Best time of day for geese?
- Thread starter farmerbob
- Start date
Morning first and late afternoon second when they leave their roosting areas to head out to feed. Geese often roost later in the morning than ducks and often show up an hour or two after sunrise, especially later in the season. Evening shoots are usually more sporatic but geese will start heading out to feed in the late afternoon usually and return to roost before dark.
Dude come on..if you are trying to just blab it's one thing..if you really want to know go to a waterfowl site, look in the sky and try to notice what time of day they are flying, or use common sense, that most animals are active the first few hours of the day and the last few hours of daylight.
Turkeyslayer 1300
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Russell, Ontario
Excuse, bukee he seems a little hostile. Morning is the best time for geese as they always feed then.
saskgunowner101
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- near Prince Albert
Last edited:
:stfun00
farmerbo
smokepole is right.
Early morning and late afternoon/evening fields are your best bet. I'm a water hunter and notice that most of the geese tend to pile in around 10 to 11 am in my area in order to water up after filling their crops with grain. I went after them hard last year and that's when I got most of them. This year I am primarily targeting ducks on water and the geese don't even start arriving until I am nearly done packing up.
I use 8 - 12 Big foot floaters and do okay. 2 dozen would get regular limits out here.
heavyBullet
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Just off the island of MTL
Way to make friends Newbie !! Only 16 posts, yet you feel obligated to belittle someone.
This reminds me of your post when you insulted a guy for posting the incorrect weight of his deer, did you not learn from that experience ??
Your ignorant comments speak volumes on the kind of person you are.
I cannot wait until your first post.
Farmerbob, I apologize for the harsh response yesterday. It was not warranted and I hope you can accept my apology. Being stuck in the office and not being able to hunt has made me crabby.
You got some good advice above, early morning is the best for field hunting. If you live close to your hunting area try to scout the day before. Many successful goose hunters will spend 2X the time scouting then they actually do hunting. If you find a field that the geese are using, usually freshly cut corn, beans, or grains, and can obtain permission, then you have found what is called the X. Set up in the same area of the field that you saw the geese the previous day. If you hunt this scenario, you won't need alot of decoys and won't have to call alot either since you are where the geese want to be anyway. Your number one priority here should be concealment. Layout blinds are great, but this can be accomplished by lying in the field with some camo, burlap or corn stalks concealing you.
The same type of scouting can be done for a water hunt. If you have identified their roost you can set up early morning to try and get them on the way out, or after they return from feeding in the field. Lastly you can get them on the water in the evening when they are either going out for an afternoon feed or when they are coming back to roost, usually close to last legal shooting time. The late night shoot might be frustrating because many times the geese will not return to the water until after legal shooting time. Best set up in these scenarios is either with a few floater decoys, mix in some ducks if you like, but keep in mind that geese do not like to land over ducks, where ducks are usually unphased with landing over geese. Geese will almost always land into the wind. If a water set up is not possible, then you may have to learn their usual travel routes to and from the water and try to do some pass shooting. Try to get as close to the water as possible so that they will be at their lowest points when passing you. The key here is just hiding in a fence row or closest tree to their roost and not moving or calling and just ambushing them as they pass overhead. If you notice they are travelling away from you or won't be passing close to you, a few calls when they are at a distance might convince them to investigate in your direction.
If scouting is not an option and you can not find the X or get permission to hunt the X in a field, then setting up close to that field, better if your field has been harvested recently, is the way to go. This will take some convincing the geese to come your way and leave their usual fields. This is usually accomplished with larger spreads of decoys, sometimes 100 or more, having good callers is key and using flags, to simulate movement, is often of great help. Play the wind with your set up and leave large landing pockets, i.e. void of decoys, where you want the geese to land. Setting you decoys in U, or J shapes or in family groups of 2-5 is the norm.
Another thing to keep in mind is how long the geese have been in your area. If they are locals or migrators, that have been in your area for over a week, then they will have set pattern that can be used to your advantage if figured out. That is, they will generally have favourite fields and water roosts and set times of day that they will be moving to and from. Thus one can pattern these geese almost like patterning a deer. They will also identify certain areas, field or water, as danger if they have received hunting pressure from certain areas and will avoid them. They will usually stick to this pattern until one of too things happen, new food sources, ie freshly cut field become available to them, or the weather gets colder. Nasty whether will usually move new birds in from the north and move your birds to different areas, usually to the south. That being said many of the southern ontario geese will not move south and stay in certain areas almost all winter. This will happen if they have open water and food is available. Anyway, the point here is geese that have been in your area can be patterned and will be less likely to move away from their pattern and into your setup if it is not on their pattern. New migrators on the other hand have not developed these patterns yet and can be coaxed into your set up, whether in field or water, with the right set up, as long as they are in the area and can see your set up.
focknockers.com is a great site to learn about goose hunting, there are some serious goose hunting addicts there and many call makers and pro guides contribute regularly to the threads. There is even a section for canadian hunters, as most participants there are american.
Ok, I have blabbed enough, hope this helps you out and once again Farmerbob, I apologize for my unwarranted response yesterday. Best of luck with your hunting and be safe.
You got some good advice above, early morning is the best for field hunting. If you live close to your hunting area try to scout the day before. Many successful goose hunters will spend 2X the time scouting then they actually do hunting. If you find a field that the geese are using, usually freshly cut corn, beans, or grains, and can obtain permission, then you have found what is called the X. Set up in the same area of the field that you saw the geese the previous day. If you hunt this scenario, you won't need alot of decoys and won't have to call alot either since you are where the geese want to be anyway. Your number one priority here should be concealment. Layout blinds are great, but this can be accomplished by lying in the field with some camo, burlap or corn stalks concealing you.
The same type of scouting can be done for a water hunt. If you have identified their roost you can set up early morning to try and get them on the way out, or after they return from feeding in the field. Lastly you can get them on the water in the evening when they are either going out for an afternoon feed or when they are coming back to roost, usually close to last legal shooting time. The late night shoot might be frustrating because many times the geese will not return to the water until after legal shooting time. Best set up in these scenarios is either with a few floater decoys, mix in some ducks if you like, but keep in mind that geese do not like to land over ducks, where ducks are usually unphased with landing over geese. Geese will almost always land into the wind. If a water set up is not possible, then you may have to learn their usual travel routes to and from the water and try to do some pass shooting. Try to get as close to the water as possible so that they will be at their lowest points when passing you. The key here is just hiding in a fence row or closest tree to their roost and not moving or calling and just ambushing them as they pass overhead. If you notice they are travelling away from you or won't be passing close to you, a few calls when they are at a distance might convince them to investigate in your direction.
If scouting is not an option and you can not find the X or get permission to hunt the X in a field, then setting up close to that field, better if your field has been harvested recently, is the way to go. This will take some convincing the geese to come your way and leave their usual fields. This is usually accomplished with larger spreads of decoys, sometimes 100 or more, having good callers is key and using flags, to simulate movement, is often of great help. Play the wind with your set up and leave large landing pockets, i.e. void of decoys, where you want the geese to land. Setting you decoys in U, or J shapes or in family groups of 2-5 is the norm.
Another thing to keep in mind is how long the geese have been in your area. If they are locals or migrators, that have been in your area for over a week, then they will have set pattern that can be used to your advantage if figured out. That is, they will generally have favourite fields and water roosts and set times of day that they will be moving to and from. Thus one can pattern these geese almost like patterning a deer. They will also identify certain areas, field or water, as danger if they have received hunting pressure from certain areas and will avoid them. They will usually stick to this pattern until one of too things happen, new food sources, ie freshly cut field become available to them, or the weather gets colder. Nasty whether will usually move new birds in from the north and move your birds to different areas, usually to the south. That being said many of the southern ontario geese will not move south and stay in certain areas almost all winter. This will happen if they have open water and food is available. Anyway, the point here is geese that have been in your area can be patterned and will be less likely to move away from their pattern and into your setup if it is not on their pattern. New migrators on the other hand have not developed these patterns yet and can be coaxed into your set up, whether in field or water, with the right set up, as long as they are in the area and can see your set up.
focknockers.com is a great site to learn about goose hunting, there are some serious goose hunting addicts there and many call makers and pro guides contribute regularly to the threads. There is even a section for canadian hunters, as most participants there are american.
Ok, I have blabbed enough, hope this helps you out and once again Farmerbob, I apologize for my unwarranted response yesterday. Best of luck with your hunting and be safe.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
First light. Anytime I've tried a backshoot at last light the buggers wait until dark o'clock to come in. Spend the afternoons at likely duck potholes and looking for chickens.
Good stuff, we're all friends again!
I'm more of a duck hunter myself as I like getting out on the water. I find early mornings, and late afternoons are great.
heavyBullet
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Just off the island of MTL
Ahhh nice to see when someone is man enough to apologize, and then give a ton of info on the posters question to boot!!
Good on you!!
P.S: I guess I stand corrected on your character.
saskgunowner101
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- near Prince Albert
bukee
See first post, but remove the eye roll and the kick in the nuts...good to see you man up. I think we all get a bit cranky without enough trigger/ hunting time.
See first post, but remove the eye roll and the kick in the nuts
...good to see you man up. I think we all get a bit cranky without enough trigger/ hunting time.
