Dukats Journal of Hunting

Goose Hunting on the Final Frontier

Written by Dave Dukat

Limit of Lesser Canadians Most people don't think of waterfowl when they think of Alaska. White sheep, massive bears, and gigantic moose are first to come to mind when someone brings up the final frontier. I was skeptical myself, heading to Alaska in late September for some late season silver salmon fishing and a chance at the local waterfowl.

The outfitter, Gary LaRose, has a break between his moose and bear seasons and brings a few hunters up every year to enjoy the best of both worlds, not to mention one of the cheapest hunts Alaska offers. Gary's camp is situated on volcanic gravel beds, perfect for landing an airplane, but requiring a flight to get to the good fishing and waterfowl hunting.

It's not often you fly to your favorite bird hunting spot, but it provides a chance to see the landscape from the gooses perspective and see the massive flocks of geese feeding below. We would load up in Gary's Cessna 180 every morning once the sun was up, and load the gear, including the bird dog and decoys, for the short flight to the Artic Ocean beach.

Lesser Canadians in Alaska As the waves crashed in the background, we would sneak through the grassy knolls until we found one of the silt channels through the grass holding the geese. The birds where Lesser Canadians, and in spots numbered in the 100's. Our first shooting of the day would come would be a jump shooting ambush and if things went well, we were part way to our limit.

We would then quickly set up the decoys and disappear in the long grass. The mass exodus of geese would get the area jumping with geese and soon smaller groups would fly down the channels to see what caused the commotion. Geese are smarter than you'd think and their eyesite is pretty amazing from the elevated perspective.

Many times we would get caught moving or with body parts or guns exposed and the geese would flare just before they came into range. Luckily we did things right a few times and more geese fell to the gunshots. As the flights slowed, we would send out a couple hunters to stir up the flocks and normally get in some shooting along the way.

Normally before noon, we would have our limit of geese and still have time to finish the day catching salmon after another short plane ride. Nothing like being mobile and hunting and fishing move star style!

P.S. Gary cooked up a mean goose, soaking them in soy sauce for an hour or two before breading them and frying them up. Give it a try, it might change your perspective on eating geese. I know it did for me.

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