ILLINOIS GOOSE SEASON ABOUT TO BEGIN

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Waterfowl experts are quick to agree that Canada geese have an uncanny knack for knowing the difference between friend and foe.

"Goose hunters may find out just how smart geese are early-on in the 1992 season," said Chesley Willis, who has been a part of the goose-hunting scene for several years.

"What we're going to be looking at are veteran geese, and they know their way around," he added. "They're difficult to decoy, and they can certainly test a hunter's wildlife-hunting skills."

Willis, who operated Willis Hunting Club until this year when he turned it over to his son, Mark, said hunters can expect a lot of older geese when the season opens Saturday.

"Hunters may be looking forward to a fall flight which just might be equal to last year," he said. "But hunting success may be affected by an unusually high proportion of older birds in the flock."

Wildlife officials expect the goose population in the Southern Illinois area to total about a million this year, which is similar to numbers here in 1991.

"But, they tell us that gosling survival was limited in the Hudson and James Bay areas of Canada," Willis said. "An unexpected snowstorm dumped about eight inches of snow over two-thirds of the breeding area immediately after the hatch."

As a result this year's flight we'll have an unusually high proportion of older, hunter-wary birds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services predicts that older birds will make up more than 80 percent of geese which make the long flight from Canada to their winter nesting grounds.

The season starts Saturday in the Southern Illinois "quota zone," which is comprised of a four-county area Alexander, Union, Williamson and Jackson.

"We need more geese," Willis said. "The latest count here, on Nov. 2, shows only 11,800 geese around the Horseshoe Lake area, and only 33,000 in the entire quota zone. That figure is down about 10,000 over the count during the same area a year ago."

"Officials are predicting that 1992 will be as good as last year," said Gene Fore, who manages Lakeside Hunting Club in the Horseshoe Lake area. "But, it's too early to tell now.

"There's just not enough geese here to start the season," said Fore. "But, we are booked up for the first weekend. After that, we have openings."

Todd Goodman of Timberline Hunting Club of Williamson County said he's expecting a good season this year.

"Because of that snow in Canada, there will be more older birds, and hunters will have to be smarter hunters this year," he said.

Goodman said he was booking hunters all the way through Dec. 31. "I doubt that we will reach our quota by then," he added.

There have been some changes made for the 1992 season in the quota zone, including a Saturday start.

"This is the first time I can remember starting on a Saturday," said Willis. "The season usually opens on a Monday."

The quota-zone season will run Nov. 14-Jan. 31. The bag limit will be two Canada geese, with a possession limit of four. This represents a change. A year ago, the bag limit was three per day.

The quota for geese in the zone also has been cut by more than 30,000 birds, from 72,400 to 39,500.

"I don't think the quota will be reached," said Goodman. "Last year, despite the three-bird limit, we harvested only 26,000 birds. That may seem like a small harvest, but it's higher than the 11-year average, and was the fourth highest harvest this decade."

Statewide, the goose season was the second best in 10 years in Illinois, with a total of 95,750 geese harvested.

Goose hunting is big business in Illinois and provides a multi-million dollar economic boost to Southern Illinois each year.

The quota-zone, which includes the Horseshoe Lake Wildlife Refuge near Olive Branch long noted as the "Goose Hunting Capital of The World" and the Union County area, attracts its fair share of hunters each year.

According to a goose-hunting survey conducted by the Williamson County Tourism Bureau following the 1990-91 season, goose hunters bring more money into an area than any other type of hunter.

Based on a "hunter-day" system, more than 80,800 hunter days were logged in the quota zone during the 1990-91 season, with about 75 percent of the hunters considered "visitors." According to the survey, each of the "visitor" hunters spent $115.16 per hunter day.

That tallies out to $9.4 million, and when expenses of the local hunters are figured in, the total soars well past the $10 million mark.

Another survey, conducted in the mid-1980s revealed that hunters averaged just over $350 per goose harvested in the quota zone. About 30,000 geese were harvested in the Quota Zone last season, which computes to a boost to the local economy of more than $10.5 million in the four-county area.

Restaurants, motels, grocery markets, service stations and other businesses from Olive Branch to Cape Girardeau, and Anna to Carbondale and Marion, all share in the annual economic boom created by the annual goose season.

During the latest aerial count, this week, a total of 11,800 geese were counted in the Horseshoe Lake area; more than 11,300 were in the Crab Orchard area; 6,500 in Union County and about 1,000 each at Rend Lake, Campbell Pond, and at the Ballard County Refuge in West Kentucky.

Celebrating the flight of geese into Southern Illinois will be the focus of the 11th annual Goose Fest, scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 15 at the Horseshoe Lake spillway.

The annual event features live entertainment, goose and duck calling contests, arts and crafts and many other events throughout the day.