Hunting Channel

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Re: Hunting Channel

Postby Woody » Thu Nov 19, 2015 8:56 pm

In what regards?
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Re: Hunting Channel

Postby capt1972 » Sat Nov 21, 2015 8:28 am

just hunt the pond next to the airfield cause thats where they are all going to be
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Re: Hunting Channel

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Dec 04, 2015 2:37 pm

I take it you are having problem getting geese.

How's your reading the birds? How's your calling? That may help.

Flagging also helps. Just a simple black flag when the geese are far away to get their attention. Put it away when they are within a couple hundred yards or as soon as you see them respond to it.

Geese don't like to come over or around trees, so give them a lot of room, especially downwind of the decoys so they can have a long clear approach. Parallel to the shore may be better than trying to get them to head right at you.

I only have 7 floaters and 2 butts. At least where I hunt on the water, I'm not convinced more would make much difference. Don't even put them all out most times.

My best luck is with singles and pairs looking for company and then talking them in by telling them what they want to hear. Mostly just echoing back what they are saying to you, but sometimes very aggressive calling to pull a single off of a flock when he shows some interest. Which gets back to reading birds. You spot one that is looking for something a half mile away, he's worth trying to call in. A big flock passing by at 200 yards on a mission, save your breath. I give most at least a few clucks to see if any show any signs of interest. If they do, I get more aggressive. It often takes a lot of pulling to get one to break from a flock and stay broke, but once you do, you probably got that bird.

If the geese are heading out to feed, where I hunt, it is very hard to call them to water. Have you tried later in the day after they have fed and are returning to get a drink? I've also had good luck right before the end of shooting time. Generally needs to be a very dark day so the geese are heading back to the roost before the end of legal shooting time. Often times they see your few decoys on the water and they will come bombing in. If we had the extra half hour after dark, I'd hunt every evening. Many times I have geese trying to land on my head as I'm picking up the decoys after sunset.
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Re: Hunting Channel

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Dec 04, 2015 4:49 pm

Given that if I put my entire spread of water goose decoys, I have 9. I honestly don't think it really matters. I've heard people claim that with small numbers that you want an odd number, I guess claiming that singles can count and will know if there is another single on the water. I'll either put a line off to the side of the duck decoys or if it is early season, I'll make two little groups. I always put them so the geese don't have to go over duck decoys to land with the goose decoys. I don't know if it matters, but that's what I do.

TyrelPalmer wrote:I have actually called a couple of groups this year over me, but they were all early and I didn't have any goose decoys with me. twice this year I've called geese from across the channel, and had them looking for the geese to meet up, but I never had them out and they weren't within range.
Just a few decoys, and you may well have been in business.

My buddy that I duck hunt with doesn't put out any goose decoys. It annoys the hell out of me, but I don't argue. He set out the decoys the evening before opening day, so I knew there would be no goose decoys. I even asked him if I should grab some out of the back of my truck. I saw a couple geese way off in the distance. I was literally standing up waving the flag going "hear goose, hear goose" just joking and damned if they didn't come to the flag like a magnet. However, just like you, they got about 100 yards out and when they couldn't see a goose on the water, they hung up, and then got sucked in to the next blind over.

However, where I hunt, it is a lot harder to call geese to the water. They mostly just got up off the water and are heading out to the fields, so they aren't that interested in decoying back into the water. The early season is different and they seem to respond much better to water setups.

TyrelPalmer wrote:Thanksgiving morning we took out all my floaters and 2 dozen shells, saw a couple hundred geese flying before shooting and then no birds flew for the 3 hours we hunted on a clear blue sky day....that's what I've been experiencing since I've been carrying my geese out.
That's more or less the pattern where I hunt. The geese get up like clockwork, but it's later because it is colder here, they all head out to the fields in a relatively short amount of time. They mostly stay in the field and there are few trading around after that. I have a couple blinds where I can hunt ducks on the water and then jump over to a grass field and hunt geese. It's not nearly as good as a corn field, but way better than the water even though we are only talking about 100 yards difference.

I really don't think there is a lot more you can do. If you can find the field they are feeding in and get permission, that's really your ticket. If it is not a pain for you, pick a very grey day and set up in the evening. If they come back before end of LST, your odds are very good. Here, I usually don't see a thing before 10 minutes left. 20 minutes after and I could hammer them most every night. It's a real short window, but early in the season I can hop over after work since I hunt 5 minutes from my house.
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Re: Hunting Channel

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Dec 04, 2015 6:50 pm

Sounds pretty similar to my situation.

If you really want to get a goose, I'd suggest trying to catch them in the evening.

Also, they are often very predictable, so pass shooting may be an option. When I first started hunting where I do now, geese were a trophy to me. My lifetime total was 3 Canadas. This is my 11th season here and I've shot about 60 Canadas and 100 snows, so I still get excited about whacking one, but I get a whole lot more excited when I can call one in to within spitting distance even if one of my buddies whacks it.

Watch their pattern and just set up under where they are going to head out. I got quite a few geese my first couple years at this spot by simply doing that. My second year here I got 14. I think about 10 were flyovers and only 2 feet down. This year I have 7 so far and none were flyovers and 5 were feet down, the other 2 weren't as convinced, but still were working birds. Plus another 6 I called in for my buddies. And my goose season really is just about to get started. I hope it gets a hell of a lot colder soon and dumps a bunch of snow north of us. Then I'll head to the fields around the cooling lake and goose hunting can be pretty amazing when there are 10's of thousands of new birds in the area.
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