Five Mistakes Made By Early Season Goose Hunters

1. Poor Location
Location is the name of the game when it comes to early season geese. There is no such thing as being on the “X” or running traffic when there are no birds in the area. I know this can be a challenging thing to fix in heavily hunted areas or hunting ground affected by urban sprawl but you must try. Go the extra mile that the others will not. Being under the birds is 1/2 the battle in the early season

2. Poor Goose Calling
Anyone can become a decent caller given the right call and a little practice. If you are new to the sport, buy a top of the line call like we offer that comes with an instructional CD and actually listen to it, follow the instructions, and practice. Don’t try it out for a day and move on to a new call, put some serious effort into it. Trust me it is worth it.

If you are looking for a call that you can have confidence in that it shows up at your door tuned up and ready to start becoming a better caller on be sure to check out our goose calls.

Once you become a decent caller the early season is a great time to learn to read birds and how they respond to your calling. The flocks are typically small and it is easier t o spot the individual reactions the birds make to notes. Take the time to practice and take the time to read how the birds react to your calling. It is a deadly one two punch that will serve you well each season!

3. Poor Concealment:
Every year it becomes easier and more comfortable to hide so there’s really no excuse for not being hidden when the geese start to show up. The most common mistake I see when driving around looking at spreads after our morning hunt is how much layout blinds stick out these days.

Most of the hunters I see have their blinds spaced out three feet or so and they are stubbled poorly or with vegetation that does not match what they are sitting in. This creates blobs of blinds. In the past this may have not bothered the geese, but now that most goose hunters have layout blinds and they put the blinds near the kill hole this way…guess what? The geese see this and wise up.

Be different, go the extra mile in stubbling your blinds and setup for a crossing shot so the geese are focused on something other than the blinds at the top end of the kill hole.

Trust me, the geese will finish closer when you are not on the upwind side of the kill hole!

4. No Portable Decoy Option in the Goose Trailer
Having multiple options in your decoy tool box is a must. I often find my best early season spots are grass fields or pasture ponds tucked away in areas I cannot get my trailer into. This is where having a portable decoy set of FeatherTek Canada goose windsocks or a mix of socks and silhouette decoys is so deadly. I can walk in a nice size spread myself or on a decoy cart and not be driving across the uncut corn or beans with my trailer.

5. Hunting the Wrong Days
Their is not such thing as a bad day to hunt but if you are limited on the amount of days you can hunt it pays dividends to keep track of date, time, and weather conditions when you see birds and plan your hunts around the weather if you can. This is especially true if you hunt the same locations year after year.

I have hunted some of my early season locations for 10 plus years. I know some some of them produce best on opening weekend, some when it is cold out, and they all produce well that first big blast of NW winds in late September when the first cold front moves in. On the other side of the coin if it is going to be 95 degrees out there is not going to be much moving.

Making you a better caller,
Chris Holste
Performance Calls