Junior hunts are the best opportunity to get kids out into the field for a taste of the great sport of hunting. Most states have set dates, whether they be before the season starts or the weekend after the season ends, just for junior hunters alone. This is to give juniors a better chance of success with fewer people out in the field hunting wild game. Of course a junior needs to be accompanied by an adult with a valid hunting license, but only the junior can hunt. My last junior hunt happened to be one of the best hunts I have ever been on.

It was mid July. I was in Houston, Texas for the World Waterfowling Calling Contest. Being from California, I usually know when someone else from California is going to a contest that I will attend. This time it was a surprise. A friend of mine, Dan Jernigan, decided to show up in Texas to compete in the world specklebelly and snow goose calling contests. Dan and I had met a few times before, but we were not really that close. I watched him win the world team specklebelly goose contest. After I congratulated him and started talking to him about hunting and his guiding business, he offered to take me out on the junior hunt, which in California is the weekend after the regular season ends. Upon receiving his offer, I was excited by the opportunity presented to me! I had never hunted specklebelly geese before, and I could not refuse. Knowing that the hunt was over six months away, I had to try to put my mind at ease.