Early season goose

[Hookhunter20]

Being that I am just starting to get back into waterfowling after a 5 year break I have been trying to reeducate myself. In my area of the state there's not many agricultural fields or private land to hunt ducks and geese. I'm pretty much restricted to a few state land areas some holding small ponds throughout. Iv seen mallards, woodies, and divers late last year in a few but never any geese. Anyone on here have suggestions on where to look for the early goose seasons any input would be appreciated.

[mike rossi]

Does the Western LI Canada Goose zone even have an early season? I believe it does not. That might explain why you don't see any resident geese, maybe there aren't any in the area. That doesn't mean the migrators don't hit the area later in the autumn....

[wheelieman]

Fields, mainly hay, and as soon as the farmers start chopping corn,ill be in a cut corn, and then rye is always a good bet, i prefer land over water so many more choices, if you get out and beat the pavement a little

[Hookhunter20]

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Edited August 23, 2014 by Hookhunter20

[Hookhunter20]

Well I'm in the Southern/Hudson valley zones in putnam. If I see plenty of resident geese in parks and small retention ponds along roads but we lack the fields to really give us an edge forcing me to resort to hunting state land ponds. Farms are getting hard to come by in my area so true corn and soybean fields are kind of out of possibility at the moment

[mike rossi]

If you are positive the geese are not using the ponds, then you will have little luck calling and decoying resident geese to an area they are not using. That is even difficult to do with migrators, but resident geese have a routine they stick to until disturbed.

 

If you cant hunt were you have been seeing the birds, you need to follow them or somehow figure out where else they are going. If you find they are using another area you can legally access or get permission and where hunting can be done safely, your in luck.

 

If you cant hunt where they are actually going, then look for an accessible and huntable  spot between two areas they are using. If they happen to fly over that area low (really low) you can get some pass shooting.