"The next step, that night, I get permission. And if I get it, next morning we set up decoys and wait for them to come in. We use about 50 of them; I have about 50 full-bodies, and then I use shells around the outside of those -- about six dozen of those. So I am using quite a few decoys. It takes me about an hour (to put out a spread) if I am by myself."

To do that, Dittus gets out before daylight. He wants to be in good position with his decoys spread out by the time the birds start flying.

"Later in the season, like in December, it doesn't matter if you are out there at daylight," he said. "They sit tight for a while. But early in the season, I go out earlier."

A lot of the bird-hunting interest seems to center on pheasants. And farmers are even eager to have hunters come on their land to kick up the waterfowl that eat their feed.

"I am a resident around here, so I know most of the farmers and don't have too much of a problem," said Dittus. "It is fairly good getting permission."

Residents have a built-in advantage because they should have a good network of contacts already established. That's important, of course, whenever a hunter is seeking permission to hunt on private property.

"There is really not much public hunting nearby," said Dittus. "We do have quite a bit of public land right next to the lake, but that has no cultivated fields on it. It is just tall grass that doesn't draw geese into it. We have some people who jump-shoot them as they come off the lake. They set in that tall grass. It is fairly good.

"I have lived in this town for, like, 30 years. We have always had geese. We need to have bad weather up north before they really migrate through. Last year was too nice; I had some DU people from New York come out and hunt with me."

The hunting was tough early in the season, before the bigger flocks came down from Canada. "There weren't that many geese around," said Dittus, "and those that were, were spooky. But when Thanksgiving rolled around, it was fabulous."

Early in the season, North Dakota goose hunters go after the local geese that live within the state all year. They are well established, and now make up an important part of the population of birds that are hunted by Dakota sportsmen.

"We have the resident geese early on," said Dittus. "Last year, the migration didn't really start until Thanksgiving. Then we just had thousands of them. They will stay until past the goose season. They will even stay all year; it depends on the snow. Once the fields get covered they will head out. It takes quite a bit of snow for them to leave. They are mostly Canada geese.

"We are seeing a few more snows (snow geese) every year, it seems. They will stay for a few days, and then are gone. They don't hang around like the Canadas."