A goose hunt usually begins with mental replays and visualizations of previous successes. Hopes for recreating memories and making new ones, bigger and better than the last. One-hundred or so dark geese heading at you on a diagonal line, cutting sideways and lining up with the big gap in the decoys, all the while dropping eighty feet in elevation with wings cupped and boots out- fifteen yards from the toes in your boots, in the middle of the kill hole.

After an afternoon of scouting, which entails hours of driving by previous feeds, checking roost waters or following airborne birds on their way to the evening feed, you spend the waning hours of last light watching the birds approach the field you want to hunt. Watching their patterns of entry and egress from the 160 acres of yellow stubble. Sitting on an approach you check the wind and weather forecast for the following day. Watching as the birds graze the corn left behind by the combine mixed in with the topsoil, you pinpoint the part of the field they want to be in. You’ve got the hunt planned so you visit the farmer to get permission. He’s a friend by the time you leave and in the morning it’s on.

The next day you’re sticking a few hundred Divebombs in the ground and brushing up the layouts with a few good buddies. With the wind at the back of your neck you see the first string of geese a half mile out and holler for everyone to hunker down. The birds are following the same line into the field that the birds were using the previous afternoon. They’re reading the script. Thirty seconds later the “take ‘em!” call is made- four shotguns raise up and let loose their war cries. The rainout seems to almost be in slow-motion as double digits of geese hit the corn stubble littered dirt of the center pivot irrigated field. It’s all going as plan, the hard work is paying off. Another goose hunt off to a great start.



Canada Goose populations across North America are speculated to be higher today than at any other time in history. With annual harvest estimates from recent years averaging around 2.5 million taken by hunters across the US alone, most waterfowlers have ample opportunity to add a few honkers to the freezer. Once the freezers are stocked up, we’ve then got a few things to do with our quarry- one of my favorite things to do is make Goose Pastrami. Historically, goose meat has been a preferred base for pastrami, along the spice route in Eastern Europe especially. Pastrami. It’s as straightforward as salt curing the meat for some time, then seasoning before smoking or finishing with low heat.