Photo by Billie R.

Water isn’t the only place you’ll find waterfowl in Missouri. Take to the fields this winter, and you’ll find plenty of good shots in some great goose hunting.

Late-season field-hunting for geese is gaining popularity, especially in the northwestern part of the state. Goose hunting hasn’t really come into its own yet, but if Conservation Order statistics say anything, it’s that more hunters than ever are into the sport.

“Nearly 8,000 hunters participated in the Conservation Order hunt in 2006, and they harvested 142,639 light geese,” said Missouri Department of Conservation resource scientist Dave Graber. “By the time the 2007 tallies are added in, more than 1 million light geese will have been harvested in Missouri since 1999.” That’s some of the finest goose action in the country, he added.

But it’s not just the light geese that create outstanding hunting this month in the Show-Me State. Canada geese are also on the move, and can be taken by hunters willing to brave a little snow and freezing temperatures.

FOUNTAIN GROVE CA

Don’t trip over the construction equipment this winter on Fountain Grove Conservation Area: Extensive renovation work is being done on the levees and pump and water-control structures on the area, closing down much of Fountain Grove’s good waterfowl hunting. Still, a couple of the units on the east side are up and running and offer some good field-hunting opportunities for geese.

“We’ve got the possibility for good field hunting for Canadas,” said MDC wildlife biologist Ken Ackley. “A lot of the time we have water-blind hunting for geese in December and January, but this year it’ll be in the fields. We have Canadas most of the time, with a few opportunistic whitefronts, blues and snows.”

According to Ackley, hunters harvested 192 Canadas, 10 snows and blues and four white-fronted geese last year. The majority of the birds were taken during the last season. (Cont.)

“If I were going out, I’d do the walk-in hunting on the ice,” he suggested. “Successful hunters are putting out goose spreads on the ice that covers the flooded rows of corn and millet. The migratory birds from the Hudson Bay stop in and join the resident giant Canadas and are willing to check out the decoy spreads.”

Lay the decoys right out on the frozen fields and hunker down in the cornrows, Ackley advised. It’s the technique most commonly used by successful hunters, accounting for most of the late-season geese taken over the last few years.

Go to the headquarters for the “one-member-only” drawing: Parties of four may hunt together, but only one member draws. Locations to draw for are few, but usually, the hunters aren’t many, either.

For more information, contact the MDC’s Northwest Region at (816) 271-3100; phone the Fountain Grove CA office at (660) 938-4124.

GRAND PASS CA

This 5,300-acre area in Saline County is known chiefly as a duck hotspot, but it can also dish up some excellent field-hunting for Canada geese. Standing corn and sorghum pull in decent numbers of geese, and hunters can set up on the edges of the field. Good hunting continues well into the late season.

Most of Grand Pass is river bottom and wetlands. Canadas use the marshy areas to forage for green plants, but prefer to concentrate on the dry ground for native grasses. Hunting pressure will scatter them into outlying sections of Grand Pass — and you can only guess where they’re going to land.

A daily draw for walk-in sites starts about an hour and a half before shooting time. According to the MDC, local staff will usually provide from 18 to 25 walk-in sites early in the season and as many as 45 sites by the season’s end. For additional info, contact Grand Pass CA staff at (660) 595-2444.

FOUR RIVERS CA

For nearly a decade, the special Conservation Order has allowed spectacular snow goose hunting in the southwestern quadrant of the state. Most of the hunting is done on private farm fields, onto which thousands of snows can descend to destroy a grain crop, but the spillover does flow over onto public shooting areas like Four Rivers CA.

According to MDC wildlife biologist Francis Skalicay, the special Conservation Order represents a multistate effort at controlling the exploding population of snow geese. He explained that the northern tundra has been damaged by the overabundant geese to the point that the habitat may not support the nesting efforts of the thousands of birds that depend on it if numbers aren’t knocked back. Increased agricultural activity along the birds’ migration route has turned their journey into an intracontinental trip to the salad bar, allowing the birds to flourish, he added.

The order allows a no-limit bag and electronic calls after the regular season has ended, and it eliminates the shotgun plug requirement.

Four Rivers covers 13,929 acres of old fields, crops, wetlands and forest in Bates and Vernon counties 15 miles north of Nevada and four miles south of Rich Hill. For additional information, contact the Four Rivers CA office at (417) 395-2341.

PONY EXPRESS LAKE CA

“If things are freezing up, then Canadas will utilize the Pony Express Lake Conservation Area, including the lake itself,” said MDC wildlife biologist Dennis Browning. “Last year the geese kept the middle of the lake open and roosted there overnight. Hunters can do some pass-shooting both near the lake and along the edges of the property as the birds fly in and out to the farm fields.”

But Pony Express is a tough hunt to figure out, he added. The long, narrow area is primarily a stopover point for Canadas, rather than a major destination point during the cold weather. Snows and a few blues make appearances, but there’s no predicting when that will be. Shooters willing to pack a few decoys into the more-remote sections can set up on wheat fields. Pony Express often holds from 1,500 to 2,000 birds at a time.

Browning pointed out that Pony Express can be overloaded with geese before lunch, but not have a bird in sight a couple of hours later. No one knows why the geese flit around from spot to spot as they do, he noted, adding that it’s an understatement to say that their choices of sites for alighting are hard to predict. In an attempt to stay ahead of the fi
nicky geese, locals tend to move their decoy spreads around from year to year.

Pony Express Lake CA lies south of Maysville and nine miles west of Cameron on U.S. Route 36 in DeKalb County. For more information, contact the Pony Express Lake CA staff at (816) 675-2205.