2008 Spring Snow Goose Migration Reports

[Chris Hustad]

The Official 2008 Spring Snow Goose Migration Reports

Well it's that time of year again where we track the snow geese up the flyways in route to their nesting grounds. It's a little earlier this year since I've been talking to so many gearing up for the start of February down south.

The 2007 Snow Goose Migration Reports have over 118K views - so this is a highly read report service and it depends on everyone working together to provide accurate, useful information.

PLEASE KEEP THIS THREAD FOR SNOW GOOSE REPORTS ONLY. If you want to talk about something other than a snow goose report, please start a new one. Any posts taking the reports off course will be removed, I hope everyone understands that it's needed to keep this for what it's intended. All posts will be moved out of the reports forum without warning.

If it wasn't for the recent cold snap, the snow geese would be way ahead of schedule as of right now. However, there is some mild weather in the forecast so there should be a lot of shifting back into IL and MO. There has been a good amount of snows between Texas and Kansas in the Central Flyway. Things will change when the weather warms.

If you'd like to track reports from the states, here are some links below:

Link to the Most Accurate Snow Map:
Snow Map

Kansas Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here
Missouri Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here
Arkansas Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here
Oklahoma Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here
Nebraska Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here
Nebraska Snow Goose Hunting Zones - Click Here
South Dakota Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here
North Dakota Snow Goose Migration Reports - Click Here

The states still not available (if anyone is aware of them coming up - please post up):
Kentucky Snow Goose Migration Reports
Illinois Snow Goose Migration Reports
Texas Snow Goose Migration Reports
Louisiana Snow Goose Migration Reports
Iowa Snow Goose Migration Reports

Dont' forget to checkout the 2007 Spring Goose Reports!

Click Here to See the 2006 Snow Goose Reports

Good luck this spring and remember to hunt safe and respect other hunters.



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Check out dozens and dozens of articles and how-to's on snow goose hunting in the Goose Hunting Section at Nodak Outdoors.

[Madison]

I heard they were stacked up about 2500 miles south of us right now

[jkern]

Got a report yesterday that abunch of little Canadas were moving up from the South into Central NE with alittle bit of "salt" mixed in.

[Happy Hunter]

I saw a flock of about 150-200 near Platte City, MO on my way back from Cabela's on Sunday. It was a beautiful day in the 60's with a south breeze and I was getting pretty excited. Now the highs are back in the teens and a cold north wind. I'm sure those snows turned around and headed back south. I'd say about 3 weeks they'll make it up here. At least a few I hope.

[mudhunter]

A fellow hunter said his kids saw some at York Nebr. yesterday. I didn't see em myself, just was I was told.

[Chris Hustad]

Looks like a lot of snow is hitting Missouri and the surrounding region. The good thing is it will melt quick. JD and PJ are down hunting the southern end tonight....lucky ######s.

The spring season is officially on down south, good luck boys.

[takem1]

Hunted the opener and did pretty well. Had about 4-6 inches of snow last night and the birds headed further south once again. Suppose to be 60 degrees here on Monday and we should finally start to see some migrators. Just so everyone knows, we have been hunting local geese that stayed in our area basically all of duck season and haven't seen any migrators as of yet.

[Happy Hunter]

We're starting to see a few flocks around Squaw Creek. No huge movment, but a few have came into the area. They're not venturing very far to feed. We're suppose to have 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow with temp about 30, but the rest of the week shows highs in the mid to upper 30's and little to no precip. We have minimal snow cover now with just the drifts remaining. It's about that time. Plenty of winter left though. I hope to see some flying here in the next week or two.

[Chris Hustad]

Heard there's been some birds that came up the W. end of Nebraska flyway. Jamestown Res. in Kansas has been reporting birds moving through since last week.

[takem1]

As of the 1st of Feb. the Con. Agent I spoke to said southern arkansas has as many geese there right now as any of them can remember ever seeing. Had a big push of birds yesterday and even more today

[Chris Hustad]

New snowline pushed alot of the birds back. The central flyway is kind of stalling but the Miss. should be taking shape in the next week, depending on the weather.

[fowl_play]

heading down to eastern oklahoma next friday (22nd) hopefully the guys and i can stack a few!

[meabadboy]

While traveling east from western Mo - my father said he saw several large flocks of snows/blues in the fields from 50 miles west to just west of Sikeston Mo on Tuesday 5, 2008

[Cudda25]

Headin down Burns Hunting Club on the 9th to hunt snow geese all day. Its right across from cape girardeau and inbetween there and carbdondale, illionis i guess by Olive Branch, Illinois...im hopin we can nail the hell out of them its supposed to be a little windy but 43 and sun and clouds!!

[bluegoose18]

Great map

[maple lake duck slayer]

30000-40000 at Jeffrey Energy Center, 20000 at Milford.

Sounds like a few have made it into kansas.

[KS George]

Small flocks trickling into southern KS, all matures, Wed, Feb 6. Managed a cow sneak on some mixed in with Canadas. Took 6 SB's and 1 Canada. Already made some great jerky from the old tough ones and will make some goose steaks this weekend. I'm looking for many more migrators this weekend with temps near 60 and a big south wind.

KS George

[OhioGooseBuster]

KS George, I have never heard of a "Goose Steak"? I have made plenty of jerky. Can you give me the detail on the steak?

Thanks,

[IOWAFOWLER]

KS George your able to still kill Canada's?


I have heard there moving into Mizzo just North of Kansas City, Lots of movement today with some real high flyers.

[Duckhuntrgeese]

I know guys that have shot snows east and south of Kansas City. SE corner of MO is starting to pick up. Will still be a week or two until MO really gets hot. A friend said there is still a lot of ice but its starting to look thin. Out in Jersey today and shot a 3 man limit of honkers with lots of migrators flying north to breed. Good number of honkers, brant, and mallards moving north. Also saw 4 snows.

[C BROWNDUCK]

they were flying last night over columbia, every time i stuck my head outside to listen i was hearing them.......

[KS George]

The Canada season in KS runs until Feb 17. Speck season reopened today, 2/9 and runs thru the 17th; SB's runs clear thru April 30 with the conservation season starting Feb 18th. Saw a few more SB's mixed with Canada's again today, still careless....took the Canadas.

Goose steaks--The old tough ones, that seem to dull the knife when fileting off the breast meat, are saved for jerky. The younger, more tender/less tough filets are soaked in plain water overnight in the frig then sliced thin, no more than 1/2 inch. I tenderize them with a mallet, better to over do it than to underdo it. Season with Cavender's, paprika, fresh ground pepper, cajun--whatever you like and then make a sauce. We use orange marmalade, or red currant jelly with a tablespoon of liquid smoke in a sauce pan and melt it until liquid. Spoon that over the seasoned steaks and bake them for 20 minutes on a pizza pan or cookie sheet at 300 degrees. Check them at 12 minutes and again at 15 min--NEVER overcook them or they WILL be chewy. Better a little rare than well done. When in doubt, take them out. If weather permits, use the grill and check them often. Save some of the sauce for using on the side as well. My wife loves them and she doesn't even like dark meat until we used this receipe. Works for whole duck filets also.

KS George

[OhioGooseBuster]

KS George I will tell you that my mouth was watering as I read how you make the goose steak. I have copied your reply and will be making some steaks this next week as I am about to make up a huge batch of goose jerky for our upcoming snow goose hunt in Mound City. That brings up a question, anyone have trouble with taking jerky on a flight? Didn't know if the FAA would hassle me about it.

Thanks again George and keep smackin em!

Jamie-Ohio

[Uncle Fuzzy]

Shh! about that jerky. A fellow who I believe tald me about getting busted at the border for unidentified waterfowl in the form of snow goose sausage. He thought it was pretty cheap as the substance in question was really food, but it was easier to pay the $175 that go back to fight it.

[OhioGooseBuster]

Thanks Fuzzy and yet, I am not planning on leaving the country. I was only concerned about flying in the states on a commercial flight and someone hassle me about the large bulk of jerky I plan to take for my upcoming snow goose hunt. Maybe it is not that big of a deal but if they try and confiscate it as contraband I would be bummed hunting without it!!

[KS George]

Lots of folks take food onto airplanes these days since the airline offerings are so pitiful. I doubt you have any trouble. Just tell them it's for snacks from a grocery store and don't identify it as wild game in case the person in security is a PETA fan. Some airline folks love to give grief to hunters. Nearly lost a rifle on the way to Montana once because the women there deliberately gave us incorrect instructions at check-in so the firearms wouldn't make it on the plane.

KS George

[Duckhuntrgeese]

Here is a migration report and a brief answer to the airline questions. Just got off the phone w/ friends and snows are still south but a few more have trickled into SE and SW MO, IL, and KS. They shot 3 yesterday and 11 the day before SE. A few more birds in the Kansas City area but no big migration yet. As for Airline rules, I fly every week and have licenses all across the US and Canada (9 States) this year so I hope this clarifies things for people. Airline rules: Guns need to be unloaded in a hard sided, locked case, with your ammo in a separate case. Ammo cannot be in the same case. Ammo needs to be in its original box, no mixing of shells, and less then 50lbs. You can carry on goose jerky but I would suggest just saying it is beef jerky so you don't have to have the TSA agent call his supervisor to verify that yes indeed you can bring it on the plane. I have flown Sun Country, Continental, and NWA and as long as you follow these rules you will be fine.

[OhioGooseBuster]

Thank you both KS George and DuckHuntrGoose for the information regarding the jerky. I am taking BEEF Jerky(wink wink) as I would have never thought about some PETA freak making my trip a nightmare!!
Also thanks DuckHuntr for the airline information regarding the firearms/ammunition regulations and the migration report. I am flying Skybus into Kansas City and they are telling me 200 rounds maximum and can weigh no more than 11 lbs. I just want to be sure I have covered everything before my trip out to Mound City to shoot those white devils!!

Thanks again!

[maple lake duck slayer]

PLEASE KEEP THIS THREAD FOR SNOW GOOSE REPORTS ONLY. If you want to talk about something other than a snow goose report, please start a new one. Any posts taking the reports off course will be removed, I hope everyone understands that it's needed to keep this for what it's intended. All posts will be moved out of the reports forum without warning.

[KS George]

More on topic--I was just outside watching lines of SB's heading north over SE KS, under the clouds, low, but not low enough to bother with. They seemed determined to get north.Still icing up on everything but the geese didn't seem to mind. Water still mostly open but the ground is covered with an inch or more of sleet/ice with more predicted to accumulate until dark today.

KS George

[Brad Harris]

Birds came threw all day saturday to only turn around and head back south last night. 4-5inches of ice on the ground right now. Southeast Kansas

[takem1]

Major ice storm throughout missouri and southern illinois. Birds pushed further south once again. Going to go today and put a couple hundred miles on and see what it looks like. This has been a very strange spring thus far. Snow, ice, and 70 degree temps all about a week and a half apart.

[KS George]

The SB's are stacking up in SE KS today, lots of snow/sleet on the ground but the geese are staying around on the slowly thawing green wheat. Thousands of Canadas with them too. Not sure how to approach them in the AM. Barely sunny at sundown today, lows in the teens tonight. I might try to set up on them first thing in the AM. I use 2 Canada full bodies, 3-4 snow silos and 6-8 speck silos. Minimal sets do the best it seems. I've done the best with 2 Canadas full bodies only. I use a cow silo also and it seems to be almost unfair. I drop the silo at 15-20 yards and the hand loaded heavy shot is devasting at short ranges up to 80 yards. The cow works really great and it's practically unfair. I could bag them with a long handled butterfly net if I wanted to. I get too excited at about 25 yards and drop the cow silo and start blasting. The old geese are too tough but I have about 40 lbs of goose jerky in the frig for the crappie trips coming up real soon.

Heads up NOdak. NEB boys, it won't be long now....

KS George

[KS George]

SB's still stacking up in SEKS. Lots of dark geese with them too. Might set up on them in the early AM--specks starting to show up as well. The Neb and SD guys might get ready for the weekend. they seemed determined to get north all day today.

Ks George

Any of you Texas boys on the network???

[takem1]

Ended up driving a couple hours south of where we've been hunting and very few geese are around. Reports of a ton of geese still in southern arkansas and even louisiana

[titleistpro2]

any ideas of where these snow geese are? We're supposed to be on a guided snow goose hunt in Mound City this Saturday, but it sounds like we might get rerouted to the southern part of the state?

Just curious what the latest is from some of you missourians / trackers.

thanks, Matt.

[Happy Hunter]

I can tell you where they are not. They are not around Mound City right now. Possibly by the weekend we may see a few around but nothing yet. I did see a large string of Canadas yesterday flying over the river about 20 minutes north of Mound City which is the first group of geese I've seen at all up here in weeks or months. This next week it's supposed to warm up a little and hopefully we'll see some decent numbers in the area then.

[Happy Hunter]

I also forgot to mention that we still have about 95% snow cover and temps have been in the single digits at night and around 20-25 during the days for a while now. Ice on ponds and such is super thick around here too.

[Chris Hustad]

Today's Snow Map (Keep in mind the Dakotas are getting snow right now):

[OhioGooseBuster]

Happy Hunter and Chris. Thanks for the updates, especially the update regarding Mound City as I am sure there are many, many hunters lined up and ready to head that way in the next 2 to 3 weeks and any information you can provide is most helpful.

The white devils have to push North soon and I am gonna be part of the welcoming committee that greets them when they get there!! Just some pent up anger!

Jamie-Ohio