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Goose Hunting 101

Unlike hunting ducks, the majority of goose hunting takes place in on land in agriculture fields. This is partly due to the vast amount of water that geese use are within large goose refuges, or water within city limits such as industrial park ponds, farm ponds, sewage treatment ponds, and rivers that run through many towns and cities. But there's one place all the above geese will go to almost every day in the fall, a field or pasture to feed in or to just loaf around.

Location

There’s nothing more important than setting up in the right location. Whether you’re hunting the X or traffic you need to get out there and scout to determine both of these types of locations. When hunting geese these locations will typically be a corn, barley, bean, or hay field. The field should also be large enough that approaching geese don’t have to fly over or land near buildings, fence lines, ditches, and brush. You may get by setting up near these obstacles in the early season, but not on later season geese after they have become educated.

Typically geese will land on the high parts of a field versus a valley in the field. When scouting be sure to note the location the birds are landing at, not just where you seen them. Because geese will travel in a field when feeding the location you might have spotted them in and the location where they actually felt safe landing in are to different spots and may be several hundred yards apart. By not setting up your decoy spread where the geese actual landed you could be setting up your self for a lot of frustration the next day.

Concealment

Second in importance to location is staying hidden from the incoming geese. If geese detect your movement or they can see you they are not going to finish and it won’t matter how good your calling is or how many decoys you have. Low profile blinds are very important when setting up in fields for geese. Hunting fresh cut hay fields or pastures can present a real problem because they are so flat. This is when just a sheet of Fast Grass can be the most effective solution as it keeps your profile closer to the ground than any ground blind will. Regular clothing dye can be used to color the Fast Grass to the situation you are hunting.

Decoys And Spreads

Two rules apply when setting up your goose decoy spread: incoming geese will always land into the wind and will always look for an open pocket to land in. If your decoy spread doesn’t have an open area, or the open area is not large enough the entire flock to land in, the geese will simply leave or end up short stopping your spread. Short stopping is when the geese land down wind of your spread and just out of shotgun range, which is just as bad as leaving. A simple way to visualize how your decoys should be set up is to think of a U or V that is facing into the wind. By setting your decoys in a fashion that is similar to a U or V you will end up with an open area, or landing zone for the incoming birds to land in. When setting up your decoys the majority of them should be facing into the wind, but not all of them.

Numbers

Depending upon the situation, geese can be killed over as few as 6 decoys, or it may take as many as 8-14 dozen. During opening weekend or if your hunting the X where the geese want to be 6 – 12 decoys is usually enough. But when you can’t hunt the X and you’re just setting up underneath their flight pattern it will most often take 4 – 8 dozen decoys. By scouting an area and seeing first hand just how many birds are using the area you will also be able to know about how many decoys to set up the next day. If a given area is holding 20-40 geese there’s no reason to set up 80 decoys.

Other factors that will determine the number of decoys to use are competition from other hunters and how heavily the geese have been hunted. When faced with competition from other hunters you will need to use more decoys. With geese feeling safety in numbers a larger spread will also help when hunting pressured birds.

Size

With the first function of a goose decoy being attraction size does matter. The bigger the decoy the further the geese can see your spread. With geese and ducks having very poor depth perception magnum sized decoys do not look unrealistic to incoming geese as they can’t judge the size of the decoys. We always purchase over-sized decoys simply for these reasons.

Calling

In general Canada geese are much more responsive to calling than most ducks, including mallards. Early in season or when your setup where the geese want to be not much calling is needed, most often just some clucks and moans will do it. When hunting traffic though loud aggressive calling is most often required. For additional goose calling information refer to: Canada Goose Calling Tips And Sounds.

Visual Attraction And Movement

There are two ways to call geese, by sound and vision. Goose flags are very effective in decoying geese. Goose flags work great to attract distant flocks of geese. The same flag can also be very effective when the geese are approaching or circling a spread of decoys as the flag can give the illusion of movement in the spread. Other ways to create movement in the decoy spread is goose kites and windsock decoys. The only problem with these two tools is that there has to be a wind present.