New Jersey

Southern New Jersey holds upwards of 150,000 snow geese during the fall and spring. Most of these birds are in Salem and Cumberland county. Generally the birds show up in late October and leave in mid-March. New jersey snow goose hunting presents two unique challenges. First,these birds sometimes will fly over to Delaware to feed for the day. Another second factor to contend with here in New Jersey are the huge tidal marshes where the birds roost. Generally the birds will not leave the marsh preferring to stay and feed on the salt hay fields that are so numerous in New Jersey tidal marshes. But once the weather turns cold that is when the birds head inland from 2- 20 miles to find higher protein food like corn, soybean or wheat. We have farms in both Salem and Cumberland county. All or our farms are inland anywhere from 2 -12 miles from the roost areas for these birds. As mentioned above, our best hunting is the first cold snap when the birds head inland for high protein food. Snow geese prefer large farms and our farms vary in size from 60-415 acres. We have leased these farms for over ten years so we have a good idea of when they will use them. And of course we scout daily and have area farmers looking for us also. Snow goose hunting requires a huge amount of decoys. We use mostly silosocks and some full bodies. More so than any other waterfowl, huge spreads of decoys are an important part to harvest snow geese. Being on the ‘X” is most important but we have had a lot of good hunts (25-50 birds) just getting under the birds and hunting traffic. 200 decoys was deadly ten years ago but today 500-1500 decoys are needed for those same results. Generally our best hunting is when it gets cold and the birds head to the fields to feed. Another good time for us is February- March season for a couple reasons. The conservation season begins and the e-callers really help decoys birds especially the small bunches and it also helps tremendously on traffic hunts. Tens of thousands of snow geese move into our area this time of the season. They are starting to stage to head north and gradually move north along the tidal marshes as they stage. And lastly, like all waterfowl, windy days really produce especially when using Silosocks. Remember we are hunting snow geese that are about as predictable as the weather. These are very skittish and finicky birds that have no real agenda when it comes to decoying. The rule with snow geese are there are no rules. Let the fun begin!

Our fresh water impoundments have the two ingredients essential for great puddle duck hunting- shallow water and a variety of natural foods.These impoundments provide ducks with high quality natural foods-wild rice, duck weed, smart weed and duck celery. These impoundments are 60-100 acres which means there is plenty of food throughout the gunning season. We also plant some wild rice each spring. These large impoundments are also big enough for birds to loaf on all day long without being disturbed. Also our impoundments are far apart which means we are hunting different bunches of birds to help keep our hunting consistently good. We like to use hand -carved cork decoys along with GHG decoys because of their realism and larger size. Most of the birds we are hunting travel in small bunches so 2-3 dozen decoys is plenty along with a few mojos when conditions dictate. We take a large variety of puddle ducks over the course of the season on these large impoundments. In the early season, (Oct -Nov) we mainly take smaller ducks- blue-wing teal, green-wing teal, wood ducks and mallards. In the late season, (Nov-Dec) we take a larger ducks and variety- a few straggler teal and wood ducks but mainly mallards and gadwall and some days pintail, widgeon and shovelers. We also take some Canada geese when conditions are right.

Due to its large number of grain farms, southern New Jersey hosts some of the largest concentrations of Canada geese in the state. We are surrounded by large bodies of water that hold good concentrations of geese throughout the season. This water is both tidal and non tidal so freeze up is not a problem. Another bonus of hunting in New Jersey is the Canada Goose limits and seasons can be different from Delaware allowing more opportunities in the field. We offer both Maryland and New Jersey Canada goose hunting during the September season.Both states can offer great hunting when conditions are right. Now that we are hunting two states it increases our chances to consistently put our clients on birds.Our two hunting areas in these two states are only an hour apart, we can easily scout both areas on a daily basis.Most of these resident birds are very vulnerable to good calling and decoys particuarly the juveniles. We manage over 9 farms encompassing about 2200 acres in south Jersey and Marylands’ Eastern show which helps ensure no one farm is overgunned. These are all leased farms. All of our hunts are in bean, corn or wheat fields – a favorite of Canada geese.These three crops provide Canada geese the food they love and need throughout the gunning season. Kevin Popo Guide Service also provides large spreads of today’s top-quality decoys. We use both Big Foot and Real Geese decoys to provide you with the best opportunity of harvesting Canada geese. Depending on the weather and field conditions, these realistic decoys can mean the difference betwwen a good or slow day especially on late season geese. All of our decoys are well maintained and new decoys are bought on an annual basis. Both our New Jersey Canada goose hunting and Maryland Canada goose hunting is done from large, spacious and well-maintained pits. Our pits are all 16-20 ft long and 6 ft wide to ensure you stay dry and comfortable no matter how bad the weather. You haven’t experienced atrue Canda goose hunt until you have geese literally trying to landing on your head!!. Some days world-class calling is the difference between a mediocre hunt and a limit hunt. We make the sounds (or notes) needed to have the birds landing right at your feet because we realize you are here to experience a memorable canada goose hunt not to listen to a great caller.