A 3-inch load of number 2 or 1 shot works well on early geese.
Waterfowlers eagerly await September 1 and the start of the early goose season. The season targets resident Canada geese that have become problematic in many locations. The geese are highly successful at raising a brood while using suburbia as nesting grounds. The conflict with geese and users prompted wildlife managers to create a special season decades ago to target the nuisance geese. Waterfowlers have come to view the early season as THE season in many parts of the country.
Resident Canada geese make themselves at home on golf courses, parks, soccer fields, community ponds, and corporate ponds and can create a mess. You walk carefully and gingerly at your own risk when geese are around. Defensive adults can be aggressive and take it out on dogs and others who get too close to their broods. Waterfowlers are more than happy to help control their burgeoning numbers.
Citified geese are content to graze on grass during the summer months or grub for aquatic vegetation in local ponds and lakes. Farmers begin harvesting wheat crops and cutting corn for silage in late summer. The newfound buffet is a huge draw.
Geese begin using fields heavily just before the early season opens and change feeding locations regularly as more and more fields are cut, which makes scouting paramount. You must scout religiously right up to the evening before the hunt to get the latest fix on goose activity and pray they show up the following day. Usually, geese take their time about heading to the fields, and it’s often mid-morning before they arrive, so be patient.
You don’t need a monstrous spread to hunt early-season geese successfully. But since you’re using fewer decoys, you might as well use your best. Full-body Canada decoys that incorporate true-to-life paint schemes and superior feather detail are preferred. Flocked heads stand out.
Spreads that utilize a few sentries and more feeders play right into early-season decoy strategies. Flocks are family groups consisting of two adults and this year’s brood. Eight percent of the flock has never been hunted before. It’s the two adults you need to worry about. When in a field, the yearlings will be actively pigging out while the adults keep watch. Your spread needs to mimic this arrangement. The number of feeders should outnumber the decoys with upright heads three or four to one.
Set the decoy spread into family groups, leaving plenty of room between groups. Place one or two upright lookers to imitate the adults keeping guard, and the rest as greedy juvenile feeders. Leave 5 to 10 yards or more between family groups. Place these groups in a loose V or U with the farthest decoy 35 yards away.
Placing decoys in family groups mimics the defensive posture early-season geese take. Calling should do the same. Early-season geese are not overly vocal but call with purpose and reason. They may answer incoming geese with a resounding keeer-honk, but the tone will quickly change to warn other geese that they don’t want them horning in on their food cache and don’t want them near their youngsters. The other geese usually expect to hear defensive, excited calling from the birds on the ground.
It might seem like early-season goose hunting is like shooting fish in a barrel. It can be when the stars align. But things change daily. Scouting is essential. Early geese can be unpredictable at times. You may have seen a flock come to the same field at 8:00 am three days in a row, but they don’t arrive until 11:00 on the day you hunt. You must be present to win. September mornings can be cool or uncomfortable and muggy. Either way, you need to dress accordingly. Some days you’ll need nothing more than a T-shirt. Other days might hint at the weather to come, where a hoodie might be necessary. Be sure to stay hydrated.
If one or two matriarchs get eliminated, the young ones are on their own and can be extremely gullible until they get their on-the-job education. The entire flock likely got blasted when they visited the field they’d been feeding in for the last two weeks, so they began cautiously searching. Survivors get leery and use extra risk management with each waning day. Around the third week in September, molt migrants, young geese that didn’t breed and make a false summer migration north, begin to return. There’s another flurry when these naïve geese arrive. Eventually, they gather in increasing numbers and find quiet refuges when they loaf undisturbed. Family time is over. Early geese are not the rough customers you’ll encounter later in the season. They don’t have the thick feathers and fat they will have in
November. Shots will be in-your-face close, so you don’t need to overdo it with heavy magnum loads of 3-1/2-inch shotshells. A 3-inch load of number 2 or 1 shot works well.
