Photo by Cathy & Gordon Illg

By Norm Minch

Hunters know that waterfowl are about the most intensely managed game resource there is. Since so many different types of ducks and geese travel through and use a wide range of habitats located in multiple states, rather than each state trying to individually care for the resource, it is done collectively among state and federal wildlife departments for better continuity of management goals.

The upside is that all parties involved share their knowledge of population dynamics so the resource can be managed based on a broader picture of how well various species are doing within the entire flyway range they traverse. The downside is that having multiple agencies trying to provide the level of hunting each area's waterfowlers want often results in more complicated hunting laws.

This result manifests itself most visibly for Canada geese in Kentucky in the development of several harvest or management zones. Depending on the availability of birds in a given flyway or resident flock, production trends, hunting pressure and other factors, goose hunting is regulated five different ways in five distinct regions of the state.

While this may sound like too much to bother with, in reality, unless you actually hunt in all five zones, it's not too difficult to keep the different dates and restrictions straight. Most hunters won't do that much traveling or have time to investigate that much hunting land. And once you understand how the system works, it becomes easier to hunt confidently within the law, and spend more time learning how to improve your skills and success.

Kentucky's Canada goose resource is made up of both migratory birds and resident birds. By and large, most of the geese in the western third of the state are birds that pass through, while larger numbers of birds born and raised in Kentucky exist in the middle and eastern thirds. Hardly a hunter in central and eastern Kentucky hasn't noticed that more and more flocks of geese are showing up in these regions. In the last three or four years, the increase in resident geese has had a very positive impact on the number of opportunities in a part of Kentucky where historically the goose hunting was next to nothing.

"The increase in resident goose numbers has been the brightest spot for waterfowl hunters the last two or three seasons," said Rocky Pritchert, waterfowl program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR).

"Individual flocks have blossomed in many areas of central and eastern Kentucky, some associated with public lands and waters, and several that have developed on privately owned waterways.

"These birds move around quite a bit during the season, and often those raised on private waters will move to the larger public lakes, join with some birds there and offer some decent hunting.

"That's pretty typical of the type of goose hunting in the Eastern Goose Zone, one of the five areas that the majority of everything east of Bowling Green falls under," Pritchert said.

"It's our largest by far goose zone landmass wise where scattered opportunities for geese exist, primarily around Corps lakes and some of our smaller, KDFWR-owned lakes," Pritchert noted.

These opportunities take scouting and knowledge of the waterway to be successful, and the ability to be mobile on the water. If local farm ponds, golf course lakes and other small bodies of water in the vicinity have produced a good hatch the spring before, sometimes you can find several bunches of birds up and moving around early, or coming back to the bigger body of water after feeding.

In the Eastern Goose Zone, Taylorsville, Herrington and Green River lakes generally offer the best of the big reservoir hunting. Occasionally, migrant birds likely out of the St. James Bay population will be pushed down with cold weather, and spend a day or two at these locations. It's hard to predict, but the latter part of the season may be the better time to watch for these migrations because the weather is generally worse in January.

A subzone of the Eastern Goose Zone offers hunters in the northeastern part of the state a chance to hunt the resident flock that has developed around Cave Run Lake. There's a four-county area that constitutes the primary range this flock uses, and is regulated specifically to ensure too much hunting doesn't reduce the flock beyond what it can withstand. With the exception of a chunk of ground at the center of the zone, the Northeast Goose Zone is open in Bath, Menifee, Morgan and Rowan counties. The closed area includes public lands and water within a block lying inside the boundaries of state routes 801, 1274, 32 and 826, which is more or less Cave Run Lake.

The birds have this block of refuge, but as they move out to feed in areas outside these boundaries, hunters who have obtained a free permit from the KDFWR in advance can take them. Usually, the season in the Northeast Goose Zone runs the week after Christmas and the last week of January. Shooting hours are from one-half hour before sunrise to 2 p.m.

"Since there's not a whole lot of goose habitat and hunting available in the eastern third of Kentucky, we've placed some special regulations on this area where we have an established flock.

"The idea is to sustain hunting over a long period of time, and find a balance of allowing as much opportunity as we can, but not so much that it has a detrimental impact on the resource for the future," Pritchert said.

"We've also added a mentor hunt at the Minor Clark Fish Hatchery. Hunters apply in advance to allow youngsters a chance to goose hunt and utilize this flock."

"We don't have a lot of room, but it is one other use that the presence of this bunch of birds has provided, and last season those who were drawn did have some success hunting around the hatchery ponds," Pritchert said.

"We hope to be able to continue those hunts for a few days each in late December and January," he added.

He recommends hunters check their Kentucky Waterfowl Hunting Guide for details on this and other advance application hunts offered each year by the KDFWR.

Goose hunting takes a little more effort than deer or turkey hunting because geese aren't as widespread as other species. That's not only true in the east where populations of geese are isolated, but it's also the case in the western third of Kentucky, which does have much better numbers of birds during migration.

There's probably no more important thing to understand, and keep abreast of, than weather conditions within the state and to the north. Temperatures, as well as water conditions, dictate a great deal of the behavior of geese and ducks. Public lands that have both water and food sources will attract more goose use than areas that have just one or the other.

When you look at the management areas within the Western Goose Zone, Pennyroyal/Coalfield Zone and the West-Central Goose Zone, the best hunting occurs when a food supply is still available late into the winter, and where a large body of water is close by.

It's a big plus to live in the western end of Kentucky, as that's where most of the birds that migrate through our state will fly over. Although Kentucky has lost countless thousands of acres of wetland habitat, it still has the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, among others, and habitat that has been saved and protected. The other benefit for us is the number of larger reservoirs that can provide excellent goose hunting, especially if the shallow water holes freeze over.