Photo by Cathy & Gordon ILLG

There was a time when an article such as this would be short and sweet: go south and kill geese. There was a time when the first wave of migrating Canada geese arrived in the South Illinois Quota Zone (SIQZ) refuges in mid-September -- and they just kept on coming. There was a time when the goose populations in the major refuges were counted in the hundreds of thousands. There was a time when the awesome sight of clouds of honkers swarming across the landscape on daily feeding frenzies was worth the trip all by itself.

Well, as the song says, "those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end." But, alas, and amazingly, end they did. Indeed, the 2004-05 season may have represented the low point in the SIQZ's retrograde movement when Department of Natural Resources' waterfowl biologists reported, "No major migration of Canadas into the South Zone was detected this year."

That being said, let's see if we can make some lemonade out of what appears to be a very big lemon.

The first thing to do is put the SIQZ hunt into perspective, and to do that we should compare the results of that zone with what happened in the North Zone and Central Zone. The SIQZ 2004-05 quota was set at 8,600. The final tally of Canada geese bagged was 6,403. Hunters in the North Zone, working on a quota of 15,300, brought down slightly over 12,000 -- failing to fill the quota for only the second time since that system was instituted. Central Zone gunners scored best, reaching the 17,500-bird allocation on Jan. 24.

While it may seem that the North Zone and South Zone kill greatly outpaced that of the SIQZ, we must recognize that both of those zones were hunting an 86-day season. The SIQZ hunters limited themselves to a 54-day season, realizing the geese would not be present in significant numbers until mid-December.

Taken on a day-to-day average basis, North Zone hunters averaged 140 geese per day, Central Zone 203 and the SIQZ recorded a 118 daily average. Viewed in that light, it is clear that while the SIQZ fell short of the other zones, the daily average was only 17 percent off that of the North Zone, an area generally regarded as "Illinois' goose paradise." Of course, the South Zone fell nearly 100 percent short of the Central Zone, but there is a mitigating factor that must be taken in consideration.

Both the North and Central zones began killing significant numbers of geese from opening day on. North Zone hunters experienced a drastic slow down during the last two weeks of December, but the final week in early January was going like gangbusters. Similarly, the Central Zone hunt dragged through December, but January was hot from start to the early finish. Although the SIQZ began hunting Dec. 11, hunting did not heat up until mid-January, and 4,490 of the zone's 6,403 geese fell during the last two weeks of the season for a daily average of 264 birds -- best of all zones.

Not too shabby in a year that recorded the second-lowest peak count of geese -- 63,170 -- since aerial surveys began in 1956. Compare last year's count with the five-year average peak from 2000-2004 of 182,485. The average peak count during the 1992-96 period was 334,190, and going back another five years to 1988-92, the average peak jumps to 712,630 honkers.

As the above figures show, Canada goose hunting in the SIQZ has changed mightily over the past 15 years, but it remains worthwhile for hunters willing to adapt to the changes. To put together a game plan for a successful SIQZ goose hunt, we need to know what causes the geese to move into the South Zone, when to plan a hunt, where to hunt and how to maximize your chances once you are in the goose pit.