Welcome to Kenmare

Feature Stories (Vol. 109 No. 43--10/24/2007)

World Champion Goose Caller offers hunting tips

By Caroline Downs

Shawn Stahl, a world champion goose caller from Allegan, Michigan, told a group of hunters in Kenmare on Saturday they shouldn’t work any harder than they have to get their birds.

"So many guys find a field and make a plan," he said. "Ninety percent of the people beat themselves out of a good hunt because they have predetermined notions. You don’t have the wind direction until you walk out into the field. You don’t know where your cover is, until you walk out into that field."

He paused and glanced at the camouflage-covered group standing around him in Kenmare’s City Park. "You only do as much as you have to do on that particular day," he said.

Stahl didn’t try to convince anyone that calling geese guaranteed success. "The more sounds you have, the more chances you have to screw things up," he said, "but calling can mean the difference between a four-yard shot and a twenty-yard shot, or calling back a group that has passed you by."

Instead, he encouraged hunters to avoid disrupting a natural situation. "We’re all trying to outsmart something with a brain the size of your thumbnail," he said. "You’ve got to remember, if you’re not there, they’re coming [to that field] anyway!"

He suggested calls as one tool for the goose hunter, along with a variety of decoys, covers or blinds, and plain old good sense. "As a group of hunters, we’re educating these birds," he said. "We’re conditioning them to know what hunters do on a daily basis, and not what geese do out in the field."

He continued, "You call birds in two different ways. Audibly, with a goose call, and visibly, with your decoy spread and flag."

Stahl talked about observing the birds and hunting according to those observations. "Early in the year, geese get hot," he said. "They’ll go out in a field to eat, then get back to the water and cool off. Later in the year, it’s cold. I’ve seen them eat, then set down and day-roost in the field until they’re hungry again. I’m not a goose, but all I can figure is they use less energy hanging out in the field."

Stahl hunts about 100 days each year, with a film crew tagging along for about 80 of those days. He told the group he usually chooses geese over ducks. "And I like to hunt the easy ones, the dumb ones," he said. "I prefer to hunt Canada geese, preferably the bigger Canada geese. They’re pretty predictable. The bigger Canada geese tend to decoy better and react a little better to a goose call."

He admired hunters who gave their time and energy to snow geese. "If I didn’t film so much, I’d hunt snow geese more, for the challenge," he said.

He described his own set-up to the group, beginning with a 6’x14’ cargo trailer loaded with 15 dozen full body decoys, 10 dozen shell decoys and 30 dozen silhouette decoys. "They’re tools for any situation," he said. "I may use the same decoy spread on September 1st as I do February 1st. I’ll use whatever it takes on that particular day."

A hunter asked about decoy arrangements in the field, and Stahl grinned. "I like to use what I call the ‘dump spread,’" he said. "That’s where one person is driving the truck across the field and the other person is in the back of the trailer dumping the decoys out!"

He talked about using blinds after another hunter asked him the best way to hide in a pea field. "Blinds are awesome, but they’re not as effective as they used to be ten years ago," he said, adding that geese are becoming conditioned to them like anything else.

He recommended trying a variety of methods, including simply laying out in clothes colored or dyed to match the ground, using a grass mat, or waiting under covers painted to match the color of the straw in the field. "You can also dig your blinds in, with permission from the landowners," he said. "But make sure you fill the holes back up."

Despite his cautions against goose calls, Stahl offered some basic advice. "Probably my number one sound is just a standard cluck," he said, demonstrating on one of the four calls hanging among the goose bands on his lanyard. "If you get two or three guys doing that back and forth, and they vary their cadence, tempo and pitch, that sounds more natural."

He described the differences among resonant cavity, tube, flute and short reed calls, with the last one considered the most versatile. "The short reed call is relatively easy to master," he said.

He also discussed prices. "What’s the difference between a $15 goose call and a $250 goose call?" he asked. "$235. They’ll both make all the sounds."

He continued, "At the higher price, you’re paying for materials, machining, hands-on tuning, and only you can decide if it’s worth it."

He suggesting talking to other hunters and researching calls on the Internet, as well as testing calls at hunting shows. "Go with a proven call," he said, "and then, where you need to spend the money is learning."

For Stahl, that means using instructional materials like audiotapes, CDs, DVDs and videos about calling, as well as driving out to the field and taking time to observe and listen to the geese. "If you can learn one thing to do, or not to do, that [money] is well spent," he said.

He finished, however, by returning to the idea that no one call, decoy or strategy was foolproof, including his own advice. "Not everything I’m saying works 100 percent of the time," he said. "People develop certain styles. Go with it, until it doesn’t work, then go with something different. Don’t throw yourself in a box because of something you heard or you read in a magazine ten years ago. You’re ultimately looking for one thing: wingtips to tailfeathers."

More information about Stahl, including further tips about calling geese, can be found at his website www.fowlpursuit.com.