When the geese are stubborn

[BANDED BROTHERS II]

I have had this happen to me a number of time. I'm set up in the field and the birds just won't land in the spread. The tend to circle around a couple of time and set down about 100 yards away. The flocks are usually contain about 30 birds. What would most likely cause this to happen? We flag them, the layouts look good, calling sounds good. am i calling too much? I need some input, any ideas?

[Ryan Kleinschmidt]

Check your hide again. The birds are seeing something they don't like. Might have to dig, might have to re-mud and re-stubble. There are a lot of variables when it comes to birds slidding away. To much flagging, flagging at the wrong time and the same goes for calling. If the birds have been in the field prior and your hide is perfect, when they come to the field, let them come. No flagging or calling until they start to slide. It could be geese just being geese. We have seen geese fly over a field full of live geese for no reason at all and there is really no explination.

[George Zahradka]

not every goose or duck is going to come balling into your rig....I've seen it alot where the birds fly over LIVE geese and go somewhere else.....

My impoundment is a great ex. we seldon hunt it there usally 200 to 400 ducks on there quacking ,splashing, and feeding ducks come in off the bay circle 4 or 5 times and head off......Whats wrong there??????

[Ganderhunter]

My guess would be your calling to much try and focus on what the birds are doing when there over the field this time of year we don't start calling
untill we here them and we just give them very little soft Clucks Don't over do it

Good Luck :cool:

[CluckmeMN]

Where are your blinds located in regards to the spread?? How are you setting your decoys?

With a little more info, we can further diagnose your problems;)

[BANDED BROTHERS II]

Well, for the most part i would set 2 doz silos and 2 doz full bodies in a "J" like formation. I would cammo the blind well and put some silos around the layouts. I would place the full bodies at the tips of the formation and set the layouts at the base of the J. They have been coming off the same roost pond from the same direction for about a week.

[CluckmeMN]

a few things to think about....

How many "J" formation spreads do you think the geese have seen since they could first fly?? MANY MANY goose hunters set their dekes in a J, C, V,U,W, X and so on....

What to do: The spread you haev should work jsut fine, but lets try something a little ldifferent... Try setting the dekes with NO PATTERN. Set the dekes like geese would sit. Set some small groups of 2 or 3, and try puting a looker or active about 10 yards out of the spread. Also try mix up the distance between the dekes... not all geese sit 3 1/2' apart. Set some so their beaks are almost touching, liek they are feeding from the same 12" spot... and set some a little farther apart.

As for teh blinds. try setting them on the edge of teh spread, and not in the middle. When the birds are comin in, and your set in a J with the blinds right in the bend of the J, the birds are lookin RIGHT at the blinds.... the more spreads the birds see the smarter they get to the layouts! setting the blinds on the edge will help keep the focus off the blinds and more on the dekes.

With a 4 doz deke spread, the spread wont be soo big that if teh birds do in fact come in and try tro finish on the edge, you can still kill em easily. I would make 2 groups of 10 that are fairly tight together, and place them randomly with the other groups, the birds wil tend to focus on those groups and from expieriece they will try to land with those groups.

[BANDED BROTHERS II]

That sounds like a good plan. I like it. one more thing tho. How far should the spacing be between the groups of the dekes? should i make it look like random groups or groups that form a J,C,V,W or so on? (maybe like when a die rolls a 5) For the most part there are three of us that go out...how far should the spacing be between the three layouts?

[CluckmeMN]

I would stray from having the decoys in any "shape pattern"

Personally I think alot of guys get a little tooo into ONLY killin the birds when they are centered up flying into that narrow V shapped kill hole.... in all reality geese just will not do this every day! Over 50% of the hunts we go on, we have NO KILL HOLE! We set the dekes to look real! Yes the geese may try to land on the egde, and when they do, we kill em! Set your dekes as certain yardages. Liek your FARTHEST decoy, is at 30 yards. 30 yards is still and easy kill shot! If the birds try to land on the far edge of the spread, you kill em! There is no set distance the groups should be, just set em out to look like live birds. Set those lookers out of the spread, set a looker next to a feeder out of the spread to break up the outlinie of your decoys. Geese are gettig smart to spreads, and the less you look liek a spread, the better!

As for spacing of the blinds, there is no certain distance, somedays having teh blind doors touching will be very successful! others, havign teh blinds 10 yars apart can be deadly. Depending on the sun, you always want to have ZERO shadows made from the blinds!!!! There have also been many days when we will haev the blinds 10 yards out of the decoys, so there is NO focus on the blinds! ya it kinda sucks cause your flagging is not effective when the birds are working, but atleast you have no blinds to scare the birds! We will do this when there is NO WIND! and the birds will come in from all different directions, this way when they come in the sides, everyone can shoot and you kill em! Center you up, you kill em!, come over your heads from behind, you kill em! This method has been proven to be a killer with a real small spread(6-12 dekes) when there are not enough dekes to cover the blinds....

I hope this answers your question! If not ask again!:D

[BANDED BROTHERS II]

Yeah it helps a lot thanks! i guess i just should try a wider variety of spreads and tacitcs. Thanks for your help!

[The Goose Man]

Also make sure that you're where the birds want to be in the field. Make sure you're setting your spread right where you see the birds feeding when you scout them. Good luck!

[goose2125]

Sorry to high jack this thread but i have a few questions too. We have done really well up until now, birds are getting really smart in my area we have 50 fbs, 24 silos, and 24 shells how would you guys set up this kind of spread this time of year. we normally hunt five or six guys and always hunt the x or we don't hunt. can someone kinda draw out in a diagram and post it on here how they would use this spread in corn stubble. also our fields vary from 80 acres to 600 acres.

[nthatlhonk]

BB 11 and GOOSE2125.

In my experience when geese get tough and start landing short of large 50+ spreads I take about a dozen fullbodies and set them in a "random" pattern. Use 10- 20 foot spacings between decoys mostly feeders and set 2 lookers on each side of the rest of the decoys kind of off by themselves. Use minimal calling. The problem is trying to hide 5-6 guys in layouts in a small spread so consider using 2 PH blinds and switching out hunters.

[goose2125]

ok thanks we usually use 4 ph's and 2 pro guides

[quackaddict]

I would bet money they are picking out your blinds. Layouts are 95% of the problem when hunting geese. Putting your blinds right in the front edge of the decoys gets used alot, it works but when the birds get stagnant they get smart, as yours have. There are a number of choices for your blind placement. First, you could dig them in right to the doors, profile is a killer on eduacted birds. We had some issues in chopped corn last year, our answer was to bury the blinds. We cut holes through geese after we started digging. Another choice is to put your blinds so you get offered a crossing shot at birds decoying to the decoys. This moves your blinds out of the decoys and away from the attention. Lastly, when your birds start landing directly in other birds (you see this scouting the night before), put your blinds to the very rear of the spread. This moves attention away from them and back to the decoys.

[Jeremy DeVries]

I know in my area this time of year (ie: heart of the season) our birds are in what I would consider "normal" mode. That being said, I have general rules that I live and die by.

One of the most important, is that I try to have at least double the amount of decoys as the size of flights I'm trying to decoy. You're dead meat on large flights of 30-50 birds with the spread you describe. I watch it day after day with weekend warriors with their 12 decoys getting their butts kicks by larger flights. A couple dozen FB and a couple dozen silo's will do great on smaller flights, but the big groups just won't have confidence in the that small of a spread in the heart of the migration. Late season that spread might work well though as I have often had better luck with smaller spread LATE in the season.

My advice:

Stick to the smaller groups, smile about it and knock em out!!!

or,

Invite some friends with more decoys (particularly FB or Shells rather than the silo's), combine your spreads and give those larger flights a shot!!! Good luck.

That's what I'd do with my clients here anyway......

My general rule: Whatever the size of flights of geese, double that MINIMUM in your spread during peak season.