Nesting for Canada geese was good in most areas. Canadas are not important geese in much of Texas, but the Panhandle produces a lot of them. This year, plenty should be available for hunters there and in parts of the Rolling Plains.

Texas gets most of its Canadas from eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba. During the 2006 survey, 444,400 were found in that area, up 7 percent from 2005’s numbers. The other key area for producing Canadas that end up in Texas is in the Northwest Territories. Numbers there were up 25 percent from last year, with an estimated 87,500 birds. Spring break-up was nearly a month earlier than average there, and average spring temperatures throughout the region were conducive to nesting success -- which should bode well for North Texas dark-goose hunters.

PANHANDLE
The big draw here is that Canadas are so common. The region holds as many as half a million of the big, beautiful birds. The species is only infrequently seen in the rest of the state, and the bag limit is always higher than the two dark geese allowed for the rest of Texas.

Most geese hang out near the irrigated croplands around towns such as Hereford and Dalhart. They’re also sometimes killed around the region’s natural lakes, the playas -- shallow, circular wetlands primarily filled by rainfall, although some lying amid cropland settings may also receive water from irrigation run-off. These small lakes, which average slightly more than 15 acres in size, are loaded with ducks, and, if near an agricultural food source, can appear quite attractive to geese as well.

When heavily pressured on the coast, snows sometimes head toward the Panhandle, where hunters are far fewer and wide-open spaces abound. Mild winters see this behavior often, so keep this in mind if the geese in your neighborhood start to disappear.

In country this flat and open, you don’t always have to set up large spreads, especially if you’re able to be about your business at a site that no one else is hunting, which is highly possible.

Small formations made up predominantly of dark-goose decoys mixed with some snows are notably effective. Last season, many added mechanized decoys to the mix, initially for shooting mallards landing and feeding with geese in dry fields -- but it paid off for geese as well. The setup I kept hearing about last season was a basic dry ground spread with shooters set up in pop-up blinds in the middle with three mechanized mallard decoys, two set to the sides of the blinds, one just ahead.

“The hunting in that part of the country is just phenomenal for geese and ducks,” said guide Roger Bacon -- (409) 379-3474 -- who drives up from East Texas every season. “It’s really a waterfowler’s paradise.

“One thing hunters want to do is to bring plenty of ammunition with them. Once you get west of Abilene, hardly any stores carry steel shot. Make sure and bring your own because you will probably be making a lot of shots up there.”