spectr17
12-16-2002, 01:42 AM
Dec. 15, 2002
Hunting for a Christmas goose
Hunters take advantage of late-season Canada goose hunt in western Minnesota.
BY JOHN MYERS, Duluth News Tribune
FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — It was just after 9 a.m., and the geese were finally coming out of town, exactly as Mike Jacobs predicted.
We were out of bed at 5 a.m., setting decoys by 6 and ready to shoot by 7:30. December geese often keep bankers' hours, and we hadn't seen a bird in the air.
We were discussing whether to sneak back to town for a quick breakfast, but that changed just after 9 a.m.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Canada geese were leaving their water roost in the city and heading out to feed in farm fields on a blustery December morning. A big bunch was headed toward us.
"When they come up over the hill from town and out of that gap between those two telephone poles, that's our zone. Those are the ones we want," Jacobs advised.
He should know. He has shot hundreds of geese in this field over the past decade. Jacobs, of Royalton, Minn., grew up in the Fergus Falls area.
"Those are in the zone. Start calling!" Jacobs said. "And keep flagging."
So we blew into our short-reed goose calls with gusto and waved goose "flags," T-shaped black cloth on a stick that's supposed to look like a goose landing.
Skeins of geese, V's of geese, pairs and unorganized flocks — all seemed to converge on us at once. At one point we had more than 100 geese within 100 yards.
That's when Eric Jorgensen's cell phone rang.
"I can't talk now, man. We're under attack," the Duluth hunter said before hanging up.
But no one fired a shot.
Amazingly, no one said, "Take 'em." No one called the shot. Maybe they were too mesmerized by the number of birds in the air.
"I can't believe we didn't get a goose out of that," Jorgensen said.
"There were too many of them," Jacobs said.
But it didn't matter. In the next hour or so, dozens of geese would come well within range — some of them just a few feet from our faces — their big wings set, gliding into our decoys.
And so we readily obliged the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' goal to reduce the growing flock of geese that spend the winter in Fergus Falls.
By the time we picked up our decoys at 1 p.m., the dogs had retrieved 14 geese, one shy of our daily limit.
THESE GEESE DON'T FLY SOUTH
Large stretches of the Ottertail River near Fergus Falls remain open through the coldest winters thanks to a nearby power plant, dams and fast-moving water.
That open water is a magnet for increasing numbers of Canada geese that in the wetlands of western and northwestern Minnesota. When lakes and swamps freeze, many of those geese head to Fergus Falls instead of migrating.
By early December, more than 10,000 geese spend their days in the city. An additional 15,000 remain around Orwell Reservoir, making for a high concentration of huntable birds.
The locally raised Canadas were transplanted by the DNR in the late 1980s. They are so numerous that they have become a pest in residential areas and the scourge of farmers. The geese can cause significant crop damage, especially to early-sprouting soybeans in the spring.
It's similar to Rochester, Minn., where Silver Lake remains open all winter, and thousands of geese congregate. And, like Rochester, Fergus Falls has become a mecca for late-season waterfowl hunters in search of a Christmas goose or two. Or five.
"We're well over our population goals. There are too many of these local geese," said Mark Papesh, DNR wildlife technician in Fergus Falls.
That's why the DNR has set a liberal limit of five birds daily per hunter for the late-season hunt. On some days, it's not difficult to reach that.
DULUTH ARMY HEADS WEST
This is the second year a group of Duluth-area hunters has joined Jacobs on his annual trip home for the December goose season. Together we shot 45 Canada geese in 1½ days.
But it started slow.
On the first day, nine of us hid in portable ground blinds among 480 decoys in a harvested wheat field. Any goose that came into this field was going to face a gantlet. But temperatures in the upper 40s seemed to keep most geese out on the river.
"They know exactly where the refuge boundaries are," Jacobs said. "And if they aren't hungry, they don't come out."
A few geese came close enough to look at our spread but veered off without landing.
While geese might be tame-looking in town, the birds quickly regain their keen instincts to avoid trouble when outside the city limits. These geese are hunted hard for four months each fall — during a special September season, during the regular October-November waterfowl season and for eight days in December. They wise-up quickly to mediocre calling, poorly placed decoys or hunters who aren't concealed.
But not all of the geese snubbed us. About 11 a.m. a flock of five big geese circled our massive spread of fake geese, their necks craned, searching for the source of our goose calls.
We must have done everything right. The five geese answered our calls. and set their wings to land.
They made the mistake of flying directly in front of all nine of us as they came in. And nearly all of us sat up to shoot.
One by one, all five folded and fell.
"Five in, none out! Just like the videos," Jorgensen said with a huge smile, as Bailey, his Chesapeake retriever, brought him a big, fat goose.
We took a break to eat lunch — hot soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches — in the field. We were expecting a banner afternoon hunt because the geese usually feed en masse at least once each day. But not this day.
There was never a major flight. We had to be content with shooting a few singles and doubles, but then hours passed with nothing in the air.
Sunset came with no big flurry but at least one surprise. Just as we were about to pick up our decoys, five trumpeter swans flew past our decoys just a few feet off the ground. As most of us stopped to admire the swans, a few noticed a Canada goose following in formation at the rear.
Someone grabbed a goose call and gave a few clucks. Someone yelled for anybody with a loaded gun to shoot. Even though several of us were standing in the decoys, the goose was coming in to land.
Duluthian Mike Marmon grabbed his 10-gauge, rammed in a single shell and fired just as the bird figured out it was making a huge mistake.
The 11th and final goose of the day fell to the ground.
FAST FINISH
Wednesday was a different story. The geese were more active, and the hunting was hot.
We split up to improve our odds. Four hunters returned to the wheat field west of town, while three of us tried a small stubble field to the east.
We bagged nine geese by 10 a.m., but then fog rolled in and shut off the geese.
A few miles west, the four other hunters were just getting started. When the fog rolled in, so did the geese. Dozens of geese were flying into the field that few birds wanted a day earlier.
Back on the east side, Jacobs simply stood in a pit and smiled as more geese flew over. He was glad to be back home.
"I never get tired of this," Jacobs said as his black lab Sophie retrieved a goose. "I just wish the season wasn't ending."
HIGH-TECH HELP
Several new hunting innovations helped the success of last week's hunt.
SHORT-REED GOOSE CALLS
While long goose "flutes" were the rage a decade ago, most serious goose hunters have switched to shorter calls. These calls are harder to master but most are better able to make the full range of goose sounds.
The shorter calls also blow more like duck calls, with callers using their larynx to create the special sounds. While many of the sounds these shorter calls make are higher-pitched than a Canada goose's "hrrrronnnnk," they seem more able to reach out and attract geese at long ranges.
MOTION DECOYS AND FLAGS
This group of hunters had full-bodied decoys on swivel mounts; decoys with cloth, fluttering wings; silhouette decoys with photographic images of geese; shell-style decoys set on thin metal posts that wobbled in the wind; and lots of flags. They also needed big pickups and utility trailers to haul them all.
While it's essential that hunters and dogs remain still and unnoticed, waterfowl don't sit motionless when they feed. Even with 480 decoys spread over several acres, it's necessary to add motion to as many decoys as possible to simulate feeding geese. The mix of full-bodied, shell and silhouette decoys adds variety to the spread.
Several times it was clear that geese didn't turn our way until after we flagged, especially upwind. We often continued to flag until geese were landing.
GROUND BLINDS
It still is possible to lay down on the frozen ground and cover up with straw, grass or cornstalks to field-shoot geese. Sometimes you can dig a pit to hide in. But for sheer ease, portability, comfort and ability to hide, the new generation of ground blinds can't be beat.
The blinds have a built-in lounge seat and padded back rest and are covered in camouflaged Cordura with a light, aluminum frame. The hunter is off the cold ground and, for the most part, out of the wind.
TUNGSTEN SHOT
Although it can cost up to $2 per shell, nothing has the reach of the new loads of tungsten shot. We used 3- and 3½-inch tungsten loads in BB and 2-shot, both 12- and 10-gauge. A few hunters used BB and BBB steel shot, which worked great up to 40 yards. Tungsten has made 40- and even 50-yard shots more reliable and 30-yard shots automatic, even with big, 12-pound Canada geese.
Hunting for a Christmas goose
Hunters take advantage of late-season Canada goose hunt in western Minnesota.
BY JOHN MYERS, Duluth News Tribune
FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — It was just after 9 a.m., and the geese were finally coming out of town, exactly as Mike Jacobs predicted.
We were out of bed at 5 a.m., setting decoys by 6 and ready to shoot by 7:30. December geese often keep bankers' hours, and we hadn't seen a bird in the air.
We were discussing whether to sneak back to town for a quick breakfast, but that changed just after 9 a.m.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Canada geese were leaving their water roost in the city and heading out to feed in farm fields on a blustery December morning. A big bunch was headed toward us.
"When they come up over the hill from town and out of that gap between those two telephone poles, that's our zone. Those are the ones we want," Jacobs advised.
He should know. He has shot hundreds of geese in this field over the past decade. Jacobs, of Royalton, Minn., grew up in the Fergus Falls area.
"Those are in the zone. Start calling!" Jacobs said. "And keep flagging."
So we blew into our short-reed goose calls with gusto and waved goose "flags," T-shaped black cloth on a stick that's supposed to look like a goose landing.
Skeins of geese, V's of geese, pairs and unorganized flocks — all seemed to converge on us at once. At one point we had more than 100 geese within 100 yards.
That's when Eric Jorgensen's cell phone rang.
"I can't talk now, man. We're under attack," the Duluth hunter said before hanging up.
But no one fired a shot.
Amazingly, no one said, "Take 'em." No one called the shot. Maybe they were too mesmerized by the number of birds in the air.
"I can't believe we didn't get a goose out of that," Jorgensen said.
"There were too many of them," Jacobs said.
But it didn't matter. In the next hour or so, dozens of geese would come well within range — some of them just a few feet from our faces — their big wings set, gliding into our decoys.
And so we readily obliged the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' goal to reduce the growing flock of geese that spend the winter in Fergus Falls.
By the time we picked up our decoys at 1 p.m., the dogs had retrieved 14 geese, one shy of our daily limit.
THESE GEESE DON'T FLY SOUTH
Large stretches of the Ottertail River near Fergus Falls remain open through the coldest winters thanks to a nearby power plant, dams and fast-moving water.
That open water is a magnet for increasing numbers of Canada geese that in the wetlands of western and northwestern Minnesota. When lakes and swamps freeze, many of those geese head to Fergus Falls instead of migrating.
By early December, more than 10,000 geese spend their days in the city. An additional 15,000 remain around Orwell Reservoir, making for a high concentration of huntable birds.
The locally raised Canadas were transplanted by the DNR in the late 1980s. They are so numerous that they have become a pest in residential areas and the scourge of farmers. The geese can cause significant crop damage, especially to early-sprouting soybeans in the spring.
It's similar to Rochester, Minn., where Silver Lake remains open all winter, and thousands of geese congregate. And, like Rochester, Fergus Falls has become a mecca for late-season waterfowl hunters in search of a Christmas goose or two. Or five.
"We're well over our population goals. There are too many of these local geese," said Mark Papesh, DNR wildlife technician in Fergus Falls.
That's why the DNR has set a liberal limit of five birds daily per hunter for the late-season hunt. On some days, it's not difficult to reach that.
DULUTH ARMY HEADS WEST
This is the second year a group of Duluth-area hunters has joined Jacobs on his annual trip home for the December goose season. Together we shot 45 Canada geese in 1½ days.
But it started slow.
On the first day, nine of us hid in portable ground blinds among 480 decoys in a harvested wheat field. Any goose that came into this field was going to face a gantlet. But temperatures in the upper 40s seemed to keep most geese out on the river.
"They know exactly where the refuge boundaries are," Jacobs said. "And if they aren't hungry, they don't come out."
A few geese came close enough to look at our spread but veered off without landing.
While geese might be tame-looking in town, the birds quickly regain their keen instincts to avoid trouble when outside the city limits. These geese are hunted hard for four months each fall — during a special September season, during the regular October-November waterfowl season and for eight days in December. They wise-up quickly to mediocre calling, poorly placed decoys or hunters who aren't concealed.
But not all of the geese snubbed us. About 11 a.m. a flock of five big geese circled our massive spread of fake geese, their necks craned, searching for the source of our goose calls.
We must have done everything right. The five geese answered our calls. and set their wings to land.
They made the mistake of flying directly in front of all nine of us as they came in. And nearly all of us sat up to shoot.
One by one, all five folded and fell.
"Five in, none out! Just like the videos," Jorgensen said with a huge smile, as Bailey, his Chesapeake retriever, brought him a big, fat goose.
We took a break to eat lunch — hot soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches — in the field. We were expecting a banner afternoon hunt because the geese usually feed en masse at least once each day. But not this day.
There was never a major flight. We had to be content with shooting a few singles and doubles, but then hours passed with nothing in the air.
Sunset came with no big flurry but at least one surprise. Just as we were about to pick up our decoys, five trumpeter swans flew past our decoys just a few feet off the ground. As most of us stopped to admire the swans, a few noticed a Canada goose following in formation at the rear.
Someone grabbed a goose call and gave a few clucks. Someone yelled for anybody with a loaded gun to shoot. Even though several of us were standing in the decoys, the goose was coming in to land.
Duluthian Mike Marmon grabbed his 10-gauge, rammed in a single shell and fired just as the bird figured out it was making a huge mistake.
The 11th and final goose of the day fell to the ground.
FAST FINISH
Wednesday was a different story. The geese were more active, and the hunting was hot.
We split up to improve our odds. Four hunters returned to the wheat field west of town, while three of us tried a small stubble field to the east.
We bagged nine geese by 10 a.m., but then fog rolled in and shut off the geese.
A few miles west, the four other hunters were just getting started. When the fog rolled in, so did the geese. Dozens of geese were flying into the field that few birds wanted a day earlier.
Back on the east side, Jacobs simply stood in a pit and smiled as more geese flew over. He was glad to be back home.
"I never get tired of this," Jacobs said as his black lab Sophie retrieved a goose. "I just wish the season wasn't ending."
HIGH-TECH HELP
Several new hunting innovations helped the success of last week's hunt.
SHORT-REED GOOSE CALLS
While long goose "flutes" were the rage a decade ago, most serious goose hunters have switched to shorter calls. These calls are harder to master but most are better able to make the full range of goose sounds.
The shorter calls also blow more like duck calls, with callers using their larynx to create the special sounds. While many of the sounds these shorter calls make are higher-pitched than a Canada goose's "hrrrronnnnk," they seem more able to reach out and attract geese at long ranges.
MOTION DECOYS AND FLAGS
This group of hunters had full-bodied decoys on swivel mounts; decoys with cloth, fluttering wings; silhouette decoys with photographic images of geese; shell-style decoys set on thin metal posts that wobbled in the wind; and lots of flags. They also needed big pickups and utility trailers to haul them all.
While it's essential that hunters and dogs remain still and unnoticed, waterfowl don't sit motionless when they feed. Even with 480 decoys spread over several acres, it's necessary to add motion to as many decoys as possible to simulate feeding geese. The mix of full-bodied, shell and silhouette decoys adds variety to the spread.
Several times it was clear that geese didn't turn our way until after we flagged, especially upwind. We often continued to flag until geese were landing.
GROUND BLINDS
It still is possible to lay down on the frozen ground and cover up with straw, grass or cornstalks to field-shoot geese. Sometimes you can dig a pit to hide in. But for sheer ease, portability, comfort and ability to hide, the new generation of ground blinds can't be beat.
The blinds have a built-in lounge seat and padded back rest and are covered in camouflaged Cordura with a light, aluminum frame. The hunter is off the cold ground and, for the most part, out of the wind.
TUNGSTEN SHOT
Although it can cost up to $2 per shell, nothing has the reach of the new loads of tungsten shot. We used 3- and 3½-inch tungsten loads in BB and 2-shot, both 12- and 10-gauge. A few hunters used BB and BBB steel shot, which worked great up to 40 yards. Tungsten has made 40- and even 50-yard shots more reliable and 30-yard shots automatic, even with big, 12-pound Canada geese.