Angelo Casbarro
11-18-2007, 10:45 PM
Hey,
I was out hunting this past Saturday and ended up with a situation that has never happened to me before. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts and/or opinions.
We were set up in a corn field with approximately 5 dozen goose decoys spread out in the typical "C" shaped spreads. We surrounded our three layout blinds with 2 dozen full body mallard decoys and were set up about 100 yards down wind from a small bush lot.
The geese started flying around 8am. They didn't show up in small flocks of 5-10 which I am used to seeing in that area, but they showed up all at once by the hundreds.
The geese worked well to flagging and calling (which at times was useless as there were SO many birds in the air), but the birds were extremely shy of the decoys.
At first, I thought the landing hole was a bit too small so we widened it. Same result. Then we thought we were a bit too close to the bush lot, so we left the majority of the dekes where they were and repositioned another 100 yards down wind and took some dekes with us. The birds worked a bit better, but for the most part reacted the same.
The strange this is that these birds kept circling and circling, but would not close the 50 yard gap, or lock right into a clean finish. All those birds in the air at once made for an exciting yet frustrating hunt. Next time I think I will leave the duck decoys at home, set up well away from the bush lot and dig the layout blinds in for a lower profile. Any other suggestions on how to make my next hunt in that field more succesful?
I was out hunting this past Saturday and ended up with a situation that has never happened to me before. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts and/or opinions.
We were set up in a corn field with approximately 5 dozen goose decoys spread out in the typical "C" shaped spreads. We surrounded our three layout blinds with 2 dozen full body mallard decoys and were set up about 100 yards down wind from a small bush lot.
The geese started flying around 8am. They didn't show up in small flocks of 5-10 which I am used to seeing in that area, but they showed up all at once by the hundreds.
The geese worked well to flagging and calling (which at times was useless as there were SO many birds in the air), but the birds were extremely shy of the decoys.
At first, I thought the landing hole was a bit too small so we widened it. Same result. Then we thought we were a bit too close to the bush lot, so we left the majority of the dekes where they were and repositioned another 100 yards down wind and took some dekes with us. The birds worked a bit better, but for the most part reacted the same.
The strange this is that these birds kept circling and circling, but would not close the 50 yard gap, or lock right into a clean finish. All those birds in the air at once made for an exciting yet frustrating hunt. Next time I think I will leave the duck decoys at home, set up well away from the bush lot and dig the layout blinds in for a lower profile. Any other suggestions on how to make my next hunt in that field more succesful?