Understanding The Scouting Cycle And What To Look For

Pre-Season

Pre-season refers to the time of the year just prior (four weeks or less) to the start of the waterfowl hunting season. The goal of your pre-season scouting program is to identify the patterns, feeding and loafing areas, and roosting areas of the waterfowl already in the area.

There are four components to pre-season scouting, when put together and used on opening day or early in the season, will maximize your opportunity for success.

First, you need to identify flight patterns and times.

I recently talked with a father of one of my friends who was telling me about a group of goose hunters he had given hunting permission to early in the season. It was early afternoon when this group of hunters spotted a large group of Canada geese in Lee's cornfield. They politely asked permission to hunt the field the next morning and asked if they could set up their decoys in the early evening. Lee granted them permission and they had everything set up and ready to go for a great morning hunt. But, to their surprise the geese never arrived, that is until after they had left. Since they had no idea when the geese arrived, by 9:30 they decided the geese were no longer coming, so they picked up and left. Lee laughed when he told me, "Evidently those guys didn't know those geese were late sleepers. They never get to the field before 11:00 and they're usually all here by 11:15. I would have told them if they would have just asked." That wouldn't have been the case if the group had spent time pre-season scouting and identified their flight pattern and flight time.

Second, you need to identify the exact feeding or loafing area they are using. This is especially true for ducks. You can be as little as 60 - 70 yards away from the exact location and you may not ever fire a shot. You need to be on the mark.

Third, identify the size of flocks that are landing and once they've landed what are the group characteristics. This information is critical to proper decoy selection and placement.

Finally, listen to how they communicate with one another. How vocal are they. One of the biggest mistakes I see waterfowl hunters make early in the season is too much calling and calling to aggressively. The key to success is to be as real as possible. Follow the lead of the birds you've been scouting.

To recap:

The Goal Of Pre-Season Scouting: Identify patterns, times, feeding, loafing, and roosting areas of those birds already in the area, prior to the beginning of the waterfowl hunting season.

Factors To Identify: Flight patterns and times, exact feeding and loafing areas, flock size and group characteristics, and finally how they communicate with one another.