Hunting Approach

[schlag]

The area I hunt in has quite a mixture of geese. Everything from big and little Canadas to snows and blues. Plus 1 to 5 % whitefronts. With only a limited time to hunt, would you set up for only dark geese or strictly white geese on any given day? Any good stratigies for hunting both? If you were to try for both, Would you target the light geese and hope for some dark geese, or dark geese and hope for a miracle. They all roost pretty much in the same spot.

[Brett Beinke]

Scout man! you gotta scout. Scouting will tell you how to set your spread up and what you will be chasing. I have seen way to many time hunters trying to do it all and get nothing because they had spreads that where not natural. If the geese are feeding together in the same field, then you can mix them up. If they are not, do not mix them! Stay natural as can be and you will have better luck. If you want snows, find the fields that are holding snows. Same with the specks and honkers. Scouting is always going to tell you what you can do. There are times when you gotta break the rules but day in and day out, the birds will tell you what they want.

[Curt Wilson]

I agree with Brett on this. You can't scout enough. When you think you have the birds nailed, scout a little more. As Brett said, watch the birds and try to mimic the decoy set up as close to what the real birds were doing as possible. Good luck.

[Christian Curtis]

echo...Do exactly what the birds are doing. If they feed together, which I rarely see, then you should be able to hunt them at the same time. Conversely, if they are feeding in different areas, I think you will have to make a decision.

[Rick Frisch]

I think one mistake that a lot of hunters make is putting out all the decoys they have every time. When you do this, you are showing the geese in the area everything you have. You don't have anything to throw at them later in the season.

I still remember a seminar that Fred did. His quote was, "Don't show them all of your tools right away."

Thanks,

[chad belding]

I am a true believer in scouting as hard as you hunt. Try to do something different than the other hunting groups in your area. Snow geese are very hard tp pattern compared to Cnanadas and Specks. It might be a good idea to have a rig that is mainly Canada decoys with some snows mixed in. The snow decoys will be the drawing bird as they are easy to see from far distances and you never know if a group of snows might make its way towards your spread. Myself, I would hunt the darks and hope for some luck on the lights.

Good Hunting!

Chad Belding
Avery Outdoors