Southern Illinois still holds some Canada geese, but their numbers are a shadow of the hundreds of thousands that once congregated there. Under normal conditions, the Union County and Horseshoe Lake refuges will have a few thousand present, while Crab Orchard NWR may host as many as 6,000 to 7,000 birds.

The southern refuges also hold great numbers of white-fronted geese, as well as a fluctuating population of snows and blues. In addition, visiting hunters would do well, too, not to overlook the variety of waterfowling in the region, thanks to the greatly increased number of ducks now wintering in these refuges.

But goose hunting is on both my mind and yours, so let’s travel north to south through Illinois and look at the details and techniques that will help goose hunters succeed in the cold-weather conditions of January.

Canada geese of Illinois’ Northern Zone live the proverbial “life of Riley,” finding safe havens to loaf and roost on suburban cemeteries, golf courses and corporate campuses. Nearby, agricultural fields littered with waste corn and soybeans offer an inexhaustible bounty.

Additionally, many thousands of resident giant Canada geese unwittingly act as guides, leading the migrating flocks of wild birds to food, water and safe havens. Unless forced by severe winter storms to leave this “Promised Land,” none of these honkers are going anywhere else.

In fact, by January most -- but not all -- of the geese have been using their roosting and feeding areas since early November. Some of the foolish younger Canada geese now reside in the hunters’ collective freezers. However, the warm-weather tactics that accounted for many of those young-bird kills now need to be tweaked to suit the cold-weather conditions of midwinter.

Calling All Fools!
This late in the season you can safely assume the geese in northern Illinois have heard enough goose calls to know when a “forked tongue” speaks to them.

Watch videos of goose hunts on TV and you might be led to believe that goose calling is vital to goose-hunting success. Bear in mind that most of the TV shows are taped early in the season, often in Canada at the “top” of the flyway. The birds there have not yet been heavily hunted and would probably respond just as eagerly if the guide stood up and waved his hat at them.

In fact, geese on the ground never call to geese in the air. The goose call’s only purpose is to add life to the decoy spread. Under most conditions calling must be toned down, restricted to occasional “clucks,” and then only if the birds seem to stray off line to the decoys.

Many times no calling at all is your best bet, except during periods of fog or when it is snowing. With their visibility reduced, the geese usually rely on their sense of hearing to locate feeding flocks. Steady calling in these conditions will guide them to your hide.

Decoy Diversions
Carefully watch the northern flocks that do fly near your hunting site and you may even notice the geese avoid flying over your decoy spread. The reaction is in large part because of “high shooting” that develops among north Illinois hunters as the birds became harder to decoy as the season progresses and hunters’ shots grow longer.

And because the geese of northern Illinois are predictably decoy shy by midwinter, huge spreads of fake birds are not a good idea. Limit yourself to less than two dozen of your best quality decoys, and take care to deploy them in a natural way upwind from your blind or pit. Doing so can divert the birds’ attention away from your hideout and bring them over you as they approach the decoy flock.

If you expect to be hunting in falling snow, bring a towel or brush along to keep snow from accumulating on the backs of the decoys, which gives a very unnatural look to your spread.