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The enticing cacophony of Canada Geese
Gene Plihal
for Smoky River Express
It’s prime time for migratory bird flights in the Peace Country so maybe we’ll venture into some hunt principles behind hunting these iconic birds. With Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays as well as New Year’s not that far away. It’s nice to have a few cleanly plucked honkers in the freezer to grace the table on these and other occasions. But, more on Canada goose preparation later.
The Peace region has a number of outstanding lakes serving as staging areas for Canada geese. The Kimiwan, Winagami and Magloire lakes each provide an interesting scene in early fall as skeins of geese and ducks make their morning and evening flights to adjacent feeding grounds off of these water bodies. Hence, land adjoining these lakes makes excellent spots to do spotting for geese, the first stage in pursuing this bird.
Many farmers are more than willing to grant permission to hunt their property. So the imperative stage of asking permission is not quite as daunting as one might think. It is against the law to pay for access to hunting grounds so both hunters and land owners need to be aware of this. In the U.S. it is common practice for land owners to seek compensation for access to their land for hunting purposes. These are pros and cons to this issue so we won’t go there at this time. Suffice to say, you should get permission to hunt on anyone’s land regardless of whether it is legally required or not. Land does not have to be posted to require permission to hunt. Know your law regarding occupied land. Regardless, it is always a good idea to ask permission for entry.
Once a hunter has permission, the next stage is locating exactly the landing spot of the honkers. Binoculars work well for this. While geese are landing on a field for feeding, getting some X and Y grid references on the land will substantially enhance the hunter’s chances of harvesting some delicious geese. Geese are creatures of habit and once they have landed in one spot, they will do so often day after day until the feed supply is gone. As I have found out, much to my disappointment, having the spot where the geese are landing APPROXIMATELY located is not good enough. Setting up the blind and decoys a couple hundred yards off of where they are actually landing can result in a lot of futile and fruitless work. I find that looking for goose droppings and feathers usually gives a pretty good idea where the flocks are landing.
Once the landing spot has been located, the next job is usually done in darkness in the headlights of a vehicle. (Again, you should have permission to take a vehicle on the field before actually doing so. Obviously, if the crops are still out in the field special precautions have to be taken in this regard.) Setting up the blind and decoys should be done well in advance of the first morning light. Decoys set out the night before, in some cases, can accumulate dew or frost which alarms the wary flights of geese. Setting up the decoys in the early morning can pose some time constraints since geese can be expected even before the legal shooting time, one half hour before sunrise. But being unprepared when the first flights come in can result in a ruined hunt. So, you guessed it, it might be necessary to get up at 4:00 a.m. to get out into the field and get set up on time.
I use about 150 shell decoys forming a horseshoe, the centre of which is about 20 yards from the blind. The horseshoe configuration should feature the open end facing with the wind, not against. Geese usually circle and land against the wind and so the open end of the horseshoe invites the geese into a comfortable landing spot.
The blind can easily be made of willow cut from right of ways or field edges and stuck upright into the ground or woven into a mesh wire which can be easily rolled and unrolled for easy assembly.
The willow should be cut about four to five feet in length but sufficient to provide a cover behind with the Nimrod(s) can conceal themselves. Obviously, since geese circle around a landing spot, the blind must have fronts, sides and backs. The enclosed photograph shows roughly what a goose blind can look like. Commercial blinds are available for a price.
Finally, there is the ethical aspect of the goose hunt. By far the most important aspect, monopolizing goose land that you don’t own obviously creates hard feelings with other hunters. Payments, under the table or otherwise, to farmers or landowners with the expectation of having exclusive rights to a hunting area is taboo. Offering the farmer some of the geese or compensation for damages to his crop caused by the hunters is obviously not illegal.
Another aspect of the ethics is the condition in which the hunters leave the land. Leaving ruts, perhaps not a problem this year, debris, bottles, spent cartridges or what have you creates hard feelings with the land owner. Clean up the area that is hunted.
Canada goose numbers have burgeoned over the years to the point where they have caused accidents involving airplanes. Golf courses, parks and crops have all been overrun, in some areas, by geese, particularly snow geese.
Hunting is one of the tools for management of bird numbers. At the same time, hunting geese can provide some quality time between father and child, and in order to maintain this tradition, it is important to have a good hunt but it is more important to be a good hunter.
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