Gumbo mud sucked at my boots as I drove the stakes of snow goose rag decoys into stubble of a harvested rice field. With no city lights for miles round, a thick blackness covered everything beneath the brilliant stars of the December morning. As the first orange flickers of dawn lit the vast coastal prairie of southeastern Texas, the cries of thousands of geese gradually rose in the distance.

They're gettin' ready to move," drawled our guide, Rod Atkins, hurriedly unwrapping a bundle of rags. "There're probably 10,000 geese on that roost pond."

In less than 15 minutes, our five-man hunting party placed a massive spread of 500 plastic rag decoys, arranged in a loose configuration of scattered family groups resembling a large feeding flock. Inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to deploy, rags have long been the decoys of choice among outfitters in southeastern Texas, where snow goose hunting is a multi-million-dollar industry. After donning white parkas, the uniform of all snow goose hunters in the Lone Star State, my hunting partners~senior DU volunteers John E. Walker, Gail Siemen, and Jim Rutta and I took up our shooting positions along a rice levee, while Rod and his golden retriever lay down in the stubble among the decoys behind us.

Over the horizon, long, undulating waves of geese rose off the roost and fanned out over the prairie on their morning flight to feed in surrounding rice fields. Several flocks winged in our direction, and soon the air above the decoys was filled with hundreds of geese. The high-pitched cries of snows, blues, and Ross' geese, and the shrill laughing of white-fronted geese commonly known as specklebellies rose into a deafening, airborne cacophony, that drowned out our attempts to call.

I lifted my eyes skyward, but didn't move for fear of spooking the geese. Under the bill of my cap, I watched great clouds of snows and blues, as well as smaller formations of specklebellies, sailing in lazy circles overhead. Suddenly, a trio of specklebellies parachuted from a larger flock, side-slipping downward over the decoys in front of us. As Rod called the shot, Jim and John shouldered their autoloaders and folded two birds with well-aimed charges of steel BBs. Shortly after retrieving the geese, another wave of specklebellies glided directly into the spread, enabling Gail and me to easily take our limit of one prized bird each.

The willingness of the specklebellies to decoy, however, contrasted sharply with the wariness of the far more numerous snows and blues. Staggering numbers of the birds streamed overhead against the pale blue sky, but few showed interest in our decoy spread and team calling efforts. Although several thousand geese had visited the field the day before, flock after flock spiraled downward over an adjacent field, joining an ever expanding drove of feeding birds that drew trading flocks from miles around. While the avian spectacle was impressive to watch, we managed to scratch down only three juvenile snows that strayed over the spread at maximum shotgun ranges throughout the morning.

It's no surprise that snow geese are considered by many to be the toughest of all waterfowl to hunt. With an average age of more than eight years, most of the birds are veterans of several hunting seasons and, in most situations, are unlikely to be fooled by conventional hunting tactics. The gregarious nature of snow geese also makes them challenging quarries. Paradoxically, hunting success rates for snow geese have declined as the birds have grown more abundant. Despite increasingly liberal harvest regulations, waterfowlers have been unable to slow the exponential growth of the mid-continent lesser snow goose population, now rapidly destroying its fragile tundra breeding habitat in northern Canada. In recent years, waterfowlers have annually harvested approximately 600,000 lesser snow geese throughout North America. To reduce the mid-continent lesser snow goose population to a sustainable level, waterfowl managers estimate that hunters must take an additional 1 million birds each year. Given how difficult snow geese are to hunt using conventional tactics, waterfowlers have their work cut out for them.

So, what are the secrets to successful snow goose hunting? Ask the experts.

"One of the most important factors influencing our hunting success each year is the size of the goose hatch," says Clifton Tyler, a veteran snow goose hunting outfitter in Eagle Lake, Texas. "Juvenile birds are much more susceptible to calling and decoys than adults. We have our most productive hunting seasons after a good hatch, when there are lots of young birds in the flocks."

Another variable that has a profound impact on snow goose hunting success is the weather. "It's very difficult to decoy snow geese on calm, bluebird days," Tyler says. "The best days are windy with low cloud cover. A strong wind creates a lot of movement in the decoys and forces the birds to fly low. Bad weather also seems to disorient the flocks and makes them more willing to decoy."

Tyler leases several thousand acres of rice fields, giving him exclusive access to large concentrations of feeding geese. "Like all kinds of waterfowling, the key to snow goose hunting is setting up in the place where the birds want to be," Tyler says. "We spend a lot of time scouting in the afternoons, following flocks from roosting ponds to the rice fields. Once large numbers of geese begin using a field, we watch them for a couple days until they have established a feeding pattern. Ideally, we like to set up in fields that geese have been using for two days. Snow geese have very little loyalty to a rice field, and one day is not enough to be certain that the birds will come back. If you wait three days, they may strip the field clean like a swarm of locusts and move on."

Johnny "Hoot" Gibson, who has been guiding snow goose hunters in east central Arkansas since the early 1980s, agrees that location is critical to the success of a snow goose hunt. "The name of the snow goose hunting game is mobility and versatility," Gibson says. "I frequently drive up to 150 miles in an afternoon of scouting. In the mornings, I like to place my decoys exactly where the birds have been feeding in a field and in the same configuration. In the afternoons, you can have good success by setting up between two feeding flocks or between a feeding flock and roost. That way, you can pick off birds trading between different flocks."

Gibson hunts with massive spreads of windsock decoys that he makes by hand. Although somewhat abstract in appearance, the light, plastic decoys closely resemble snow geese in size, shape, and color, and move in a light breeze like living birds. "Snow geese feed in such large concentrations that I like to use a minimum of 1,000 decoys," Gibson says. "The wind socks enable us to set out and pick up a big spread without killing ourselves. It's important to position your decoys in the same pattern as feeding birds. Snow geese remain in family groups throughout the winter, so you should place your decoys in small bunches of three to five birds."

Because snow goose flocks in the Mississippi and Central flyways are composed of as many blues as white birds, Gibson's decoy spread includes an equal number of both color phases, as well as a smattering of gray decoys, resembling juvenile birds. "You are not going to decoy snow geese anymore by simply by putting a lot of white on the ground," Gibson attests. "Your spread should reflect the diversity of plumage colors found in natural flocks."

Although Texas rags and windsock decoys remain the most popular decoys among snow goose hunters, Randy Bartz, a veteran Minnesota goose guide and manufacturer of Flagman waterfowl products, is among a growing number of waterfowlers who have switched to more lifelike decoys in recent years. "Snow geese have become experts at spotting decoy spreads, so I try to use a variety of decoys to give my spread a different look," Bartz says. "It's especially important to include decoys that look realistic from above, such as shells and full-bodied decoys, because that is the angle from which most flocks will be inspecting your spread."

Bartz is also a firm believer in the importance of having lots of movement in the decoy spread. "If you watch a large flock of feeding snow geese, you will see the birds are constantly moving, either by walking or flying short distances, while competing for food," Bartz says. "To simulate this natural movement, I like to mix motion decoys, such as wind socks, with my other decoys. Flagging is also a highly effective way to create the fluttering movement of birds picking up and landing, commonly seen in feeding flocks. I assign every hunter in my party a T-flag and encourage everybody to use them continuously while geese are working the decoys."

Perhaps the most neglected and misunderstood aspect of the art of snow goose hunting is calling. "One of the greatest misconceptions among waterfowlers is that snow geese have a simplistic language consisting of short, high-pitched barks," says Tim Petersen, a veteran snow goose guide and designer of Goose Magnet decoys. "Snow geese bark primarily while in the air, which is of little value to hunters trying to draw birds into decoys. On the ground, snow geese make a complex range of clucking, grunting, and murmuring calls. That's why snow geese respond so well to electronic callers, because a tape recording of live birds includes the wide variety of sounds the birds make while feeding."

Petersen contends that with the exception of recently developed diaphragm calls, most commercially manufactured snow goose calls are not capable of reproducing the most important sounds made by feeding snow geese. As a result, he prefers short-reed Canada goose calls, which have a much greater tonal range. "To imitate the bedlam produced by a flock of feeding snow geese, you need several callers working together like a musical group," Petersen says. "Hunters should strive to create a constant wall of sound, composed of a blend of high-pitched barks, low-range feeding murmurs, and excited gabble. Also, watch the birds to see what they respond to best. On some days, they may like one sound more than another. Give the birds what they want to hear."

Another common mistake made by snow goose hunters is their failure to conceal themselves from the sharp eyes of the birds. Many snow goose guides continue to outfit their hunters in white parkas to blend in with the surrounding decoy spread, while others have begun using coffin blinds to completely hide themselves from view. "Concealment isn't much of a factor on windy days, when there is a lot of movement in the decoys," Tyler attests. "However, on calm days, you have to be still to keep the birds from spotting you." Gibson adds, "Hunters flare a lot of snow geese by not keeping their faces down. Even in a white spread, snow geese can spot a pink, shiny face like a neon sign."

Anyone who has ever spent a cold morning lying in a muddy field watching flock after flock of snow geese ignore their decoys knows how challenging it is to hunt these wary birds. Nevertheless, generous bag limits and lengthy seasons offer snow goose hunters incomparable hunting opportunities.

As snow geese continue to grow dangerously overpopulated, more waterfowlers must take up the challenge, and take more snow geese, to save the birds and their fragile habitats from a disastrous fate.