Henrick Lind
Member
Did anyone have any luck in the Midwest for snow geese this year? I was in MN and saw a lot of geese but never got on any hunts.
Snow Geese Spring 2026
- Thread starter Henrick Lind
- Start date
Welcome to the Forum Hedrick, I'm out on the east coast and saw quite a few snow geese but didn't have the chance to get on them this year. Out here they don't decoy well as typically the birds are wintering here and know that a 500-thousand birds (decoys) didn't just show up and land in the field before they did.
Best way is to let them land and then sneak down the ditches to the direction they are leap frogging and wait until they are close enough and then ease up and start shooting when they raise their heads.
Best way is to let them land and then sneak down the ditches to the direction they are leap frogging and wait until they are close enough and then ease up and start shooting when they raise their heads.
William Reinicke
Well-known member
They took our conservation season away....
Years ago we belly crawled to the edge of a pond they were roosted on. My buddy and I got to the edge, under a berm and peaked over. Heads still tucked sleeping. We got to giggling so bad, knowing they were so screwed when shooting light came. Longest 10 min of my life waiting to be legal. We let it go 1 min past, just to be sure. We stood up, emptied our extended mag tubes. Killed 97 birds that morning. The worst part of all that, we both had to be at work 90 min later. My hands have never been so sore from running with handful of geese to the back of the truck. Did way over the speed limit down the hwy to my buddies house. Threw them all in his garage, we both got changed, hauled off to work. About an hour later we were both getting calls from his wife who couldnt park in the garage because the pile of geese we had left. Went back after work and started the cleaning process. We didnt even know we had killed a leg band. We saw the collar, as it was obvious but the leg band wasnt found until we were going one by one cleaning them out lol. It was so much damn fun!
Years ago we belly crawled to the edge of a pond they were roosted on. My buddy and I got to the edge, under a berm and peaked over. Heads still tucked sleeping. We got to giggling so bad, knowing they were so screwed when shooting light came. Longest 10 min of my life waiting to be legal. We let it go 1 min past, just to be sure. We stood up, emptied our extended mag tubes. Killed 97 birds that morning. The worst part of all that, we both had to be at work 90 min later. My hands have never been so sore from running with handful of geese to the back of the truck. Did way over the speed limit down the hwy to my buddies house. Threw them all in his garage, we both got changed, hauled off to work. About an hour later we were both getting calls from his wife who couldnt park in the garage because the pile of geese we had left. Went back after work and started the cleaning process. We didnt even know we had killed a leg band. We saw the collar, as it was obvious but the leg band wasnt found until we were going one by one cleaning them out lol. It was so much damn fun!
Henrick Lind
Member
Nice and Thank You I am going to try to get on some feeds or jumps next season. But right now I am just waiting for Doves, Ducks, and Geese in the fall.
William Reinicke
Well-known member
arent we all.... 177 more days....
Henrick Lind
Member
Yep only 151 days until Early Teal in MN but at least I got fishing over the summer
William Reinicke
Well-known member
Took the bass boat cover off, went too go through it all. Diesel hit $5/gal the next day. Boat cover right back on and put away. Maybe next year lol.
Henrick Lind
Member
yea no kidding, it might be more of a dock year for me too lol
Dan Serlenga
Member
New Jersey is talking about numbers being down this year due to Bird Flu. I saw none of the big flocks on fields around Rt 78 that I've seen in years past. I saw one high flying group on their return north migration.
William Mink
Member
Went out once here in NJ to try to get a small group of about two dozen that had been using the same public piece of land regularly. Was sure I'd get a shot, but of course they didn't show that day.
Looking like we might not get a CO here again, but we'll still get a snow season into the second week of March, which is fine. I'm personally over it by then, anyway!
Looking like we might not get a CO here again, but we'll still get a snow season into the second week of March, which is fine. I'm personally over it by then, anyway!
Henrick Lind
Member
Yea I also saw the big high flocks but way to high and were mostly flying the days that were not convenient and I had stuff to get done
Gary Mills
Member
I took my boy out to SD beginning of March, we went through an outfitter, pit blind whole works. We had a great time, to me it was not quite like duck hunting, but man it can be a rush when several hundred are working
RM Anderson
Well-known member
Gary,
Sounds fun! How much, if you don't mind me asking? I would love to go snow goose hunting in the spring but have no desire to purchase the necessary decoys, etc.
RM
New Jersey is talking about numbers being down this year due to Bird Flu. I saw none of the big flocks on fields around Rt 78 that I've seen in years past. I saw one high flying group on their return north migration.
Dan, I think you are right. Snow goose numbers have been dropping for several years now, and I think this year the bird flu has had an impact on them in addition to that. There were definitely more reports of dead birds around the state this winter with the bird flu than previous years.
Snow goose hunting in late January and February is something I liked to do a couple of times each season along the Delaware Bay marshes near our hunting shack. Hunting between the roosting flocks was an easy way to hunt them here on the East coast without needing a million decoys and I was usually successful in getting a few, which is all I wanted. I have always liked eating greater snows, regardless of what others say. There is a local guy that I was friends with that really knew how to hunt snow geese in the area, probably better than anyone else, and he showed me how to do it. I liked hunting through low tide with about a dozen decoys, and if in the right spot that was all you needed to attract them and a Big River call blowing just the high note was all you needed to get them to come to you. I never went and tried for a big shoot to get a big pile of birds, I just liked an easy late season hunt to get a few to eat and maybe find a few oysters to go along with them. I miss doing it but I'm not sure the roosting birds are there in the quantities any more. And seeing as I couldn't hunt this past season I guess I am speaking a little out of turn about present conditions, but a couple of friends that live further south than I do have not seen them in surrounding fields that typically hosted some in years past.
Greater snow geese definitely change their migrating habits over time, the Lehigh Valley now attracts birds in late winter(or did a few years ago) that were not there in big numbers 15 or so years ago. Probably the birds we had staging here before that. The birds in south Jersey stage here for the spring migration and would be coming up from Virginia and areas south starting in early in January and sometimes even late December, and would overfly us in the fall but come back in what is really the teeth of winter to stage for a couple of months. Go figure.
Dan, I think you are right. Snow goose numbers have been dropping for several years now, and I think this year the bird flu has had an impact on them in addition to that. There were definitely more reports of dead birds around the state this winter with the bird flu than previous years.
Snow goose hunting in late January and February is something I liked to do a couple of times each season along the Delaware Bay marshes near our hunting shack. Hunting between the roosting flocks was an easy way to hunt them here on the East coast without needing a million decoys and I was usually successful in getting a few, which is all I wanted. I have always liked eating greater snows, regardless of what others say. There is a local guy that I was friends with that really knew how to hunt snow geese in the area, probably better than anyone else, and he showed me how to do it. I liked hunting through low tide with about a dozen decoys, and if in the right spot that was all you needed to attract them and a Big River call blowing just the high note was all you needed to get them to come to you. I never went and tried for a big shoot to get a big pile of birds, I just liked an easy late season hunt to get a few to eat and maybe find a few oysters to go along with them. I miss doing it but I'm not sure the roosting birds are there in the quantities any more. And seeing as I couldn't hunt this past season I guess I am speaking a little out of turn about present conditions, but a couple of friends that live further south than I do have not seen them in surrounding fields that typically hosted some in years past.
Greater snow geese definitely change their migrating habits over time, the Lehigh Valley now attracts birds in late winter(or did a few years ago) that were not there in big numbers 15 or so years ago. Probably the birds we had staging here before that. The birds in south Jersey stage here for the spring migration and would be coming up from Virginia and areas south starting in early in January and sometimes even late December, and would overfly us in the fall but come back in what is really the teeth of winter to stage for a couple of months. Go figure.
Gary Mills
Member
300 a day, and was pretty much all day