Canada Geese Field Hunting advice

[MuzzyHunter28]

Allright guys ready for a little mentoring or advice. Been an avid waterfowl hunter for years. Just got into some great private property up by banks lake. Always been sat in a feild where geese are landing. Sometimes we'll kill a bunch but most of the time were going home emptyhanded. Our biggest problem is geese landing 100 yards shy of the decoys or half mile behind us in the same feild. Im hunting over 30 Full body Flocked. And 12 Sleepers. Wheat and Corn feilds using power hunters blinds. Tried all sorts of spreads the best one we've found is to use a string running parrellel to the blinds 20 yards out and a string runing perpindicular out to about 50 yards. 8 times out of 10 they will circle and circle than sit somewhere else in the feild. I only shoot birds when there committed. Consider my self a decent caller and flagger. Any advice would be awesome and apprciated. Are these birds flaring becasue they see us or are they not feeling comfortable? Whatd you guys do in this scenario to put Geese backflapping in your decoys. Thanks!

[MuzzyHunter28]

And to clarify this scenarios seems to be happening to us when we hunt in October and in January. Ive tried different calling and spreads seems to be getting same results.

[YJ Guide Service]

We have gone to adding more decoys to our spreads, we have added shells to our full bodie spreads. We are hunting wheat stubble just off of Lake Roosevelt. We have found using 75-100 decoys bring them in alot better then the smaller sets we use to use. We also have found moving the decoys to the area of the field they land in all the time helped.I also try and put my full bodies on the outside so they see them first and my shells on the inside. I also put full bodies all around my layout blinds. Good luck and keep changing up all the time till you find what they want.

[Tealer]

Are you scouting the field the day before? Always hunting the same spot(s)? What do the birds look like when there are unmolested in that field?

[MuzzyHunter28]

The birds are being scouted everyday yes, and we are setting up right where they were the day before. Everytime we go over there for a weekend hunt we are generally in a different feild becasue thats where the owner of the hunting club we are part of is finding the birds. Birds that have been sitting on the ground for a while look normal and relaxed and we mimic the spacing they are feeding.

[WSU]

Try hiding better? Are the birds actually flaring or are they just landing outside or ignoring your spread?

[MuzzyHunter28]

Not flaring just kinda ignoring or circling 3 to 4 times and setting somewhere else in the feild. Ive tried heavy calling when this happens and no calling. and have moved decoys when this happens. Its very frusterating when youve watched and worked hundreds of geese in a hour and have nothing dead.

[MuzzyHunter28]

Sometyime they will land only 80 to 150 yards away or half mile on the other side of the feild

[h2ofowlr]

The birds are being scouted everyday yes, and we are setting up right where they were the day before. Everytime we go over there for a weekend hunt we are generally in a different feild becasue thats where the owner of the hunting club we are part of is finding the birds. Birds that have been sitting on the ground for a while look normal and relaxed and we mimic the spacing they are feeding.

Sounds like a familiar club that a few buddies may have used.  Are you the A or B group.  You may be getting fields that were just hunted.  You may be dealing with some educated birds.   

[hdshot]

Once the lead bird in the flock starts to turn his back to the spread or passes it up, hit him hard with the call on excited clucks and a short plead and don't give up until they are gone.  If the leader starts to turn then use some very soft feeding clucks and if they commit for the hole stay off the call.  If they want to pass again just repeat.  If they get lower on each pass your golden, but if they get higher on each pass then they will likely not commit at all.

If the geese want to land outside just keep calling very loud and flagging hard until they come over or just to keep them nervous to leave because landing birds acts a beacon for other birds to join.  This is a 9-11 scenario in goose hunting and even let the beginners start calling no matter how bad.  Stand up to call and flag if 1/2 mile away.  Gets hard when a flock is working your spread at the same time and just keep your flock interested as best you can but a very good chance they will be lost. 

Your experiences happens to everyone but just less often to the more seasoned goose hunter.           

[Whitetail freak]

I hunt field right out of banks. There is a few hunters and your set up needs to be perfect with the wind coming from your back to get them to finish. We hunt alfalfa. Also scout as much as you can and find where the geese are landing and get as close as you can from that spot.

[MuzzyHunter28]

Thank you hdshot, that techinque of calling I havent tried in full. I will give that a try next time! If the birds are hedead right in the hole 30 yards of the deck do you shut the calling off completly incase you make a bad cluck or murmur? or do you keep callign soflty until the first one is back flapping?

[Tealer]

The birds are being scouted everyday yes, and we are setting up right where they were the day before. Everytime we go over there for a weekend hunt we are generally in a different feild becasue thats where the owner of the hunting club we are part of is finding the birds. Birds that have been sitting on the ground for a while look normal and relaxed and we mimic the spacing they are feeding.

Sounds like a familiar club that a few buddies may have used.  Are you the A or B group.  You may be getting fields that were just hunted.  You may be dealing with some educated birds.   

That was my next question.

[MuzzyHunter28]

No the feilds are not being pounded every day by a bunch of hunters and like I said there are many feilds we can hunt in and its a different feild every time were there. Its a small group of us who pay to hunt private grounds.

[hdshot]

Thank you hdshot, that techinque of calling I havent tried in full. I will give that a try next time! If the birds are hedead right in the hole 30 yards of the deck do you shut the calling off completly incase you make a bad cluck or murmur? or do you keep callign soflty until the first one is back flapping?

I try to let the decoys do the work 1st and not move.  Use the call to keep them interested when needed.  Geese that lose intrest will start to plain out, flap, and veer off course of the spread then start some soft clucks by choking down the call and get a little louder once they pass by.  I never had much luck with murmur.  If they are coming in I stay off the call and don't move at all.  I'm a believer geese and even ducks make passes to locate calls and hunters moving. 

When I hunted geese almost every goose day back if the day I always hid in some sort of weed line with the hole out 40 yards.  Always like to put one side of the spread stretched out angled off up to 60+ yards connected to the hole (lazy J shape and used the wind in my favor).  The spread sticks out and since geese don't like to fly over other geese the stretched out part would give good working geese two choices of to either fly over the deeks or land in the hole.  That type of spread provides no easy veer offs for the geese having last second thoughts.  Also geese seem to like geese at their back when landing.  Basic moral is make the hole look like the place to be for the geese and you don't have to have every decoy in shooting range which breaks a lot of hunters train of thought.  Last year hunted with a friend at his spot and he said hell no to my spread.  Well it ended up being a little slow but had on flock of 50 coming in and about 10 started to back flap outside but just slid down the out side and gone with out having to fly over a single decoy. 

Just takes experience and I was lucky to start hunting with someone who knew the game already 20 years ago.   

[MuzzyHunter28]

Awesome, thanks for the advice. Whats your average spacing between decoys this late into the season? especially with snow on the ground? I do have flocked greenhead gear sleepers I throw into my spread late season esp. with snow in the feilds.

[Tealer]

Spacing depends on the geese, big geese like more room. I'll stack little gees tight.

[LittleHunter]

 Read the birds in the air they will tell you a lot. If there flying with a steady wing speed and show no intrest to your calling or your decoy spread they allready know where there going and your not going to pull them off course. If your birds are comming at you with a slower wing beat and you see more movement in there head like there looking for a place to land get heavy on the call and then tone it down if you get the flocks attention just like geese getting into a dispute over food or territory. If you have geese that keep circleing your spread but dont commit dont be sceared to change up your spread or take some decoys away or even add more if you have them. The best thing that i found out that works for me is i use a spread that i call a junk yard spread and you can set it many ways. I usealy make a cluster of my decoys at the headend usealy in a football shape anywhere from 15 to 30 yard wide. i usealy use anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 dozen decoys usealy spaced closer together imitating thats where the food is at. Then ill tale off the ends in the derection the geese are comming from a few family groups spaceing the groups anywhere from 10 yards to 30 yards creating a pocket with a gap on each side and depending on the side the geese are favoring ill move them farther out creating a bigger gap. then ill take 5 to 9 decoys allways useing a odd number and imitate that a group just landed and there walking in to the pocket at a angel and ill set them about 40 yards from the cluster of decoys but make sure that the derection the geese are flying from dont have to fly over the decoys that are walking in to the pocket. Geese like to cut geese off to feed.

[MuzzyHunter28]

And you will use that junk yard spread in late season also?

[hdshot]

Awesome, thanks for the advice. Whats your average spacing between decoys this late into the season? especially with snow on the ground? I do have flocked greenhead gear sleepers I throw into my spread late season esp. with snow in the feilds.

Deeks spread out where I want them to land and tight where I don't.  Never had sleepers but if I did, would set them tight in the spread in the areas I don't want touchdowns.

I don't mind having tight spreads, which again goes against the rules of setting spreads.  But geese are almost always sitting in the fields and parks shoulder to shoulder.  I believe whole spreads all spaced out just looks unnatural and just space out for the landing area since they like to land with the deeks most of the time instead of the outside edge.

[MuzzyHunter28]

Allright thank you! with the 36 decoys we have to hunt over, and 4 or 5 guys hunting in lay down how far should i have the blinds behind a lazy j spread or junk yard???

[LittleHunter]

It all depends on your concealment but later in the year i like to move further away from my spread but all so take in to consiteration that its easier for the bird to pick out where the calling is coming from. By the time i get out to go bust some geese is usually the last month of the season and the areas that i hunt are heavily hunted and really educated by then. So i pull every trick out that i have and try new things i have gone to putting every decoy that i have out from only taking 18 of my best looking decoys and setting them up. Placement in the fields can all so make the flocks shy of committing. I don't setup in the same spot i see the geese the morning before. Ill set up about 100 to 250 yards closer to the direction the geese are coming from if possible or to the nearest rise in the field. I like to make my spread different then everyone else out in the area that im hunting but all so trying to make my spread as realistic as i can. Ill ever rake the ground when theres snow on the ground to expose some dirt and set decoys are it.