# Snow goose hunting late 80's



## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Guided part time on my family's land near Port Lavaca from late 1980 thru early 2000

I chased them hard and was pretty successful

I always took a lot of pictures and finally started scanning them

Thought y'all might enjoy

Back in the plastic rag days and 5 bird snow goose limits

We got these









Hated this scenario.....take the couple that were close or wait for a bigger group









Get that cripple and get down!!!









Money hunt









Now we have to clean them


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Wasn't a big fan of rice field hunting but when it was on...it could be really good

Always took my boys when I was guiding even when they were 4 years old unless it was too cold or raining


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## hog_down (Jan 11, 2010)

awesome pics, thanks for sharing.


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## RB II (Feb 26, 2009)

Awesome old pics. I remember he plastic "rag" spreads.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Love those pictures....but did you ever try the "computer paper" spread? 

I had access to unlimited supply of used computer paper back when we were hunting and found that it made some great spreads....and easily disposed of after the hunt. 

Those snows didn't have a chance, lol. Great fun!


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

Ya'll had it easy...those plastic rags were much lighter than wet bedsheets...lol.

Great pics. Thanks for sharing!!!


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## BigGarwood (Oct 13, 2008)

Man that's awesome. I was born too late in life. It used to be good


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## LA Wader (Oct 22, 2013)

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Computer paper....no

Diapers, yes and when they got wet jeez they were heavy


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

And back when trucks really had swag


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## iamatt (Aug 28, 2012)

Remind me of my old college roommate. Family owns 6bar ranch in bay city. So many geese . Lob a deer slug at them and see 40-50 thousand come up off the rice like a pizza wheel. Old Browning 10 gauge bps and squarebacks. RIP Brian Minze

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## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

*Cool*

I remember those day very well.

Thanks for sharing


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## Run-N-Gun (Jul 5, 2007)

Great pics!


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## SSST (Jun 9, 2011)

Jamie said:


> And back when trucks really had swag
> 
> View attachment 3373578


Cool pics, and nice 4x4 Chevy, looks like one I had, 83 or 84?


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

My rates back then was $75/gun

If we didn't kill at least 10 geese the hunt was free and we predominantly killed only snow geese

I figured if I couldn't kill 10, I wasn't doing my job


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)




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## bowmansdad (Nov 29, 2011)

Great pics, Jamie. Goose hunting was and still is a lot of hard work, if you don't kill anything you still had to pick up the rags and if you had a great hunt you still had to pick up the rags plus clean the birds!


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## Drundel (Feb 6, 2006)

Very cool pictures. Just imagine hunting geese in those numbers with today's decoys, blinds, and ammo.


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## Garwood57 (Jul 1, 2007)

Thanks for the memories! Reminds me of one of goose hunts back then, dubbed the "Black Hand Gang" - re: the black gumbo mud in the rice field!


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Drundel said:


> Very cool pictures. Just imagine hunting geese in those numbers with today's decoys, blinds, and ammo.


I caught the tail end of the glory days. Amazing how the geese have evolved. Back 30 was kind of the benchmark. Now 30 is an excellent hunt that many may not see in a season.


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## Kenny1989 (Oct 13, 2016)

Very cool pics! Thanks for sharing. Love hearing and seeing how things used to be.


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## Goose Lover (Jan 23, 2012)

It would be hard to convey just how great the goose hunting was there.

There were two principal properties that were hunted. Each approximately 3500-4000 acres. That was likely the single best goose hunting area in the United States from the 80's through the early 2000's. You could hunt it from the day the birds arrived in big numbers until they left. Which was usually November 1 to March 1 and have great hunting on day for that 4 month period. 

Early in the season we would hunt the cut rice. And like everywhere else it was all young bird dependent for the light geese.

In the first week or two of December the birds usually started the using the abandoned rice fields closer to the salt water. And it didn't matter what the hatch was. You would shoot 80-100% typically old birds. They are just a different bird to hunt once you get them away from the agricultural fields. They fly around low and slow. And the decoying was pretty much right in your face. Plus the numbers were outstanding. There were also a couple of old well sites where the birds would gravel and it would lights out on that. 

But in the 2000's things started to change and fast. Goose numbers plummeted to the point where any time you saw a flock of geese you hoped they would decoy because you didn't think you would see another.

One of the tracts became a unit of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in the early 1990's A large number of wetland units were constructed on it. Waterfowl numbers were crazy. Sometimes the counts would exceed 100,000 with counts in the 50,000-80,000 range being common. And since the counts were conducted during the middle of the day it didn't reflect what actually roosted there. But the Aransas NWR management changed and then it completely collapsed. Finally said goodbye to the hunting there in 2013.

I can't tell you much I miss hunting there. It was such a shame to see the goose hunting and the wildlife refuge collapse. But it is now all gone. 

Nice to see those photos though.


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## Centerville (May 20, 2012)

I hunted with Jamie a few times in the mid 90's and we always slayed the geese. (I worked with Walt) 

Remember leaving the field with 55 geese stuffed in the trunk and back seat of a Ford Taurus company car and cleaning them in the parking lot of the Chaparral motel. 

Sad how few geese you now see in the fields between Houston and Port Lavaca now when 20 years ago every other field use to hold birds on cold overcast days.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Well, that's going way back

Walt is a ducking hunting legend from hunting that Collegeport marsh during the late 60's and early 70's and running around with Forrest West and Joe Doggett

He hunted geese with me a lot and here he is with his son Chris


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## Woodlands Water Turkey (Aug 5, 2016)

Awesome. Loved those days. I was ate up with it in those days.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Yeah, seems like the 2nd or 3rd ecaller season marked the end for us

I'm sure the demise of rice farming in Calhoun county had more to do with it then anything..but it was never the same

(Shrug) so we started chasing deer and doves

But having said that...I think killing snow geese consistently is the most challenging wildlife that I've ever hunted


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## iamatt (Aug 28, 2012)

Jamie said:


> Yeah, seems like the 2nd or 3rd ecaller season marked the end for us


Yup! I was out after the Johnny Stewart tape era. Got some old pics like these I need to scan in. Nice thread.

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## deano77511 (Feb 2, 2005)

Reminds me of hunting with Jack holland !!!!!! Cool pics 


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

That was likely the best place for snow goose hunting in North America in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's.

Goose numbers were fantastic. And it was almost all mature birds. In the rice fields it juvenile birds just like most everywhere else. but once the birds shifted into the abandoned rice fields and salty prairie in early/mid December the hunting was incredible. 

Snow geese are completely different birds once they get out of the agricultural fields.

But it is all gone now. The Foester Whitmire NWR collapsed due to mismanagement and neglect. Sometimes there would be over 100,000 birds on it and then it went to nothing. And as everyone know the Texas coast doesn't winter near the birds it has historically. 

Sad to see it go.


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## Reel Screamer (Jun 8, 2004)

deano77511 said:


> Reminds me of hunting with Jack holland !!!!!! Cool pics
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I actually think the pic above with the shack in the background might be the old Barrow Ranch. Can anyone confirm? Sure looks like it.

LW


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

No, that is from Calhoun County near Indianola.


Spent the night in that "cabin" a few times. 

Unreal goose hunting. Looking at the photos of the land a you wouldn't think a person could shoot any geese there.

Sometimes we were hunting near clumps of prickly pear cactus.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

As stated above.....that was the BBQ area at the house my mom (Ada Beth Foester) grew up on the Foester Ranch

Recently graduated from UT, I didn't have much money and me and a buddy fixed it up enough to stay in during hunting season

It was pretty rough


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

For years we never thought to hunt on the old home place....it was just a barren cactus flat with prickly pear and those tire eating horse cripplier cactus with a grass airstrip running thru it

For years we never thought to hunt it but after seeing some geese on it one time and with nothing else looking better....we tried it

And slayed them

It was the easiest place to hunt cuz you could drive to exact spot (while dodging the horse crippliers)

And hide behind the prickly pear and the geese never saw you

Sure got some funny looks from customers when I pulled up there to hunt


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

Great photos!!! Thanks for sharing!!!


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)




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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

It's good you took those pictures back then.What sucks is 1980's being a long time ago.Thanks for sharing your memories and pics.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

Look at all of the photos of the birds they shot and you have a hard time finding a young bird.

It was almost all big mature birds. We called them horse geese. The snows and blues averaged close to the size of specklebellies.

There were plenty of specks taken along with Canada's but white geese were mainly what we were after.

There were several places where the geese would grit. Old oil field roads or drilling pads in the middle of low salty prairie.

You could just wear them out on the gravel. Especially during a cold front when it would blow 20-40 mph out of the north with crystal clear skies. Geese always went to gravel on those days. And they would decoy point blank. Big flocks of 50-200 at a time. In the clear blue skies the snows were white as pure clean snow and the blues looked almost black with the white head and neck. Then they would stick their reddish legs out to land. It made for a beautiful color contrast.

I hunted with a 12 gauge and almost always with 2 3/4 inch shells. I generally bought whatever loads were cheapest. Number 2/s or 1/s were fine with me. At the close ranges we shot geese you didn't need anything else. 

Had about 25 plus or minus years of that kind of hunting. 

Never thought it would end. But it did. Really miss it.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Yeah...nothing feels more stupid then trying to hide on a gravel road 

It almost felt like the most "skilled" part of hunting grit sites was positioning where you parked the trucks

Oddly enough, with a several gravel roads, the geese certainly had preferences where they liked to land....and if they started landing on a road you weren't hunting..you were screwed

So, you parked vehicles in those unhunted preferences to keep them out of those spots 

(Shrug)....its snow goose hunting...you use every trick you can


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Like this hunt

Blue bird skies

Post frontal high pressure

Big wind

One would think you're toast trying to decoy a mature snow goose with a spread of plastic rags that look like trash

Like the movie...."is this Heaven? ....No, its Port Lavaca in the 90's"


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

rolls of plastic table cloth, cut into squares and draped over rice stubble...
we'd drape about an acre and use the Tyvek suits and lay on the canvass bags we hauled it out in...
no-one had waders, just rubber boots...
we argued over the bags acct we had on blue jeans and no-one wanted to lay on a wet rice levee... 
we shot quite a few geese...
fly-overs at the camp were better.... 
see some geese close and open up on 'em
good times...
goose stew at the end of the day


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

Those were the days that's for sure.

There was nothing like it. 

There were years we were averaging upwards of 8 geese per person per hunt. This was after the limits had expanded from 5 light geese to 10 and you could still shoot a couple of dark geese.

That would mean an "average" hunt for 5 people was almost 40 geese.

Back when the limit was 5 there was a season where Jamie averaged 4.995 geese per person per hunt. He had one hunt where 4 people shot 19. Every other hunt was a limit.

We had 35 plus great years. Hard to see it go.


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## Bayscout22 (Aug 9, 2007)

Wow. This is a great thread. Like a lot of folks posting here, we hunted geese hard during the glory years. For my group it was from the last part of the 70's to the early part of the 2000's. Grew up on the East side of Houston hunting Anahuac / Winnie and started hunting the Garwood prairie during the late 80's. 

Here are some memories and thoughts:
- Someone nailed it. If we had today's gear with those numbers of birds, it would be scary. I can remember some hunts in Garwood where there were birds in the air from the time you arrived in the field (a couple of hours before dark) until you finished lunch after hunting at Sportsman's in Eagle Lake.
- The intersection of wet bed sheets/diapers AND blue jeans/boots (no waders) AND no ATVs meant goose hunting was not child's play.
- I think the same guy posted... Once geese transitioned from ag fields to grass fields or grit, they just got goofy. I can remember some great hunts over fields you thought geese would never use.
- Did anyone ever shoot that one early specklebelly that would try and decoy even though you had guys walking around setting up the spread before LST? Nope, we didn't either.
- I agree that (snow) goose hunting is probably one of the most consistently challenging target species. I can remember countless strategy sessions that occurred when we got to the general area of the field, set down our cargo (from the first trip from the trucks), re-assessed the wind and scouting reports, and argued about how to setup the spread. We almost always got it generally right but the birds always did something unpredictable at daylight. We still always got birds.


Great post!


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

lotsa work before ATV's
still is w/them, tho...
always a few would decoy while picking up the spread...


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

I remember more conversations when I wasn't guiding and instead was hunting with friends

After a particular good volley.....it would going something this this

"I got more than I want to eat...so does someone want to take the rest that we shoot?"

"Nope"

"Nope"

"Not me"

"Well, I guess we're done then (shrug)....breakfast tacos from Josie's (in nearby POC)?"

"Yep"

"Yep"

"Yep"

We'd be eating by 8:30-9


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## BigGarwood (Oct 13, 2008)

I could sit and listen to these stories for hours


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

My first memory of anything having to do with goose hunting was in the mid 60's. I must have been 4-5 years old. My Uncle called my Dad and asked if we wanted any geese since they had shot more than they really wanted, so we made the short drive to Hockley. We met my Uncle and my cousins on the side of the road, and I remember vividly the back of his family station wagon piled up to the windows with geese. While my Dad and Uncle stood there talking, I was in awe of the spectacle of sight and sound as never ending waves of geese filled the skies above us. From that moment, even though it would be a couple of years before I would pull the trigger of anything but a BB gun, I was a goose hunter!! 
When I was ten, Christmas came in November when my parents gave me a single shot 20 gauge. They gave it to me early so I could tag along with my brother to his Lissie prairie goose lease to hunt over ripped up bedsheets and heavy hand painted plywood silhouettes. I learned to reload it quickly and wore the bruise on my shoulder with pride.
I got another early Christmas present of a 870 wingmaster 12 ga. (adult model) when I was thirteen. That gun was broken in on trips to the Barrow's Ranch hunting over muddy bedsheets, and later over lightweight banquet cloth. 
After I got my drivers license, almost every weekend of every season since then was spent chasing the birds all over Southeast Texas from the Sabine to the Colorado. Banquet cloth decoys gave way to Texas rags on stakes, Farmforms, shells, fullbodies, and Sillosocks. Countless great hunts, many epic ones, and lots of miserable ones that all made for treasured memories. Times shared with family, good friends, or even solo hunts with only God and his creation...wouldn't trade them for anything. Skies filled with so many birds they blocked the sun, muddy fields blanketed with white feathers, fields covered in resting geese that stretched as far as you could see, the deafening roar in the eye of white "tornadoes"...all etched into my memory.
I'm thankful I got to see and live it when I did, and show it to my son when it was still as it was, but it breaks my heart to see the empty winter skies and barren prairies these past few years. I know we still have huntable numbers of birds at times, but they are a mere shadow of what we once had...and lost. I guess like an Indian hunting the last of the buffalo I will keep chasing the shadows, if only for those few precious moments when cupped wings and answered calls take me back to better times for Texas goose hunting.


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

^ dam! that's right on... 
we went over there (Colo Co) then too...specks and snows ... after t-day we'd get a couple Canada's sometimes...
rags and rice fields my friends owned...
had an old camp house... 
afternoon shooting fly-overs.. 
a good hunt and we ate goose stew or
elk chili or backstrap, wahld pig for supper...
sometimes it was Spam and farm eggs..
didn't matter 
we were goose shootin'.
lotta work settin' them spreads...
rubber boots and tyvek


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## Bayscout22 (Aug 9, 2007)

Dang. Forgot all about banquet cloth. That was truly an innovation at the time.


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## duckmania (Jun 3, 2014)

I never got to experience the heyday of goose hunting on the prairies around Houston. However, my dad leased several hundred acres of grazing land in the Chapman ranch area south of corpus in the 70's. Some of the pastures backed up to the Laurales. KR was really expanding their farming operations in those days and there was probably 20 plus thousand acres of farmland within 5 miles. This was before roundup was being used, lots of winter weeds, lots grain left over in the fields. 
The snows and specs were incredibly thick, we shot lots of them. It seems the specs were just as thick as the snows. There quite a few arroyos through there, and if we had any water they would be full of ducks. Jump shooting. Cranes, swans, tons of wildlife down there in those days.


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## AirbornXpress (Sep 27, 2006)

Great thread 
Back in the 80's I had a friend who's grandma owned Shier feed in Sealy area and had a blast every day after school! Brought them home and my dad would pluck every one of them and made pillows with the feathers. My uncle was a HPD officer and we hunted a big ranch in Hockey (forgot the name) loved shooting rabbits on the roads before daylight then knocking down the geese at daylight.


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

airbornxpress said:


> Great thread
> Back in the 80's I had a friend who's grandma owned Shier feed in Sealy area and had a blast every day after school! Brought them home and my dad would pluck every one of them and made pillows with the feathers. My uncle was a HPD officer and we hunted a big ranch in Hockey (forgot the name) loved shooting rabbits on the roads before daylight then knocking down the geese at daylight.


Must have been the Warren Ranch. Some of the last Greater Canadas I saw were there.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

What testimonials and generous memories y'all are sharing...thank you

At the moment I'm typing on an iPad which isn't conducive to being too wordy (lucky y'all)

Still, my story seems a bit unique, from my perspective anyway

My family's land was on my mom's side (Foester). The only real hunter was my grandad but he died before I was born. My grandmother and step-grandad (Whitmire) came from the "practical" generation and leased out the ranch for hunting cuz they needed the money but they retained family rights to hunt

My dad was not really a hunter but was a wonderful parent so he took me occasionally..but he had no clue what he was doing

He only knew how to pass shoot geese coming off the roost and given that the ranch was leased out to a big oil company we had to go where told

We were lucky to even kill 1 a hunt

Still I loved to go


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## HAYBL (Nov 14, 2006)

Thank you for the great pictures and stories.
I've drifted away from goose hunting over the past several years but this thread has me wanting to return more than anything.

Keep the conversation going.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Such is life though and one day shined on me

In my early teens I saw a man training a lab in the bayou in from of our house in Shoreacres

Of course, I went down to watch and found my hunting mentor

Hunters esp. waterfowl ones can be generous people and he took me under his wing and began to teach me....and this guy really knew his stuff


More to follow when I have more time


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

I wish I was still hunting there.

Had it not collapsed I would be.

If it was 20% of what it once was that would be plenty good enough.

Winter feels lost without going to Port Lavaca and hunting geese.

But it is gone. Maybe it will come back one day. Likely it won't but the future is always a foggy thing.


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## 4thbreak (May 20, 2005)

Jamie said:


> What testimonials and generous memories y'all are sharing...thank you
> 
> At the moment I'm typing on an iPad which isn't conducive to being too wordy (lucky y'all)
> 
> ...


I would be interested in hearing about Big Dukes place before it burned down and the history of the place.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

I remember reading about the great numbers of mallards and big Canada's that people hunted on the Texas coast. And I spoke with a few people that had also seen that. You would look at the old photos and see big strings of nothing but mallards and big Canada's.

By the time I grew up hunting the big Canada's were mostly gone and so were the mallards. Shooting a big Canada was a rarity and mallards were a bird you took a few of from time to time.

But I thought "We have jillions of snow geese and specklebellies" "And there are still plenty of small Canada's around and it was pretty much a guarantee to shoot your limit of those". "So life is good"

But I was always concerned the specks, snows and small Canada's would also start to shift elsewhere despite "experts" telling the snows wouldn't do that.

First the small Canada's started disappearing. Then the white geese and spec's started a noticeable decline in 2003.

It isn't hard to see this is a trend that shows no sign of reversing. Mallards, Canada's, Canvasbacks and swans were all species that were plentiful historically and are now mostly a memory. The snows and the spec's are still hunt-able but nothing like even 15 years ago.

So the future doesn't look too swell. The river authorities are raising water prices for the rice farmers while rice prices are poor. And I fear most of the remaining rice farmers will be priced out of business and our largest remaining habitat base will shrink. 

Kind of a bummer.


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## THUNDERSTORM (Feb 10, 2011)

thanks for the picts, a lot simpler back then., we walked ,the old Honda big red was not unforgiving, good times with my dad and grandfather on the katy /eagle lake prairie.brought back a lot of memories.


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## duckmania (Jun 3, 2014)

THUNDERSTORM said:


> thanks for the picts, a lot simpler back then., we walked ,the old Honda big red was not unforgiving, good times with my dad and grandfather on the katy /eagle lake prairie.brought back a lot of memories.


Old timers talk about how the Rockport/Port Bay Area would be covered with Canvasbacks. There's still a few shot every year around here. I guess some still have the DNA imprint.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Mottled Duck said:


> I remember reading about the great numbers of mallards and big Canada's that people hunted on the Texas coast. And I spoke with a few people that had also seen that. You would look at the old photos and see big strings of nothing but mallards and big Canada's.
> 
> By the time I grew up hunting the big Canada's were mostly gone and so were the mallards. Shooting a big Canada was a rarity and mallards were a bird you took a few of from time to time.
> 
> ...


Texas won't run out of geese in our life time. Definetly has gone down hill but the coast wintered almost 700k white birds in 09. I find it humorous when hunters from the east side say goose numbers are down yet the east numbers are higher than they've ever been. Depends on who you talk to. I've had people in Arkansas tell me they use to have more geese than they do now. West side has been hurting bad since Katy turned to a chithole, coupled with declining rice across the prairie. Factor in more and more idiots that shoot at geese 90 yards up from a duck blind and you've got a recipe for disaster. texas coast has everything workin against it but I think some of it was inevitable......snow geese were noted as showin up in new areas and stayin longer in established grounds 20 years before Texas' highest goose counts.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

2009 was seven years ago.


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## Bayscout22 (Aug 9, 2007)

oOslikOo said:


> Texas won't run out of geese in our life time. Definetly has gone down hill but the coast wintered almost 700k white birds in 09. I find it humorous when hunters from the east side say goose numbers are down yet the east numbers are higher than they've ever been. Depends on who you talk to. I've had people in Arkansas tell me they use to have more geese than they do now. West side has been hurting bad since Katy turned to a chithole, coupled with declining rice across the prairie. Factor in more and more idiots that shoot at geese 90 yards up from a duck blind and you've got a recipe for disaster. texas coast has everything workin against it but I think some of it was inevitable......snow geese were noted as showin up in new areas and stayin longer in established grounds 20 years before Texas' highest goose counts.


I think it would be news to most folks that "east numbers are higher than they've ever been". I haven't seen or read anything that supports that statement.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Bayscout22 said:


> I think it would be news to most folks that "east numbers are higher than they've ever been". I haven't seen or read anything that supports that statement.


Look at the counts.........Lol


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## ranchobob (Nov 2, 2007)

*1982*

1982 Jake Yeldemans Guy Damon area, we killed snows that day too, I was pretty proud of the 2 dark geese it was 7 birds then.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

oOslikOo said:


> Look at the counts.........Lol


They had a blip up for a couple of years especially in 2014.

This occurred when the west side of Houston had very poor count.

But for the majority of the years since 2003 it has been low.

Everything I have been hearing is the east side of Houston has very few geese so far this winter.


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## Bayscout22 (Aug 9, 2007)

oOslikOo said:


> Look at the counts.........Lol


Shuffling the chairs on the Titantic...

If the chart below was your business, you would be going broke. It's fair to say that the east side is losing ground slower (with the exception of a few anomalous years), but the ship is sinking.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

Agreed. Anyone who owned a stock that performed like that would be suffering a big percentage decline in value.

Hopefully the counts will show some improvement this year given the booming hatch of the specklebellies and white geese.


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## copano_son (Dec 17, 2007)

oOslikOo said:


> Look at the counts.........Lol


http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Wintering-geese-flock-back-to-Texas-after-6016432.php

It has been a long time since 700k+ geese have wintered in TX. Just over 400k light geese (total) last year.


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

Right now every available acre in the mid-west is in corn for ethanol production and has been for the past decade. Arkansas is growing rice like Texas used to. Winters have been relatively mild. Texas rice production has steadily declined and the Katy prairie potholes are covered in houses and strip-malls...and encroaching on more prairie and farm land. Reverse some of those trends and the white birds may come back somewhat, but most of this generation of them has been imprinted to winter in other places than Texas.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

copano_son said:


> http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Wintering-geese-flock-back-to-Texas-after-6016432.php
> 
> It has been a long time since 700k+ geese have wintered in TX. Just over 400k light geese (total) last year.


I believe that article was from 2 winters ago.

If my memory is accurate the count last winter was 220,000.


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## Bayscout22 (Aug 9, 2007)

Mr. Saltwater said:


> Right now every available acre in the mid-west is in corn for ethanol production and has been for the past decade. Arkansas is growing rice like Texas used to. Winters have been relatively mild. Texas rice production has steadily declined and the Katy prairie potholes are covered in houses and strip-malls...and encroaching on more prairie and farm land. Reverse some of those trends and the white birds may come back somewhat, but most of this generation of them has been imprinted to winter in other places than Texas.


Pretty good summary of the state of things.

I think there are a couple of reasons that the (relatively) small population East of town has maintained more stability. First, there hasn't been the conversion to suburbs on that side of town that there has been on the West side of town. Nothing East of Barbers Hill / Mont Belvieu has really exploded like the area West of Houston. Second, there are probably birds that filter through Chambers/Jefferson/Liberty/Orange counties that are jumping off the Mississippi Flyway as well as the Central. Birds on the Central Flyway have food and water all along the way these days. If there isn't serious and sustained cold weather pushing them, they are just going to stop.


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## Duckchasr (Apr 27, 2011)

*Great Thread*



ranchobob said:


> 1982 Jake Yeldemans Guy Damon area, we killed snows that day too, I was pretty proud of the 2 dark geese it was 7 birds then.


Too Cool Thread!
This is my dad from Yeldermans place just before they quit leasing it. He got two triples to limit on ducks and a bonus snow and sandhill.

Nothing gets the old heart pumping like that sight!

MY dad and two boys they are 16 and 17 now.

A few oldies a young wet Duckchasr struggling under the pile o' geese.

A grinning pops after a good goose shoot down on the marsh he got half of them with low brass #6 steel at 20 to 30 yards.

Notice the farm form head in the last pic. They did'nt want to many sentinels though.

Love the old pics keep em coming.:brew:


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

^^^Great pics!!^^^^

Sure wish I had taken more.


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## copano_son (Dec 17, 2007)

2015 survey



Mottled Duck said:


> copano_son said:
> 
> 
> > http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Wintering-geese-flock-back-to-Texas-after-6016432.php
> ...


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Bayscout22 said:


> Shuffling the chairs on the Titantic...
> 
> If the chart below was your business, you would be going broke. It's fair to say that the east side is losing ground slower (with the exception of a few anomalous years), but the ship is sinking.


When Texas had a million geese the east had less geese than it has had the last couple of seasons. I never said th ship isn't sinking. You go from an average of 600 k to getting excited about 400 k says it all. Just saying it's funny when people claim east side is dead when it is wintering more geese than ever.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

copano_son said:


> http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Wintering-geese-flock-back-to-Texas-after-6016432.php
> 
> It has been a long time since 700k+ geese have wintered in TX. Just over 400k light geese (total) last year.


2010 was over 600


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

copano_son said:


> 2015 survey


Last year wasn't anywhere near 400k lol. That article is a few years old


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

My first geese 1975...and my son's first in 2007.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

Just leafed though you guys thread...brought back a few memories myself...but a little earlier...the 70's!

We used to hunt the 1093 area headed out to Fulshear area.

We didn't have permission to hunt any of the area really but no one ever said anything. MAN those were the days! No one leased the area right along the 1093 so I guess no one cared to run us off. We were all teenagers but we shot a ton of geese out there.

We commando'd them (what we called sneaking up on the feeding area) most of the time and pass shooting the incoming birds. We crawled up on a hand full of water moccasins and even had a giant water snake crawl over my shot gun one time while I was laying waist deep in a ditch full of water...

We'd do anything to get into shooting position...lol...my "hunting truck" was my 1968 camaro. Came home many times with a trunk full of geese! 

We did a lot of pass shooting in the 90's and early 2000 on the Traylor Ranch 10,000 acers in Port Lavaca area...we lost that lease in the 2004 or 2005 and the geese had almost quit roosting in our west marsh. Their number were about a third of what they were when we first leased the property in the early 90's. We never really shot them very often...usually after deer season was over. So I'm pretty sure we didn't pressure them out of the area.

I did kill a Greater Canadian on the Alcoa Aluminum cooling pond one morning over a spread of duck decoys. That thing sounded like a man falling in the water! It was huge. It was the first one I'd ever seen. We had heard them a few times while deer hunting that year, but had never seen them. They ended up wintering on the interior part of the lease that year...the cattle guy said he had seen that in the past but it didn't happen very often. The day I shot mine there was 9 in the group...7 of them made it through the winter but they didn't come back the next year...roughly 2001 or 2002.

Any way...great thread...I seen a photo with the old WWII field jacket! LOL been there done that! That was before anyone ever thought about wearing camo anything! LOL

OLT-I live in the Katy area and still work in Alief...I can't recall the last time I heard geese or seen any flights! Wondered where they went?!?!?!?!?


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## copano_son (Dec 17, 2007)

*Read The Article*



oOslikOo said:


> Last year wasn't anywhere near 400k lol. That article is a few years old


Wintering geese flock back to Texas after downward trend
By Shannon Tompkins 9:34 pm, Wednesday, January 14, 2015

You're right...if 2015 was a few years ago.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

copano_son said:


> Wintering geese flock back to Texas after downward trend
> By Shannon Tompkins 9:34 pm, Wednesday, January 14, 2015
> 
> You're right...if 2015 was a few years ago.


They count geese in December. So my apologies, I was one year off from a few lol


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

While it certainly is an interesting discussion 

What I find more astonishing but rarely discussed is...Canada geese completely disappearing from the Texas middle gulf coast

The collegeport marsh used to contained impressive numbers

We used to always shoot some in the 70s and 80s...then they just vanished


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## teeroy (Oct 1, 2009)

Mottled Duck said:


> But it is gone. Maybe it will come back one day. Likely it won't but the future is always a foggy thing.





Jamie said:


> While it certainly is an interesting discussion
> 
> What I find more astonishing but rarely discussed is...Canada geese completely disappearing from the Texas middle gulf coast
> 
> ...


I've read every post here and have enjoyed it.

My dad & uncle used to shoot them in the marsh east of there. Along with straps of pintails and gray ducks and baldpates. I got to see the tail end of the good days. They started east of Matagorda in the 1970s and had several sunken boxes all to their self until the late 1990s. They couldn't have done this now. Google maps would have taken care of that.

Still have a sunken box but the quality and quantity of birds went out the door. It began when they dredged the intercoastal and flooded PRIME, fresh waterfowl habitat with SILT MUD!

My dad here, knocking 'em dead in about 1983-1984










There is so much water and rice (other crops) north of here, they would have to dry up and quit farming before the birds would start coming here. Birds used to make a one way flight to TX because they HAD to.

I still get to hunt with my cousin, pictured left, along with his dad (my uncle). He's 42 now. It's awesome to get to hunt with them still.


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## Duckchasr (Apr 27, 2011)

Jamie said:


> While it certainly is an interesting discussion
> 
> What I find more astonishing but rarely discussed is...Canada geese completely disappearing from the Texas middle gulf coast
> 
> ...


I'm thinking the decline in the coastal marshes with the creation of the ICWW allowing saltwater intrusion into the freshwater/brackish water marshes killing off the good food they thrived on. I have never shot one and only recall seeing a few in the 30 odd years of hunting the marsh. My dad and his buddy shot a pair back in the day. There is a good story about them in Bob Brister's book Moss, Mallards and mules titled Grandfather's Geese.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

The large Canadas were largely gone by the 70's.

The smaller Canada's were still somewhat abundant into the 90's. Once we hit 2000 they were getting hard to find

I have seen 5 this winter which 5 more than I saw last year.

The reasons they have disappeared are many. 

Our habitat is declining. And there is endless amounts of winter wheat and no till corn north of us. 

And the weather is getting more moderate.


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## iamatt (Aug 28, 2012)

So are their numbers declining or are they just not showing up where we used to see them? Drove down 35 and saw some around bay city but not like I used to.

Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk


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## 4thbreak (May 20, 2005)

iamatt said:


> So are their numbers declining or are they just not showing up where we used to see them? Drove down 35 and saw some around bay city but not like I used to.
> 
> Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk


Its definitely a shift rather than population. Late 90's is when it really started to get real. All of a sudden many species changed their historical ranges. I remember when caracaras started to make their way into the Houston area and their sightings would make the newspaper. Now they are everywhere, along with whitewings, black bellied whistling ducks, and some fulvous which some northern areas very rarely saw before that. This is when the geese started to stay north as well. Something happened in that time frame to cause a dramatic shift in not only waterfowl, but other species as well. I don't know if this is where we become flaming liberals and blame it on climate change or something else, but its more than just a coincidence.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

You don't have to be a flaming liberal to see the changes.

It is almost the third week of December and the trees still have loads of leaves. They should have dropped them all by now.

We have not seen a major fish kill since 89/90. That's pushing 30 years. There have been some isolated kills but nothing like past events.

Black Mangroves are rapidly moving north. I never knew what one was in the 1970's.

Bluewings are a major part of the bag during regular duck season. And blackbellies are also becoming common to shoot as well. Historically most were long gone during waterfowl season. 

We have guides posting photos of their burn down hunts and it is sad.

They have 2 specklebellies each and a couple of snows for a party of 6 or 7. They don't know what it was like and the "new norm" is a greatly reduced standard than what I saw.

Go back and look at Jamie's photos and compare that to the photos of the guides this season. There is no comparison. But it is the new norm unfortunately. 


It is what it is.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

I've hunted with some truly outstanding mouth callers that were very very successful snow goose hunters

I never have found an out of the box call that sounded like a snow goose

Personally, I use a call....I take an Olt L-22 and customize it by shaving down the width and length of the reed and adjusting the stopper to get a higher yelp

It takes a lot of time and several calls cuz you mess them up trying to get the right pitch

But once done, it'll last for years. 

I could even adjust my vocal pressure to get a higher and shorter peep like a ross goose


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Regarding the Canadian geese...I was referring to the smaller ones that were more abundant in the 70s and 80s

And then suddenly vanished from the middle coast


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

Jamie said:


> Regarding the Canadian geese...I was referring to the smaller ones that were more abundant in the 70s and 80s
> 
> And then suddenly vanished from the middle coast


They have vanished from all of the Texas coast.

First they stopped on the east side of Houston.

Then they started declining on the west side.

A few still make it hear but not many.

Zero were counted last year in the Texas coast mid winter aerial goose survey.

There was a year in the 1980's where over 140,000 were counted.

The survey is for white geese but specklebellies and Canada's are counted if they are seen.


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

things change...
first, never saw a crow in my life here in Medina Co...
they're here now...
Whitewings... we all know that story...
Ducks... never had any here...
2011-2012 had a small mallard flock winter on my creek...it had water, then...
had a cinnamon drake stay on my house tank in 2013...
swans... WHAT are those... pair stay'd on same tank in 2013 till it went dry 2014 ..
never had sandhills around here until mid/late 80's...
speck geese and a few snows showed up 90's , everywhere.. few now...
sometimes a field will have lotsa specks for a few days..
last yr I saw a flock of widgeon on a flooded flat N of Eagle Pass...
whistlers gather by the 1000's at the grain outfit in Uvalde.. here today, gone the next...and as poor as I am about ID Dux, could have sworn I saw 3 Cans fly off my creeks a few yrs back...
40mi W of SA...
wouldn't be supprised to see egyptian gese in my chicken yard...


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## reel thing (Jul 1, 2010)

We used to do a few hunts at Brazoria wildelife refugee near Angleton in late 90's. It was walk in in certain areas. remember one day me and a buddy from Alvin went with wind blowing about 40 mph. we shot 7 ross geese and4 specklebellies.. had some other good hunts out there. we went back to same area in 2001 and there was nothing. Didn't see a goose. had some good hunts on Clemens prison farm in 1970's where we'd kill 20 t0 30 geese. now you hardly ever see them there anymore. They use to cover that farm up in 1970's. Very sad to see them go.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

reel thing said:


> We used to do a few hunts at Brazoria wildelife refugee near Angleton in late 90's. It was walk in in certain areas. remember one day me and a buddy from Alvin went with wind blowing about 40 mph. we shot 7 ross geese and4 specklebellies.. had some other good hunts out there. we went back to same area in 2001 and there was nothing. Didn't see a goose. had some good hunts on Clemens prison farm in 1970's where we'd kill 20 t0 30 geese. now you hardly ever see them there anymore. They use to cover that farm up in 1970's. Very sad to see them go.


You might want to visit the Brazoria NWR if you have a chance.

There has been a large amount of wetland projects constructed in their current and abandoned rice farmland along FM 2004 and County Roads 208 and 227.

Lots and lots of and lots of waterfowl. No hunting in that area though.

They have also sprayed the Chinese Tallow and it is pretty much gone.

And the refuge has done work in the Middle Bayou Public Hunt Area.

There is a new constructed wetland project and they have improved the habitat in Alligator Lake Marsh.


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## iamatt (Aug 28, 2012)

Me on right and college friend (RIP Brian) on their rice farm down in Bay City ~early 90. We must have killed 100's and 100's of those ***** things. Those and cranes. Couldn't pay me to eat a snow geese now but back in college it was meat.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

The Texas coast obviously has a lot of things going against it in the way of geese, but the biggest is hunting pressure and water. I remember in the hay day seemingly every field had some guy posted up on a fence line with dozen shells or farm forms pass shooting geese 80 yards up, not to mention the other shear number of hunters getting in on the greatest waterfowl hunting in the united states. Texas Snow goose numbers peaked some 20-30 years behind peak rice acreage. Don't get me wrong, rice is the single most important crop for wintering geese but geese can make a living off of many other things. What a rice prairie gives you is readily available roosts whether pumped or with a little dirt work mother nature can give you a flooded flat with a few inches of rain. back then more effort was put into roosts and overall habit management. Today with an ever growing population and population of duck hunters along the coast the birds have very few safe roosts. Geese are constantly getting blown off roosts pre dawn by duck hunters and getting sky blasted at by the same idiots mentioned in other threads. i would also venture to say that to this day texas kills more snows in the regular season than arkansas with 1/5th the geese.

I just got back from arkansas and a couple of things stood out to me. while arkansas planted 1.55 million acres of rice this season many of the birds werent in rice. of those 1.55 million acres quite a bit was plowed (i was there in the summer as well). many farmers up there plant rice year after year in the same field unlike texas. What they did have was water and a lot of it. really remarkable actually. another thing that shocked me was i didnt see a single goose hunter. i traversed an area greater than the texas rice belt and didnt see one spread. someone lost some decoys on the road so someone was after some but never saw any. 

Snow geese are as smart and adaptable as any huntable species out there. in the 70's it's documented birds were staying north longer and showing up in new areas. this was 20 years before Texas' highests counts. The birds are harder to kill now. if the birds today acted like they did in the 80's and 90's we'd have more pictures like the ones on this thread. but as it sits we still have a number of 50+ bird hunts a year.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

You don't think they are getting blown off the roosts in Arkansas?

A good friend is guiding there now. He says the ground shakes sometimes from all of the duck hunters

Pressure hasn't moved the geese. And there is way more water than geese today.

Drove through the Garwood prairie this morning. As much water as I saw you could put every goose in Texas there. 

Given what has happened over the past 15 years with the goose counts it's difficult to understand why the geese kept coming in huge numbers as long as they did.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Mottled Duck said:


> You don't think they are getting blown off the roosts in Arkansas?
> 
> A good friend is guiding there now. He says the ground shakes sometimes from all of the duck hunters
> 
> ...


I know they do there but you are stupid to think there ain't more water there than here. Every single year. One wet year doesn't mean chit. I've used my truck to drive in the rice as much as my 4 wheeler the past 4 years. I lost a farm this year because the farmer wouldn't put water on it. There's more acres of water in eastern Arkansas than rice prairie (the whole coast) in Texas right this minute. Your buddy doesn't hunt the entire half of the state. I've been to Arkansas multiple times a year for work for almost 10 years plus chased geese there and have yet to see the hunting pressure of the garwood prairie a single time. Hell tomorrow morning I will bet you every dollar I've ever made I find more goose spreads 20 miles from my house than the 1500 miles I put on my truck scouting the Grand Prairie. I saw more geese in a 60 mile stretch than Texas has wintered since 2011 and didn't even get to the good stuff yet. I live on the rice prairie here and can promise you what you saw this mornin doesn't have chit on what's up there. The vastness of a prairie that grows over 5 million acres of rice and soy beans as opposed to the row crops here say call it around 2 million acres and the staggering 160,000 acres of rice (this year) isn't even comperable. They simply do more for waterfowl up there than here 9 times out of 10. Helps they plant at least a month behind but it is what is.


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## Jamie (Aug 2, 2011)

Interesting phenomenon

In a general context, a deer doesn't have the spatial awareness to think "I wonder if something is better 5 miles over so I'm just going to go on a walk-about and see"... their brain isn't that well developed or sophisticated

But a goose....how did all the small canadas learn to go to the pan handle in such a complete relocation in what seems to me to be a short span to time?

Do they communicate to each other?

Blindly just follow?

How do all the snows now know there a million plus acres of rice in Arkansas and not in Texas?

Did they come to Texas and not find desirable habitat and know to start flying east until they find it? They asked their buddy "this sucks" and he says "Arkansas...I heard it was like Heaven over there...miles and miles of prairie with 2 million acres of food"

(Shrug)

My son would have a heart attack if a goose was smarter than a deer


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## LA Wader (Oct 22, 2013)

IMO the geese on the TX coastal regions and the agriculture areas of southwest LA get way more pressure than what the folks in Arkansas (most other places north of us) can dish to them. Every field around our parts that can be leased gets hunted it seems. If the fields aren't being hunted, they are being crawfished. There is plenty of water for the geese to roost in, but the second they start landing in those crawfish fields, a farmer is running them off! The birds don't have nearly the area to settle down and get comfortable without getting run off by hunters or crawfishermen.

Some of my good friends hunt with some farmers in eastern Arkansas and they tell me that lots of people up there could care less about the geese (snows and specks), they are all about mallards. They always come back with stories of the crazy amounts of geese they see compared to here in southwest LA. The farmers that my buddies hunt with cannot understand why my buddies want to hunt geese when they go up there hunting!

My wife's uncle used to hunt in north Mississippi and he said the same thing about that area. Nobody would mess with the geese. He said it was pretty simple to kill geese, snows and specks, on his place he used to hunt. The guys he hunted with were only worried about ducks, mallards in particular. Nobody in the club he hunted at even wanted to go hunt the geese, he'd have to beg a couple to come along to make the hunt worthwhile!

I wish I could have seen the good ol days I hear about from my area, but I think they are long gone!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

If hunting pressure was moving the geese then why do the most heavily hunted areas on the Texas coast still have the most geese?

That would be The Eagle Lake/Lissie Praire, Garwood Prairie, Pierce Ranch/FM 1162 area and Sandy Creek area.

The geese are moving because of food. They could find enough to eat here but it isn't what they want. They want grain and lots of it.

There isn't a lot of water in Kansas but they now winter large numbers of snow geese.

When I visited Missouri I didn't see a vast landscape of water but there were plenty of geese

Both what both places have is no till corn. 

The King Ranch once had impressive numbers of geese. They planted a great deal of winter pasture and they were barely hunted but goose numbers now are pretty dismal.

Same for Calhoun County. No pressure and very few geese.

Geese are very adaptable. We could still winter large numbers of white geese. They could clip grass all day long if they wanted to

Over on the Pacific coast such as in California and British Columbia big numbers of snow geese land inside he suburbs and urbanization. They cover up city parks, soccer fields, ball fields and even backyards. Thousands of them. Do a search on Youtube of Richmond British Columbia Snow geese or California baseball field snow geese. 

But the mid continent goose populations have plenty of choices to find grain and that's what they are doing. They can take the cold and as long as they can find food and some open water they are good.


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Mottled Duck said:


> If hunting pressure was moving the geese then why do the most heavily hunted areas on the Texas coast still have the most geese?
> 
> That would be The Eagle Lake/Lissie Praire, Garwood Prairie, Pierce Ranch/FM 1162 area and Sandy Creek area.
> 
> ...


Southeast Missouri grows more rice than Texas and then you have squaw creek a 3,600 acre refuge just for waterfowl that's closed to hunting. You'll have a million geese pack that bich for a few weeks on their way north.

I truely believe Texas could winter half a million geese right now from a food source that's still here but there's not enough safe water IMO. The last week of duck season 90% of the farmers pull the plug on flats to drain water losing more of an already scarce source of water on most years. There's guys here that will hunt geese from a spread in the morning go eat then go pass shoot the same geese they hunted that morning. Not bashing them just saying there are some goose fanatics left in Texas. I've seen guys spend all day chasing geese out of what little winter wheat that's grown here in February and kill 200 geese in a day. What LA Wader said is spot on. Dude I've met over the years in Arkansas once told me "why would I hunt geese when I can hunt green heads"? Some farmers up there love the geese up there thinkin they eat and keep red rice down.


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## Mottled Duck (Dec 3, 2016)

Missouri grows a little over 200,000 acres of rice. Texas grew 180,000 acres in 2016. Not much difference.

Squaw Creek is located in the very northwest corner of Missouri. It is a long ways from the rice production. Went there a couple of years ago. A good place to visit. 

There is plenty of water for geese to roost upon on the Texas coast without being disturbed. The wildlife refuges have been constructing thousands of new acres of freshwater wetlands and most are not hunted.

The Nature Conservancy at Mad Island doesn't allow hunting and they have loads of quite roost areas.

Same goes for some larger private farm/ranches.

The birds are shifting because of food. We just don't plenty of what they want. States to north offer a lot more of what they are after without having to travel hundreds of additional miles.


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## LA Wader (Oct 22, 2013)

Another big thing that I'm a firm believer of is imprinting. Those young birds (ducks and geese) that never make it down to the Gulf coast will never migrate unless unfavorable conditions force them to. I think that there's so much more food in the mid continent states and less pressure, why fly any further! 

I spent a week around Mound City, MIssouri several yrs ago chasing geese. There was no shortage of corn fields and no shortage of waterfowl. My eyes were opened to what we on the gulf coast are up against in competing with waterfowl up and down the flyway.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## oOslikOo (Jul 13, 2010)

Mottled Duck said:


> Missouri grows a little over 200,000 acres of rice. Texas grew 180,000 acres in 2016. Not much difference.
> 
> Squaw Creek is located in the very northwest corner of Missouri. It is a long ways from the rice production. Went there a couple of years ago. A good place to visit.
> 
> ...


Official numbers they put out this week was 220 to 160. Texas has been around 130 for a few years. Plus a drive equal to say Altair to bay city puts you into northern Arkansas with 2 counties both producing 100,000 acres of rice, not to mention winter wheat areas. I've been to mound city, point being without that refuge you wouldn't have that many geese.


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## reel thing (Jul 1, 2010)

Still sad to see areas here in Texas where we grew up hunting geese and now there are either none or very few. I've all over the Texas coast for geese in 70's hunted Clemens prison farm and back by alligator lake over by Bastrop bayou also killed a lot of ducks over there. In the 80's hunted Winnie and halls bayou ranch by Hitchcock. 90's hunted every where with TEXAS WATERFOUL OUTFITTERS IN Katy. we had property in eagle lake ,east Bernard,lissie,sealy,baycity,alvin,winnie.. they had like 150,000 acres to hunt. we killed a lot of geese on there. Now hardly any birds on east side and very few by angleton Danbury and jones creek and Brazoria any more. At least I was lucky enough to be around when it was great hunting back. Just seems SAD NOW!!!!!


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

Mississippi water is way cheaper than Colorado river water...
which is why Arkies plant a lot of rice...
and their fields are 600mi closer to the goose summer grounds...
goose hunting is not established up there, YET.
only since WW11 did goose hunting become a big thing in SETx...
and because of rice farming the geese that wintered on the coastal marshes, stopped closer in-land acct of feed.


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## drewski05 (Jan 9, 2009)

*What do I know?*

I have nowhere near the expertise that many other people who have posted here have, but here is the perspective of someone who got into this game after its hay day. In the late 90's the father of a friend of mine had some rice land out off of Stockdick School Road that he was hanging onto for speculation. We hunted that little patch a few times and and the bird numbers were impressive for how close we were to developed areas even then. That same 5 mile radius today is covered with spec homes and "ranchettes" that definitely don't provide the things that migrating geese are looking for. So if you take that micron of an example and multiply it by the rate of development that is taking place in our state, you can understand that favorable habitat loss in the historically preferable areas is the cause of the decreased number of snows and specs that we see. It makes little difference whether it is water for roosting or food sources, they both fall under the category of favorable habitat and go hand in hand with each other. This favorable habitat simply doesn't exist in its previous quantity or undivided expanse as it once did. So as it was stated before it comes down to the path of least resistance theory, if milder winters and abundance of undivided habitat are available north of us, why would the birds continue to make the relatively short additional travel down to our neck of the woods? I do think that hunting has an effect on the birds though, in a slightly different way than previously stated. Just think about the imprinting factor, maybe we have just removed so many birds from the central flyway flock that the current birds don't even know that they are supposed to come down to the Katy, Eagle Lake, Garwood, and Jones Creek Prairies much less want to? Not that I think the we have done the population a disservice, just that we have possibly changed the trends slightly.


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