Duck and Goose Hunting Fundamentals

My dad was the head boys’ basketball coach at a big high school when I was growing up. Each summer he would attend clinics at Oregon State University. Their coach at the time was the legendary Ralph Miller.

I remember Dad telling me how surprised he was that Miller sat in many of the same sessions he did. Dad and Miller hit it off. Miller shared with Dad that, though late in his career, he was still learning about the game, even from high school coaches half his age.

Dad adopted Miller’s offense and later went to the state tournament. I played for Dad that season. I put the same offense in my playbook when I coached boys' and girls' high school teams in Alaska.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a coach or a waterfowl hunter; adopting knowledge from others is an essential part of building success. What you learn during the upcoming season could impact not only immediate hunts but hunts later in the season, even for years to come.

Scouting

On a September goose hunt close to home one year, some friends and I spent the better part of a week scouting every morning prior to the opener. We separated, covering several square miles as we watched geese fly to recently tilled fields each morning. We ended up having two great hunts and one dud. The good ones we owed to the birds still feeding in the plowed fields, and the flop was due to a lack of crop waste and the birds moving on.

On a couple of September hunts in Alberta, I learned just how valuable scouting is to guides. Jordan Moll, owner of Hidden Prairie Waterfowl, told me the most important part of getting his clients on birds is ensuring tireless effort goes into their scouting. Moll hires a few locals just to scout each season. They find the roosts, note what time the birds leave and return, detail their paths of travel, and locate not only the fields birds are feeding in, but precisely where in a field they’re landing.

As fall progresses up North, more ducks and geese pile into the fields, meaning food becomes scarce. This makes scouting even more important. Add four or five scouts covering hundreds of miles every day and the gas bill blows up, not to mention the wages they’re being paid. This just shows how important scouting is this time of year.

Though I’d always scouted for ducks and geese, I took a chapter from Moll’s playbook and applied it more diligently once I got back home. Now, I spend nearly as much time scouting for ducks and geese all season long as I do actually hunting. It takes time, but it has exponentially boosted success rates.

Decoys

One winter, I duck hunted the Great Salt Lake with friends who live there. Their spread consisted of about five dozen floaters and several hundred silhouette decoys painted black. “They create great contrast, and ducks can see them from very far off,” Chad Yamane told me when I asked why he had so many black decoys.

The following season, I rattle-canned four old floating duck decoys black and added them to a half-dozen other brown, drab decoys of various brands, shapes, and sizes. The spread was small, like what we see in the area on the opener. The idea worked, and we shot mallards and teal like we’d not done in years prior.

As for geese, I took another move from Moll’s playbook. We were setting out 45 dozen silhouette goose decoys in a field void of cover. The flat decoys were spread wide and seemed very spaced out. Moll read my mind. “Come here,” he motioned. We walked 100 yards to the side of the spread. “This is what the geese will see once they’re off the roost,” he pointed behind us. “They don’t gain much elevation before hitting this field to feed, and we want them to see all the decoys spread out as soon as possible.” The spread looked massive, and we shot limits of geese in short order.

I applied Moll’s “spread out” look to cacklers back home. A lot of hunters in my area don’t think you can kill cacklers—especially late season birds—with an all-silhouette spread, but this setup is dynamite when hunting near roosts where birds don’t gain a lot of elevation before descending to feed.

Blinds

Blinds can be another conundrum facing early season hunters, especially in fields. Plowed fields have often been taken down to mere dirt with not a sprig of cover. This means having to bring in foliage to either build or cover the blind. Layouts are easy to manage as they’re flat and relatively simple to conceal. But a half-dozen hunters in layouts can leave a big footprint, so be sure to cover not only every edge, but fill in the gaps between the blinds. Think of creating one large, low-lying bush or stubble pile. Setting up in a ditch, swale, or even a high spot with any hint of cover can offer an advantage.

It doesn't matter your experience; the fundamentals always make for a successful hunt.

On a September goose hunt with Thunderbird Outfitters in Saskatchewan, every field we hunted was plowed dirt with zero cover. We mostly hunted from A-frame blinds adorned in green. The big branches with green leaves created their own hedgerow. It worked for ducks and geese both morning and evening. It stood out like a sore thumb, but it provided the perfect cover and created a depth of field that birds didn’t hesitate to drop in on.

Timing 

Timing is a big part of early season waterfowling in agricultural fields. Two things dictate the amount of food left in tilled fields: How much waste grain is left behind after harvest and how many birds are using it. A family flock here and there often makes a field huntable all season. Get thousands of ducks and geese hammering a field, however, and it may only be huntable for a few days.

Last season, I scouted some rice fields harvested before the season opener. Two mornings in a row the geese had used it. There weren’t a lot, but enough to try to make a hunt of it. I missed scouting on day three and hunted it on day four. I didn’t fire a shot. Shortly after daylight, tens of thousands of red-winged blackbirds blanketed the fields. They likely showed up the day prior, when I didn’t scout and ate nearly all the food. My timing was off.

“About 75% of September hunting is scouting,” shared a friend the first time we chased geese together. Scout and be ready to shift gears accordingly, because early season hunts are about seizing opportunities and getting the most from your playbook. 

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