One food source crucial to the geese at this time of year is rye grass, which the geese will gorge themselves on. Another thing to look out for: an area in which the geese are getting grit. I hunted ducks with Fischer last year, and on the way out of the property, we found a spot that the geese were gritting in, and observed their flyway. The next day, he and his clients set up on the spot and shot a bunch of birds.

“It’s all about being able to have access to property and knowing what is hot for geese then,” he said.

Hunters in the Upper Coast area, especially along the Jefferson/ Chambers county lines and in Brazoria County are coming to discover that land purchased for the national wildlife refuge system is starting to work against them. For a spell last January, everyone thought the ducks and geese had deserted the southern end of Jefferson County. But then, while hunting with Fischer, I saw thousands of birds work from one part of the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge to another -- all within closed areas.

“The refuge system is something that is a factor with hunting nowadays,” observed Beaumont’s Jacob Hunt. “They only legally have to allow hunting in 30 percent of the refuge, and it is not always duck hunting they allow. Down here it is -- but they put it out in the middle of nowhere, and leave the sanctuary areas dominating the refuge. Hunters have to learn how to hunt around the refuges, and are having to start to work really hard to get them on the refuges.”

If, according to Ryan Warhola of Port Acres, you want to hunt refuge geese, you pretty much have to wait for a foggy morning and set up an ambush. “The one saving grace this time of year on the Upper Coast is that we get quite a few days where the big, thick sea fog comes in,” he said. “You basically have to find a flyway and position yourself along a levee and do a lot of calling. The geese are confused in the fog and you can hammer them when they fly right over the levee. That is probably the best pattern for public hunting this time of month for geese.”

On the Middle and Lower Coast, hunting is always reasonably steady. Agricultural production looks good for the season, and dry-ground hunting seems a stable proposition. As on the Upper Coast, refuges must be contended with, as well as increasing urbanization.

Hunters in this part of the state should expect some south-to-north flight as the month progresses. Depending on weather conditions, some geese will slowly start trickling up from Mexico and the Lower Laguna Madre region up into the Middle Coast area and staging for a larger migration northward. Some of the best areas for targeting geese when this occurs will be in cattle pastures that have seen little hunting pressure and in areas on the outskirts of town. By this time the geese are super-spooky, and will forgo preferred food sources to avoid hunting pressure.