Late Season Geese

Never say never, when it comes to hunting Canada geese in the great state of Minnesota. Between Sept. 1 and Dec. 23rd there are only a handful of days when you cannot legally hunt Canada geese somewhere in Minnesota. That is something you can hang your hat on, Minnesota has plenty of geese and opportunities to hunt them.
The first time I went field hunting for Canada geese was in Rochester, MN. I was not even old enough to use a gun but I tagged along with my father and Dean Tlougan, owner/operator of Premier Flight guide service to a permanent pit-blind. We had supermag Canada goose shells in the cornfield, and it snowed. Canada geese were fooled and harvested that day.
Hunting Canada geese in snow filled cornfields is still one of my passions. Most weekends in December you can find me having breakfast before shooting-time at a particular McDonalds in Rochester, MN. There I will be discussing with others in camouflage, not only goose hunting, but whether or not 2 sausage burritos is as good as a single McSkillet burrito.
Historically Rochester has been the place to go to hunt late season Canada geese in Minnesota. Not only is it noted for the re-birth of the Greater Canada goose, or Branta Canadensis Maxima, the city also winters a large portion of the Canada geese from Manitoba.
There are many permanent pit-blinds found in the agricultural fields surrounding Rochester, MN. These pit-blinds are part of the history that comes from being an area that holds geese year after year. Pit-blinds are the most efficient way for hunters to be comfortable and concealed. Period.
When I hunt Canada geese in Rochester full-bodied decoys and excellent callers surround me. This makes for a deadly combination when the birds are flying off of the refuge to feed. Especially when it is cold and there is snow on the ground. The cold temps freeze up the smaller bodies of water and concentrate geese, while the snow causes the birds to lose a few IQ points.
Today Minnesota goose hunters can find geese any where from the Red River to the St. Croix. One does not have to travel very far in any direction to notice flocks of Canada geese flying somewhere in the distance. It is no mystery to the rest of the nation either; for some time Minnesota has led the country in total number of Canada geese harvested.
Lac Qui Parle refuge in Western Minnesota has been nationally known for it’s goose hunting for years, and it has continued to be that way. Recently the Canada goose limit has been raised from 1 bird to 2 birds in the West-Central zone. This has opened up more opportunities for goose hunters to experience hunting around Lac Qui Parle. In previous years, with large numbers of birds close to the Metro, it was hard to justify traveling all the way to Western Minnesota, just to be able to harvest a single goose.
With the mild winters Minnesota has been experiencing the last couple years there has been some lost opportunities due to a later migration. The regulations for the Minnesota 2007 Waterfowl season call for Canada goose hunting in the West-Central zone, the Lac Qui Parle area, to close on Nov. 27, with no late season. I assure you that there will be geese on the refuge well past that date, and I am okay with that. Remember, this article is about opportunity, which there is still plenty of.
I enjoy hunting Canada geese in the September early season, but I prefer to hunt geese later in the year in larger concentrations. Leaving for my home in St. Paul for a morning shoot it only takes me an hour and fifteen minutes to be in Rochester. That makes it the ideal place for a guy like me to focus my late season goose hunting efforts. Luckily my dad and I are still friends with Dean Tlougan, and he allows us to hunt with him and the rest of the Premiere Flight crew.
Most of the goose hunting I do before the weather starts making ice is pretty cut and dry. I scout, find where geese are feeding, obtain permission, and hunt them in the morning. Now that sounds way easier than it really is. For the majority of the hunting season scouting is the most important thing you can do. At the same time it is very costly and time consuming. By the time December roles around I am ready to jump into a heated pit-blind in Rochester. That is of course, following a breakfast at McDonalds.
For more information of hunting geese in Rochester check out www.goosegrinders.com or call Dean Tlougan at 507-252-5957.

Unpleasant Weather Pheasants, SD

My dad said that last weekend was probably the coldest weather he had ever hunted in. However, he has been colder while hunting. These days my dad owns warmer clothing and knows how to dress for the elements. Friday was the warmest day of the hunt; it was a balmy 16 degrees with no wind in Brookings, South Dakota.
This was my first pheasant-hunting trip to the South Dakota. I have chased snow geese there in the spring for several consecutive seasons, and I’ve always wanted to go there in the fall.
The plan was for our group to hunt public land the majority of the time. South Dakota has state funded Walk-In Areas, which are private lands, open for public hunting. The Walk-In program is similar to the P.L.O.T.S. (Private Lands Open to Sportsman), program found in North Dakota. With 13 hunters and 9 dogs we were planning on hunting big cover and using blockers to surround the birds.
Thursday, November 30th was the first day of our hunt. Because of the South Dakota pheasant season being open for several weeks, the birds were skittish and wary. Right away we found them in the thickest cover available, but the birds did not hold very well. A few times there were birds that took off flying while the group was still getting out of the trucks.
Late in the pheasant season I encourage pheasant hunters to be especially aware of the noise they make (no slamming truck doors, yelling at bird dogs, etc.). Walking the cover into the wind helps to reduce noise, while also being the ideal way for sniffing dogs to mind scent. With extra thought and planning late fall hunting can still be successful.
South Dakota pheasant hunting is like Pizza. When it’s from your favorite restaurant it’s great, and when it is a cheap frozen brand it is still pretty good. We managed to have decent hunting, averaging 2 to 3 pheasants per walk. At 10 am sharp, the starting time in South Dakota, our group would be in position to push larger grasslands. Half the group would walk through the fields, and the other half would block the ends of the fields. This system worked well for many pheasant hunters in the past.
In theory pheasants should run through the field, holding near the edge, providing blocks and walkers good shooting opportunities. That is textbook pheasant hunting. Early on in our trip though we found that the birds were flushing ahead of the walkers, flying out the sides of the fields, and therefore avoiding the blockers. With birds flying out on the sides we had to rethink a few things and make adjustments. Still the majority of the roosters we bagged were ones that chose to hold tight rather than fly.
Pheasants basically have two defense mechanisms. Either they fly or they run and hide. The experts say that over time hunters have harvested a higher majority of the flyers making the pheasant more genetically prone to run. We must have been hunting in an area with a high concentration of flyers.
Each day our group saw a lot of birds, but the vast majority were hens. This is to be expected this late in the season because other hunters have trimmed the rooster population down. I read somewhere that up to 80% of rooster pheasants are shot during each hunting season. Don’t worry; there are still plenty of roosters that escaped our hunting party to provide more birds for next year.
In the afternoons we broke into smaller groups and hunted smaller cover. Pheasants are an edge bird; sometimes a small and thick piece cover can provide quick birds.
As the sun was going down across the vast Dakota prairie, 6 of us followed 2 housedogs through the field for the last walk of the trip. On that walk the 6 of us flushed 3 roosters and harvested all 3 of them. It was bitter outside, but it was a sweet way to end my first South Dakota pheasant hunt.