Anyone hunt geese?

[soup]

Just picked up my duck stamp. This will be my first year for this. I've done a lot of reading up on it and was wondering if anyone here would be willing to show a new guy the ropes.

Thanks,
Anthony

[keystoneman 85]

I'm in the same boat as you. Went out twice last year with friends. Going to try to hit it harder this year. I'm down in Lancaster looking for help.

[brungesj]

Same here, I'm still pretty new to goose and duck hunting. I'm out in Lehigh county but does anyone know of a good place to hunt?

[Sandcut]

Man, I wish I had the access to resident geese up here on the Plateau that you guys in the Lehigh Valley and south have. You'se gots many geese down there IF you can get access to an area that meets the safety zones or the Townships don't have "No hunting" ordinances like out in Chester Co.

I have permission to hunt several farms up in Wayne Co. Problem is, so do several other groups of guys. They started camping out the night before to lock in their spot and I can't do that w/ kids and a wife that works shifts. So I have one farm that I and another guy, who hunts solo also, hunt together. We only get pass shooting. They usually don't land there like the other farms. So the hunting is spotty at best but, hey, it's hunting.

Recommendations from what I've gathered. You don't need a huge decoy spread. I started out w/ two floating decoys and worked up to those two and about six shell decoys. That's enough to catch the attention of our resident flocks because it represents the number of a small family unit which is what we mostly have around here. We don't need the decoy spreads like they have in Texas or the Prairie states.

You don't need an expensive layout blind. I made a plywood backrest w/ hinged adjustable rest in about a half hour w/ leftover scraps. A $10 neoprene mat for cushioun and some camou burlap w/ bundles of grass tied to it and spray painted. If you can find a nice drainage ditch in the middle of the field to lay in about 20 yards from your decoys, you're ready to go!

The best thing I've found is to scout your area first using internet aerial photos like Google earth or Terraserver, find the farms you want. Find out the owner's names from your county tax website and knock on doors. You'll be surprised how nice farmers can be if you just ask nicely.

The other thing I've found out, if you DON'T ask to hunt deer, you'll get a "yes" more often. Everybody wants to hunt deer and most farmers do themselves or have relatives that hunt their property. Almost no one hunts geese. Remove that from the equation and you remove their only conflict.

Best of luck getting started. If you run in to more geese than you can manage single handedly, I'll be glad to drive down to help out!