It’s Snow Geese Time in the Midwest By Gary Howey
Light Geese, Snows, Blues and Ross geese are some of the toughest geese in the world to decoy.
They are migratory waterfowl that flies south each year from their home on the Canadian Tundra down to Texas and Louisiana for the winter, then making the long migration back north through the Midwestern states of Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
Unlike other species of waterfowl such as the Canada goose, snow geese lack any natural camouflage, are fairly small, averaging 5 or so pounds.
They’re very alert, weary and always alert, they can grow to a ripe old age with many 10-year-old birds in each flock with banded birds as old as 20 years being taken.
Flying in huge flocks, there are thousands of eyes watching the ground for anything that seems out of place.
Generally the early flights north are the mature birds, trying to get north to claim the best nesting areas.
These mature birds can be tough to call, but will be tired after their long flight and looking for a place to rest.
It all boils down to location, location, location!
If you’re in the right place, have a decent spread and a good caller, chances are that you’ll pull a few birds out of the flock.
It seems as if the larger the spread the better as Snow geese fly in huge flocks and very seldom do you see just a few birds in the air, as there’s thousands of birds flying over or trying to put down at one time.
It doesn’t take anything fancy as far as decoys go, as hunters in Texas learned years ago that a couple of dozen of decoys and a bunch of white rags or sacks will do the trick.
I like to have a few more decoys than they use and a couple to create a little movement in my set up.
I’ve had great success with the Reel Wings decoys www.reelwings.com as it doesn’t take much of a wind to fly them and they maneuver just like a goose coming in to land.
In fact we’ve has snows come in trying to follow them to the ground and all most had mid air collisions.
When the wind dies, they’ll settle to the ground, looking like a goose about to land.
Snow geese have become a problem as they’re eating themselves out of house and home up north on the tundra, devastating their nesting areas, which not only affects the geese, but all wildlife.
Id something drastic wasn’t done, Mother Nature will take care of the excess numbers through disease and starvation.
Because of this the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established special conservation hunting seasons in the spring in 1999 with relaxed rules.
By establishing this special season, they’d hoped that we’d be able to reduce the population by as much as 50%.
During this special conservation season in the spring hunters are allowed to hunt with unplugged shotguns as well as being able to use electronic calls.
Hunters are still required to use non-toxic (lead free) shot during the conservation season. The allowable shot during the spring season include: bismuth-tin, tungsten-polymer, tungsten matrix, and combinations of tungsten-iron-nickel-copper-bismuth.
Harvest restrictions have also been relaxed, as South Dakota hunters are able to harvest 20 snow geese a day with no possession limit.
Since other species of geese migrate at the same time as snow geese, hunters need to be able to identify the species as only light geese (Snows, Blues and Ross) may be taken during this season.
The statewide Conservation Snow Goose season South Dakota opened February 13th and runs through the 2nd of May.
Throughout most of Nebraska the season runs February 6th through April 18th with hunters in that state allowed to take an unlimited number of snow geese each day with no possession limit.
All geese taken during this season must be retrieved, if possible and kept in the possession of the hunter while in the field.
Since there is snow on the ground all the way north, snow geese are now piling into northern Kansas and southern Nebraska resting and staging before heading northward.
The geese will continue north as soon as the snow recedes, opening up fields which gives the geese the opportunity to feed as they make their way north.
Ideal conditions for hunters in the area would be if our areas opened up with the snow line staying north of us, forcing the birds to stay in our area over an extended period of time.
If things open up too quickly, the early migration will blow through our area.
There should be later flights as the immature birds make their way north, generally these are easier birds to call as they don’t have as many miles under their wings and haven’t seen all the decoy spreads that the older birds have.
Some folks call snow geese sky carp since they aren’t as good table fare as Canada and White Front geese, but if cleaned and prepared properly they aren’t bad eating.