
“We weren’t quite where we needed to be, but a goose or 200 saw one of us above the levee,” Holeman said. “They started rising up and we jumped up and started shooting. We were able to empty our guns once, reload and empty again. We knocked down 12 between us.
“If we had made it to the levee and had been able to get prepared, I think we could have gotten off at least one more volley before they all left. There were so many that I think we could have gotten at least five or six more.”
The story could end there, but it doesn’t.
Later, after a brief rabbit hunt (see Bobby Cleveland column later this week) and before a barbecue dinner in town, the group spotted another field that appeared snow-covered.
“It was white everywhere and I pulled over and took out my binoculars and saw that it was geese, and probably the same group we’d seen before,” Holeman said. “They were on the same neighbor’s property just in another field and it was set up basically the same. We had a levee we could get to and get another volley.
“This was an easier and quicker trip and we added six more geese to the total. Not bad.”
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Avid goose hunters still have a lot of opportunity to chase the snow, blue and Ross’ geese under the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Light Goose Conservation Order. Through March 31, it is legal to hunt the geese without limit, even with electronic calls and with unplugged shotguns. Steel or other non-toxic shot is required. In Mississippi, all hunters must obtain a free Conservation Order permit by calling (601) 432-2400 weekdays during business hours. A valid Mississippi hunting license and state waterfowl stamp are required of non-exempt hunters. No federal duck stamp is required.
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