Early Goose Reports

[tracker x-2]

What did everyone see and get?

I was out yesterday and today with no luck. see a few groups, but nothing would decoy. Today I had a low flying white airplane circle us EIGHT times. Im thinking it might have been DNR Other wise it was nice to be out in the cool air.

[Livin On The X Outdoors!]

We had a great hunt on sat morning getting 20 for 4 people, decoyed very well with most shots within 20yds with there feet down. Today was a different story, only shot one. Didn't see nearly as many. Also the variable winds made it diffucult to get them out front in the decoys. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Good luck to everyone that makes it out.

[H0LE HOPPER]

well seen about 20 flocks all together but many were flying to high and would not commit but got three from friday night and sunday morning. Should be an awesome duck opener though!!!!

[RumRiverRat]

well seen about 20 flocks all together but many were flying to high and would not commit but got three from friday night and sunday morning. Should be an awesome duck opener though!!!!

Huh?

[tracker x-2]

Friday Night ??

[gardn184]

Well, either he was shooting a bit early, or he was hunting the cheesy side of the border, we opened up on wednesday morning, for us over here we had an excellent wednesday opener, dropping 13 geese. Had two massive flocks come in and that was it. Both swung right into the decoys about 10 yds away. I had one drop in my blind with me after I shot it. We probably would have gotten a few more if we wouldn't have had a case of "I forgot to load my gun" from someone on each flock that came in Glad I remembered to load mine because it was some awesome shooting!

[Bryce]

Now somebody needs to ask what he did with all the meat. Make sure every thigh bone was used to brew up a pot of stew and whatnot.

[hunter322]

hunting the east metro here, pretty slow yesterday. had one flock of about 20 come check us out and circle us twice. and then see ya. saw one or two here and there. too fogy yesterday. i didnt go out sat but my budies shot 4 they said it was pretty slow as well.

[hunter322]

not an f-ing bird in the sky today! well few, very few. nothing even checked us out. pretty [PoorWordUsage] poor weekend. hopefully they will pick up for next weekend.

[Fishpondc]

Beautiful weather, high flying birds. Hunted 80 acres in Columbus, geese were everywhere up until opener, of course! Still had fun, had my 7 year old in the blind for his first time, ended up with two this morning and I think I have a new hunting buddy for life!

[rbs]

got 6 Saturday morning...one pair and the rest were singles. They are the easy ones lol

[tracker x-2]

Yesterday tried some water with no luck ened up driving around afterward to find a grain field that has been a local feeding hole for a hundred or so geese. Good thing we knew the land owners and where able get out there this morning. We had a great day and ened up with 18. Dispite the 2 different parties of shmucks sitting on the property line of the field and sky blasting the [PoorWordUsage] out of geese circling us.

I laughed as they missed many shots and tried to call them back with a huuuweeehooo flute!

[PierBridge]

We had our best opener ever in south metro Lakeville "Eureka township" area field hunting. We had 20 birds by 9:30 and hit our 5 person limit no problem. Sunday was a bit slower but we still a blast with 6 birds.

I have already surpassed my last years Goose total for the entire season so I'm a happy camper.

Also lots of Ducks coming into the spread so that's encouraging too!

[24-7FISHON!!]

Great weekend in Wisconsin for early goose. Got 12 birds on Monday and the rest of the hunting group did about the same on Saturday and Sunday.

[Quackaddict9]

we shot 18 for 5 guys on Saturday morning, and ran traffic on Sunday morning for two and shot 4 of the 5 that came in. Had a couple chances at cranes but they wouldn't fall!

lots of birds around but scattered all over the area, hopefully they'll bunch up this week and the cooler weather/n or nw wind will push more birds down. However there were migrators flying sky high Friday afternoon.

[Knickpoint]

Limited Saturday morning and six between 2 on Sunday. Was def. a bit slower, but still an excellent shoot! Looking to scout and pass shoot the next few days.

[johnsd16]

we shot 18 for 5 guys on Saturday morning, and ran traffic on Sunday morning for two and shot 4 of the 5 that came in. Had a couple chances at cranes but they wouldn't fall!

lots of birds around but scattered all over the area, hopefully they'll bunch up this week and the cooler weather/n or nw wind will push more birds down. However there were migrators flying sky high Friday afternoon.

Not hunting the ES around Bemidji this year?? How far do you guys travel for the early season??

[Quackaddict9]

Not hunting the ES around Bemidji this year?? How far do you guys travel for the early season??

Nope, never hunted around the Bemidji area for early goose...always have been in the NW zone, have a farm up there.

[East Rush Rules]

Anybody else notice the birds were acting as though it was the middle of the regular season? We ended up getting 13 saturday, 7 sunday, 3 monday and 4 today. All around a pretty decent weekend and we actually shot every single goose that came into the spread! That usually doesn't happen with us! lol

[johnsd16]

Nope, never hunted around the Bemidji area for early goose...always have been in the NW zone, have a farm up there.

Gotcha. I always thought you guys hunted the prairies just outside bemidji. I was up that way this summer and didn't see as many birds as I thought I would, still quite a few but not a ton.

On the subject of the thread. The Chisago Co area was very sparse this year. Far far fewer birds with poor movement over the weekend. Our groups took less than half of what we normally do opening weekend. Especially compared to 5-10yrs ago. They are getting much harder to finish as well, it really seems like the birds are getting smarter. No shortage of pressure either.

Wish we could poke at cranes down here. One field had 50+ in it over the weekend, largest concentration I have seen in our area. Sure are getting to be a lot of them around.

[mechanictim]

Lots of birds here in southern Jackson county. Put my canoe into a small river and slough area and got my limit saturday morning. Actually killed the fifth bird with the last shell I had with me, never did that before. Didn't hunt Sunday morning, Monday set up on a fence line near North Heron Lake, lots of low flying geese and had my limit with just five shots by 7:30.

Iowa opened their season this past weekend also so the birds around here are staying in the area. There is a large refuge roughly 5 miles by 5 miles square just north of Spirit Lake, Iowa that holds lots of birds. The birds in the refuge are getting kicked up by farmers chopping silage or doing some hay baling at about anytime of day and are still decoying into either fields or water.

From what I have seen and heard from other hunters you don't need a big spread of decoys, just need to get away from the roads snd have someone who can work a nice raspy call to get the birds to decoy.

[tracker x-2]

Anybody else notice the birds were acting as though it was the middle of the regular season? We ended up getting 13 saturday, 7 sunday, 3 monday and 4 today. All around a pretty decent weekend and we actually shot every single goose that came into the spread! That usually doesn't happen with us! lol

from sunrise to about eight oclock they seemed to fly low and look, but after that it was high flying migrator like action for our group.

[hunter322]

wow all these reports of good hunts around the state and for us it was one of the worst opening weekends in like 6 years. the last 3 or 4 we would probably average 25-40 birds on opening weekend this year it was 4. i wonder if we shot our area out?

[broken_line]

we had one group land 100 yards out of the decoys.. but those were the only geese we seen the entire weekend. im thinking a 2 or 3 bird early goose bag limit with a possesion limit of 10 woulndt be such a bad idea........

[gurkster]

Saw many, but they didn't decoy and most were high flyers. I liked the numbers, I am thinking (hoping) the nice weather didn't help me. Looking forward to next time out.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

we had one group land 100 yards out of the decoys.. but those were the only geese we seen the entire weekend. im thinking a 2 or 3 bird early goose bag limit with a possesion limit of 10 woulndt be such a bad idea........

why would you want a lower limit?

typical opener in western minnesota...birds scattered everywhere, multiple small feeds, birds flying low from the roost, birds coming out right at legal shooting time, birds short stopping the decoys. saw some signs of the molt migration in progress. a lot of guys i know back home skipped goose opener to shoot doves. they were thick. I hunted sunday morning for geese, but spent the rest of the weekend shooting doves and pigeons over a mojo mallard.

[old goose hunter]

I had not hunted the early season in about 6-7 years. I hunt Saskatchewan,

and Manitoba, so it got really hard to hunt Mn, with limited number of birds

and lots of hunters. It just has not been worth the agravation. But about

two weeks before the early season, I got a call from my brother-in law. He and my sister farm 3400 acres up in the red river valley by Crookston. He said

he had several wheat fields that were full of geese, and they were starting

to move into his pea fields that have not been harvested yet, and they were

eating and knocking off a lot of peas. He asked if I was interested in

coming up to kill a few. Talked to the wife, she said yea lets go, she likes

to hunt as well, and thought it would be fun. My brother in law took out his back hoe and dug us a trench blind in a strip of grass between a 400

acre wheat field and his green pea field. He took some plywood, covered the pit and brushed it in with grass. This was the most comfortable blind

I have ever hunted out of. We set out 5 dozen full bodies on the edge of the wheat stubble in small family groups like they were landing there and

walking into the peas to eat. Which is what they had been doing. Saturday

we shot 15 for the three of us in less than 30 minutes. We quickly threw the decoys in the pit, and got out of there. Sunday we shot 15 more in about an hour. Monday we shot 15 more, but it took until 10:30am as they

were a little more educated by then, but they wanted those peas!!!!!!And

no we were not over our limit as Sunday night we had a big family dinner

with marinated goose breasts on the grill. It was a great time, my wife

shot her first triple, group of four came in 3 shots, 3 big birds down!!!!! Most of the groups were 5-10 birds, the first day they did not

even circle or hesitate, they were coming off of the red river back water

about a mile away. Most had their wings locked a quarter mile out and

glided into our spread, by Monday they were a little smarter, but they

wanted the peas. I told my brother in law to plant peas again next year and we will be back!