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| Photo copyright 2011 by Jackson Landers |
Watch Helenah Swedberg's video of me hunting geese over a pond at a vineyard and winery. What you see is a very common situation for a goose hunter targeting nuisance geese. These are 'resident' geese that do not migrate long distances. They hang out in a small area all year round, flying between several ponds that are all within about a half a mile from each other.
Unlike sport hunting for migratory geese, the idea is to remove these specific geese that are eating the crop or in some cases ruining water quality in a pond and damaging the habitat for other species.
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This type of hunting will usually put you on small ponds near vineyards, farms, golf courses, etc. The owners of these ponds will expect the hunter to kill some geese as quickly as possible, and likewise the hunter needs to take full advantage of any opportunity to take some geese any time that they are present. It is 'culling' as much as it is hunting. This situation calls for a special set of tactics.
Geese in these settings are usually acclimated to human presence. The first few times that you hunt one of these ponds you don't need to worry much about concealment. Unless they have been fed by humans they will be willing to come in for a landing on the pond but they will be wary and usually keep 50-100 yards away.
You might get them as they come in for a landing. But if you don't absolutely have a good shot at them as they come down then hold your fire. You might still get another chance at them after they land. Shooting and missing will only scare them away and ruin a second chance.
Working in a pair can be the key to success, as Michael and I did in the video. This little group of three geese was wary and sticking to the opposite side of the pond -- out of range of our shotguns. Our plan was to split up. We checked the direction of the wind and had Michael stand up-wind of the geese (with the wind blowing from him toward the geese) and in plain sight.
Michael's position accomplished two things. First, he was serving as a distraction. I wanted the geese to be paying attention to him and staring across the water at him. Second, if the geese spooked and flew away then they would probably have to fly straight toward him. Just like airplanes need to take off into the wind to provide the maximum possible lift, geese have to do this as well.
While Michael was being nicely conspicuous, I used the natural cover around the rest of the pond to silently circle in behind the geese. They were caught completely by surprise. My first shot hit a goose on the water (culling has a whole different set of rules than sport hunting), though it started to take off and required a second shot in mid-air a second later.
By this time the other two geese were in the air. I dropped one and Michael bagged the other as it flew straight toward him as planned.
Neither of us have the kind of shotgunning skills that will win us any skeet trophies. I am a mediocre shotgunner at best. When I am hunting, both on and off camera, I look like a better shot than I really am because I've learned when not to touch the trigger. We went three-for-three on those geese because we made a good plan and followed through with it.
This basic plan for hunting a pond can be easily imitated with minor variations depending on available cover and the width of the pond. Even if you only have one skilled hunter you might still find a helper to put on some blaze orange and walk or paddle around the pond to push the geese into range.
Next up, I'll quickly review some of the legal things that a new goose hunter should know about.
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