Latest December Hunts

All of us at Last Pass would like to wish all of our hunters, farmers and friends a very Merry Christmas! 

The hunting these last couple weeks have been really really good or sometimes really really bad!  Just when things were rolling great and we had snow and birds were new again, the weather warms up and all our beautiful snow melts away.  Then to top it off it rains all morning on us last Saturday creating tough hunting and covering everything in a thick layer of mud!  We're still grinding through it though.  Thursday gave us more snow and 40 mph NW winds that created white out conditions.  Alot of the geese headed for greener pastures... Literally!  We lost a bunch of birds this week which is adding to the tough hunting.  We are still getting out after them even though its harder than usual for this time of year.  We've always told our hunters the truth about how the hunting is and we aren't about to change that now.  So the truth is right now we could go out and shoot 15-20 or we could shoot 0-5.  Its just very unpredictable right now.  The season goes until next Friday, Dec 28th.

We'd also like to remind everyone that the snow goose season is right around the corner so if you haven't booked your dates nows the time!  It looks to be another magical year with lots of big numbers shot out of our fields!  Give Bryce or myself a call and we'll get you in the books. 

Sorry the pics turned out blurry, taken from an IPhone! 

33 Geese on the Ground by 9:40!

Our Local Conservation Officers Doing a Quick Check

Tim our Golfer/Hunter!

The Umbrella Was More Handy Than A Gun Saturday

18 Bird Shoot on Sunday



December Is Here!

Where has the time gone?  Its hard to believe we are in the home stretch of the 2012 canada goose season.  We are still covered up with geese in Rochester and with a little help from Mother Nature we should see a ton more that are hanging north of us in the twin cities.  This coming weekend looks to be more December like weather so hopefully it puts these geese in feed mode and they decide to hang out in corn and bean fields vs. grassy golf courses and city parks! 

We wrapped up another good week of hunting.  Saturday was a tough day but we still ended up with 15 geese.  The group of guys that we hunted are guys that have been hunting with us for years so it was a good time telling stories and throwing insults at each other!  And by the way, I seemed to be the butt of most the jokes on Saturday!  My little buddy Reed picked on me the whole day.  It was nice catching up with everyone and we look forward to sharing the field with you guys again soon.

Dave, The Chad, Reed, Terry, Bob, and Riley

If you are looking to get out hunting one more time this year give Bryce of myself a call and we'll get you out on a great goose hunt.  The geese are here and now that duck and deer seasons are done lets get out and smash some giant honkers!

Latest Hunts

We had an incredible weekend of hunting.  Friday had strong NW winds and it brought in tons of new birds and we were able to be the first to welcome these new geese to Rochester!  Watching these migrators come down all balled up from way up in the stratosphere is nothing short of amazing.  We were able to put one of the flocks in the kill hole with their feet down at 20 yards not once but twice!  There wasn't many survivors out of that bunch.  One of the cooler parts of Friday is we had a couple kids out with us and they were able to harvest their first geese in a field.  Overall it was a great day with good shooting and 23 geese put on the ground!

A Flock Cupped and Committed

Another Flock Almost Ready To Meet Their Maker!

The Welcoming Committee!

Saturday brought light and variable winds in the morning which made hunting a little harder.  We were still able to put a good number of birds on the ground before the South wind picked up for the afternoon flight.  We had a flock of 10 come in and the the guys were able to kill 8 out of the 10.  The best part of Saturday was watching a future goose hunter running around and picking up dead geese.  She didn't stop smiling the whole day which was awesome!  We ended up harvesting 21 geese during Saturdays hunt.

Hawk With Another Rochester Giant

Eric and Chris Having A Great Time

Saturdays End Result of 21 Geese

We are still smashing geese so if you want to get out and shoot a Christmas goose give us a call.  Huntingshould be good the remainder of the year with a bunch of birds still to the north of us.  

Chad Foster

Last Pass Guide Service, LLC

Happy Thanksgiving!

All of us here at Last Pass Guide Service would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope you have a great turkey day full of food, family, football and fun. 

Its a great time to regroup as we head towards the last month of the season.  Anyone that has hunted with me knows that I have the mentality of "Go Big Or Go Home" and tomorrow will be one of those days!  Check back on the blog or facebook to see how tomorrows hunt goes.  Its looking to be something special.

Chad Foster
Last Pass Guide Service, LLC

October 27th Hunt

 Today we had another great hunt with 14 geese being harvested.  We had 0-5 mph winds most the day and that hampered us with many flocks just hanging at 50 yards.  The full moon effected the flight with the morning hunt not being very productive but then in the afternoon the birds decided to fly out of town and eat some corn instead of grass!  As you can see by the big smiles, it was a fun hunt and Bryce and I had a blast hunting with all of them.

This full moon and bright skies will bring down some more of the "calender" geese.  We could use some stronger NW winds with this full moon to help the geese migrate here faster. 

Even though there isn't any snow on the ground and its not December, we are still killing good numbers of birds.  Give us a call and we'll get you out on a memorable hunt. 

Just a reminder to all our hunters...  Our December weekends are starting to get booked up along with the weekdays during that first week.  Don't miss out on some of the best hunting of the year, book NOW!  Also we are filling up our dates for spring snows.  Call Bryce or myself and we'll get you in the books.

Last Pass Guide Service, LLC
Chad Foster 507-269-1817

Bob, Wes, Jeremy, Ron and Charlie

Hawk With a Rochester Giant

Weekend Hunts

We opened up our "Hot Corner" field on Saturday but things didn't go as planned.  Unfortunately we had thick fog that blanketed the area and kept the geese grounded for most of the morning.  The fog lifted by noon but most geese decided to eat grass and loaf around the rest of the day.

We tried to get the group to come back for Sundays hunt but everyone already had prior engagements to attend to.  So Bryce and I decided to take Aubrey and Skylar out for a father-daughter hunt.  We knew if the fog could stay away we were going to shoot a limit pretty easy.  It only took 45 minutes for the 2 of us to shoot our birds and the girls enjoyed running around retrieving our geese!  We only shot into 1 flock so hopefully the geese stay this naive. 

The time to kill some geese is upon us!  These geese are uneducated and very willing to decoy.  The flock we shot into circled us 3 times trying to come back in and land.

Skylar Retrieving 1 of the Geese

Aubrey with the 13 lb Goose

Future Guides for Last Pass!

New Geese

These last 2 weeks have given us a fair amount of new geese in Rochester.  It seems like everyday there is more and more birds flying around!  The best part about these newbies is they are starting to break the refuge line and come Saturday they are going to find out what its like to make their Last Pass! 

Just a reminder that our December weekends are starting to book up so if you plan on hunting with us this year give us a call ASAP and we'll get you in the books.  Also this last week we've booked some more groups for spring snows.  Dates are going fast so don't hesitate.

As most of you that hunt with us know, I had to put my black lab Remy down last year.  As we come upon the 1 year anniversary of her final day I wanted to post a few pics of her and the last snow season she was apart of.  She was 11 so her hunting duties were limited to half days during the spring of 2011.  She was a great family dog and one hell of a guides dog! 

Me and Remy after a morning hunt

Blue Gatorade was her favorite!

Eric and Remy after some retrieves!



Hunting Has Started!!!

Early goose season has come and gone and now the crew is gearing up for an outstanding regular season.  At Last Pass the early goose season is a time to hunt with family and friends and just kick back and get some laid back casual hunts in.  This year was a rollercoaster for the hunting and by that I mean it was either really good or really bad.  Overall it was a fun early season and we even got Skylar (Bryce's 7 yr old daughter) and Aubrey (my 4 yr old daughter) out hunting a couple times. 

Aubrey made it out a couple times with me and we had a ton of fun!  I was amazed at how fast she was hooked on goose hunting.  Now her mom has 2 goose fanatics to deal with!  Here are a few more pics of Aubs out chasing geese.  The pic of her and Hawk is one of my favorites!

The opener of duck is always a fun time for me for a couple different reasons.  The first being that we once again get to hunt ducks but secondly I love to head out and chase wood ducks!  I hunt a little pond that is filled with these little colorful waterfowl and like most other years the hunting was excellent.  Eric and I shot our limit of woodies in around 15 minutes. 

I plan on posting more often now that the season is starting to get into full swing.  Waterfowl closes in the SE part of the state until Oct 13th when it reopens.  We are picking up more and more geese in Rochester but the numbers aren't anything to get super excited about.  We are hoping with this coming weeks cooler temps that even more calender birds will push in.  We will be getting some fields ready next weekend during the close so when we reopen on the 13th if birds are using our fields we can get after them.  For the guys that wanted to hunt in Oct I will be calling you if we have a hot field.

Also 2 memberships are still available since a couple guys weren't able to do it this year and had to cancel them.  The weekends in December and late November are starting to fill up so don't wait around to long.

For all of our Spring Snow Goose Hunters...  The time is now to book your dates because we are starting to get alot of calls inquiring about open weekends.  I'd really hate for our guys to lose their usual weekend so get ahold of me or Bryce to reserve your spots.  Its hard to believe but we'll be chasing the white devils before we know it!

We are looking forward to a great season!

Chad Foster
507-269-1817



Countdown Is On!

Only a month away from another goose season!  September 1st is the start of the early goose season and we are looking forward to getting out and having a little fun with "summer geese".  This should be a great early season with the canadas having an above normal hatch.  We saw little fuzz balls all over the place this summer. 

We have 4 openings for memberships this year.  A membership allows you to come along hunting with us whenever we have openings and are going out.  This does not allow a person to hunt the fields without us because of liability reasons.  The membership prices are $500 a season per person.  These are available on a first come first serve basis so get ahold of either me or Bryce as soon as you can to reserve one!

We are also starting to take bookings for the 2013 spring snow goose season.  Our dates will book up fast after the unbelievable hunts we had last year.  Don't miss out on your preferred days, book right away!

We look forward to another successful fall and to meeting new people and sharing a blind with some old friends.  It'll be here before we know it!!!

Last Pass Guide Service, LLC
Chad Foster
507-269-1817

Summer Fun!

We hope you are having a great start to your summer!  We've been so busy chasing turkeys and catching walleyes that we haven't gotten on to update everyone for a while.  Bryce and I have been watching all the molt migrators rolling over the top of Rochester and its starting to get our blood boiling for this coming fall.  We have a few new things for this coming fall and are really excited to get the ball rolling with them! 

Have a good summer and remember that the fall is right around the corner! 

Chad Foster

Spring Snows #3

The pictures keep coming.  I know Mike and Bryce have a bunch of pics too so I'll try to get some from those 2 so everyone can see how great the season was!

A nice 50 bird day!

These 8 made their "Last Pass" and finished right in front of the blinds

Hawk just doing what he does!

Chris, John and Eric with a nice shoot of 38 for the day

We were lucky enough to harvest 3 bands this year.  Congrats John for winning the drawing on this juvie snow!

30 Killed in the afternoon

Mike and Eric calling it a season and bringing in the last of the gear off this field!

Spring Snows #2

Here are a few more pictures from this spring snow season...

 

A giant tornado that we rained 22 out of!

We added another member to the Last Pass family this year.  Let me introduce you to Hawk, a high energy, retrieving machine!!!

A few retrieves from this spring

Posing for the camera with a nice blue!

A great day with 79 harvested!



Spring Snows #1

Our spring snow goose season has finally come to an end and what a season it was!  I can't remember a snow goose season that was as good as this one turned out to be.  We would like to thank all the hunters that came and helped us make this the best snow goose season we've ever had.  This season was alot different than most with the temps being well above average and the geese cruising north faster than we've ever witnessed before.  The key for us was to move to South Dakota when we did and that helped us keep our guys on the birds. 

Mike, Bryce and myself have a ton of pictures from this spring.  I'll start posting some of my favorites from this past spring and will add theirs when I get them. Keep checking back because there should be 2 or 3 more posts in the next week with more pictures!

My daughter Aubrey gave me this sticker to put on my e-caller box for good luck!  As a proud Irishman I believe it brought me and my guys good hunting this spring!!!  The saying couldn't fit the e-caller any better because the fun does start when we turn on the snow goose sounds.

One of many big flocks working in tight!  This is one of my favorite pics of this spring.

Nothing beats a sunrise during the snow goose season.

A great morning shoot for 3 guys!

Bob and "Decoy" enjoying another great day this spring!

43 bird afternoon shoot

Next 2 pics are from the same day.  Morning harvest was 63.  After lunch the boys went back out and shot 47 to make it a 110 bird day!