Big Water Honkers
Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED
It’s getting to be that time of year again. In just a few months early-season honker hunts will be underway. The dog days of summer will slowly be passing us by and the joys of crushing waterfowl will finally be back! In the early season though, everyone has been trying to beat the heat, and looking forward to hunting season, so gaining access to early season hunting ground can prove to be a challenge to some. Unless you have an area to hunt big water, where Canada geese tend to frequent. In that case, you can be just as successful as the guy with the best lease in the county!
One of my favorite hunting locations for the early season is a local lake that isn’t more than 10 minutes from my house. It has shores covered in all sorts of vegetation, phragmites, and sand bars, which is a good thing because those are all factors that help you kill geese. When hunting geese on big bodies of water, remember that geese are usually coming back from the morning feed to loaf, or flying back and forth from water to water, so don’t expect it to hunt like a morning in the field.
THE STRATEGY
Geese become a lot more comfortable, and a lot less picky about where they land on the water. So long as it looks realistic. As long as it looks like somewhere safe to relax, and to digest the morning or afternoon’s meal, they’ll usually suck right in. Geese don’t tend to circle around, pass after pass when hunting big water. There’s no need to. Firstly, there’s plenty of landing space, and they know they're not competing for food. Nor do they seem as leery about the threat of hunters hiding in the area. This can also prove to be a challenge sometimes because you can’t always call them right into a “landing zone”. Sometimes you have to be pretty aggressive with the shot-calling if you think the honkers are feeling comfortable with water 100 yards away. Usually, the geese will see your spread from a far off, and, especially in the early season, lock wing and make their descent. Your strategy depends mostly on your situation. Are you planning to hunt from a boat? From the shore? If you’re hunting from the shore, your strategy will most likely include sleeper shells, some full bodies, some sort of blind system, and a good amount of floaters. If you’re hunting from a boat, your honker hunt will quickly look like a big water duck hunt. Hide the boat a good ways off, spread out the honker decoys, and hide in the nearest patch of reeds. Remember, geese usually don’t hang out in small little side sloughs. On big water, they usually are out in the middle. That’s why I’ve seen some hunters literally just set out their decoys, put up their blinds on their boat, and hope that the geese mistook them for a patch of reeds until they got into shooting distance. Placing your honker decoys in the same place you would set your teal decoys won’t yield any results. Canada geese are big birds, and they can’t take off from the water on a dime like a duck can. Put your decoys out into the open water as best you can. Hopefully, some scouting had gone into your hunt, and you would be able to match where the geese were previously. One thing to note, geese very rarely are ever mixed in with ducks. A duck may land with them, but if you’re targeting honkers, leave the duck decoys home. Alert geese on the water are also very active. It might serve you well to hook up some sort of “movement rig”, not a jerk rig, but something to get your geese in the water to do some sort of noticeable “swimming”. Geese that are in the water, don’t usually just sit there like we see ducks do. Usually, they’re moving around and swimming back and forth.
THE CALLING
It may change where you are, but here where I hunt, geese are very vocal on the water. Especially in the early season. From moans to clucks, to honks, it seems that they don’t like to shut up. They get excited easily and are extremely vocal one to another. This calms down a bit as the season wears on, but during the early months, you should be using that call around your neck. You don’t have to go nuts, but you should at least be giving the geese some sort of constant noise to listen to. Just something to coax them in, whether that be moans or clucks, and on some days you might have to amp it up a bit.
If you aren’t one that blows a call, fear not! Lucky enough for you, early season geese can still be enticed by the one thing every good goose hunter should carry- a flag! This tactic has proved to be one of the most lethal moves I’ve ever seen. Hunting over water one day, we hooked a flag to a string and bungee cord, so as we pulled the string, the flag raised up and down and we didn’t have to leave our hiding spot. It was absolutely deadly! If you are hunting over water, I would refer back to my reference about some sort of a “swimming rig”.
THE DECOY SET-UP
Believe it or not, the decoys can be as important to this whole “big water hunting” as anything. If your decoys are placed incorrectly, or they look unrealistic, you’re simply wasting your time. I’ve hinted at a few decoy placement scenarios earlier, but I’ll line out a few more in detail here-
If you were to hunt from the shore, it would be wise to set out a somewhat “O” shape spread, with half the O reaching into the water, and the other half reaching onto the land. Leaving a big landing spot on both that shore and a big landing spot in the water. Depending on the wind, you can set up wherever you would like within shooting range. Your decoys on the land should all be sleepers, or in relaxed positions. Remember, the birds here are here to relax in between meals or just before they head to the roost. Your floaters should be close to the same, with a few active decoys mixed in.
Another “from the shore” spread that I’ve seen used has been the tactic of using silhouettes staked into the shallow water, and slowly setting your floaters out as the water gets deeper. This seems to create the illusion that the geese are comfortable with the scenario, and are working their way to the water. Obviously, this means the geese will be landing farther away from you on the shore, so you’ll need to be smart about your shot calls.
While you’re hunting in the water, your goose spread really doesn’t change a whole lot. For the most part, it’s one big mass of honkers, with a few openings here and there for landing zones. I typically recommend 2-3 dozen honker decoys when hunting on the open water (for space and safety reasons. Honker decoys are big and heavy. Too many of them on a boat can cause issues). You can mix things up as needed, but for the most part, hunting geese on the open water requires setting out the spread and being in their daily flyway. Usually, so long as you look realistic, you should be able to get the geese to give you a look.
Hunting geese over big bodies of water can be an extremely fun style of hunting. Not many people pursue it because they don’t expect that style of hunting to be an option, but it is, and it works! Reservoirs, lakes, bays, all of them have the potential to be great honker hunting locations, you just have to figure out the right style to put them on the ground. These are just a few guiding tips to help you start this early season.
For more Split Reed Original Articles, visit the Content Center here!
Click on Ryan to find him on Instagram