Cast & Blast

By Ken Penrod

Canada geese, especially very large groups of geese on water, are very noisy just before they choose to move on in the morning. If you are where you are supposed to be before dawn, the cackle and trumpeting begins slowly, building in volume and decibel—and then you hear the wing flaps and webbed feet beating water as they lift off. I don’t care who you are, if that doesn’t excite you, save a bullet for yourself. It’s still grey dawn and you wonder how they could he so noisy yet remain unseen.  Someone in the boat, attempting to be a calming factor, whispers; “stay still guys and wait until they are upon us.” Suddenly there they are. The sky is black again and some of the birds are no more than six feet above the river and in some instances, 10-feet from the muzzle of your shotgun. The shooting is deafening and you try to keep count of the birds you hit. No need to worry though, especially for the first “fly” because the creel limit is 8 In September, particularly on the Potomac  River above Great Falls, and you don’t have to have a plug in your gun. Load her to the max—and it’s a bad goose hunt when you have shells to take home.

Bone up on rules and regulations but most of the month of September (9-1/24) in Maryland is about killing pesky resident geese. Virginia and many other states have similar seasons, and don’t think for a moment that Maryland’s season is just on the Potomac River, because it’s state-wide. I do my resident goose hunting on the Potomac River because of the smallmouth bass population, thus we call this adventure Cast & Blast. There is nothing so nerve wracking as a man’s decision to continue fighting that leaping four-pound bass or grab the Extrema and take a few birds. By the way, I’ve solved the problem. Open the bail on your spinning rod. Put it down while lifting the gun. Bang-Bang-Bang and now—where is that bass? You just have to be there!

We have been doing this goose thing for many years now. Some years are great while others are poor—but on this river, you still have the smallmouth option and it’s not a lost day if the birds don’t fly. I fish/hunt from an Express Jet Boat powered by a 95/65 Mercury jet drive. I have a 101 pound thrust Minn Kota Maxxum trolling motor and electronics. We don’t want to crowd the boat so my packing list follows.

For bass fishing I will have one Gator spinning rod per guest with a Daiwa Exceler reel filled with 8-pound test Sufix monofilament (green Deep Crankin’ or ProMix). I’ll have an assortment of Mizmo or Campground Special tubes and 1/8^th ounce RAB jig heads. I’ll also have some four-inch Case Magic Stiks and some 3/0 VMC hooks. For that topwater bite, a few white Obi Hardhook buzzbaits will do nicely—and a big-ol’ Zara Spook. The Spook is to retrieve downed geese.

            For the shooting side of our adventure, we will dress like hunters complete with face mask and gloves. We will have rolls of light camouflage to hide the contents of the boat. I take two anchors, a cooler and food and drinks. I like 12 gauge semi-automatics and steel T’s and 2s. One dozen decoys are plenty.

            I fish the upper Potomac often during the year so I will have scouted her for this season.  We will launch one hour before daylight and make our way to our predetermined setup. Sometimes my destination will be a mid-river rock, large standing ledge or a Sycamore fall-down along the shore. While I motor, carefully, the guests will be putting the decoys together.
We set the decoys out, generally in an eddy, taking care to allow for smallmouth fishing lanes. We will snug the boat into cover using anchors and line as necessary. You should be hearing some geese now. You don’t want to spook them. Your heart rate should be life-threatening. Everything you do must be noiseless. You must be ready 30 minutes before you can see the shoreline. Legal shooting begins 30 minutes before official sunup. At least one person must be water ready in order to retrieve dead, floating geese that can’t be reached by boat. Early in September, you can simply wade in sneakers but as the month grows old, the water get cold so insulated waders are recommended.

            Like so many of our outdoor callings, the beginning of day and the edge of night are best but there are a lot of hours in between. If you don’t have birds at first light, you probably didn’t scout. These geese are creatures of habit and they will repeat bedding and feeding rituals until they run out of food in an area. The morning “fly” is why we are sitting in the dark. It’s ok to fish now but stay in your lanes. It’s not ok to make vocal sounds when you hook-up. Expect a solid “flick” to the head if you make noise.

            In the morning, only use your goose call as a locator. Once you get an answer, sit on your call. You may have to take a call away from your friend though, and don’t feel bad because of it. Your morning is usually over in two to three hours. Your day need not be.

            Take off your camo clothing and look like fishermen. Geese are used to seeing fishermen. I’ll run upriver and float downstream very carefully and very thoroughly with one eye to the sky and the other on my monofilament. Early is the season the geese are stupid but after having been shot at a few times, they tend to keep a lot of air between themselves and suspicious objects on the river’s surface. You can still stop and decoy from time to time. There will generally be singles, doubles and small groups flying about looking for leadership.

            Now those of you that are used to hunting from pit blinds will like this style but only a few days into the season, the geese fly higher. That’s why we have 3.5-inch capability. Use it if you have it because often long shots are all you will get.

            Of course you will need all the proper fishing and hunting licenses. We will usually breast the birds and keep the meat on ice. You must tag geese to transport them. I hunt/fish the areas between Seneca and Brunswick which include boat launch sites at Seneca; Edwards Ferry; Whites Ferry; Mouth of Monocacy; Point of Rocks; Lander and Brunswick. Don’t be surprised to have an undercover MD Natural Resource Police visit you. I know that I for one will miss NRP Cpl. Taylor. He recently retired.

            This cast and blast opportunity is short lived but oh so much fun and excitement. Another nice thing about it is that the bigger smallmouths begin their weight management plan about the same time.  Oh, by the way, did I mention that archery season begins in the middle of September? What will I call that? Maybe Cast, Blast & Whack.