pass shooting / snow goose in SE Saskatchewan

rkr said:
how do know what is their flight path? I guess this is more than a weekend thing. I'll ask some farmers that I know, hopefully they can help me.
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You find where they are roosting( resting overnight on water). Follow them to where they feed. If they are not being harassed they may go back and forth to the same place for a few days to a few weeks at a time. Once you have established that flight path you want to get on a property along that route where you generally see them in the lower altitude stages of their flight and try to get under them if you are going to pass shoot them. Shooting close to the roost is usually best but too close and you'll push them off of it altogether and then they may not stick around PERIOD! By the time they reach Canada in spring they have been decoyed, jump shot, pass shot, chased and shot, shot at from vehicles etc.. They are in a word "NERVOUS". If you watch them close in spring they rarely sit on a given feeding spot more than 20 - 30 minutes tops and even then they usually are hopping around constantly especially in pressured hunting areas or areas seeing high volumes of traffic. This spring should be interesting in Alberta because AB never has had a spring hunt until this year and the past two springs there were spots close to my home where they roosted every day for over a month and fed in the same fields peacefully all spring. Should be interesting to see how fast that changes this spring when the jump shooters (or as mine and Chisholm's buddy from Quebec calls them, "sneakers") go after them!!

The long and the short of spring snow season is it's TOUGH!! If you cannot put 1,000+ decoys on the ground, afford e-callers with speaker set-ups and gasoline for countless miles and hours of scouting plus be willing to hit a field by 2 am to get it all in place for daybreak then in all reality it's a watch the migration time with a camera or pass shoot or jump shoot them if you can. I know I am not willing to invest the kind of $$ it takes to possibly draw them in in spring. I'll take my chances with a meager spread and do my usual, go home empty handed but smiling from trying and watching the show!
 
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the spank said:
You find where they are roosting( resting overnight on water). Follow them to where they feed. If they are not being harassed they may go back and forth to the same place for a few days to a few weeks at a time. Once you have established that flight path you want to get on a property along that route where you generally see them in the lower altitude stages of their flight and try to get under them if you are going to pass shoot them. Shooting close to the roost is usually best but too close and you'll push them off of it altogether and then they may not stick around PERIOD! By the time they reach Canada in spring they have been decoyed, jump shot, pass shot, chased and shot, shot at from vehicles etc.. They are in a word "NERVOUS". If you watch them close in spring they rarely sit on a given feeding spot more than 20 - 30 minutes tops and even then they usually are hopping around constantly especially in pressured hunting areas or areas seeing high volumes of traffic. This spring should be interesting in Alberta because AB never has had a spring hunt until this year and the past two springs there were spots close to my home where they roosted every day for over a month and fed in the same fields peacefully all spring. Should be interesting to see how fast that changes this spring when the jump shooters (or as mine and Chisholm's buddy from Quebec calls them, "sneakers") go after them!!

The long and the short of spring snow season is it's TOUGH!! If you cannot put 1,000+ decoys on the ground, afford e-callers with speaker set-ups and gasoline for countless miles and hours of scouting plus be willing to hit a field by 2 am to get it all in place for daybreak then in all reality it's a watch the migration time with a camera or pass shoot or jump shoot them if you can. I know I am not willing to invest the kind of $$ it takes to possibly draw them in in spring. I'll take my chances with a meager spread and do my usual, go home empty handed but smiling from trying and watching the show!
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You forgot one piece of advice... keep an eye on the Independent Grocer flier for a sale on chicken breast...
 
I am speaking of only pass/flight-way and jump shooting here, not decoy/ field set-ups as others have already touched on.

For both pass and jump shooting success THE DIRTIEST WINDIEST FOUL WEATHER DAY you can stand is best. Chance of success on a fair weather day is slim to none. On very windy days the birds fly closer to the ground than on nice days, same for snowy/rainy days. If the wind is strong enough that they are slowed to a crawl flying against it, it is perfect. Besides keeping the birds lower, the wind dissipates/distorts shot reports and doesn't alarm them from a shorter distance. Find a nesting /watering spot with thousands of birds and get hidden between them and their feed ground (preferably at least a couple miles from the water) on a day like I describe and you will get some shooting.

For the "jump shooting" the same type of day is required. Forget about jump shooting fields, almost impossible with a large quantity of birds to raise the alarm. The place to look for good jump opportunities is in small bodies of water on windy days, they congregate close to wind breaks close to shores/bull rush growth. Farm dugouts are the best with their high sides and earthen mounds to use as approach routes. On very windy, snowy days the geese (often small bunches of 2 or 3 flocks, 50 birds or so) will use a small body of water with some shelter rather than the big, unapproachable watering sites.

Even if you don't kill a bird on your first outings there is nothing in the wild that compares with having 30,000 birds milling and squacking above you at one time....nothing.
 
I've always found that when they're headed North, they aren't there to #### Around. They fly, they roost, they get up and fly again. I haven't hunted as much in the spring as the fall, but they seem to be more on a mission in the spring. They're headed to Banks Island to destroy the tundra and hatch out thousands more of themselves. Get them coming out of their roost or you may not see them until, they're coming back in the fall. Unless you're pounder or Boomer. Then you'll see them all damn summer.
 
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