Goose hunter in Kenosha/Racine/Milwaukee/Walworth/Waukesha/

if you have your shotguns and cold weather clothing, I sugest you talk to an outfitter/guide. After some research you should be able to find someone who deals in novices, who will give you some training, and a equipment list.
This is far better than going with someone who just tells you, "sit here, and when I start shooting, you just blast away".
What you are wanting is a short steep learning curve, so it will cost a few bucks.
Work on a skeet field, for training for wing shooting, with targets moving across, both high and low. That's a ton of fun, and will make you field shooting far more productive.

Worth it, though.

Early goose is open now. There is public land, take Hwy36 to Waterford, then travel west through Waterford on Main St. This turns into hwy 83. There is Tichigan Wildlife Area there. I was there Sept 1 for dove, it is major skeeters, soak up on spray. There is a large large field, if you have decoys you can set up there, then lay out there in full camo and call. I have had them come close enough to kill a few. There is a ton of other land in racine to hunt, the DNR site has an awesome mapping application.

Today, I was out dove hunting around 8AM near I-94 in Racine county, I heard a field of guys open up on a huge flock that flew over us.

What you will need,

BUG SPRAY!!!
Camo or green/tan clothing
decoys, I use shells
calls


Drive around in the Highway G/I-94 area and look for flocks in fields, then ask the farmer if you can hunt them, Be nice and assure them you will not shoot towards their buildings and that you will pick up empties, most will grant you permission.

I am going out this afternoon for goose, I will post on how it ended up. For the record, 3 doves in 3 hours and a million skeeter bites.

Get a guide - a good caller that can bring them in close - you can also learn allot about calling by listening to him.

oh and pray for fog - lots and lots of fog.

When-
I guess I gave too general of info in my first post. Hunting Geese should be done in the morning right after sun up, they tend to fly when the can see, unlike ducks. They will go to eat then fly to water to sit on all day, then two hours before dark, (It will be like 7:26 PM today) so you want to be in position by 5:30, they will go eat again. You need to be in position by sun up or two hours before sun down. So that covers the hours you need to be in the field.

Decoys-
You need to have a mix of feeders to sentry(guards) set 90% of them with their faces into the wind, the geese take off and land into the wind like an airplane. I usually use an 80/20 mix of feeders and sentrys. the guard decoys I will face away from the wind in a random fashion. A good first pattern is to set the decoys in a loose horseshoe with hole of the shoe into the wind. You then lay in the open part of the horseshoe and the birds in theory will come and land near you with the wind.

Calling-
Just practice alot, you don't have to call a ton if you are not good. Just give a few clucks to grab some attention and to get them looking at your spread. Flute type calls are easier in general then short reed calls. Get one with a CD or tape and practice.

Killing time!
I tend to use size BB 3inch shells, make sure you got non toxic shot and have your gun plugged to only allow for 3 rounds in it. The DNR is real serious on those rules. You can kill geese at around 40 yards with the correct choke. Geese are hard to kill, they can take a licking. To kill them in hand, I normally ring their necks, or I have delivered a buttstroke before. I try for a fast humane kill. Make sure you try you best to get birds you cripple. Be sure to slit your tag before handling the birds, its a stickler rule. Search the net on how to field dress em.

So if I were you today (Sept 2)

-I would go to tichigan at 5.
-Drown myself in bugspray, get the stuff with deet.
-If you have decoys find the large field and spread them out.
-Pick out a spot and get ready to wait for most likely nothing.
-lay on your back and watch the sky, call when they get about the size of a dime in the sky
-Don't move, when they get close enough, shoot
-Be sure to be packing up 5 minutes before close time and have all the stamps/permits you need since the DNR often comes to that place to check closing hours.

That was a down and dirty guide to hunting geese today, feel free to ask more questions of me if you would like. I live in Franklin and hunt all of SE Wisconsin. To be honest, I won't take you hunting but I can tell you how to do it and where. You will have little to no luck this early season, but the regular season starts soon and you might learn just enough to have some birds down then.

Any Questions let me know

There is an off chance that I will be there today, or more exactly this evening. I shoot an 870 with a camo sling, say hello.


That is if my plans or private land hunting fall through

Geese have phenomenal eyesight; if it isn't natural and isn't covered/camouflaged they will see it especially if it moves. Wear a camo mask; your face looks like the moon to a goose when there is light. Take a flag with you and wave it to attract their attention; no, not the American flag, a white diaper, pillowcase, etc will work; as soon as you turn them stop flagging and stop calling unless you are proficient. If you are pass shooting, geese are a lot faster than they look because they are big; if they have the wind behind them lead them what looks like way too much then lead them some more. Don't set up your decoy spread too close to a tree line, etc. geese shy away from cover as it can shelter predators. If you are pass shooting and using a tree line as cover allow for the geese to flare up as they reach the tree line. If there is a full moon the hunting won't be as good as geese will fly out to feed on a full moon and no cloud cover.

My hunting buddy and I use around 36 goose decoys with a few duck decoys thrown in. I wouldn't worry about ruining someones hunt, if you are worried show up early and most people won't bother you. 308win had good advice about placement, in the open on the highest land is where you want to place decoys, so they can see stuff sneaking up on them.

Do you have access to a canoe or something near that, there are two ways to goose hunt, on the water is much easier to do IMO. Field hunting for geese is one of the hardest hunting I have done.

When you go out to tichigan you can dove hunt there too, dunno if you do that or not.

My brother keeps his sailboat in the Racine marina (the one between the bridges). I was up there a couple of weeks ago sailing with him; didn't see many geese but then we weren't inland either. Geese have evolved a lot since I was a kid. In central Illinois in the 50's and 60's the only geese you saw were migrating and weren't wasting anytime doing it. Now they are anywhere there is a pond, golf course, apt complex, you name it and they don't migrate like they used to. Here in central Ohio, they are a nuisance and not much of a challenge; when I was duck and goose hunting if you got a goose you had accomplished something.

Did you make it out today? We had one flock come over our spread at about 7:12PM. There were 8 birds in it and we got them to turn over our spread. I was willing to wait for them to turn into the wind for a land/second look however a hunting buddy decided to shoot. They were slightly out of range and the first shot cause them to change altitudes.

It validated our early season spread, which is an uncommon mix of decoys in a weird pattern. I think if we would have waited we would have gotten a few.

I am interested if you got any or saw any, I only saw that one flock and I watch the sky pretty close until after dark.

A goose had built her nest between some tree roots right next to the fairway. Of course, I manged to roll one right into the nest. The gander was not pleased with me and I just left the ball - I have always wondered if they rolled it out of the nest or tried to hatch it.

Are you planning on hunting this weekend?

rolled it out of the nest or tried to hatch it

Haven't seen a dimpled goose following golf carts around, have ya?

Not since I stopped drinking.