If you drive along the Front Range and Eastern Plains of Colorado you will catch a glimpse of the wonderful goose hunting opportunities there are and will know that those opportunities are available to you, as well. If a guess was going to be taken, it would be a good one to say that there would be a lot of hunters with their trailers who are putting out their decoys at sunrise and sunset.
Goose hunting is not the typical practice makes perfect game because there are always new approaches to learn that you too will notice when you scout, plan and get out hunting in any situation. With a lot of challenges and cutthroat competition comes a lot of fun and high fives. There is not set way to hunt for a goose but each person definitely has their own style and will usually let you know how they think it should be done. Finding the right location by scouting, where and how to place the decoys, building a concealed blind, flagging for attention and calling are all things in each hunt that will have some likenesses but there is really no specific way that it has to be.
Here are a few so called tips and information that anyone can take into consideration when hunting for the allusive goose. Just remember that there is always someone who will voice that they have a different style and approach and that is what really makes this sport so interesting because there is so many ways you can hunt. If everything was the same how thrilling would it really be?
First off when discussing decoys some will like the very large spreads of thirty five or more dozen, which does look cool but in the end you may have the same results with only having a half dozen. A good thing to remember when deciding how many to use besides doing your scouting homework is to use the weather to your advantage because in most cold cases the geese will huddle up close together to stay warm and as you may have seen they will sometimes do it in large groups. When it is hot out just like you will try to stay cool so will the geese and they will usually give themselves plenty of room between each other. To give the appearance of a large grouping of geese spreading them out can also help. Using the most realistic looking decoy could also help and as you will see in snowy conditions a goose will almost always lay on their stomachs and this is where using half shell decoys will be important in making your setup look as real as it can get.
Feeders and more feeders is also another thing to note when watching geese in a real setting, there are always the ones that look around with their heads up high but most are head down putting the grind on the feed. Movement also always helps out and there are many decoys on the market that will provide you with the motion you need on a windless day or a day that the wind really does its part. Leaving an open area for them to land is also very important because you do not want a flock to land out of range or on one side not giving your whole hunting group a chance to unload their favorite shotgun. Geese favor to land into the wind so make sure you have an opening in front of the hunting blind with your backs facing the wind and they should glide right into your runway of destruction.
Concealment will go a long ways in achieving that nice pile picture. Being invisible to oncoming birds is a win-win situation and that will only come with the dedication to completely secure your blind from the many eyes that will try to pick you out and apart. Use materials that are natural to the area you are hunting, as corn in a winter wheat field will stick out like that sore hunter who has not got any action. Pits are used a lot in the fields of Colorado and the best thing to do with your pit is to make sure your lids and easily closed with a good top coverage of whatever is in the field and that the whole pit is flush with the ground. Layout blinds will also need heavily stuffed to blend into the surroundings. Concealment is a huge factor so make sure you are covered up well in all situations.
Use a goose flag to get the attention of distant geese and try not to flag them when they are right on top of you. Sometimes geese want to see that flapping all the way in but it can be used as a great attention getter and attention keeper when they are cornering your decoy spread. Calling can be similar in some sense to the flag by not calling really hard when they are right on top of you. When they are right on top of you try to go soft on the birds with slow clucks and murmurs resembling feeding geese and hit them harder and louder when they appear to be leaving. As you may have noticed smaller cackling geese seem to be more vocal and really like the fast loud clucks and getting everyone to blow there call on those large flocks can really pay off.
If something does not seem to be working do not think twice about making a change. Being able to read what the geese are saying and wanting is really what works best but you will have to go through the trials and tribulations to really get just a mild understanding of what it is they want. Scouting will definitely payoff in the end and without it you are really just taking a gamble. When you do find that sweet sweet X spot you are going to need some ammunition and all the time you spent scouting will be worth its weight in the piles of geese you are going to stack up.
Scout, listen, watch and learn from everyone you hunt with and make sure to keep hunters that enjoy the hunt no matter what the outcome is and you will always get your fill from hunting geese in Colorado because there is no set in stone way.
Goose hunting is not the typical practice makes perfect game because there are always new approaches to learn that you too will notice when you scout, plan and get out hunting in any situation. With a lot of challenges and cutthroat competition comes a lot of fun and high fives. There is not set way to hunt for a goose but each person definitely has their own style and will usually let you know how they think it should be done. Finding the right location by scouting, where and how to place the decoys, building a concealed blind, flagging for attention and calling are all things in each hunt that will have some likenesses but there is really no specific way that it has to be.
Here are a few so called tips and information that anyone can take into consideration when hunting for the allusive goose. Just remember that there is always someone who will voice that they have a different style and approach and that is what really makes this sport so interesting because there is so many ways you can hunt. If everything was the same how thrilling would it really be?
First off when discussing decoys some will like the very large spreads of thirty five or more dozen, which does look cool but in the end you may have the same results with only having a half dozen. A good thing to remember when deciding how many to use besides doing your scouting homework is to use the weather to your advantage because in most cold cases the geese will huddle up close together to stay warm and as you may have seen they will sometimes do it in large groups. When it is hot out just like you will try to stay cool so will the geese and they will usually give themselves plenty of room between each other. To give the appearance of a large grouping of geese spreading them out can also help. Using the most realistic looking decoy could also help and as you will see in snowy conditions a goose will almost always lay on their stomachs and this is where using half shell decoys will be important in making your setup look as real as it can get.
Feeders and more feeders is also another thing to note when watching geese in a real setting, there are always the ones that look around with their heads up high but most are head down putting the grind on the feed. Movement also always helps out and there are many decoys on the market that will provide you with the motion you need on a windless day or a day that the wind really does its part. Leaving an open area for them to land is also very important because you do not want a flock to land out of range or on one side not giving your whole hunting group a chance to unload their favorite shotgun. Geese favor to land into the wind so make sure you have an opening in front of the hunting blind with your backs facing the wind and they should glide right into your runway of destruction.
Concealment will go a long ways in achieving that nice pile picture. Being invisible to oncoming birds is a win-win situation and that will only come with the dedication to completely secure your blind from the many eyes that will try to pick you out and apart. Use materials that are natural to the area you are hunting, as corn in a winter wheat field will stick out like that sore hunter who has not got any action. Pits are used a lot in the fields of Colorado and the best thing to do with your pit is to make sure your lids and easily closed with a good top coverage of whatever is in the field and that the whole pit is flush with the ground. Layout blinds will also need heavily stuffed to blend into the surroundings. Concealment is a huge factor so make sure you are covered up well in all situations.
Use a goose flag to get the attention of distant geese and try not to flag them when they are right on top of you. Sometimes geese want to see that flapping all the way in but it can be used as a great attention getter and attention keeper when they are cornering your decoy spread. Calling can be similar in some sense to the flag by not calling really hard when they are right on top of you. When they are right on top of you try to go soft on the birds with slow clucks and murmurs resembling feeding geese and hit them harder and louder when they appear to be leaving. As you may have noticed smaller cackling geese seem to be more vocal and really like the fast loud clucks and getting everyone to blow there call on those large flocks can really pay off.
If something does not seem to be working do not think twice about making a change. Being able to read what the geese are saying and wanting is really what works best but you will have to go through the trials and tribulations to really get just a mild understanding of what it is they want. Scouting will definitely payoff in the end and without it you are really just taking a gamble. When you do find that sweet sweet X spot you are going to need some ammunition and all the time you spent scouting will be worth its weight in the piles of geese you are going to stack up.
Scout, listen, watch and learn from everyone you hunt with and make sure to keep hunters that enjoy the hunt no matter what the outcome is and you will always get your fill from hunting geese in Colorado because there is no set in stone way.
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