Splash! Ice, my hunting buddy's black Lab female, raced out to get the downed bird drifting amongst the decoys.

It wasn't a typical water hunt. We were hunting in T-shirts, standing in buck brush and trying to fight off the ever-present swarm of mosquitoes behind a brown wall of tall grasses and limbs. After Ice delivered the bird, I picked it up to admire the lines and colors of an adult Canada goose that had succumbed to the temptation of 100 floating decoys set strategically in front of us. We were hunting the shores of the Great Lakes.

The cold, nasty weather most waterfowl hunters envision in dreams was two months away. We were hunting resident Canada geese over water, instead of the traditional field spread commonplace for the early-goose season. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a warm September day.

The hunt began like so many others: An early wake-up call, a long drive with trailer in tow and chilled morning air greeting hunters. The difference was the urgency and timing.

After all of the gear was prepped and unloaded, we launched the boat and held it firmly against the docks, waiting for the sun to rise.

You see, we weren't hoping to be out before legal shooting time and be watching the clock tick as birds flew overhead. We were waiting for the sun to rise enough to wake the birds resting within earshot on this large body of water. After the birds began to move, we slowly motored past the roost to an area where geese had been loafing at midday. We were careful not to bump any birds from the roost, but rather to allow them to leave on their own. Then, using floater decoys, we set up to wait for them just as if we were hunting geese in cut corn and grain fields.

Setting a Loafer Spread
As Frank Clifton halted the boat, we quickly dismounted and pushed the barge as close to shore as possible. Like clockwork, we quickly unloaded our gear and devised a plan to set decoys in a relaxed, spread-out pattern just like we had seen before on our scouting mission. We placed a few resters, sleepers and even a couple lookers along the sandbar and shoreline. We arranged the floaters to allow geese a good look and landing spot plenty close to the guns hidden just feet off of shore.

After we emptied the boat of every decoy we had brought, Rick Murphy stowed the boat behind a fallen tree, while the rest of us got set and moved our gear to our hiding spot. It wasn't long until some geese that hadn't left to feed identified the decoys as family and friends and began their descent to the kill hole.

As singles and pairs worked the decoys, we took careful turns to allow everyone a good chance at decoying birds. Even before the flocks returned from the fields, we were closing in on each hunter's daily bag limit.

The sun and warmer breeze really didn't scream waterfowl hunting to any of us, but watching good dogs make long retrieves, both blinds and marks, and the birds overhead circling and calling as they approached the spread made the weather seem almost unimportant as we hunted for waterfowl in a different way than normal. It had been a grand day, with 32 geese and one band for our group. It was a super way to end the early season, and a lucky one for Clifton, the winner of the coveted band flip.