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Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:01 pm
by team216
It varies day by day, these are just my experiences. And how I run my sets. New birds on cold days we like I like to run about 4dz floaters, 1 or 2dz shells along the bank or a sandbar depending on how much room you have to set them. If it's warm and we aren't seeing a whole lot we run less. I like to run a slightly bigger spread then what I'm seeing in the flocks flying if we don't have a lot in the area.
With stale birds, a few floaters I mean like 1-4 will work wonders. With just simple calling single clucks usually will pull the birds with shot in their but like your hunting over a silage pile.
Just try different things. I always like to bring extra decoys cause its easy enough to just throw them back in the blind if it's not working right.

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 8:39 am
by Olly
I used to hunt them with about a dozen floaters on a big river back in MI and had good success at the early goose season up there.

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 9:53 am
by NuffDaddy
Anywhere from 3 on up to as many as you can fit. I ran 2-3 dozen when targeting them during early season on the bay. During duck season I'll throw 3 decoys off to the side. But I'm mainly looking for ducks that time of year.

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:54 pm
by outboardman
It really depends how big the flocks are. The bigger the flocks are the more goose decoys you need. Now on the water it seems to work less than on land but if your seeing flocks of 75 you will have trouble pulling them in with a dozen decoys. Remember you have to convince the smartest goose in the flock along with the rest of the geese that this is the place with the best food or safest resting spot.

Here is a tip, during the migration,if you get set up before daybreak and do some calling many times I will have migrators come to my water decoys in hopes of them(my decoys) being local geese and leading the migrators to the best food fields. I have seen them lift off the water and fly 200 or less yards to my decoys right at LST. If you miss this movement you will have to wait for them to come back to water after they have gone to fields and stuffed themselves. And that is when the rester geese decoys come into play.

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 10:39 am
by Archeryrob
Coot83 wrote:Thanks for the reply..I was thinking abt 6. We re hunting resident giants here..no real threat of migratory Canada's here unfortunately


We hunt residents all the time and they get wise to spots fast. You normally have to change the spot and spread layout up a lot.

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:23 pm
by parsonrider
As I was reading through the thread, it came to mind to observe the geese themselves, and let them determine what is needed. You said your hunting residents, they will behave differently than flight geese. Watch them to see if they are staying in family groups, you might be able to utilize a small amount of decoys but be able to mimic the nature of the geese there. Also are they following a loose schedule, due they fly into a certain area and then disperse? Residents will also know what is out of order, so you will have to be careful about disturbing anything. I would imagine you could use a minimal amount of blocks, mimic their behavior as to groupings and shoot a good share of them. Good Luck. :D

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:10 pm
by aunt betty
You have to scout. See how big the groups are and mimic that. (what the above post says) If they swim around in pairs, set them in pairs...hope this gives you the idea.

Re: Goose water spread

PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 11:59 pm
by Tomkat
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