Photo By Tom Migdalski

Mark Twain, upon hearing the rumor of his demise, remarked: "Reports of my death are premature." Much the same can be said of reports that waterfowl hunting in southern Illinois ended when Canada geese decided to spend their winters in the northern part of the state. When the migrating flocks forsook the big southern refuges that had for so long provided for them, everyone wrote off what had become an annual waterfowl hunting tradition.

Well, everyone except those southern Illinois goose hunters whose biological clock sends them into blinds and pits each fall regardless of the challenges presented by a greatly reduced influx of Canada geese. Not only did they continue to hunt, but also they quickly took steps to revive their moribund sport. Indeed, reports of the death of southern Illinois waterfowling were premature.

Realizing that their now deserted hunting area at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers lay directly in the path of migrating ducks, these hunters began to implement measures that would lure the southbound ducks to the now vacant refuges in the former three county quota zone.

Each of the refuges, at Crab Orchard, (Marion County), Union County Refuge and Horseshoe Lake, (Alexander County), offer plenty of open water for loafing and roosting, and many acres of managed agricultural land provided ample foraging space.

While some of the private hunting clubs and public daily fee hunting operations have simply folded their tents and disappeared, a goodly number of them began a transition that would return their area to prominence as prime waterfowling destinations. Using heavy earth-moving equipment, small levees were pushed up around corn fields, allowing them to be flooded with 1 or 2 feet of water in early fall, creating an irresistible lure for any ducks that had begun using the refuges abandoned by geese.

With the levees in place, the club operators installed strategically located pits and blinds that would position hunters around the flooded corn to take advantage of varying wind patterns. This did not, however, indicate that the goose pits in other fields were abandoned.

While the huge flocks of Canada geese had become a distant memory, inclement weather up north still pushed varying numbers of the big birds into their former haunts. Day to day, goose hunting around the big three refuges can be an iffy proposition, but when hungry honkers abandon the snow-covered fields in the northern counties, they can provide some hot and heavy hunting in the Southern Zone.

In spite of heavy hunting pressure, and expanded seasons, the snow goose population continues to grow. As it does, the birds have expanded their traditional range, spilling over into southern Illinois. At times both the Union County and Horseshoe Lake refuges will hold as many as 30,000 snow and blue geese. Because the hilly nature of the land bordering the Crab Orchard Refuge offers only small agricultural fields, snow geese generally bypass the area. It should be noted that Crab Orchard always attracts the largest concentration of Canada geese.

In addition to the already large and growing population of wintering ducks and snow geese, another newcomer has arrived on the Southern Zone scene. White-fronted, or speckle-bellied geese are showing up regularly, and in good numbers. Considered the best eating goose of them all, "specs" can be readily decoyed, especially when they are newly arrived.

Those hunters who are considering a waterfowl-hunting excursion to the revitalized Southern Zone should ask three important questions: when, where and how. I began goose hunting in the Southern Zone in 1968, and missed but one season between then and 1996, when it became apparent the party was over. But since the emphasis has switched over to duck hunting, I have returned to my former hangouts the last four years running.