Sunset Shoots: How to Hunt Ducks and Geese in the Evening

When talking about waterfowl hunting, we often associate it with early mornings, a shortness of sleep, awe-inspiring sunrises, and the silhouettes of ducks working the spread before shooting time. Alas, the day is long, and if you live in a state with extended shooting hours, afternoons should not be overlooked. After all, ducks and geese typically fly and feed twice a day (weather and season permitting)—in the morning and the afternoon or evening. If your state allows it, afternoon hunts can be as good as a morning hunt, and instead of watching the world wake up, you’ll be witnessing it return to dark as the sun sets to the west while you pack up at the end of a shoot. If you’ve ever hunted Canada, you know that many of the hunts are positioned for morning geese and afternoon ducks- because of shooting hours and because it works.

The things we look for to put together an afternoon or evening hunt do not differ very much from those of a morning hunt, and the hunts can be more comfortable and laid back. Still, there are a few things to keep in mind when approaching a sunset shoot or thinking about exploiting the opportunity to get out for a back half of the day hunt.

You can’t kill 'em from the couch

If you’re looking for another opportunity to get out and fool a few more birds, to bring shotgun to shoulder, afternoon hunts can be a good change of pace and open an overlooked occasion to hunt. Simply put, if you have the time and want to hunt more, try the afternoons.

I work the typical 8-5 and have often taken the opportunity to exploit "extended shooting hours" for geese (all-day hunting allowed on Wednesdays and Saturdays where I live) and ducks (all-day, for the entire season) when sunset doesn’t mark its arrival until some part of the 7 o’clock hour. This allows me to spend a pre-workday hour scouting for a hunt, which I can then take advantage of in the evening hours. I’ll have my trailer or pickup loaded, so as soon as I leave work, I can grab it and the dog and go get set up to hunt the last couple of hours of light, whether it's a field or water hunt.

It turns out that if you find a feed or a transition water that isn’t being hunted in the morning, it is fairly likely that it won’t be hunted in the evening. There is just a tendency for waterfowlers to prefer a morning hunt, and that leaves opportunity for those who cannot hunt in the AM. Oftentimes, I will spend an evening scouting and find an area to hunt, check it again the next morning to make sure birds are still around, and it isn’t being hunted, and then that afternoon take advantage of it. If I can hunt and try to fool some birds into the decoys and give my dog some retrieves, I’m likely going to do so. The saying is true: you can't kill 'em from the couch.

What to look for? Same-same, but different

For much of the season, birds are generally going to have the same habits in the evening as they do in the morning. Waterfowl movement from roost to feed or transition water in the afternoons gives hunters a similar opportunity to shoot birds as they would have in the morning. You don’t need to scout for or hunt ducks differently in the morning versus the afternoon.

As someone who doesn’t like to bugger up birds on a roost, if I am throwing the waders on. I’ll be hunting smaller pieces of water or marsh for puddle ducks or dabblers. In these instances, I am looking for water that birds are using away from their roost, for feed or loaf. These tend to be smaller, but deeper sloughs or ponds that birds use as transition waters where the water is clear and not overly mucky, as they are looking for somewhere to rest for a short while with good cover from likely predators.

Alternatively, I will look for a moist soil type wetland where the water is shallower and full of invertebrates and plant life, where the birds can consume higher protein foods before returning to the roost for the evening. I find birds experience less hunting pressure in the afternoons and seem to be less nervous, and moving in smaller groups, allowing for smaller decoy spreads. Adding motion to the afternoon or evening water hunts can be very helpful in getting ducks to commit to getting their feet wet.

More often than over water, I am hunting fields. If you pattern birds to be feeding in a field twice a day, and the weather isn’t going to change drastically, an afternoon hunt will be a great time. In an area with prevailing N/NW or W winds like where I live up north, an afternoon shoot means the sun and wind will likely be at my back, and the birds will land with the sun in their eyes. My hide is more effective that way, and a side shoot or head-on shoot is in order; just the way we like it. Using the direction of the wind in conjunction with the sun, keep in mind that the taller afternoon sun can cause shadows from your blind or decoys that you may need to adjust for.

Late-season suffering; the colder the better

There are days when hunting in the afternoon instead of the morning is genuinely the better choice. As the later season moves in and temperatures drop, birds may transition from feeding twice a day to once a day. This is particularly true for field hunting. In the later part of the year, birds seem to prefer to leave water when the sun is higher in the sky, slowing the ability of the cold temperatures to freeze the open water over, while the birds get their fill of food before returning to roost. There have been many days where a morning hunt provides few opportunities to pull the trigger in mid-November, North Dakota, but visiting that field in the afternoon hours gives reason: the birds simply had not left the roost until then.

On top of the fact that there may be only a few or even no birds visiting the decoys on some late-season mornings, during colder (and especially snowy) conditions, afternoon birds seem less wary and when they do show up, the need for caloric intake overrides a level of caution in many cases and birds work into the spread in a more picture-perfect manner because they need to feed.

Extended hours afternoon honkers

From mid-August to mid-September, my state permits hunting Canada geese from morning until sunset. Many of my favorite early goose hunts are ones where I’m lying in a spread at 6 pm. Early geese regularly move in smaller family groups of 2-12 birds; everyone knows that, but in the evening, those groups tend to lift from roost at an especially nice and uncrowded interval of what is usually a few minutes between each group, extending the period of bird working action over the afternoon/evening instead of a large portion of birds showing up in the field at once. It makes for a more relaxed and often very successful time afield. Calling should be limited to clucks and moans and not overbearing; these geese are loafing and feeding in the fields in the evening. Because of the intervalled take-offs from water and arrivals to the field, you can run a small spread and have geese landing in the hole at 15 yards consistently.

I’ll run spaced-out family groups for evening hunts to start the year and, as the season goes on, add a few more decoys (including plenty of resters/sleepers in the mix) and tighten the spread up some while leaving a good hole for the geese to key in on. Afternoons can be very productive in the late season when the tough geese that haven’t migrated south are still around and when there is snow on the ground.

Evening ducks, a personal favorite

Much like afternoon honkers, ducks don’t require much convincing to work into a dry field spread in the evenings. If they’ve been in the field for a day or so, you’ll have no trouble bringing a few home. Throw a dozen honker decoys out in two or three groups and a dozen duck decoys with a spinner or two, and the ducks will show up in smaller, commitable groups throughout the evening hours. You’ll likely get a nice post-shooting hours show of ducks too, as they aren’t out in the ‘full force’ your morning hunts provide until the sun has set, but you can still expect some good action. Typical heavy calling isn’t necessary as the ducks are more relaxed, and a few quacks and chuckles are all you’re likely to need to finish birds over the spinners and send your dog out for some retrieves.

Some of the most fun small-group or solo hunts I have been on are evening traffic hunts. Getting into fields or smaller pieces of water between roost or loaf ponds, and ideally under some sort of flight line, is a great way to exploit evening hour ducks. These birds are transitioning between water and feed, and even a small decoy spread with some attention-getting geese or spinner decoys, along with light, relaxed calling, can be very effective in pulling in low traveling birds looking for a bit of feed before retiring to the roost.

Keep in mind

Shooting hours vary from state to state, so make sure you are well-read on your area's shooting hours. If you are allowed to hunt waterfowl in the afternoons, can you shoot both ducks and geese? Is it the same for public land as private land, too? Can you shoot until a certain afternoon hour, or can you hunt until sunset?

Clothing and layering needs may change through the hunt hours as well. You might get out there and be comfortable in a t-shirt, but as the sun sets and temperatures drop, or winds pick up, you may wish you hadn’t left that hoodie or jacket in the pickup.

Managing the sun in your eyes and the shadows can limit your success, too, if you don’t take them into account. Sun in your eyes is never good, as the light shining on your blind can give away your hide and make identification of backlit birds tough.

I recommend that all waterfowl hunters think about taking advantage of the back half of the day from time to time. Often overlooked, it’s a great way to work with the weather you have and the schedule that may keep you from being in the field during the morning hours, as well as make the most of the time that you have to do what you love, and can provide some great experiences in the pursuit of chasing waterfowl.

---