By Ed Harp

If you want to understand geese, and to hunt them successfully in the St. Louis area, you first must understand their world, their movements. They travel south in the fall and north in the spring with amazing accuracy and timing. They do this every year, as they have for eons past.

Their main pathway along the eastern half of our country is the Mississippi Flyway. It stretches from well into Canada all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. The geese interrupt their trip along the way - sometimes to rest, sometimes to feed. After all, it's a long flight.

Most of them continue on south or north as the case may be. A few will take up permanent residence where they stop. Why, no one really knows. They do not share their reasons for doing this with us.

St. Louis lies on the eastern edge of at least two principal routes within the Flyway. The area is blessed with two major rivers - the Mississippi and the Missouri. Both offer vast areas of open water, no matter how cold the weather, sharp the wind or miserable the conditions. The geese need open water. It's a necessity. Open water provides them a place to rest along with protection from most of their predators.

The confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi also offers food. The land is farmed heavily. Corn and beans are the main crops. After the fields have been harvested, there's plenty of stubble and spilled grains. The grasslands are important to them as well. St. Louis has a lot of such land.

According to David Graber, waterfowl biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, the early goose season is confined primarily to private and urban lands. Early in the year there's an almost limitless supply of food in the area. The corn and beans have been cut. Their residue is fresh and easily picked from the stubble. Mostly the fields are still inhabited by huge numbers of insects.

Along with food, there's an ample supply of open water. Farm ponds, urban water sculptures, golf courses, fishponds and seasonally wet areas all offer geese a place to rest safely after dark or when they're finished feeding for the day. At most, the water is just a short ways from their feeding grounds.

The geese, some permanent residents and some migratory, tend to hang around these areas. It makes sense. They have everything they need. Why go elsewhere when they can stay right where they are and do just fine?

As fall turns into winter all that changes, however. The farmland still offers plenty of food, but it's harder to get. Cold weather, rains, snow and ice have made eating a chore, not a pleasure. Even worse, the easy morsels have long ago been eaten.

Winter also brings problems with water. Many of the farm and urban water sources are small, shallow and weedy. They freeze quickly, making them useless for rest and safety. In others, the water levels drop and they become nothing more than common mud holes. All in all, it's not a good situation, especially if you're a goose.

Canadas, giant Canadas and blue geese make up the bulk of the goose action near the Gateway City. Photo by Keith Sutton

Faced with these conditions, they move from the urban areas towards whatever open water they can find. That's almost always in the rivers. It would take a long and bitter cold spell to freeze the Missouri or the Mississippi. Sure, it happens, but not often enough to worry about. The geese sense this and take advantage of the miles and miles of open water the rivers provide.

Of course, they still feed in the corn and bean stubble, as well as the grasslands and pasture, but they live on the water. It's just a short flight away. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers may not be as comfortable and convenient as the local farm pond, but they beat the alternative.

The rivers change at this time of year, as well. They become more hospitable to hunters. The water levels drop in both as the weather turns cold. The current slacks and the water clears. As this happens, huge areas of sand and gravel are exposed. This makes for perfect habitat for geese and hunters alike.

Along with changing water conditions commercial navigation is sharply curtailed or becomes nonexistent. The rivers become almost peaceful, tranquil. This favors the geese. It also favors the hunter.

This year, late-season river conditions are expected to be especially attractive. Drought conditions in much of the country should push water levels to record lows. As the weather "up north" turns cold and nasty, this will move the geese down the Flyway and should make for a great year for waterfowlers. If St. Louis experiences a cold winter, so much the better.

Hunters working the metro area can expect to find blue geese, Canadas and giant Canadas late in the season. Many of the Canadas and giant Canadas will be local residents although a few of them will be migratory. The blue geese will be migratory for the most part.

Giant Canadas are the most common species bagged by hunters. According to statistics from the MDC, they comprise at least three-quarters of the geese harvested in the St. Louis region.

Tom Leifield, MDC wildlife management biologist assigned to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area (more about it later), has a solid working knowledge of goose hunting in eastern Missouri. He recommends that hunters look upstream on the Mississippi River for their late-season hunting. "St. Charles and Lincoln Counties can be productive," he opined, "Naturally, it all depends upon the weather. The colder it is, the better the hunting will be."

Leifield says that water conditions on the Mississippi favor late-season hunters. The combination of favorable conditions combined with the urban geese movement makes for good waterfowling. He reports that geese tend to congregate in areas of the river where the newly exposed sandbars offer both water and land opportunities.

Hunters expecting to be successful must do their homework, Leifield stresses. Not all areas of the river are productive. Scouting the river is an absolute must. The geese usually congregate in relatively small spots. Hunting time is precious and hard to come by. Don't waste it on unproductive spots.

The geese seem to prefer areas, bars or islands of newly exposed sand that have troughs or saddles between them. A little deep water nearby is a plus. Look for spots that break what current there is at this time of year.

As for decoy numbers, the same diversity of opinion exists. Some spread just a few - maybe fewer than a dozen. Equally successful hunters, on the other hand, believe that 200 may not be enough. Let common sense, past experience and your budget guide you in that decision.

Nearly all agree on one thing, however. Hunters expecting to be successful need to learn to call. Selecting the right call and learning to use it properly is beyond the scope of this article. Nonetheless, you should stop by a couple of local sportsman's stores for advice in selecting and using the proper call if you feel you need help.

Take the time to practice before you go to the field. It'll make all the difference in the world the morning of your hunt.

Leifield strongly cautions hunters to review all the applicable rules and regulations before they hunt. He points out that much of the Mississippi and parts of the Missouri River as well are in the Upper Mississippi CA. It begins very close to the city.

This area is the subject of several special rules and regulations that can get hunters into trouble if they don't know what the rules and regulations are and how to abide by them. Be especially knowledgeable about blind placement and the rules on permanent or designated blinds. In some areas, permanent or designated blinds are the rule. You need to know what you're doing.