SOUTHERN ILLINOIS GOOSE HUNTERS HOPE WEATHER BRINGS DOWN GEESE

WARE, Ill. -- Rich Whitten has some good news for waterfowl hunters in Southern Illinois.

"We have snow reports from Wisconsin," said Whitten, waterfowl biologist for the Illinois Department of Conservation. "That area has 5 inches of snow on the ground and more expected this weekend."

What this translates to is that Canada geese feeding in the Wisconsin area are leaving, heading for better weather to the south.

"That means Southern Illinois," explained Whitten, who is headquartered at the Union County Wildlife Refuge near Ware. "We also have reports from a number of areas that new groups of geese are arriving daily."

Hunters in the four-county Alexander, Union, Williamson and Jackson Quota Zone of Southern Illinois had their first shots at geese last weekend, more than a week later than the usual late-November opening.

Some geese were in the area for the opening of the season, but hunters were scarce, said hunting club operators.

"We've been open since Dec. 2," said Darold Billings of Billings Hunting Club near Olive Branch near Horseshoe Lake. "But we haven't had any hunters."

Billings, however, had a number of hunters scheduled for today. "We have several hunters booked from Saturday on," he said.

Billings has been keeping watch on movements of the geese.

"We've had a lot of geese over our pits," he said. "And we watched some new geese coming in Friday. Hopefully, things will start picking up."

Hunters in Alexander County, which includes the Horseshoe Lake area, known as the Goose Hunting Capitol of the World, bagged only 118 geese during opening weekend last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"We opened last weekend," said Jerry Clutts, operator at Marlin Hunting Club near Miller City. "We've been killing a few geese, but hunter numbers are down at this point. We expect that to pick up next week."

Clutts has also been watching the skies each morning for new geese. "We noticed new flocks coming in the past few days," he said.

An official Southern Illinois count was last made Nov. 28.

"We usually count every Monday," said Whitten. "But inclement weather prevented this week's count."

During the late-November count a total of 66,200 geese were spotted in the Southern Illinois area and Ballard County Wildlife Refuge in western Kentucky. That compares favorably with the count at the same time a year ago, said Whitten.

The largest concentration of geese, about 28,000, were found at Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge, but 21,000 were counted in the Horseshoe lake area. Another 8,000 geese were counted at Union County Refuge.

The first weekend's kill total in the quota zone was 673, with 552 in the Crab Orchard area.

The goose season, which opened Dec. 3, will run through Jan. 22, a total of 51 days, or until a quota of 39,800 is reached.

"That quota is up from last year's total," said Whitten. "We had a quota of 30,600 last season, but hunters killed more than 36,000."

"The hunting was great the last week of the season," said Clutts. "We killed a lot of geese."

Hunters throughout the quota zone bagged more than 6,000 birds during the final three or four days, Whitten said of last year's hunt.

"We missed our bet there," he said. "We established a closing day nine days in advance. And between Jan. 14 and 16, a major migration of geese came in."

When the full kill-count was in, it reached 36,648.

Statewide this year, the Canada geese quota is 109,600. The quota for the Rend lake Quota Zone in Franklin and Jefferson counties is 11,400, up from the 9,200 quota of last year.

Quotas are determined each year by a complicated system that involves the expected goose migration along with resident giant geese in the state.

A change has been made in reporting the kill this season.

"Last season, hunting clubs had to mail in their kill total twice a week," said Whitten. "This year, they have to call in the total twice a week."

Conservation officials expect a peak of up to 700,000 geese in the Southern Illinois and Ballard County areas this year.

"That would be up from last year," said Whitten. "The peak count here last year was 604,800. The all-time high in the area stretching from Carlyle Lake in Southern Illinois to the Ballard Refuge is 875,000, in 1991.

Hunting hours in the four-county quota zone and Rend lake zone are one-half hour before sunrise to 3 p.m. The daily bag limit in the two zones is two Canada geese.