Welcome back to Issue #021. The valley duck season is one day old, the B and C zones go dark tonight, and the clocks fall back next Sunday, so it is a busy week to be a NorCal hunter. This issue we are turning opening weekend geese into sizzling fajitas, making the case for a cheap piece of gear that could make the difference between a great photo and a real emergency call, showing off a Glenn County buck with impeccably bad timing, and meeting Lainey, who has the rooster retrieve down cold. We also have your poll results (you all can shoot) and a new poll that puts you in charge of what we cover next. Let's get into it.

Plenty of you came home from the opener with geese, and a lot of goose meat ends up as freezer burn because folks don't know what to do with it. Here is the answer. A goose breast is dark, lean, and beefy, and when you slice it thin and sear it hot, it eats like skirt steak. Specklebellies are the best on the table, but Canadas and snows work fine here too. If you need a refresher on getting the breasts off the bird, go back to Issue #16.

You will need: two goose breasts (about a pound and a half), two bell peppers and one onion sliced into strips, tortillas, and a cast-iron skillet. For the marinade: the juice of two limes, three tablespoons of oil, two tablespoons of soy sauce, three minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder, half a teaspoon of smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Optional: a minced jalapeño, cilantro, sour cream, salsa, and avocado to finish.

The method:

Doneness and safety note: like the duck breast in Issue #3, goose breast gets tough and livery the longer it cooks, so most hunters pull it at a rosy medium-rare. USDA's guidance for all poultry, wild birds included, is 165 degrees, so if you are cooking for kids, older folks, or anyone pregnant, cook it through and accept a little chew. Wear nitrile gloves while you clean birds, and get your geese into the cooler from Issue #15 quickly, because 70 degree afternoons still sour birds left in a pile.

Your phone is your camera, your map, your shooting hours table, your hunt app, and in the worst case, your lifeline. Long days in the field, cold mornings, and a GPS app running in the background will drain a battery faster than you expect. Whether you want to catch the photo of your harvest, film your dog doing his or her best work, or you need to make an emergency call when something goes wrong, don't let a dead phone be the reason it doesn't happen. Buy the pack today so you don't regret it tomorrow.

You don't need anything fancy. Head to the store or hop on Amazon and pick one up today. What to look for: a pack around 10,000 mAh is a good sweet spot, with enough juice for a couple of full phone charges while still fitting in a jacket pocket. Make sure it has the right port or cable for your phone, and a built-in cable means one less thing to forget in the truck. A solid basic pack won't break the bank, so check current pricing.

Step up: if your pack is going to live in a blind bag or a wet boat, spend a little more on a rugged, water-resistant model. Some even come with a built-in flashlight.

Field tips: charge the pack the night before, keep it in an inside pocket on cold mornings (cold drains lithium batteries), and switch your phone to low power mode when you don't need it. It will also top off the rechargeable headlamp from Issue #6. One more thing: a battery pack keeps your phone alive, but it can't create a signal. If you hunt where there is no service, tell someone your plan and find out whether your phone supports emergency texting by satellite.

This week's Showcase comes from a NorCalHunt subscriber in Glenn County, who sent us a trail cam clip of a stud buck making his first appearance on camera. The timing? Conveniently, just after deer season closed. Every hunter knows that feeling. The good news is he made it through the season, and there is always next year. Click through to our Showcase page to watch the full video.

The Showcase is exclusive to subscribers, so the folks on this list see it first. Next week it could be yours: a strap of greenheads from the opener, a goose spread at sunrise, a late D-zone buck, or a trail cam clip of your own. Hit reply with your photo or clip and a sentence about it, and tell us how you want to be credited (we run first name, last initial, and town). The best one each week runs up top and earns a permanent spot on our subscribers-only Showcase page.

Meet "Lainey" (Owner: Kyle L., Willows)

Lainey hails from Willows, and Kyle sent us a shot of her hauling back a rooster pheasant with the kind of focus that tells you she knows exactly what her job is. A clean retrieve to hand is the payoff for every hour of training, and Lainey makes it look easy. With general pheasant opening November 14, she is right on time for the season.

Want your dog featured? Hit reply, send us a clean photo of your hunting partner, and give us a quick 2 to 3 sentence blurb on what they hunt and where they earn their kibble. Pointers, flushers, retrievers, and the occasional very good mutt all qualify. Missed a week? Catch up on every dog we have featured on our past Dogs of the Week page.

We are taking a week off from field stories, which means this spot is open for you. Opening weekend in the valley just gave a lot of you something worth telling: the first greenhead of the year, the goose that came in low over the decoys, the blind mate who slept through the first flight.

Got a hunt that turned into a story? A first bird, a near miss, a morning that went sideways and turned out better for it? Hit reply and tell it the way you would at the tailgate, and we will clean it up. Catch up on the ones we have already run on our field stories page.

This briefing gets sharper when we hear from you. Drop us a quick reply and tell us:

Last week's poll: what is the longest distance you have ever killed an animal at? The winner, by a good margin, was 300 to 400 yards. We have some sharp shooters in the crowd. Keep practicing at the distances you plan to shoot, and know your own limits before you squeeze.

This week's poll: what do you want to see more of in NorCalHunt?

Got a hunting partner in the foothills, the rice, or along the riverbanks? Forward this briefing and point them to norcalhunt.com. Word of mouth from real hunters is how we grow.

Steel shot for next weekend, a new battery pack, a processor with room for your last B-zone buck, or someone who knows their way around a goose: somebody close to you has it. Our local services page keeps the NorCal businesses that treat hunters right all in one place. Check it out at norcalhunt.com/localboys, and if your shop belongs on it, hit reply.

Thursday's storms rolled through the valley, and now it dries out. The National Weather Service in Sacramento has sunshine through the end of the week, with highs in the low to mid 70s this weekend cooling into the upper 60s by Thursday, lows in the mid 40s, and no rain in the forecast. On the fire side, CAL FIRE lists the Cooley Fire west of Cloverdale in Mendocino County at about 1,365 acres and roughly three-quarters contained, and the small Soda Fire in Siskiyou County at 14 acres and 50 percent contained.

Before you load the truck:

Stay safe out there, get your gear cleaned, and we'll see you in the field.

The NorCal Hunt Team

#021

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