Geese can be a hard customer to pin down. Setting up in the same field as a great shoot from last year or even last week can be as fruitless as setting up in the neighbor’s swimming pool. Sure there are fields that are regular producers, but unless they are carefully managed and hunted sparingly, the birds will simply pass them by. Geese may key in on a field for several days and then switch fields or even areas without being pushed. The best decoys in the world and careful hides won’t trick many birds in another field.
The secret ingredient is actually simple: to consistently kill birds apply a liberal dose of gasoline! Spend time scouting birds and hunt them where they are. The best bet is to hunt good fields the day after they have a good flock of birds in the field. To do this you’ll have to drive around the local roads quite a bit, thus the gasoline. Gasoline and a cell phone with a good dose of permission asking. Areas with tens of thousands of geese obviously have greater opportunities more often. However 50-200 birds on a field can make for a couple of days of great shooting.
Take into account the size of the flock. Running traffic near the X works in situations with lots of geese. The beauty of not shooting right on the primary goose field is that you may be able to hunt the area for several days without pushing the birds away. If there are only 50 birds, you may watch them all fly to the next field and never fire a shot. Hunt the X where small flocks want to be and watch the magic.
What it takes:
- Full body decoys with flocked heads and good paint
- Layout blinds or geese feeding near cover
- One or more good callers
- Plenty of windshield time (gasoline)
- A field that has geese
- Thermos of coffee
