Advice for snows on light wind days?

[jeepster]

I'm kind of getting frustrated with the lack of wind, and therefor the lack of movement in my snow goose decoy spread.... How do you guys get by hunting snows on days with out much wind? I know that calm days aren't ideal, but.... It's kinda hard not to go hunting when I'm only 20 min away from the flats, and don't have to go back to work till January... Gotta stay busy somehow right?

Should I use my goose flag a lil more and work on my calling? I only have 4 doz silo socks, but am also considering picking up a helium tank for balloons..... Im figurin balloons are super light and will move in the slightest breeze?

I've noticed the geese won't even look at your dekes until you get up and start moving around amongst them and while you are rearranging, they will come right in, but once you go back to hiding, they disappear again.... These birds are driving me nuts

Any advice for light wind days?

[h2ofowlr]

If you did a dozen white balloons on strings mixed in your spread you would do good.  I purchased a bulk box of large balloons.  You don't need helium if you run sets of 10' 1/2" conduit with fishing line between the two and snap swivels.  A light breeze will bounce them around that are tied to various length leaders.     if you do use helium do a 60/40, 70/30 mix so they slowly go down then back up.  Like a balloon loosing helium does.

A heads up, you don't just have to use two post, you can run several or set up a Y, diamond etc.  And run the balloons in a large pattern.  The cheap 50lb spool at walley world might be $4-$6.  Lighter line can be used as well.  An old salt water reel with no line guide attached to the lower half of a cheap rod makes for quick line and retrieval sets.   

[jeepster]

 

Now we are talking!

I picked up a helium tank and a bunch of white balloons, plus a bunch of zebra print balloons (juvie geese..?) I'm gonna bring a spool of fishing line and some tent stakes.

Glad to know the balloon thing isn't just a far flung idea, I thought I was going crazy by telling the lady at Wally world the 100+ white balloons, helium tank, and bottle of gin was for goose hunting.

She asked if it was a goose hunting party, and I said no, and explained myself while everybody in line looked at me weird....balloons are for hunting, gin is for drinking!

Tomorrow is for goose hunting!

[Snowgoose1]

Because I have them we use pull string flappers (Wing Wavers) that are very close to the ground. We stop pulling when the birds come in to land.  The movement keeps them focused on the decoy instead of looking for the hunters.  I'm sure any movement device would only help on days of no wind. We have gotten a lot of landing Snows this year and not just the young ones. With the lack of Quality fields I feel that decoying has been much improved like it used to be before the program.

[jeepster]

Yeah, there are only a handful of fields that have snow goose hunting capabilities in the skagit, and you have to fight to get a spot, but I have noticed that the hunting has improved and the birds are a little dumber than they were a year ago. Didn't go out today after all, I checked the weather at 4 am and my no.12 seahawk flag wasn't even moving on my flag pole, weather said .7mph with a 40% of rain.... Says it's gonna be good tomorrow though.... Pm if you are gonna be out in the skagit and wanna combine decoys