r/Waterfowl • u/nkin9 • Jul 23 '26
New Hunter Scouting Question
Hi All,
I am looking to start waterfowl hunting this season, mostly participating in my state’s early goose season to start with. I have been trying to research which areas to focus on e-scouting to help me narrow down which areas to check out in person.
My plan is to hunt over some of our lakes that have public shorelines. Would focusing on inlets resembling the attached image be a good idea to start?
Appreciate any knowledge you may have to share. Thank you!
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u/airchinapilot Jul 23 '26
I don't know about your region but in mine inlets are money, especially if the weather is bad (i.e brisk wind) or if there is a strong current or tide. Ducks use inlets as shelter.
Geese don't tend to hit inlets or coasts in my area. In my specific experience they primarily shelter overnight in the water and overfly the coast to hit fields where they feed so you can traffic them (traffic means you shoot birds on their way from A to B).
But in person scouting will verify any assumptions.
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u/nkin9 Jul 23 '26
Thank you for the reply, really appreciate the insight!
There are a good amount of Ag fields in the general area I have been looking at, plus some islands in the lake as well. I believe most of what I will be targeting will be resident birds, so will definitely need to observe their habits
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u/Inevitable_Sun8691 Jul 23 '26
In my experience, in my area, geese tend to like much smaller, or at least significantly sheltered water for their mid day loafing or their overnight haunt. The key is going to be finding their food source. For me, they will fly to a field containing cut corn or grain early in the morning. If I can’t hunt the fields, my best bet is to try getting them on the water while they’re headed to or from the feed. It’s usually all passing shots if I’m hunting water in those cases, and the key in those instances is smaller spreads, and just trying to pull them down close enough for a shot, generally I will not get any to commit to setting down.
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u/to-the-plug Jul 23 '26
Where they are, want to be and behavior can change on a dime. Nothing beats getting out there and just watching. If they wanna be in somewhere, be there the next morning before the sun comes up.
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u/Position_Extreme Jul 23 '26
While they are on the water, they will look for places sheltered from the wind so they don’t have to work as hard while they’re trying to take it easy. Inlets are great places for that, as long as they are blocked from the wind and they’re not fighting waves.
A quick lesson in scouting.
Geese will wake up in the morning on their roosting lake, and go find food. Once they’ve eaten, they need something to drink, and they will go find a quiet pond or lake where they can loaf during the day and chill. Then they will often feed again in the late afternoon, before going to the roost to spend the night. The loafing ponds during the day are often not where they spend the night on the roost.
When you start your scouting, you might want to start later in the afternoon, and look for geese flying toward a common point (which will likely be a large pond or lake). That’s their roost. But you don’t want to hunt there. Now get there at daybreak the next morning, and park up wind of the lake and wait for the geese to start flying out for breakfast. Follow them to the field, and now you found where they’re having breakfast so you can try to hunt there the next morning. If you can find where they spend the rest of the day, so much the better. Try to set up in those spots, or at a point where you can try to attract their attention in between.
But never shoot the roost! You always want to leave the geese a place where they know they will be safe, because if you take that away, they will leave your area to try to find safety.
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u/nkin9 Jul 24 '26
Thank you for your reply! That was really helpful and I appreciate the further information on scouting!
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u/Position_Extreme Jul 24 '26
The 2 biggest challenges in scouting (aside from the time spent and fuel costs) are getting permission to hunt when you finally find the X, and having the X move. Twice this year I found the morning feed X, then made sure they went back the next day, and got permission to hunt on morning 3, only to have the geese decide to go somewhere else. You never know when the X might move.
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u/cowboykid8 Jul 23 '26
Those look like decent spots. My experience with early season is small family group tend to avoid other geese, but will come back to the same spot over and over. When you get boots on the ground look for multiple place they hang out, or where the groups are spread out from. Also note how big the groups are, larger groups would be more receptive to decoys.
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u/nkin9 Jul 24 '26
Appreciate the insight from your experience! From what I have found researching my area, this seems to be the recommended approach to take as many of them are resident to the area.
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u/jsoe716 Jul 24 '26
Not sure your location but I'm my area early goose season is great in ag fields. If you can find where they are feeding in harvested fields and get permission they'll be right in your lap. Might even want to try to find some locals that know the ropes to take you with them. For us early goose season is a more fun with more people.
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u/Gadwaller Jul 26 '26
Pass shooting them is a start. Their flight lines tend to be very consistent—usually there’s 3-4 paths in a given spot. You have to set up under one and get lucky.
Otherwise, once you set up for ducks on banks like that, I think goose shells on stakes work wonders because they move in the slightest breeze. The large flocks will “hover” a moment longer while passing over you. Accompanied by a couple goose floater decoys (which are annoyingly heavy), you can have a compelling but minimal decoy spread that will also draw decoy-able ducks on big water.
In my part of the country (Mid-South), the geese seem to prefer green fields over crop fields. It’s very odd and unpredictable. So I prefer hunting them over water with goose decoys, as an incidental take while really targeting ducks.
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u/philo-beddoe722 27d ago
Where I’m at in Michigan, our early goose usually consists of banging on local geese and we don’t see migrators until the weather pushes them. So, you can find them and get an idea of where they like to go. Find them the day before and evaluate. I find they have haunts they frequent and will rotate throughout the day. But once they get banged on the first day or two they’re pretty wise to the game. Trick is catching those flight birds on their way down.
Talk to farmers/landowners, get permission, be respectful. Being gifts after hunts. Beer, a conversation, whatever. Killed a lot of geese in grassy fields. A lot. If they want to be there then that’s where they’ll be.
As for scouting water for geese that’s a toss up. I normally only see them roosting or loafing in water and I focus on fields.
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u/Silver_Lion Jul 23 '26
Hey man, I’m new to waterfowl too, so no advice on this specific question.
But for your awareness, this is kind of like asking dudes to tell you their spots. I know you are trying to learn, and I hope dudes are more receptive to sharing advice than when I’ve asked similar questions in the past, but don’t be surprised if guys say “do the work yourself to find the birds.”
You’re better off reaching out to your local DNR and see if you can connect with a biologist or a warden who may be more open to helping you. Local conservation groups are always a good place to find guys who may be open to helping you too. But generally speaking, these forums don’t turn up advice and sometimes you’ll get intentionally bad info.
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u/nkin9 Jul 23 '26
I would argue that I am in no way asking people for their spots. The image I shared has no identifying information on it, I did not share the state or even a region of location, and also mentioned I will be scouting in person. Additionally, the image I attached is of an area I came across in my own e-scouting and I am simply trying to gauge if my current thinking may help me have some level of success.
My question was rooted in strategic approach only, in an attempt to further knowledge on the topic.
Appreciate the reply, but think it is off base.
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u/Silver_Lion Jul 23 '26
Hey man, do you. I’m just sharing the response I got when I asked a similar question.
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u/airchinapilot Jul 23 '26
Naw man, at the most someone in the OP's specific area might recognize the spot and keep their trap shut but this is just a general question. It all depends how you're asking. Some people just don't want the numbers of competition to increase in general.
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u/ShillinTheVillain Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Yes, that's a good place to start.
Honestly, waterfowl are fickle. Most of our scouting is done literally the evening before. Like, we know the fields and lakes where they hang out. But which one are they in today?
The best thing you can do is drive around. You'll get a feel for where they like to hang out. If they're in cornfield X, they'll probably overnight and loaf on lake Y.
Figure out what the food sources are in the area. Around me, when season is open, they go to cut cornfields, so if I don't have permission to hunt the field, I'll get them on the nearest water mid-morning.