Goose hunters and permission
 

O.K. guys here is a tip or two. Even city boys can tell the pea crops now, they have the white flowers, after the combine goes through it will look as clean as a pool table but there are lots of peas on the ground and the geese will be all over them.

You have plenty of time to scout out a few fields, find out who owns them, and can you get permission after the crop is off?

Near Stettler there are more fields and some are next to water, could be a good year.

Lots of peas in this area.....

Wouldn't waste the time til hunting season. Only want to be where the birds are when I want to hunt 😉 Glad to hear on the pea front. Canola drives me nutz lol

Canola
 

I used to think that too but not anymore, I think the canola concentrates the geese.

Elk has just posted at we are 5 weeks away from opening day.

Where I live, if there are peas there will be geese. I have only seen a few fields but they were "huntable" small fields surrounded by tall trees. Great for "back shooting".

Start getting ready guys.

I just picked up 4 dozen Big Als Speck pack and a dozen canadas. The good specklebelly eats will begin soon. I just can't wait. Wish the ducks would color up faster though.

people think im nuts when i say this but i will take a barley or wheat crop over peas any day. peas attract a pile of birds but peas are so hard to hide in and brush blinds with that given the choice between 2 good fields i will take the barley every time.

Always like to find the peas as they are usually the only fields combined when our season opens. That said I have had a couple shoots on the opener in green fields to.
Barley is hard to beat for sure, but the opener on barley usually means carrying all our stuff in as the fields are all still in swath.

Barley
 

A lot of the barley near me is cut for green feed, so it is never available to the birds.

Farming practices are changing constantly and the hunters have to keep up.

If i can find a swath hunt il cary decoys and blinds! Swath hunts are the cream of the crop as far as field shoots go. Birds are suicidal and its dead simple to hide in.

Hunting swaths can be super fun and productive , love it !:sHa_shakeshout:
Cat

Most of Alberta seems to be turned over in canola now. Drove from Canmore to Edmonton and saw more canola than ever.

Lol good one.

Most places I hunt, Canola is grown every 2 years, rotating with a cereal crop or feed crop. Your probably just paying more attention to the crops now than ever before. If in fact there is more this year, your geese will be much easier to find.

That may be the case, plus since it is highlighter yellow, maybe they are more noticeable. I mean I haven't gone to check on the areas that I hunt, but my permission givers claim that there is pea, corn and wheat in the surrounding areas.

You will find a mix everywhere you go. I dont worry about scouting fields or calling and bugging landowners until crops are off and birds are in the field.

Exactly,,,

Waterfowl are here today, gone tomorrow kind of game... You need to hunt them on the field when they are feeding on it. Just becuz it is peas or barley doesn't mean that there will be birds all season long. Asking for a field now to hunt on select weekends in the fall isn't usually very productive,,,, and it is not fair or reasonable to expect the farmer to hold a field for you that is feeding birds till you can hunt it at your leisure when there are other hunters who could hunt it when the time is right.

I have no idea who you are Pikebreath,but from your posts I can tell you have the knowledge, only time and experience,can give a waterfowler.

X2

Getting permission right now is a bit ridiculous. I personally don't know any land owners that will let me lock down a field in July.

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. For the guys that want to swath hunt it's important that you will also need to find out who Farms the land and not just who owns the land. Not always the same person.

For those of you that swath hunt and walk in carrying your decoys, you are a rare breed. Haven't met many bird hunters willing to walk in.

I got a whole setup for walk in hunts. Most will let me use a quad if I can not drive in and we also have a small garden trailer to pull behind the quad. If you got the equipment it makes for some good hunts and does not have to be that much harder

This spring was a walk in hunt for me for the snows. We would drive in, in the morning when the ground was frozen but in the evening it melted and was a mess. Truck got stuck a few times and had to get the Hutts to pull me out :sHa_sarcasticlol: