Resident Canada goose season opened here in Maryland on Tuesday September 1. I had to wait a full 7 days before I was able to set some decoys and hunt. Well, we did float the Monocacy one afternoon after the season opened and had shotguns in the canoe just in case we jumped a goose or two. No geese but several nice smallmouth where caught on that float, but that’s a story for another blog post.
In the faint pre-dawn light I placed out in front of our still standing corn stalks blind, the 9 full body goose decoys in groups of 3. The decoys were placed about 9 feet, (3 steps) apart in each group. One group served as the point of the spread. One group was placed closer to the blind and the third was placed roughly across the second forming a large V formation. Each on the groups had one sentinel and two feeders.
During the early season, the local family groups of resident Canada geese are beginning to gather in their larger winter groups. Over the years we have found that smaller decoy spreads of 6 to a dozen more accurately represent the real size of the local groups. No need to set the large spreads of several dozens of decoys. However, sometimes toward the later part of September, if the scouting reveals larger groups using a field we may adjust the decoy spread size to match.
Scouting is the primary key to success during the early resident Canada goose season. At this time of the year, the birds are traveling short distances from their overnight roost to feed. Often times there will be only one to three family groups gathering in certain fields to feed. Find those fields, set a small spread and be ready.
As is typical for this time of the year, our first toll of geese arrived shortly after 7:00 am. Weather can play a part of the flight time and length, but on a typical sunny September morning expect the geese to fly early. After a morning meal the birds quickly return to their water roost. They tend to stay in the fields longer if it is raining and a late September rainy day can be super productive as the geese tend to be more active and traveling around on those types of days.
Our resident Canada goose hunt may have been a typical hunt for September, but very few things excite my hunter soul than a flock of Canada geese pitching into the decoys. On this morning the birds saw our decoys from a long distance away and when I spotted them, they were already locked in on our location, heading straight for us. Situations like this require control with the goose call. A few “we are here” honks is all that is needed. This is not a calling contest, where you are trying to impress the judges with your double clucks and feeding chatter. A simple soft honk or two will keep the birds interested.
Perfectly the birds swung wide turned and dropped into our decoys on the mark. Two landed before the “take’m was pronounced. Four or five geese out of the fifteen dropped out of the sky for their last time. The others were quick to return with some aggressive “come back” calling. On the second pass we were able to connect on two more birds for a total of seven resident Canada geese.
A satisfying September Resident Canada morning hunt. My fellow hunters and myself have been at this game for more years than we would care to admit. We were not out to “rake’m and stack’m” with a truck load limit of birds. We got what we needed. A morning out in the field with friends and some meat for the grill.
Ok, So I’ve been enjoying the early Goose season for a few years now. This is from a hunt in 2010
