[Coldwater Charters]

Man,,,,there is one thing I hate to see this time of year is a forecast like we have for tomorrow. Burr arsed cold temps, very little wind and blue sky's. Not real condusive to good goose movement. I'm already getting nervous. Could be a looooonnnnngggg day.

 

[truesportsman]

Coldwater,
Any advise for this scenario. My father-in-law has a farm near one with a river running thru it and its like hunting next to a refuge. We see the geese but they just follow the course perimeter up high, then drop in when when over the course. Gets frustrating to watch flock after flock do this. Any help?

Also, I like to get some ducks in January. Since I'd never hunt ducks this late (due to ice), are they hunt primarily from the fields do only lucky hunter know of so secret open water?

signed,
Not-ready-to-put-away-the-decoys

 

[stacemo]

CC
I have been scouting my local fields north of Ann Arbor. Last night there were over a thousand geese in one of the cut corn fields. Today at lunch there were 30-40 in the same field. Other than freezing your tail off you should do fine. I will trade places with you any day!
Stacy

 

[Coldwater Charters]

If your not in the place the want to be,,,,an opener is going to be your best chance to take unsuspecting geese. Put out as many decoys as you can come up with. Put plenty of space between them if you have only a few. Being cold,,,geese tend to stay pretty tight while in the field,,,so if you do have lots of decoys,,,,make a black hole in the field with decoys. As far as the late season duck hunt,,,,I won't hunt any limited open water unless its a river or a spring fed creek. If hunters risk life and limb to get to a limited amount of open water, the may have a heck of a hunt,,,but those birds will never be babk to that spot,,,,and lots of time in the Winter,,,before other birds find the whole the departed geese have left,,,it has frozen shut. I know this will happen it always does,,,,heck last year we were hunting about 800 geese going to the field we were on for a week prior to the season. This particular lake had quite a bit of open water on it,,,so water hunters were abound,,,,no big deal with lots of open water,,,but,,,,some ying yang tried sneaking up on 800 geese in a canoe in open water,,,,,didn't work,,,just kicked the geese off the lake and they left for parts unknown, we were left in total disbelieve as the exited the lake. When you see the sky black with geese in the morning you can be assured someone has rowsted them.

 

[Chasin]

Your right CC,
Here are our three rules for goose hunting.


Rule No.1- Never shoot a roost.


Rule No. 2- Leave the damm roost alone.


Rule No. 3- Reread rules one and two.

If you follow those rules and just follow the geese to where there feeding you will be able to shoot geese all season.

 

[Ducklandr of MI]

I would agree 100% Rules 1-3. To many times inexperenced hunters hunt roost because they dont have time to properly scout or becuase of just lack of time to put into it. Nothing get me more mad than scouting for weeks and getting permission onfields within a couple miles of the roost only to have some clown jump it and kill 2 birds and screw everybody in the area. I would rather invite them to hunt with me for a day than to have them BURN the roost. The only time I have ever killed birds on a roost was one time on the LAST day of Early Goose Season. And that was only becuase i seena couple Neck Collars hanging out on it and couldn't control my self . Well getting things ready to leave this morning should be a good hunt tomorrow at least in the area I'm hunting SJBP Unit as these birds haven't been shot at in our area since October12. Good Luck and Take Care.

Ducklandr