Goose Opener Success!

[BuckShotJon]

Day was just perfect. Nice sunrise and, crisp air and birds dropping!

As with early season all the flocks came at the same time. I just love the site of Geese cupping the wings and landing in a spread.

We did ok for the opener and I will be posting pics soon.

Jon

[Little Brown Dog]

Sounds awsome.  We open up here in VT next Tuesday.  Just checked out a few sopts last night and no one was home.  Have to keep looking.

[venisonman]

Nice job, Jon. Can't wait for some pix. Were ya hunting fields or water?

[Somers]

Nice job Jon.  Hoping to get out this afternoon and definitely this weekend in the kayak.  All pass shooting down this way and the birds are everywhere.  Did you limit yesterday.  We want details.

[venisonman]

Somers,

Where are you from? What kind of yak and how do you use it? I'll be taking my son out for his first goose hunt tomorrow. We use an Ocean Kayak Ambush. Heck of a duck/fishing boat!

[BuckShotJon]

As promised here are pics....





We did not limit. I would have liked things to turn out differantly but it just did not happen that way. We should have shot more geese, its a long story.

Jon

[Somers]

Venisonman,

As the handle implies, I'm from Somers (NY).

The make of the yak escapes me at the moment.  It's a sit in type I got froma  buddy for nothing to use for accessing better areas to duck/fish.  A few modifications for gear and handy gun access and it worked like a champ.

I live in southern NY near the Hudson river.  I can pass shoot the geese on the way into roost in the eves or jump them in the early am before they head out for the day.  This is the best game in town since there's a lack of cropland to set out spreads.  Most of these birds head to local parks and golf courses to feed all day and the access just isn't there.

For ducks I just head to a  few marshes and islands on the river and set out small spreads to draw in the birds.  Going to try doing some sea duck hunting this year as well since the LI sound is only about 1/2 hour too.  Should add a nice mix to the bag w/ scoters, oldsquaws, and brant in addition to the various puddle ducks.

Good luck to you and your son.  It's great to get the kids out there.

[Bobman]

Nice job BSJ!  Do you use large decoy blocks and calling for early season geese or just pass shooting scouted birds?  As I said before I've never targeted geese specifically (especially early season) so I only have a couple of waterkeel decoys (I use them as confidence dekes while duck hunting) and one call.  Still hoping to get out this year for early goose when my brother gets back from his fishing trip.

[BuckShotJon]

Bobman,

I use shells or silohuettes. Early goose is the resident geese that stay here all year. And while they act the same as migratory geese in some ways they do differ as well. You will here the geese this time of year called a number of things....local geese, nuisance geese, early geese....they are all the same.

For the most part the birds will fly in smaller flocks. These smaller flocks are usually family groups. The importance of this is used for the decoy spread you set. 2 dozen decoys are plenty. I set my decoys in a triagle or square spread. I give at least 30 yards apart so the geese can land into the spread.


If you have no goose flag, buy one. They are great and will bring in birds from a long way off.

I call like no tomarrow. Call until you have the birds attention. Once they get close within 300-400 yards, just stop calling and they will be in.

Jon

[hunter11]

Monday was my first day out in NY, we had a great shoot!!! The geese cooperated and came steadily until 830am in groups of 8 to 15.  4 of us ended up with 25 birds.  Wensday am was a different story, I set up alone and had 3 flocks, ended up with 0 not even a feather.  One day your hot one day your not.