Decoy Setups

[Booner]

Sorry guys this might be a silly question, Im new to the action of decoying geese, and i know there are prob many ways to setup on geese, went out for the evenig hunt today and something just wasnt working, 1000 or so geese flying into this feild the previous nights, so we gathered our gear and set up, SE wind we placed all our decoys facing into the wind at a tight pattern set up 4 coffin blinds and one goose chair, we had prob 25 flocks of geese fly in but they all would flare of just before shooting range,just am wondering what we were doiing wrong, and i know there are a number of things we couldeve done wrong but everything looked so good, (should all the decoys be looking in the same direction as the wind)? Thanx Booner

[ABDUKNUT]

I don't really pay attention to what direction my decoys are facing. Just don't make them all face the same direction. And definitely not all into the wind.

Make a big, loose, J, 'hook' or 'swoosh' design with them, and leave a lot of room right in front of the blinds. Use enough decoys around the blinds to help conceal your hide, but don't go overboard. Make sure, that your blinds are set facing downwind, with the wind at your back or on a slight angle. I like roughly 1/3 of the decoys in front of me, and the other 2/3 behind me. There needs to be enough room in the kill hole in front of you for a flock to land, so don't clutter it, and make the hole as wide as you can. Geese won't always come right into the hole-(but it's nice when they do), if you watch real live geese land in a field, there is no rhyme or reason to it. This is where calling comes into play- you attempt to 'tell' the birds where to land when they get very close.

The biggest mistake I see people making is putting the decoys all too close together, and too tight of a group. Put a few, but very few close together, but the rest should be spaced well apart, like 10-15'. Try to stagger the spacing so it doesn't look like a setup.

If the geese flared, it's because they didn't like your decoys, didn't like the way you had them set up, or they could see people hiding in them. Keep trying, and try to eliminate as many things as you can that are making them flare.

[whiskybaron]

Years ago I guided waterfowl hunts in Manitoba and I will have to agree with abduknut the mistake made beside concealment is not enough room to land imagine the wing span on a goose it is a few feet from tip to tip now you have several birds in a row trying to land they will not stuff themselves into a little hole they will go some where else or land to the ouytside of you're spread

[Dick284]

Sorry guys this might be a silly question, Im new to the action of decoying geese, and i know there are prob many ways to setup on geese, went out for the evenig hunt today and something just wasnt working, 1000 or so geese flying into this feild the previous nights, so we gathered our gear and set up, SE wind we placed all our decoys facing into the wind at a tight pattern set up 4 coffin blinds and one goose chair, we had prob 25 flocks of geese fly in but they all would flare of just before shooting range,just am wondering what we were doiing wrong, and i know there are a number of things we couldeve done wrong but everything looked so good, (should all the decoys be looking in the same direction as the wind)? Thanx Booner

If the geese were flaring something looked wrong to the geese. Likely nothing to do with your decoy lay out.

Shinny something, or frosty decoys, or a big ol white human face looking skyward.

For decoy set ups, you have to spot the geese before hand and see if they are browsing or hard core feeding in a single spot, browsing geese need a looser decoy spread while hard core on the spot birds can get away with a tighter spread.

Not all of your birds need to face into the wind, just the general layout of the spread should.

Leave a landing spot for the birds.

Most fellows use a U or V pattern of some sort, I've even seen the use of an X on calm days.

Some guys prefer to put the blinds at the down wind end of the spread for educated birds, while others will go to the outer edges of the spread.

Good luck

[Booner]

Thanx guys, the help is much apreciated will defently have to try some of them tactics, Thanx Booner