LEESVILLE LAKE
Leesville Lake is another MWCD lake offering good shooting when the weather is mild. A hard freeze will push the birds off the lake, and they may scatter into the surrounding 2,700 acres of public lands. If the temperature cooperates, Leesville Lake can offer outstanding Canada goose hunting. There are some restricted areas on the property, so it would be wise to get a map from the MWCD office. The water and fields are open for hunting, but most sections around campgrounds and buildings that are frequently used by the public are off-limits to hunters.

Open pockets of water on the reservoir or on McGuire Creek attract geese when the weather is cold. If you can locate open water, you should find at least some resident Canadas.

The Leesville Lake Wildlife Area is part of the public hunting land managed by the MWCD. The area is in three parcels totaling 394 acres and is accessible from state Route 164, Delta Road and Edgewood Road.

Leesville Lake lies in Carroll County five miles south of Carrollton on state Route 332. The area is 25 miles from Canton and 40 miles from Akron.

ATWOOD LAKE
Atwood Lake is well worth checking out, thanks to its local goose population. If it's not frozen over, good numbers of migrant birds will settle in for a rest.

By now, geese will be wary and will be in the middle of the lake, rather than along the shoreline.

Try to set up by first light and be ready for their outbound flights to area grain fields.

Combine calling and field decoys to bring in the geese on the flight path between the water and the fields and tempt the birds into cutting their flight short. Concealment and calling must be good because December geese are suspicious, and anything out of the ordinary will spook them.

There are cabins, a lodge and other public-use areas around which hunting is restricted.

Thousands of acres of prime waterfowl habitat are available on state-owned lands in Ohio's Wildlife District Three.

Atwood Lake is managed by the MWCD and is at the western edge of Dellroy along state Route 542. The lake sprawls across parts of both Carroll and Tuscarawas counties, covering 1,529 acres of water and bordering 3,000 acres of land.

CLENDENING LAKE
Clendening Lake is an 1,800-acre MWCD lake in Harrison County.

The lake is long and thin, over seven miles long, and bordered by 4,800 acres of public land. Its hunting opportunities are typical of those afforded by other MWCD waters.

As a matter of fact, since it's bigger than some of the other area lakes, it will have an even bigger draw on the geese. In December, geese start congregating on these bigger bodies of water because they offer more security for nighttime roosting spots.

Clendening is undeveloped by MWCD standards, but is open to public hunting during the late season. Public access is limited to township and county roads off state routes 799 and 800.

In this wooded region, there are fewer farms than are found around other MWCD lakes, but that doesn't seem to discourage the honkers.

At Clendening Lake, pre-hunt scouting can definitely pay off. Locating open-water roosting areas on the lake, fields where the birds spend the day and the numbers of birds available are all clues to the most productive spots.

METZGER MARSH WILDLIFE AREA
Though not technically a part of District Three, the Metzger Wildlife Area deserves to be included in a discussion about northeastern Ohio's great goose-hunting opportunities.