- Details
- Category: Waterfowl
- Published: Saturday, 01 January 2011 20:18
- Written by Greg
Wyoming Canada Goose Hunting
The day after Christmas my son, a couple of his buddies and me were experiencing perfect road conditions as we headed east on I-80. The temperature outside was a wintery 3 degrees fahrenheit, but the roads were clear and dry...which wouldn't be the case on our trip home. We had just passed through Rock Springs Wyoming and were almost halfway to our Canada goose hunting destination of Wheatland Wyoming. Although this goose hunt would be my Christmas gift to my son Dallas, he had done his home work and had everything all planned out for us.
Our anticipation of shooting big Canada geese was all we could talk about which made the eight hour drive seem like two. Even though none of us wanted to consider the possibility that we could end up getting skunked on this hunt, we knew that the very definition of "hunting" implied no guarantees...so that thought lingered in the backs of our minds. We checked-in into our hotel, ate dinner, readied our gear and turned in for the night. Turned-in-for-the-night can be somewhat of a vague term, in our case "turned in" meant lying in bed talking most of the night and then managing to get about 3 hours of sleep.
Morning came quickly and greeted us with a clear and unseasonably warm day, 40 degrees. Bluebird days aren't usually the weather pattern that goose and duck hunters order. However, after only minutes into the hunt that old pesky thought of getting skunked quickly faded as the first flock of giant honkers headed toward our decoys. Our spread of 10 dozen decoys, along with our calling was the perfect recipe as we dumped our first Canada geese of the morning. Wave after wave of geese made for the perfect start to the day. After we had shot half of our daily limit of geese, we decided to head to another place where we'd try for both geese and ducks. We packed up, stopped in town for lunch and then drove another 50 minutes north to our next hunting location.
Nice bunch of honkers Dallas with 4 of his geese
Upon arriving at this new hunting location, we spotted several mallard, wigeon and even a few pintail ducks...this was going to be fun!. This particular setup did not disappoint. All afternoon we had both ducks and geese consistently coming into our spread. However, we ended up passing on most of the ducks since geese were our main goal and they always seemed to be looming on the horizon. Our day couldn't have ended any better, our expectations were exceeded as we shot our limit of Canada geese (including lesser/cackling), bagged 3 greenheads and 1 wigeon.
Each day was as unbelievable as the first. On our second day we had limited out on Canada geese within the first hour. The shooting was fast and furious, which gave us the entire rest of the day to relax and catch up on our sleep.
Our final day was just as productive as the previous two days. We were bit more selective on our shot selection, so it took us just a few minutes passed lunch time before we had filled our limits of Canada geese. On several occasions we landed geese in our decoys in an attempt to bring some of the bigger flocks to within shooting range, but those attempts for whatever reason usually ended with the big flocks passing just outside of shooting range. However, watching and listening to the grounded geese walk around and vocalize was really entertaining.
One of the neatest geese we killed was the last goose of the day, it was a Quill Lake Canada goose. As this particular goose passed by on its final approach to the decoys, I noticed the large unfamiliar white patch of feathers on its underbelly. My son later told me that he was fixated on the pure white wing tips of this goose as it flew over head. Luckily for us, we bagged this goose and got to inspect it up close and personal. In addition to the white wing tips and white band of breast feathers (kind of looks like a bikini or like it is belted), white speckling on the head and neck were present along with white on its feet. This unique Quill Lake Canada goose will make a great addition to our growing collection of taxidermy trophies!
All of this fun and excitement made the treacherous white-knuckle drive home tolerable...can't wait to do it again!
Hunting checklist:
Out of state license (yearly small game/waterfowl $72 or daily $20, purchased locally)
Hunter safety card
HIP (need to register for a HIP in Wyoming even if you already have one for another state, obtained locally)
Federal duck stamp (good from one state to another, so if you already have one, you're good)
Proclamation (bird limits are different depending on county and shooting hour restrictions in effect for certain counties)
Camo (hat, jacket, pants, gloves, waders depending where/how you hunt)
Warm layering, wool socks, insulated boots
DIY (decoys, calls, layout blind, goose flag, mojo, map, dog helpful)
Favorite shotgun (Benelli)
Steelshot (our preference was 3 1/2 inch BB or 2 shot for geese and 3 inch 3 or 4 shot for ducks)
Snacks and water bottle
Knife, plastic bags and cooler for birds