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This time of year the Canada's have pretty much seen it all and are pretty spooky, so I ask the question.
What do you do different when field hunting late Canada's as far as spread numbers, decoy paterns, shot gun loads etc,?

Well last year I downsized my spreads even to the fact of running 5 or 6 decoys but it has to be right field and conditions.. Seemed to work great for me last year everyone I seen seems to think need to go huge to get these smart birds but last Feb me and my boy ran as small as 2 decoys and pulled birds in..

Bowjoe wrote:Well last year I downsized my spreads even to the fact of running 5 or 6 decoys but it has to be right field and conditions.. Seemed to work great for me last year everyone I seen seems to think need to go huge to get these smart birds but last Feb me and my boy ran as small as 2 decoys and pulled birds in..

We thought about that this weekend and almost did, but decided to put 120 full bodies out and spread them out wide in family groups. It looked a few times like we had the right idea but just couldn't get them to finish.
I dont know if it was lack of motion in the spead or the lay out blinds, we put the blinds back aways this time and had them covered real well so the birds would just focus on the spread, but i think sometimes they just set up to high.
Sounds like everyone in that area is having the same issue, we just need fresh birds.

Can't speak with authority to Canadas, but I've had good success downsizing to a couple or three decoys, or none at all in places where it's not readily apparent there's nothing on the ground, for wary specks. Will also try to place my few decoys so birds must pass the guns to get to them and even "hide" them near uneven features to make them more difficult to discern as manikins. Naturally, good calling then becomes the draw if I'm not able to set up on a spot the birds have been using, but the combination calling and difficult to discern decoys does work on trafficing birds. Should go without saying in the late season that first rate concealment is mandatory.

Flyway Stalker wrote:

Bowjoe wrote:Well last year I downsized my spreads even to the fact of running 5 or 6 decoys but it has to be right field and conditions.. Seemed to work great for me last year everyone I seen seems to think need to go huge to get these smart birds but last Feb me and my boy ran as small as 2 decoys and pulled birds in..

We thought about that this weekend and almost did, but decided to put 120 full bodies out and spread them out wide in family groups. It looked a few times like we had the right idea but just couldn't get them to finish.
I dont know if it was lack of motion in the spead or the lay out blinds, we put the blinds back aways this time and had them covered real well so the birds would just focus on the spread, but i think sometimes they just set up to high.
Sounds like everyone in that area is having the same issue, we just need fresh birds.

My buddies had a good day yesterday. 1 short of a 3 man limit. Put out normal amount of decoys but pulled everything in TIGHT, like black hole tight. Also said they flagged aggressive as hell, all the way to the gun most times.

sws002 wrote:

Flyway Stalker wrote:

Bowjoe wrote:Well last year I downsized my spreads even to the fact of running 5 or 6 decoys but it has to be right field and conditions.. Seemed to work great for me last year everyone I seen seems to think need to go huge to get these smart birds but last Feb me and my boy ran as small as 2 decoys and pulled birds in..

We thought about that this weekend and almost did, but decided to put 120 full bodies out and spread them out wide in family groups. It looked a few times like we had the right idea but just couldn't get them to finish.
I dont know if it was lack of motion in the spead or the lay out blinds, we put the blinds back aways this time and had them covered real well so the birds would just focus on the spread, but i think sometimes they just set up to high.
Sounds like everyone in that area is having the same issue, we just need fresh birds.

My buddies had a good day yesterday. 1 short of a 3 man limit. Put out normal amount of decoys but pulled everything in TIGHT, like black hole tight. Also said they flagged aggressive as hell, all the way to the gun most times.

Flagging definitely was working, but we didn't think to put them tight. With the weather as warm as it was we went the oppisite and spread them wide. How many is a normal amount for you guys to put out?

We've got about 8 dozen full bodies and a couple dozen socks in our spread, but they also hunted with a guy with a trailer himself, so not sure how many were put out total.