# Early Goose Season - Please Read



## jkangas

Hi All,

So due to a lot of things we have seen this early season i decided to write this post as a reminder to everyone who hunts early goose season in North Dakota. First of all I want to say that this topic is NOT a non-resident debate and do not turn it into one. I have seen many good groups of non-resident hunters and many bad groups. I have also seen many groups of good resident hunters and many groups of bad resident hunters.

1. If you are hunting early season geese from a boat, you are doing it wrong. There is 1/10000 chance of finding a transition slough in early goose season and the odds are you are burning a roost that someone else might be field hunting from. I understand that field hunting is an expensive hobby to get into but there are so few times when hunting geese over water is applicable to early season geese in ND. Here is the biggest advice i can give anyone regarding water hunting. When you are scouting the birds and you see them sitting on the water, if they wake up on that water and go to bed on that water, you should never be hunting it. Water is sanctuary for waterfowl and as soon as they feel unsafe at their 'home', they will up and leave and then no one gets any good hunting. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing people burn a really good roost. If you are field hunting those birds they will continue to go back to the water because they still feel safe there. There don't care how safe their feed fields are unless they get constantly hammered on.

2. If you get beat to a field, you get beat to a field. It happens to all of us. There are so many hunters now that it's gonna happen. If it does happen, please don't try to hunt the same field as them. I understand that its frustrating to see that you have been beat to a field but it never works out for anyone when two groups of guys try to hunt the same unposted field. We always try to have a backup field and if we get beat and don't have a backup field, we head home. Its not a great feeling but its ethical hunting. I can't describe how many groups of guys have tried to setup in the same field as us this year and i have even offered them backup fields they can go and hunt instead of hunting what we are trying to hunt. If you really want to hunt that field and its un-posted, now-a-days you have to get up extra early and get after it. Most people don't know there but there is actually a law that protects hunters from this called infringing on a legal hunt. This is when a group of guys is already setup in a field and someone else sets up to hunt that same field and this can actually warrant a citation.

3. Just because a posted field doesn't have a signature on it, doesn't mean you can hunt it without permission. This is unbelievable to me how many people have that impression now. I have spoke with several game wardens about this and not only is it still illegal but you can get also get hit for trespassing still if the sign says "No Hunting or Trespassing". We have had several groups of guys come into the same field as us saying that the posted signs are illegal because they aren't signed or there is only a posted sign in one corner of the field. That still does not mean you have permission to be on that land, especially hunting. No game warden will ever side with you that the field was "Illegally Posted". I'm not gonna lie to you, if i had land like that, I wouldn't put my name on it either for the simple fact that some of these guys get thousands of calls a year. I've even talked to some guys that change their phone numbers because of how many calls they get. Guys, if the field is posted, its posted. Regardless of signature, posting location or anything. These farmers that allow people to hunt shouldn't have to worry about people trespassing without permission because they are already doing us a service and allowing us to hunt their land. The more farmers that have a bad experience, the less land we, as hunters, have to hunt.

4. This doesn't happen a lot but i've seen it this year so i want to mention it. Do not use fake no hunting signs to keep other hunters out. Most of us know the farmers around the area, we know what color their posted signs are and we know who owns it. Putting up fake no trespassing signs will not only piss off other hunters and farmers but it can land you in a world of trouble with game wardens if you get caught doing it. Go scout for geese and find fields like ethical men and get there early if you really want that field.

5. Don't hunt the same birds too many times in a row. Geese need a time-buffer like anything else. If geese get shot-up in fields saturday and sunday, thats plenty. They need some time to recoup and find a field they feel safe feeding in. Birds can get very skittish in a hurry and we saw that this year. Opening weekend, geese everywhere. 2nd and 3rd weekend were slim pickings. Those birds got hammered on so hard that first week that they all went back to the water and just hung out. We, (4 scouting vehicles), found one field of over 100 in 2 weeks. That is how bad we hammered on them. Hunting geese is all strategy. Just think if i left my house everyday and was shot at leaving my front porch. I wouldn't bother to leave my house either.

6. Remember guys, hunting is a privilege to all of us. I have met so many other hunters on the road or watching fields that want to flick you off and pull up a trailer to block the approach. This isn't televised on espn and we aren't getting trophies for our hunts out here. We are all looking for the same thing. I am as die-hard of a waterfowler as they come but i still enjoy seeing groups of guys having good hunts or talking about how awesome it was. Just be respectful of everyone

Just some things to keep in mind. I am not throwing blame around and do not expect this to turn into a NR vs. R debate.

Thanks All,


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## slough

Pretty sad if the early season even has gotten this busy. Used to hardly see a soul out there. In a perfect world your instructions would work but this ain't it.


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## blhunter3

You forgot to add, don't hunt winter wheat, rye, or cover crops . If you can't tell the difference between regrowth and winter wheat, rye, or cover crops, you shouldn't be hunting.


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## Nd3

Bl seeds winter wheat before September 15th....


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## blhunter3

Nd3 said:


> Bl seeds winter wheat before September 15th....


I didn't do seed it, but some people are planting crops in low wet areas just to use up the excess moisture.


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## Nd3

I was just giving ya a hard time. I totally hear what you are saying.


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## templey_41

1. I'all hunt legally.... Water, fields, water in fields, fields of water
2. Hunt together 
3. Literacy rates in ND are low
4.My signs are yellow
5. Feels good when you joke.....it's an early season designed to target and control local birds. Pressure them and kill at will, I believe the farmers with yellow posted signs would thank you for it, the Orange posted sign farmers will give you an HJ the white signs will give you a BJ and BL will give you a ZJ
6.AMEN


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## Buck25

I agree that busting a roost sucks for a guy hunting in the field that same day. Pretty much ruins your hunt there's no doubt about it.

But contrary to popular belief on this website the earth isn't flat. So when birds roost gets busted they don't fly off the edge of the earth never to be seen again. Most of the time I bet they go less than ten miles. And when they go further then 10 miles someone gets "new" "fresh" dumb geese. Who knows on their way to the new roost someone else might get a little chance at running some traffic.

These "roosts" that everyone raves about usually hold like 100 geese :rollin: IMO it is a good thing to keep the birds on the move so that they don't get stale. New birds are always easier to kill.

I agree with where you are coming from. But ive heard this roost thing to many times and everyone acts like it's a scientific fact that it results in less dead geese. I doubt that it is true.

To me the major "roost" that is an absolute no no is a real late season roost. With thousands and thousands of geese/ducks. I'm not saying its a good thing to go blow up little roosts earlier in the year. But i don't think its as bad as everyone seems to think it is on here. Like its the end of the world.

Good thing the farmers don't know that they could get rid of all the geese just by going and shooting up the roosts one day right? All the geese would move to south dakota forever. :rollin:


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## Buck25

And i honestly don't mean to pick on you. You seem like a real sportsman. I've just heard this so many times. Just because you bought a trailer and put a bunch of full bodies in it doesn't mean that you deserve to hunt more than the next guy.


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## Duckslayer100

You touched on a couple good points that pretty much solidified my 180-degree turn in waterfowling style.

Back in the early 2000s when I moved to Nodak and hit the waterfowl hard, we field hunted almost exclusively. Within an hour of Grand Forks I could find A, B, C, D, E and maybe even F fields the evening beforehand, and get up at a respectable time to make it and set up before shooting time or, if needed, hit a backup field.

I haven't field hunted in over three years. It's become an absolute joke. People don't just want to hunt a field...they CRAVE it. They WORSHIP it. They OBSESS over it. It's become a crazy cat-and-mouse game where whoever will go to the greatest lengths gets to hunt...and even that's no guarantee because you likely just ****** someone off and they're hunkered in the ditch sky-busting every bird that's winging your way. The number of in-state and out-of-state hunters who target fields has exploded, and unless you have a team of hunters who can take shifts, knows landowners, and locks up land (which happens way, way, way more than you'd expect) tough freaking luck.

Which is why I, for one, have quit field hunting. While every Tom, Dick and Harry squabbles over the big feed, I'm sitting on a slough, shooting ducks and geese with nary another hunter in sight.

So I apologize if I bust the roost but, in all due respect, tough luck. I'm there to kill birds, not re-enact a Chad Belding episode you watched on TV. In the real world you do what it takes to get the job done, and that might mean hunting a way that others have given up on.

There are loads and loads and loads of ponds in North Dakota (thus the Prairie Pothole Country moniker). Go ahead and claim your X's. I'll sit on a point in the reeds, shoot whatever smorgasbord of fowl that flies by, and be blissfully unaware of the crap going on in the fields around me.


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## jkangas

Hi Guys,

I think were getting caught up on the wrong things here a little bit. First of all, I'm not complaining about people that hunt water. I have no issue with it. From time to time we get a roost jumped and bit deal, stuff happens. I am not wrong though, and you can disagree if you would like but there are very few circumstances where you should be hunting any water for early season geese. Just to elaborate on my post, the two boats i watched get launched were into our huge water with about 500 geese roosting on them. Surely, you can understand my point. I occasionally water hunt from time to time (regular season duck) but it is only when i know i'm not bouncing birds. True they don't drop off the face of the earth but you will have a lot more success if you hunt a field, let the birds relax in the water and then hunt them again the following weekend if they are still hanging out there. That gives them plenty of time to feel safe feeding in the field again.

Buck - I wasn't even hunting the field that the roost got busted and i don't claim to deserve anything more than the next guy. There is plenty of birds for all of us but lets keep it that way. Over the last 5 years, the bird population has gone WAY down hill and the hunter population has gone WAY up. I'm just simply trying to give some advice to help out all farmers so we don't burn all of our bridges in the next 10 years. The reason I bring up the water scene for early season goose especially is because we don't get new birds. There is hardly any migration during early season goose and for each roost we burn during early season, is that many less geese around. Granted, sure, they may only move 10 miles or so, maybe less but we don't have a new push coming when they are gone. We only have what we have usually until regular season rolls around and we get pushes of birds. I do agree about stale birds and in some rare cases we do get pushes thanks for roost-busted birds.

In my honest opinion, the 15 goose limit was the start of our own demise. Now this year, Ducks Unlimited ranked my area as #3 best early goose in the nation even though our birds are way down compared to prior years which is going to bring a lot of additional heat in the years to come when we should be in a rebuilding phase for goose population. (Farmers would hate to hear me say that).

Like i said, i'm not trying to start or prove anything. If my post helps one group of guys have a better hunting experience or helps us not burn a bridge with one farmer i will be a happy man. I didn't intend to turn this into a roost busting debate either but there are a lot of people who have no been educated on the subject so maybe it helps out one group of guys, who knows.

Appreciate all your feedback guys, its nice to have a post that isn't pointless on this site for once

Thanks


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## dakotashooter2

I noticed a statement inserted in the proclamation this year that states even if a sign is not legally posted you can still be charged with trespass. All the wardens need is intent to post, to allow them to issue a citation.

Not all roosts are the same and some will allow low pressure hunting without busting them. If a roost is large enough the birds will just move from one area to the next if busted, provided the pressure is not constant. The chances of pushing birds off a roost also depends on the availability of other water. If it is the only area available for 25-30 miles it will be harder to push the birds off. I've done a few field hunts that were less than 1/8 mile off the roost. Even being that close the birds continued to use that roost but I was careful not to hunt those areas more than a couple times. 1 or 2 hunters shooting conservatively can get away with a lot more than 6 or 8 blasting away. Honestly I think "party hunting" (6-10 or more guys) does far more to push birds out than small groups of hunters.

Last year between myself and another party one particular field was getting hunted at least 4 days a week. Despite that pressure the birds never vacated that field for more than 2 days......for nearly a month.

I also don't go home if I get beat to a field. I always have field B-C and sometimes D. Often field D is a traffic field where I think the birds might go after they are shot at on field A often only 1/2 mile or so away. About 75% of the time it provides enough shooting for a solo or pair of hunter to pick off a few birds........... I can't even count the times I have shot at birds only to have them land in the same field 1/4 mile away. Or seen fields with 2 Xs , being on opposite ends. Again dispelling the idea that a field can handle can never handle more than one group of hunters . Please note that this idea again requires a limited number of hunters. I have done this solo, without pulling birds from the party up field, yet still getting some shooting.


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## Buck25

jkangas said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I think were getting caught up on the wrong things here a little bit. First of all, I'm not complaining about people that hunt water. I have no issue with it. From time to time we get a roost jumped and bit deal, stuff happens. I am not wrong though, and you can disagree if you would like but there are very few circumstances where you should be hunting any water for early season geese. Just to elaborate on my post, the two boats i watched get launched were into our huge water with about 500 geese roosting on them. Surely, you can understand my point. I occasionally water hunt from time to time (regular season duck) but it is only when i know i'm not bouncing birds. True they don't drop off the face of the earth but you will have a lot more success if you hunt a field, let the birds relax in the water and then hunt them again the following weekend if they are still hanging out there. That gives them plenty of time to feel safe feeding in the field again.
> 
> Buck - I wasn't even hunting the field that the roost got busted and i don't claim to deserve anything more than the next guy. There is plenty of birds for all of us but lets keep it that way. Over the last 5 years, the bird population has gone WAY down hill and the hunter population has gone WAY up. I'm just simply trying to give some advice to help out all farmers so we don't burn all of our bridges in the next 10 years. The reason I bring up the water scene for early season goose especially is because we don't get new birds. There is hardly any migration during early season goose and for each roost we burn during early season, is that many less geese around. Granted, sure, they may only move 10 miles or so, maybe less but we don't have a new push coming when they are gone. We only have what we have usually until regular season rolls around and we get pushes of birds. I do agree about stale birds and in some rare cases we do get pushes thanks for roost-busted birds.
> 
> In my honest opinion, the 15 goose limit was the start of our own demise. Now this year, Ducks Unlimited ranked my area as #3 best early goose in the nation even though our birds are way down compared to prior years which is going to bring a lot of additional heat in the years to come when we should be in a rebuilding phase for goose population. (Farmers would hate to hear me say that).
> 
> Like i said, i'm not trying to start or prove anything. If my post helps one group of guys have a better hunting experience or helps us not burn a bridge with one farmer i will be a happy man. I didn't intend to turn this into a roost busting debate either but there are a lot of people who have no been educated on the subject so maybe it helps out one group of guys, who knows.
> 
> Appreciate all your feedback guys, its nice to have a post that isn't pointless on this site for once
> 
> Thanks


I know your'e just trying to help. And you are pretty much spot on. Guys that usually bust roosts in north dakota have no clue what they are doing and tend to mess things up for everyone else.

I know that wasn't the intent of the post. But it seems like all nodak guys are so black and white about it. EVERY PIECE OF WATER IS A ROOST. ALL ROOSTS ARE EQUAL, AND NO ONE SHOULD EVER SHOOT THEM UP.

It does make sense though. Because the for the guys that are new to hunting that is a good rule of thumb i suppose until you get a better understanding of waterfowl and roosts.

A guy could literally write a book on what dakotashooter started in on. So I'm not going to get into that. My point is that its just not so black and white as everyone wants to think.

P.S. there was a pretty significant molt migration this past thursday and friday. That's why pretty much all the groups i know had their best weekends of hunting so far this fall.

:beer:


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## Buck25

august goose hunting is a joke. I know this is all just theoretical cuz it would never happen. But if we didn't start the season until september 1st and if the DNR/Farmers didn't kill thousands of geese. People would kill huge numbers of geese in september.


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## Chuck Smith

We are again all forgetting what the main purpose of all early goose season.....TO KILL LOCAL GEESE!!!

It is to help the farmers with crop damage. That is why the USFW started the early goose seasons. That is why the limit is 15... that is why it starts in august....etc.

So many farmers want you to hunt "roosts" or water that the birds are just walking up and attacking crops. The farmers want you to move them out of an area. The farmers and USFW want you to KILL KILL KILL.

Now I agree with what is being said about how to conserve an area so most likely birds will stick around... scout, don't burn big roosts, don't burn up fields (like what Dakota said about big groups), etc.

But again with early goose.... the government and farmers want them dead! :bop: People are forgetting that early goose could go away once population numbers and crop damage is contained to a minimum.


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## dakotashooter2

I hunt near one of the few remaining waterfowl rest areas left in the state (but it is open to early goose hunting) There was some talk of removing the rest area status to appease the local farmers, so yes they do want us to hunt the roosts. Honesty the August hunt in many areas is just so so... The birds are still pretty dispersed and in family groups most of August and most of the shooting will be family groups. Here is where large hunting parties can be devastating to the local populations. If they wipe out whole family groups when they come in, there are no birds to return to their nesting spot the next year. Continuing a population relies on birds born in an area returning to their same spots and producing more. Eventually those nesting spots will be filled by other birds but that may take a year or two...

The pickins where slim in my area this year. Actually there were enough birds for 2-3 guys to hunt with decent results but not enough for the large parties to hunt and for the most part there were no large parties hunting this area this year. The few hunts I went on consisted of picking off a few birds as small family groups, singles or doubles came to the spread. Plenty of action for a solo hunter. As new birds started moving in last week and congregated on a particular piece of land I noticed that property got posted. Most likely so someone didn't have to fight over the spot. As far as ruining other hunters opportunities I'm not sure that is any better than hunting the roost. Often times posted properties end up underutilized.


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## jkangas

Hi All,

I have a few interesting points that some of you may agree with and some of you may not. I'm not trying to sway anyone because i have seen what geese can do to farmers crops and i completely agree.

#1: Geese are generally born in mid June and can fly by mid July. This gives them one month where they will walk up the shoreline to eat crops. Once they can fly you hardly ever see them feeding in beans by a slough. The reason that there is so much devastation at that time is because the crop is still small enough where the goose can eat the whole plant. If you look around at sloughs with crop damage around them you will always notice the same thing, there is no barrier between the geese and the field. 90% of the time crop damage is around sloughs where farmers have planted right down to the waters edge. When there is crp and other weedy garbage in between the water and the food, the geese will not walk their babies through it to feed because of danger. Some night when your out scouting, look at some of the field damage from geese and you will see it for yourselves.

#2: Deer. I am using deer as an example that gets overlooked all the time. While the deer population is very down, deer can still get into pretty good size herds especially in the winter. We've all seen deer walking around in soybeans, corn, etc. but it never looks like there is any damage done. Deer are very different feeders in that while they are territorial, they don't go back to the same spot they have been eating every single night. I have some seed salesman buddies who has test plots that i have discussed this with and deer are WAY more destructive than geese ever are. Just think, deer feed in those fields from seed to harvest, all year long, and especially for the farmers who leave their crops over-winter, they get worked by deer. The only reason that no questions ever get raised about deer is because there is limited visual devastation. A picture I saw the other day was of a good-looking soybean field. In that picture everything looked normal except when you saw the soybeans near the tree-line. The soybeans within 100 yards of the tree line were 2 feet shorter than the rest of the field. The deer don't eat the plants right down to the ground, they chew a couple feet off the top and move on. An adult deer eats just as much as a family of geese do but no one ever notices it because geese leave a visual mark in the fields.

Now i'm not saying that geese don't do damage, believe me, i have seen some pretty extensive damage (20+ acres at a time). At the same time, I think farmers have brought a lot of that on themselves by burning up their slough grass and planting every last inch of that field even when they know the yield won't be good around the water anyway.

I have heard about several farm groups around my area that shot 200+ geese this summer (limits only 30 a year). This goes against everything we consider ethical hunting. These guys are chasing them down in boats and shooting the yellow goslings on the water before they can even fly and I've talked with several game wardens about it already and there is very little monitoring of these situations. Not only are they shooting babies on the water but they have to let them lie or dispose of them. I'm a firm believer that ethical hunting is using what you kill and these rules go against everything that us hunters stand for.


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## dakotashooter2

> Now i'm not saying that geese don't do damage, believe me, i have seen some pretty extensive damage (20+ acres at a time). At the same time, I think farmers have brought a lot of that on themselves by burning up their slough grass and planting every last inch of that field even when they know the yield won't be good around the water anyway.


 I tend to agree with this. Often the damage done is in low productivity areas. Areas that are probably break even at best........


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## Nd3

If you were paying $200 an acre you would try farm as much of the field that you can. Putting a grass strip won't do anything, I don't care what anyone says. A fence? Maybe haha. Saying the farmer brings it on themselves? Pff. And even if it is a low productivity area that "breaks even" it's still a loss overall on the field as a whole.


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## Chuck Smith

> Geese are generally born in mid June and can fly by mid July.


The past three years..... I have seen geese not able to fly on the opener of early goose. I have also seen geese fly and land on the out skirts of a bean field and walk into it. They do damage to beans when they are nice and green.

I have also seen the damage geese have done to a swathed wheat field. 50 yards from the edge of water 10 rows and it looked like they picked off all the heads of the wheat laying on the ground.

They do damage... AGAIN.... this is why there is the early season. The game and fish want the birds killed in any legal manner.

So to come on a web site and "tell" or "give suggestions" on how to keep birds around for the "early" season is not what the season was intended to do.

Now I am not disagreeing with you about how to keep birds around. It is all 100% correct. But what gets me is that everyone is forgetting what this season is intended to do and that it could go away in a heartbeat if the local population decreases. :bop:


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## Buck25

Chuck - We are hunters. This is a thread about goose hunting. The point of the thread is to make goose hunting better for us. We know that all the farmers want all the geese dead. :bop: Us hunters don't want all the geese dead. 
We don't hunt for the farmers. We hunt because we love to hunt waterfowl.

I know, shame on me for not worrying about the poor poor farmers. But i don't think they need to be worried about right now. I think they are doing just fine. For the most part farmers don't do much worrying about hunters either. And farmers don't own the geese.

You chuck are 100% correct. But i am not sure that i understand the point of your last two posts. I agree that farmers want all the geese dead. But that is not why I hunt. 
So yeah i guess you could say that i am more worried about the waterfowl population than the farmers pocket books right now. As i said before, the farmers seem to be doing just fine to me.

Hunters tend to be beggars, and in this case we definitely are. They don't base the goose season off of what the hunters want. :bop: 
But us hunters want goose hunting to be good!

This is a thread on a goose hunting forum about how to make goose hunting better :bop: not a thread on the topic of why the august goose hunting season exists.


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## Chuck Smith

Buck....

Here are my points:

1. There are more ways to kill geese than just to field hunt.
2. What the season really is about. Kill geese. it isn't about the hunter it is all about the Farmer and controlling local populations.
3. this season is a "bonus" for us hunters.....not the norm! So again realize what this season is truly about.
4. Help out the farmers!

My main point is whenever I read a thread like this it kind of ****** me off. It is telling people how to hunt. Now in his first post there were good points about trespassing, getting beat to a field, and etiquette that is being lost in todays hunters.... but then he goes on about field hunting and what not. It is like saying the only way to catch a trout is with a fly rod, the only way to hunt a deer is with a bow, etc.

Also Hunters are forgetting what seasons are truly about... look at the spring conservation season..... I can beat you could as a bunch of hunters in their 20's what the conservation season is truly about and they won't have a clue. Just like if you ask people what the early season is truly about.

Now I agree with you that this post is about making the geese stick around in an area for the hunters.


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## Buck25

I'm don't think i am making any friends on this thread but I agree with you chuck. I think waterfowl hunting ALMOST tends to be to easy for folks in nodak that they turn into one trick ponies(hunting on the x field with layouts) . And if their one trick don't work they start to complain. oke:

Chuck my point is that I'm not worried about the farmers. Both my grandparents were farmers, I got uncles and friends who were farmers. I'm jealous of the farmers. I don't worry about them. 
I think enough people worry about farmers - farmers, equipment manufacturers, equipment sales man, seed sales man, chemical salesman, politicians, etc.

The only people that seem to worry about hunters is hunters.

I know that farmers are feeding the world and we're just out screwing around. But hey we maybe have jobs that help the world go around too. And believ it or not but i think SOMETIMES the farmers farm to make a $hit load of money, not just out of the goodness of their hearts to feed the poor peasants. AND they don't own the geese. 
I want the farmers to do well too don't get me wrong! It's just the poor poor farmer stuff gets real old. 
The farmers are doing just fine. They just don't want to admit it. Comes down to greed. People are greedy.


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## Duckslayer100

Ah Buck, don't take these things too close to the heart. That's what discussion forums are all about...generating chit-chat about our favorite pastimes.

And hey, way to stir the embers in this cobwebbed forum! It gives me some serious deja vu circa 2006-ish. Them were the days...


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## Buck25

Duckslayer100 said:


> Ah Buck, don't take these things too close to the heart. That's what discussion forums are all about...generating chit-chat about our favorite pastimes.
> 
> And hey, way to stir the embers in this cobwebbed forum! It gives me some serious deja vu circa 2006-ish. Them were the days...


Lol. If it wasn't for roosts, non residents, and farmers this site woulda been dead long ago. It's been a long time since I've been on here sharing my vast knowledge while stirring the pot. I'm not sure if it feels good to be back or not. :wink:


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## Chuck Smith

Buck....

I agree with you to the fact that lots of people worry about the farmers and nobody worries about hunters accept hunters. :beer:


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## Feathers

Nd3 said:


> Putting a grass strip won't do anything, I don't care what anyone says.


Actually it does until the geese can fly. I've seen it work. Geese don't want to walk through tall grass because they fear there are predators waiting to snatch them.


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## jkangas

Chuck - I agree with you but I also think there is a line where farmers can be happy with the population and goose hunters can have good hunting.

I do disagree with you about your means of killing birds though. If you are looking to kill as many geese as possible, I wouldn't go down and hammer 8-10 of them off the water once and they move. I would go to their field and get 20+ multiple times. If you really want to reduce population so bad, I think your methods contradict your theory. 90% of the time geese come back and nest where they were born so shooting them off the water actually kills a lot less birds in the long run.

My point of that whole post is that we don't need to have farmers goose permits or nests destroyed or eggs drilled. Hunters are doing a good job at population control. I've put on thousands of scouting miles a year for the last ten years here and at our peak population when they switched the limit from 5 to 8, all hunting groups killed so many geese that year it was nuts. Since the 8 goose limit the population has slowly declined every year. Hunters are doing the job without any outside intervention in my honest opinion.

I as a hunter don't want to see the early goose season go away, its what I live for. I also don't think the state wants the early goose season to go away because they are making a good chunk of extra cash off of hunters.


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## jkangas

And the post above mine is the truth. Any grass taller than the geese, the adults will not walk the babies through it. If the farmers plented 30+ feet from the waters edge, they would not have any slough-edge damage


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## Nd3

I understand the logic of the grass along sloughs but I have seen it on quite a few of our fields over the year where it has had little to no effect on grazing geese but then again it wasn't a whole 30 ft. That's a lot of ground to waste on grass. Maybe collect some crp money if you seed enough along the sloughs haha


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## jkangas

Haha yea well crp is a whole other story. It's all about that $$$ now and the wildlife are suffering, look at our pheasant and deer population and how spotty they are around the state now. I can't really blame the farmers since they are making so much more money off planting it compared to crp but the state should just pay more for crp contracts, then its a win-win for everyone. Farmers wouldnt need to take on the overhead costs of labor, seed, maintenance and wear and tear and at the same time wildlife could keep their nesting / bedding habitat


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## aplon150

If early season was created solely because farmers are having devastating crop damage then why are they allowed to deny hunting permission? If farmers really wanted geese gone badly enough to petition the state (and USFWS) to open a nuisance season you'd think the hunting opportunities would be endless. But still the posted signs stay up and permission gets denied frequently. So now some farmers get to make an insurance claim and keep birds to themselves oke: I think this season has more to do with an increase in warm weather waterfowling popularity and a resource that can handle the additional pressure than you guys are letting on to.


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## cneva

Buck25 said:


> I'm don't think i am making any friends on this thread but I agree with you chuck. I think waterfowl hunting ALMOST tends to be to easy for folks in nodak that they turn into one trick ponies(hunting on the x field with layouts) . And if their one trick don't work they start to complain. oke:
> 
> Chuck my point is that I'm not worried about the farmers. Both my grandparents were farmers, I got uncles and friends who were farmers. I'm jealous of the farmers. I don't worry about them.
> I think enough people worry about farmers - farmers, equipment manufacturers, equipment sales man, seed sales man, chemical salesman, politicians, etc.
> 
> The only people that seem to worry about hunters is hunters.
> 
> I know that farmers are feeding the world and we're just out screwing around. But hey we maybe have jobs that help the world go around too. And believ it or not but i think SOMETIMES the farmers farm to make a $hit load of money, not just out of the goodness of their hearts to feed the poor peasants. AND they don't own the geese.
> I want the farmers to do well too don't get me wrong! It's just the poor poor farmer stuff gets real old.
> The farmers are doing just fine. They just don't want to admit it. Comes down to greed. People are greedy.


How did this become a thread about farmers making money? How does this come to them being greedy?


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## Buck25

cneva said:


> Buck25 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I'm don't think i am making any friends on this thread but I agree with you chuck. I think waterfowl hunting ALMOST tends to be to easy for folks in nodak that they turn into one trick ponies(hunting on the x field with layouts) . And if their one trick don't work they start to complain. oke:
> 
> Chuck my point is that I'm not worried about the farmers. Both my grandparents were farmers, I got uncles and friends who were farmers. I'm jealous of the farmers. I don't worry about them.
> I think enough people worry about farmers - farmers, equipment manufacturers, equipment sales man, seed sales man, chemical salesman, politicians, etc.
> 
> The only people that seem to worry about hunters is hunters.
> 
> I know that farmers are feeding the world and we're just out screwing around. But hey we maybe have jobs that help the world go around too. And believ it or not but i think SOMETIMES the farmers farm to make a $hit load of money, not just out of the goodness of their hearts to feed the poor peasants. AND they don't own the geese.
> I want the farmers to do well too don't get me wrong! It's just the poor poor farmer stuff gets real old.
> The farmers are doing just fine. They just don't want to admit it. Comes down to greed. People are greedy.
> 
> 
> 
> How did this become a thread about farmers making money? How does this come to them being greedy?
Click to expand...

I just typed up an essay for you but it some how got deleted.

so im going to try to make it real short.

farmers crops get eaten by geese. Farmers make less money. Farmers complain. = august goose hunting season

Second question,

Where is the balance? When do farmers make enough money that they won't complain about geese killing their crop? When will there be little enough geese that farmers will say that there is the right amount?

i wish my thesis paper would have posted but it didn't. Hopefully you get the point im trying to make.
I feel like its pretty simple to see how the thread got to that point though if you read through the thread. So im guessing you either didn't read the whole thread or you are upset that i ragged on farmers.
You left out the point where i said "people are greedy" I didn't mean to make this a ragging on farmers thread. I was just pointing out the direct correlation of farmers and goose hunting and the goose population.

Point was that people are greedy, farmers are people. the vast majority of farmers don't care about the geese. :sniper: .......goslings. So i personally am more worried about the goose population than the farmers wallets because i don't think the farmers wallets need worrying about as of right now.


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## jkangas

I don't know about you guys but our limit over here should have been 5 this year. Our population is way down from the past 6 years. What is it like in your guys areas?


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## Nd3

I agree. There were not the numbers I have seen in the past. At least not until the last week of season when birds moved in. The last few years it has been almost easy to shoot 50+ birds every morning but this year was a different story for me and many other groups I have talked to.


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## Bruce

In the last ten years I've seen fantastic goose hunting go to crap. I'll kill geese anyway I can. I don't care how you hunt or if my hunting interferes with yours.


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## jkangas

∆ This guy is the "The posted signs weren't signed" guy


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## aplon150

> In the last ten years I've seen fantastic goose hunting go to crap. I'll kill geese anyway I can. I don't care how you hunt or if my hunting interferes with yours.


Quite the statement. Is that because geese no longer come to the pond in your backyard and you have to scout for them now? oke:

Obviously you mean you are having access issues because the goose population can't be what you're upset about........
http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/pdf/s ... Report.pdf pages 34-42. You don't even have to read, just look at the graphs :beer:

Are you that guy that will stand downwind and skyblast to intentionally ruin someone else's hunt because they beat you to "your" public land spot? I hope that's not what you meant...


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## blhunter3

Feathers said:


> Nd3 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Putting a grass strip won't do anything, I don't care what anyone says.
> 
> 
> 
> Actually it does until the geese can fly. I've seen it work. Geese don't want to walk through tall grass because they fear there are predators waiting to snatch them.
Click to expand...

The grass strip does work its just that managing it is a huge hassle, sometimes, impossible.


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## themaskedmallard

blhunter3 said:



> Feathers said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nd3 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Putting a grass strip won't do anything, I don't care what anyone says.
> 
> 
> 
> Actually it does until the geese can fly. I've seen it work. Geese don't want to walk through tall grass because they fear there are predators waiting to snatch them.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> The grass strip does work its just that managing it is a huge hassle, sometimes, impossible.
Click to expand...

The BL TRUTH, the guy that has the worst goose depredation in the United States proven by previous threads.


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