Waterfowl Woes

[Bill2k1]

I mainly field hunt geese, due in large part to my not having a boat and just getting into it. I set up my decoys in the family group loose X formation I have read about. I think 80% of my problem is that I hunt in the afternoons. For example today shooting hours ended at 4:15 and I watched two flocks fly over my position at around 4:25. I have been attempting to call for a while and my goal is to get the flock to give my spread a second look.

I am mindful of the wind, and cover. A friend of mine claims afternoon goose is just as good as morning. Any truth to it? I guess my main problem is that I am getting beat down by not seeing any geese, or only seeing them after shooting hours end. I have shot one this year and have went out around 20 times. Now I fear that a snow storm will force the geese further south thus ending the season.

 

[MCgunner]

Not sure about your situation, but I hunt snow geese here in Texas, or have, don't currently have a lease. Mornings are the time to be out because that's when the geese are coming off roosting areas and looking for food. I've always hunted grain fields with rag spreads. Actually, they're plastic trash bag looking white things with a black X on the butt tied to a dowel rod you stick in the ground. Wind inflates 'em. They work very well. I have about 250 of 'em and set 'em up in two separate groups with a hole in the middle to call to (a duck hunting habit, but it seems to work for geese, too). Inland, on the fields, the geese will start coming in well after daylight. They come off coastal roosts and head inland. Once they're down on a feeding area they don't move around all that much. After 10 AM or so, I'll give up and go home usually. They're pretty well done by then.

I've never tried to hunt in an evening, no one I know does. They come off the feeding areas very late and don't get to their roosts until after dark, usually.

None of the above may be applicable to Canadas, very few of 'em down here. And, it might not relate to your situation anyway, it's just the goose hunting that I know. It's tough getting up at 3:30AM to get out and get set up and ready, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I've always been a day guy, anyway, don't much mind early rising. But, I HATE staying up late.

 

[Bill2k1]

I hunt canadas. Folks here claim the birds are too smart for rags, shells are the lowest anyone dares go. I can see the morning feeding angle. Most people claim that they go out in the morning and then back to water and out again in the late afternoon. I thought about it more, and maybe the geese have already passed and now all we have are the resident golf course geese.

Edit: I am mostly bummed about this storm and the effective end of the season, so I may as well armchair quaterback my hunting on the forum here.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

We have lots of resident geese, or golfcourse geese here in Maryland. Not as wary as migratory birds, I can attest. We had one guy on a beef cattle farm set his decoys in the shape of a very tight half moon. All were facing the same direction, and he stood in a position as if this tight group of Canada decoys were all looking at him.

Now get this..., standing in the open field, with the shotgun in his right hand, the call in this mouth, he started to honk away. When he saw birds in the distance, he'd move his left arm in an under hand arc, as though he was throwing feed to the decoys (though he wasn't throwing anything), and he kept honking. It must've looked like he was feeding about 20 birds, 'cause the geese would veer toward him and start coming down low to land, and he'd shoot. I couldn't believe it, but I saw it work several times.

LD

 

[MCgunner]

And I thought you were going to say he picked up a golf club and the geese thought it was a golf course....ROFLMAO!

 

[Bwana John]

Untill you have had to break ice to put out dekes at 3:30 in the morning, you havent lived!

I pack up and leave around 9 am most days, by that time the action is over where I hunt.

 

[SShooterZ]

Where abouts in WI are you hunting?

I'm just South of the IL-WI border and we've had a lot of luck with the Big Foots and Canadians... One thing I've noticed, is that calling too early will spook them off more often than it will land them. Sometimes you just need to let the dekes do their job.

Also, with the snow we've gotten lately and depending on where you're hunting, clear out an area where they can land around your dekes. With the cold weather, they're pushing South and looking for any place to land.

I've seen most activity around 8:30 - 10:00 and some around 4:00.

 

[Bill2k1]

I mostly hunt Racine county, its maybe 20 miles north of the boarder.