Sarley: Why goose hunting is fairly easy to do around here

I don’t talk enough about hunting because I operate under the mistaken impression that hunting is losing steam as far as popularity is concerned.

I was thrilled to read a report that Illinois youth deer hunters set a record for the season, harvesting 4,714 deer, as opposed to 4,097 animals last year. That is quite an increase.

Of course, very few deer are harvested in the six-county area we reside in, but fresh venison is worth the journey.

Our area of the state does not offer very many opportunities to go out and harvest a meal. Upland game, such as pheasant, partridge, quail and dove just don’t have suitable habitat for survival and reproduction in Northern Illinois for a variety of reasons.

Most folks that want to bag a limit of tasty birds, like pheasant, rely on the operation of hunt clubs that stock and maintain a population of game birds for your hunting pleasure. That’s not really my cup of tea, but I do really enjoy watching the dogs do their thing, flushing and retrieving.

If you have a craving to do some shooting, waterfowl may be the thing for you. Duck season just started, but there are a number of asterisks in regard to that. Duck hunting is harder to do because of having to find locations to hunt and the fact that water is involved. It takes different and specialized equipment for the most part.

I’m going to talk about goose hunting, It’s fairly easy to do. The season runs from Oct. 18 through Jan. 15. There is a season for local geese in September, but nobody uses that season. These local geese are on golf courses and public parks and you can’t shoot there.

To hunt geese. You need to arm yourself with a basic 12-gauge shotgun and wear camouflage clothing. My friend, Spence Petros, rings on doorbells that belong to farmers in the McHenry County area and asks for permission to use their land. When he gets it, he simply lies on his back in the middle of a farm field that has been harvested. He sticks his favorite call in his mouth when he sees a flock looking for a place to land and that’s it. He can harvest his limit of two birds in an exceptionally short time.

If you want to get out with a pro, Jeff Norris from the Fox Valley Guide Service is the best around. His website is the appropriately named www.comekillgeese.com. He operates his clean, well-kept goose blinds in the far Western suburbs of Chicago, conveniently located near Randall Road and Route 88 near North Aurora.

I find it amazing to have a hunting operation so close by to nearby suburbs. I know a guy who invites 25 people to shoot geese amazingly close (but perfectly legal) to a housing development. The shooters sit on buckets less than a football field away from the Elburn train station. You should see the faces on the commuters waiting for the train as the hunters harvest birds.

Norris and the Fox Valley Guide Service will send you home with your freshly cleaned goose breasts for a fee. It’s worth the small price. They’ll also offer you some excellent recipes for preparing your goose breasts. The recipes are definitely worth following because I find that goose breasts are difficult to turn into a delicious meal.

Wurst Kitchen, a butcher at 638 Second Ave. in Aurora, will take in your goose breasts and turn them into delicious jerky and sticks, if you like. Bon Apetit.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.