Goose Hunting In The State Of Colorado

If you have been blessed with some of Colorado’s exceptional goose hunting opportunities, you can see why its presence has grown to a highly accepted operation just by driving along the Front Range and Eastern plains of this state. My guess is that you will find numerous goose hunting trailers and hunters putting their spreads out or picking them up, just before sunrise or soon after the sunset.

From my experience, goose hunting is definitely a practice makes almost perfect game and even most of the professional hunters and guides will tell you that you will learn something new each and every day you plan, scout and hunt in Colorado and anywhere for that matter. It is a challenging, highly competitive sport that can be frustrating, exhilarating and rewarding all at the same time. Everyone has their own style when it comes to hunting geese and some may become quite aggressive when on a hunt that does not fit their idea of what is right but there is not a specific way everything needs to be done in order to have a successful hunt. There will be similarities in approaches and strategies used in having a successful hunt in such areas as hunt location, scouting, decoy placement, decoy types, blind concealment, flagging and last but strictly not least calling.

The following will go through some basic styles and tips that you can consider when hunting for geese. There will always be a different tactic or style used and hunters are generally not afraid to express their own way which is what really makes this sport fun. Having so many different ways to hunt is really what makes the hunt to exhilarating.

First off when discussing decoys some will like the very large spreads of thirty five or more dozen, which does look cool but in the end you may have the same results with only having a half dozen. A good thing to remember when deciding how many to use besides doing your scouting homework is to use the weather to your advantage because in most cold cases the geese will huddle up close together to stay warm and as you may have seen they will sometimes do it in large groups. When it is hot out just like you will try to stay cool so will the geese and they will usually give themselves plenty of room between each other. To give the appearance of a large grouping of geese spreading them out can also help. Using the most realistic looking decoy could also help and as you will see in snowy conditions a goose will almost always lay on their stomachs and this is where using half shell decoys will be important in making your setup look as real as it can get.

Another area to notice when looking at real geese is to notice all the feeding ones compared to the ones with their heads up looking around and you will see most of them are feeders. Keeping movement in the spread is also important, especially on the days where there is no wind and in today’s market there are plenty of choices for the heavy and no wind days. Make sure you leave a nice sized open area for where you prefer the geese to come in and land because if you don’t sometimes the geese will land or buzz by out of range and no one will have a chance to put that bead on the goose. When preparing your open area set it up to where your face is not in the wind because geese generally use the wind to land so you will want them to come towards you for the best shot.

Pile pictures are always a nice way to remember that epic hunt but it you do not keep concealed it may not be the largest stacked pile when it is time for a picture. When a large group of geese come in to take a look at your spread that’s exactly what they are going to do so it is crucial that you don’t let them pick your gawking face out and with good concealment you can become invisible to all the eyes trying to pick you apart. Sticking out like the sore hunter who has a cold barrel or using corn in a winter wheat field is never good so try to use cover that is in the field when concealing your blind. In Colorado a lot of hunters use pits and the best ones are going to be flush with the ground, have lids that can be closed and of course are covered with whatever is currently in the field. Blend your layout blinds into the surroundings just as you would a pit. Concealing your blinds and of course yourself is a huge factor for success when hunting geese.

Flagging geese is a good way to get their attention when distant and it is best to try not to flag them when they are really close, directly facing the blind. In some instances they want to see the wing movement or flagging all the way to the ground as the flag is used as a very good attention grabber and as a very good way to keep attention when the geese are on the edges of the spread or going away. Using a call is similar to using a flag and generally you do not want to call real hard or flag real hard when they are looking right at you in close proximity but it can work both ways. If they are right in your face try to call or go soft on the geese with clucks that are slow and murmurs that resemble the feeding sounds and then go after them hard and loud if they look like their leaving. Smaller geese or cackling lesser geese are usually quite vocal and loud so when they come over have all the callers blow their call and see the results.

It would be wise to not think twice about changing something or some part up if it is not working. If you can read and understand what the geese are looking for that is truly the best approach but even after going through all the trials and tribulations you will only come out of it with a mild comprehension of what their language is but you will be more than a step ahead of the other hunter by reading and understanding these birds. In the end scouting will also payoff tenfold because if you do not put in the time to scout you are really just gambling. When you find the money spot or X make sure you have lots of rounds because you are going to have a nice stack of geese to pile up.

For the most part, there is no particular technique to hunt geese so do your scouting, listen, watch and learn from others. Keep yourself surrounded with hunters that truly enjoy and have fun hunting no matter what the picture at the end looks like and you will also always enjoy goose hunting in the state of Colorado, including all the time you will spend doing it.

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