Taking Aim
El Campo hunting draws travelers from across the globe
By TOMI ALA-POIKELA

Camouflaged and waiting amid almost 500 windsocks and decoys, the Finns prepared for their first Texas goose hunt. "We became as snow geese," Tomi Ala Poikela said of the experience, adding, "Hunting geese the American way was just as exciting as I expected."

We were sitting and swinging on the porch at Paradise Hunting Club in El Campo and saw for the first time a bunch of snow geese flying straight at us. Almost 100 snow geese flew slowly over us and while we were taking pictures there was a loud bang behind our bags. One goose dropped between the cabins and the cars. An American neighbor had noticed the same bunch arriving. Welcome to Texas!

That initial introduction to El Campoarea goose hunting was enough to get the attention of three hunters from Finland who had saved their money to come to Texas to hunt geese. After they returned home, one of the three, Tomi Ala-Poikela, wrote a story for the Dec. 2006 Metsastys ja Kalastus magazine (Hunting and Fishing), where he recounted the experiences he and his three buddies - Markku Koponen and Sauli Jaara - enjoyed with their PHC guide, John Storm of Houston.

Flagging Them Down - Goose hunting guide John Storm flags geese in an area field. The purpose of flagging is to create movement within the spread - hopefully to attract wary geese.

Oulu, Finland to Copenhagen, Denmark to Chicago, Ill. to Houston and finally to El Campo in a rented car. Cold winter had changed to a pleasant warm in Texas in just 24 hours!

Texas Rag Spread

It was a dark morning (on the first morning with a group that included two American hunters). We were walking in an endless rice field. Our guide John Storm (Myrsky-Jussi in Finnish ... Myrsky means Storm and Jussi is a very common name inH Finland) stepped ahead and dropped windsocks on the ground. We picked them up and placed them towards the wind.

It took about half an hour to set all 400 windsocks by seven men (John had an assistant). After that John added about 100 full-body decoys, including some windpowered moving decoys.

Our guide then passed out recliners to lie on and white parkas ... so we also became as snow geese.

A Labrador retriever was covered by a camouflage net.

The shape of the decoys group was like a drop. John sat down behind us to control the situation and to use calls. He had calls for all goose species hunted.

Suddenly several bunches appeared in the sky from every direction. They landed approximately 3 kilometers from us. A single approached. John started calling. Unfortunately the snow goose turned. Bad luck? Or did he see something else? This happened several times. However, I was smiling. Hunting geese the American way was just as exciting as I expected.

There were so many geese in the sky that we just had to make a decision together when to have a coffee break!

Flagging Geese

"Shoot guys!" John demanded sharply. A lonely snow goose lost the air under his wings. The second morning seemed promising.

The geese were curious and interested in the decoys, and regularly a lonely one or a little bunch checked the rice field. The number of geese was also much higher than inH unting / Fishing the day before. I calculated that there was once over 20 bunches on my scanty view!

John had taken a "goose flag" with him. The meaning was to make some movement in the decoys. Far away the flag seems like a landing bird. It demands skills to use the flag at the right time.

"Coming from behind," John whispered. We laid on our backs and waited, excited the geese were coming into view. "Now!" John yelled. A bunch of blue geese flew low. We got up rapidly to sitting position and shot. One goose dropped between the decoys.

When we were lying under the sun in Texas and following bunches of geese, I thought we were spending a winter day in the right place at the right time. Hunting was stopped at mid-day in order to allow the geese to rest during the evening.

Huge pickup trucks drove us back to PHC and hunters took pictures with geese in front of a PHC sign. We were a little bit surprised that birds were not cleaned right after the shooting as in Finland. They had a machine for processing the birds - feathers moved to a big bag and were sold to clothes and pillow factories.

Sandhill Crane Hunting

John was excited. Scouting and a strong western wind promised a good day for crane hunting. We felt crane hunting was quite a funny idea, but we decided to take part. This time we made our blinds in a ditch. There were plenty of crane decoys. Our guide, naturally, had a crane call.

The first shooting came surprisingly fast and we managed to get one from a bunch of six. Three speckled-bellies flew just above the field. We shot at the same time and got one.

We saw an interesting happening when (a hunter) went to lie on the field between decoys. Two snow geese flew near him, but he didn't shoot. Instead he started to play with them. When the birds flew away, John's assistant ran behind them and called with his mouthpiece. And when the geese turned back, he got down in the field and the birds flew near him. In the end, the geese landed too far away.

Our three-day hunting package was over. The experience was wonderful. Arrangements went smoothly and people were great.

On the last day a white stork (crane) stepped on the pond back of our cabin. He allowed us to take pictures. He was polite, as Americans always are.

Note: Ala-Poikela and his two friends hunted in El Campo in mid-January 2006. Nine years earlier they had read a story by a Swedish journalist about a goose hunt in El Campo. "We talked about the idea that one day we would go to the United States to hunt. And about a year ago we made the decision," Koponen told the El Campo Leader News during an interview at PHC.