Light Rain / 64° F
December goose season begins this Saturday
Published 12:00am Tuesday, December 6, 2005The rugged cousin of the popular September goose shoot can test even a diehard’s love for the sport. Don Schultz, DNR area wildlife manager, summed up the challenge nicely. “It’s frostbite instead of mosquitoes,” said Schultz. The season begins Saturday and runs through Monday, Dec. 19. Hunters can once again bring home a daily limit of five birds. The season has been closed south of I-94 since Nov. 9 so it will be a good place to find the big birds. The limit south of the freeway was set at one bird a day after the September season ended to protect the Eastern Prairie Population (EPP) Canadas, a sub-species that migrates into the area in mid-September and remains until freeze-up. “When we did research on this we found that 10 percent of the harvested birds were migrants,&8221; said Schultz. “The Fish and Wildlife Service would let us have up to 20 percent.&8221; Schultz noted that while the number of birds in the area is still strong, a lot of Canadas pulled stakes and headed south in the last days of November when a big ice storm hit western Minnesota. “Our peak numbers were around Thanksgiving,&8221; said Schultz. There are some basic differences about hunting the Giant Canadas in December. The use of white clothing plays a big role in camoflauge. It’s cold, very cold, so a hunter’s endurance is tested. Heaters are a good idea. Sunrise comes around 8 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. Hunters can shoot one-half hour before sunrise. The birds tend to plow into one field or another, depending on where they have reservations that week, so scouting is a must. Find a good field and a couple of thousand Canadas might drop in for lunch. Water is a scarce commodity once the lakes freeze over so river water is the only source of H2O. Hunters looking for good spots should consider the proximity of corn fields to moving water. Fergus Falls has both so December goose sets should be sprouting out of the frozen turf Saturday.
