Try Canada Goose Hunting in Ontario

Canada Goose Opening Day: Looking Back

With winter comes the inevitable lull in hunting opportunities.  I was thinking back, today, on this year’s opening day canada goose hunt.  I think it might fun to summarize what we did and what you might consider doing if you want to try a field goose hunt.

Liam, our buddy Mike and me after this year’s opener

There are Two Reasons I love Hunting Canada Geese

One: they are delicious.  Canada geese produce a lean, rich meat that has a wide range of applications. Most recently, I prepared a goose bourgignon that my non-hunting fiance loved. Keep an eye on the recipe page for more on that. Non-hunters who only associate the birds with annoyance at the golf course or with a ton of sh*t on their docks tend to be surprised at their edibility.

Two: they are tons of fun to hunt, particularly in fields.  Canada geese are hunted in fields from blinds that conceal the hunter. Most common are layout or “coffin” blinds, which are shaped like their namesake. The hunter waits, lying down within the blind, which has two spring-loaded doors on the front. Geese are called into a decoy spread and, when they are in gun range, someone in the hunting group will shout some incoherent and excited version of “now!” or “get-em”!  At that point, everyone comes popping up, picks a bird and fires.  There is something both of the magic show and the Napoleonic Wars in the routine.

You don’t need a fancy coffin blind though.  It is absolutely possible to simply cover yourself in burlap and lie on the ground.  We did that this year to great effect.

Consider Using A Guide or Outfitter

Like many urban hunters, we hired a guide to take us out.  Before you decide you’re too good to use a guide, consider a few of the advantages to the novice, city-based hunter:

• The guide has the opportunity to scout the area you are hunting, improving your odds dramatically. It is difficult for an urban hunter to get out of the city on multiple occasions leading up to a hunt to do the same work.
• The guide may be local and will have hunting permission.  This gives you better access to land than you might otherwise have
• Field hunting geese requires lots of decoys.  We used over 60.  Do you have the space to store a bunch of larger than life plastic geese? I don’t, nor do I want to buy that many for the few goose hunts I do each year
• The guide is a source of valuable knowledge.  Victor, our guide, has been hunting all his life.  He is more than willing to share that experience, including knowledge about bird diet, behaviour patterns, habitat, decoy setup and calling.

Given I only manage one or two field goose hunts a year, a guide is well worth the money.

The Set-Up

Our hunt took place near Cobourg Ontario in a cut cornfield north of lake Ontario.  Leaving Toronto at 4:30 in the morning on opening day means that there is a very good chance that other cars and trucks on the road are on their way to do the very thing you are.  I saw at least 3 trucks pulling duck boats as I sped eastward to meet up with Victor, our outfitter.

When hunting geese in a field, the general aim is to create a landing space within a decoy spread that is covered by the arcs of fire set up by the hunters.  In our case, after having to change fields last minute, we created two spreads.  The aim is to entice the geese to land in the space between the two spreads. Two hunters were positioned within each decoy spread, concealed under burlap sacking.  I’ve done a crappy drawing below which shows the two spreads.  The two lines that kinda look like turds are supposed to be the hunters.  I was the rightmost turd in spread #2.

The Hunt

There is nothing quite like the first birds of the morning.  You suddenly spy them in the distance after at least an hour of waiting, and hurry to conceal yourself under the burlap. The honking and cackling becomes louder and louder until, in a flurry, everybody is up and shooting at the landing birds.  It is, to say the least, an exciting way to hunt.

On this particular morning all of the action happened all at once. We barely had 5 minutes between flocks as the geese came in waves off the lake to feed on the agricultural fields to the north.

It was a successful morning; 21 geese in an hour and a half.  Split between us that is enough meat for 7-15meals each depending on how the meat is prepared.

I have some GoPro footage from the hunt that I hope to upload in short order.  In the meantime, once you’re busting clays consistently on the range, consider booking a guided field goose hunt as an introduction to waterfowling.