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My First Ohio Goose Hunt - not bad
There is exactly one corn field on base property. It's legal to hunt but gets pounded by base personnel (and undoubtedly by locals who sneak on due to unrestricted/unfenced access). With the corn just cut, folks wasted no time hitting it for doves and it wasn't looking promising that the geese had not been harassed by proxy of all the shooting not necessarily targeting them.
In the past, I never really put any effort into early season geese. They tend to be local resident birds that are dead set on feeding in certain spots...but cut corn changes everything. I had gone out yesterday with my daughter for a short morning hunt and didn't have any birds respond. Against my better judgement, I decided to pull my decoy trailer out again (solo since my daughter decided to act up and get grounded by mom) and try the evening tonight. There was no holding back: 50+ Big Foot original and B2 fullbody decoys were placed around my layout blind. If it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't going to be due to lack of effort, though a friend who wanted to dove hunt another area gave me a hand setting them all up. Sure enough, a couple of flocks came in like gangbusters to my spread, wings cupped and totally committed.
Out of the two flocks that came in low, I managed 3 birds on a total of 6 shots - one out of the first flock and 2 out of the second. I don't consider a 50% hit ratio bad at all when hunting out of a layout blind, since you really can't pick a bird out until you clear the blind doors. The decoy numbers and field position was key. The flocks were large by Ohio standards (~20-25 birds) and a small spread likely would not have worked. Many thanks go out to another friend who spotted the location where these birds were feeding and passed me the intel to me. Anytime you nail the X where birds have been hitting the corn it makes life a whole lot easier. I never thought this state would offer up a worthwhile early season goose hunt, but I was wrong. I'm just a little disappointed that my daughter wasn't with me to experience it.
Just a portion of the rather large decoy spread:
You really get a feel for how devastating those #2 waterfowl loads are when you pluck some breast feathers and see the damage:
In the past, I never really put any effort into early season geese. They tend to be local resident birds that are dead set on feeding in certain spots...but cut corn changes everything. I had gone out yesterday with my daughter for a short morning hunt and didn't have any birds respond. Against my better judgement, I decided to pull my decoy trailer out again (solo since my daughter decided to act up and get grounded by mom) and try the evening tonight. There was no holding back: 50+ Big Foot original and B2 fullbody decoys were placed around my layout blind. If it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't going to be due to lack of effort, though a friend who wanted to dove hunt another area gave me a hand setting them all up. Sure enough, a couple of flocks came in like gangbusters to my spread, wings cupped and totally committed.
Out of the two flocks that came in low, I managed 3 birds on a total of 6 shots - one out of the first flock and 2 out of the second. I don't consider a 50% hit ratio bad at all when hunting out of a layout blind, since you really can't pick a bird out until you clear the blind doors. The decoy numbers and field position was key. The flocks were large by Ohio standards (~20-25 birds) and a small spread likely would not have worked. Many thanks go out to another friend who spotted the location where these birds were feeding and passed me the intel to me. Anytime you nail the X where birds have been hitting the corn it makes life a whole lot easier. I never thought this state would offer up a worthwhile early season goose hunt, but I was wrong. I'm just a little disappointed that my daughter wasn't with me to experience it.
Just a portion of the rather large decoy spread:
You really get a feel for how devastating those #2 waterfowl loads are when you pluck some breast feathers and see the damage:
Accuracy: because white space between bullet holes drives me insane.
Replies
While yesterday's hunt didn't go as well as today's, I did have a few unexpected visitors in the decoys right around 7AM...
Three geese in one hunt is not bad at all. The very most I ever killed in one hunt was six. That was a very good day AND that was way more geese than I wanted to pluck.
Congrats!
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
If you enjoy shooting geese, then you are going to love a trip to NZ. Canada geese are regarded as pest here now, no limit and no season.
That sounds awesome. I can't imagine how much the baggage fee would be to haul my decoys over there, so I hope you have a few. :tooth:
In many places in the states, they are regarded as a pest, too. In fact, I think that N454Casull gets a special permit to shoot them at a local park near him. They ruin a lot of good park benches and golf courses prettym much everywhere I've lived.
Shhh! We keep that on the down low.
16 is the most we have got in a day. 2 guys 4 a piece we had 8 by about 8am went and had breakfast cleaned the first 8 and went back shot 8 more by a little after noon.
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It's still like that for swans in Nevada. You get one tag like a you do for a deer and that's all you get all season. Same for Harlequin ducks in Washington. But Canada geese are like a freaking plague in so many places in the Midwest. My understanding is that this is actually why they raised the early season limit.
Man, they must really want those things gone. 16 in a day - no limit at all, I presume?
I looked up a recipe after you posted this. I think this is happening tonight.
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It's interesting how the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service controls the state limits. The states are grouped by flyway (Atlantic, Mississippi, Central or Pacific). Based on bird counts, they set the total number of hunting days and bag limits that apply to each state in that flyway, and those requirements get posted in the states' respective hunting regulation. Then, the states do their part to manage whatever zones/areas they see fit to manage based on those overarching limitations. They also break up the total number of hunting days into seasons, being sure to match that season set with their total # of allowed hunting days. So if you have a 20 day early goose season, that's 20 fewer days you can allot to your regular/late season.
As we see here, in the course of a generation, your home state went from super-tight limits to generous limits based on a pretty good census system.
You need to get back to Nebraska with me one year, or see what you can do to get us in a cornfield back in your home state. Decoys and trailer are on me.
Obviously, if you get an early warm front sufficient enough to melt the ice line up through the Dakotas, they will push through early and rapidly. Conversely, if you get an unseasonable cold front that keep things locked up and frozen, not only will it keep the birds pinned down south, it can literally knock their progress backward if once open water starts freezing back up. All in all, we will start watching the weather very closely toward the end of February. This has a very strong element of "ready, ready, GO!" to it for people hunting the Spring conservation season. It can be a challenge getting time off at work on short notice, but it's very much worth it when you time it right.
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO
In general, however, making jerky with waterfowl is another excellent choice. Some of the least palatable duck species can be made into excellent jerky.
Boy, I love shooting them and I get my share every year...but I always find some sucker to eat them :jester:
When I shoot them mid-season, after the corn has been cut for a while and they stuff their little faces with it almost exclusively for almost for a month or so, I have zero issues with their taste. Cubed up during that time, they make a mean stroganoff.
Having never shot/eaten them early season...I'm mildly concerned about the taste. This is why the break-in kabob recipe involves a beer marinade and some teriyaki sauce. If there's any hint of "yuck", it should be sufficiently drowned out. The only goose I absolutely could not eat was the snow goose I show this past Spring. It was just too damned rough.
Before:
After:
The recipe was found posted on a duck hunting forum. Quite frankly, I think this the guy nailed it. The directions are a little disjointed because he doesn't give the ingredient amounts until you are into the recipe, but it's worth sorting out. I added the bracket comments:
Ingredients:
- Geese breasts
- Bacon (I prefer thin - not thick bacon - in this recipe)
- Peppers (green, red, orange, and yellow)
- Red Onions
- Mushrooms
- Teriyaki Sauce
- Garlic
- Beer
Instructions:
1. After killing the geese, breast them and put the breasts in saltwater overnight. I change the water once.
2. Cube the geese breasts [I used ~2.5 geese worth, as two of them were too badly shot up to get much meat from]
3. Marinate the geese breasts in Teriyaki sauce, beer, and garlic. I have found an overnight marinade in the fridge to work well. I also will mix up the marinade at least once [I stretched it out to 2 nights out of necessity - resist any temptation to add salt to the brine, the bacon will add a good amount on its own and you can always add more]
4. Wrap the geese in 1/2 strip of bacon and put on kabob with other vegetables
5. Grill for about 3 to 4 minutes, turn and grill for 3 to 4 minutes, turn and grill for 3 to 4 minutes and they should be ready.
Serving Size Notes:
- Each goose will create roughly eight kabobs. I usually put four bacon wrapped geese cubes on one kabob.
- For each goose, you will need 2 to 3 peppers. Your choice what color.
- For each goose you will need a little less than one red onion.
- I use about 2 to 3 cloves of garlic (cut up / minced) for one goose and do at least 4 cloves for 2 to 3 geese. [I used damned near 8 garlic cloves in the brine - personal preference]
- For each goose, you will need a little less than one 16oz whole mushroom package.
- For the beer, I prefer at least 12oz but a lot of times I use up to 16oz. I did three geese for this Thanksgiving and used 16oz. [Use enough beer to completely cover the meat in the marinade container - Budweiser in the large, 24oz. can worked perfectly]
- For one goose, use 1/2 to 3/4 of the Teriyaki sauce. For the two to three geese, I use the whole bottle.