Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great week of hunting we've been able to enjoy!  The new geese that migrated in a couple of weeks ago have made a lot of happy hunters at Last Pass.  There have been many big shoots taking place and its always a joy to see such happy hunters.  I can't believe how great our season has been and just when we think it should slow down, it ramps right back up for another fun hunt! 

For years Rochester was a resting spot for EPP (Eastern Prairie Population) Canada geese but lately they've been migrating more towards the western part of the state and we've seen more "local" geese that have been raised in Minnesota.  Well this year and last year we have seen a shift in the migration back to Rochester!  A lot of the geese harvested around town have been the smaller EPP geese this last week. 

Thanksgiving is about recognizing what we all should be thankful for.  Today in between eating turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie and before the kickoff to one of the three football games, think of what you are truly thankful for.  I'm thankful for many things...  The first and foremost would be my family.  I'm blessed to have a supportive wife and two beautiful children.  This time of year they sacrifice a lot of time spent with me during the grind of the season and I appreciate them always being there for me.  I'm also thankful for God giving us such wonderful birds like waterfowl.  Ducks and Geese are such an amazing bird and we are lucky to be able to hunt them.  Last I'm thankful for all the hunters who choose us as an outfitter!  Bryce and I are lucky to do what we do and without all our loyal hunters we couldn't do this. I hope everyone that hunts with us realizes that we try to go above and beyond when it comes to goose hunting. 

All of us at Last Pass Guide Service wish everyone a safe and joyful Thanksgiving! 

Snow Days!

Monday and Tuesdays snow created great hunting conditions for us in Rochester!  It also brought in many new and uneducated geese which are always a pleasure to hunt.  Three of us ventured out Tuesday to try our luck and it paid off...in about 35 minutes!  The first sign that we would have a great hunt was when I had 20 decoys out and a migrator flock of 40 balled up and came down to 35 yards before realizing that the truck and trailer in the middle of their plastic friends probably represented bad things.  We barely got back to the pits when the first flock of 18 came down and finished at 10 yards.  We next had another good group of 14 come right into the kill hole and Eric and Trevor finished their limits.  Five minutes later a pair did it right and we were all done for the day.  During the action I was able to take a few photos of the geese and how close they were landing!

Trevor, Chad and Eric

 

This pair was beautiful

Another Bunch Getting In Tight!

 

 

Thursday Bryce took a group out and they barely had enough time to eat a sandwich before the shooting was all over.  The geese came out fast and they were hungry but to bad for them there were 6 guys waiting with a good looking trap set!  The boys shot well and by 10:45 when the smoke cleared there were 18 geese laying on the ground.  A great hunt with good people!

Thursdays Whackfest!

 

 

Obviously the geese are here and they are the ones we love to hunt.  Bryce and I have been saying all year to get here and take advantage of these great hunts.  Believe it or not but hunting will get tough one of these days.  I hope it isn't soon because all these great hunts are a ton of fun to be on!

 

Call me or Bryce to get in on one of these hunts!

Get Ready!!!

It's getting to be that time of year again! Cold, snow and lots of giant canadas!!! There has been a slow trickle of new geese coming in and they are easy and naïve to decoy spreads and calling. We watch the start of a small migration Saturday and it carried over into Sunday. Sunday afternoon was a very good hunt with a lot of these new birds decoying well for us. We had a fun group out there and the four of us were able to shoot our 12 geese and eight bonus mallards!

Before we hunted on Sunday we went out to one of our new fields and got that one ready. This new field is going to be a burner for us! "The Windmill" is a nice hilltop overlooking a traditional great flight path. They'll decoy into this field perfectly since it has a beautiful flat for a landing zone!

Eric, Christian, Skylar and Kelton

Hawk 

Skylar with another big goose 

The crew working on "The Windmill" 

Before...

 

After! I'd say the pits are INVISIBLE!

 

 

Pete and The Chad with a greenhead shoot of a lifetime!

 

These next two pictures showed what we got to witness for over an hour and a half.  The show that these mallards gave us will always be etched in our minds!  Simply amazing watching hundreds of mallards backpedal at one time in front of us only 10 yards away.  Thank you to Chad and Pete for not wanting to shoot into the mass and letting us enjoy the show!  True sportsmen through and through.

Monday and Tuesday brought us a dusting of snow and even more birds for this coming weekend.  If you are thinking about hunting geese this year it is officially GO TIME!  These geese are new and they are fun to hunt.  A few of us went out on Tuesday and had a great time decoying geese up close and personal.  Pictures and a blog will be up soon on Tuesdays hunt and Bryce has a group going out tomorrow.  Give us a call to line up a hunt of a lifetime!

The Grind Continues

The hunting continues to be amazing to say the least! I'm starting to sound like a broken record but I love it!  We are picking up some new geese in Rochester which is adding to the good hunting.  Bryce and I are very fortunate to have the hottest field in Rochester and we have been taking advantage of it!  We aren't over hunting it and that is keeping the birds in our "zone".   Besides all the geese we've been shooting, this is the best duck hunting we have ever seen...EVER in Rochester!  Ducks are always a bonus for us and this year we've had plenty of bonus birds!



10 Mallards and 7 Geese

 

The Chad and Jeremy on another successful hunt

If you listen closely you can hear a rumbling sound going on out in all our fields.  That rumbling would be a sound Bryce and I have been anxiously waiting for since September 6th... The rumbling of combines harvesting our fields!  Most people think of the beginning of November as Deer season and this year I'd have to agree with them because that's all I can think about too.  Except my thoughts aren't about a giant buck walking under my stand, my thoughts are about a John Deere and hopefully getting all our fields clear of corn and beans!

 

By the end of this next weekend we will have all our fields up and ready to hunt.  A lot of people don't realize the time and effort it takes to get these fields huntable.  We have a great group of guys that step up and bust their butts to help me and Bryce out and we would like to thank them!  These guys remind me a lot of offensive linemen in football... When the hide is good in these fields and Bryce and I put guys on a good hunt we look good but it is truly the guys behind the scenes that helped put our hunters in a well hidden pit!  A big thanks to Charlie, Dave, Bob, Jeremy, Trevor, Christian and Eric.  Take a look at the pics below and let us know if you think they did a great job!

Before... 

After!

 

Sunday afternoon was a hunt that Bryce and I have been planning/dreaming about all summer.  We wanted to take our sons on a nice warm goose hunt where the geese would cooperate and the boys could watch as flock after flock finished perfectly.  Since it was an afternoon hunt the boys had to wait all day for us to go to the field.  Kelton was actually pacing in the house waiting for us to go!  Both Brady and Kelton were jacked up ready to watch mother nature at her best.  It wasn't long after setting up that the first birds came out.  It was a pair that bellied in perfectly and Bryce sat up and shot both of them as Kelton, Brady and I watched.  We then had a good group of 12 come in and Bryce shot his last one and I whiffed twice and recovered for a bird on my third shot.  A short time later 3 geese came in perfectly dead center of us and I shot my last two!  The kids were ecstatic going out with us to pick up our limits of geese!  This hunt will go down as one that I will never ever forget.  From Brady singing while geese are coming in to Kelton yelling geese every time we had birds on a string.  There were so many things we were laughing about out there its hard to remember them all.  Kelton put it simply as this, "Dad there are geese...EVERYWHERE!  This is awesome!"  And he was right, this hunt was awesome!

Kelton Hauling Back A Rochester Giant

 



 

Last Pass Guide Service Future Guides!  My Son Kelton On The Left And Bryce's Son Brady On The Right. 

 

Packing Up The Trailer