Question to the field duck hunters...

[Kola16]

First off, I am much more of a duck hunter than a goose hunter, since I have always hunted over water with floaters. Getting a "bonus goose" is pretty cool though and I wouldn't mind targetting geese more, but I don't see a ton of Canadas in my area (Snohomish/Skagit Counties). Maybe I am just blind or something Anyway, I went out with a very kind member on here (a couple years ago??) in a field for snows, yet ducks seemed to pour in pretty well. I have saved up to get a load of full-bodies recently that I will be picking up in the next couple days and was planning on getting maybe a dozen Canadas, and the rest ducks.

So for the question...
Obviously if I wanted to shoot more geese, I should get more goose decoys. But to you field hunters out there, would you rather hunt DUCKS over 4-6 dozen FB ducks with a dozen goose decoys or would you rather go with the opposite (4 dz. geese with 1 dz. ducks). I know there is a price difference, but I could save up more if it were worth it.

[h2ofowlr]

I know when we go east, we just shoot the mallards over the full body goose decoys.  A few dozen goose with some full body duck decoys wouldn't be a bad set up.  Just remember you have to have access to locations where the geese are and you have to pack it out.  Packing that many decoys across muddy fields, spud fields, etc. may make you re-think what you want to haul out.  Buying a cart for those locations is a heart attack waiting to happen.

On this side, if I set up for geese, I will pull in mallards to.  If I do all full body mallards, I usually just get ducks on this side of the state.  All depends on what you see using the field as well.  Set up appropriately.

[EWUEAGLESHUNTER]

Depends on your area that your hunting the most. Is it primarily populated by ducks or geese? Reading your message it sounds like possibly heavier on the ducks side? Honestly, I have never been a huge fan of clunking around 4 dozen goose decoys, especially if farmers are not going to let you drive out into their fields. Fred Zink, in some of the videos I have seen him doing hunts over less than 30 full body decoys. IMO I would go with 24 or 30 full body honkers, fills either 4 or 5, six slot decoy bags (slotted decoys bags for your honker decoys is well worth the money to keep your decoys in good condition) and the rest duck decoys. If your determined to have 4 dozen goose decoys, again go with 24 or 30 full bodies and then fill out the rest of your spread with goose shells. They are much lighter and cheaper and look just fine mixed in with nice full body decoys.

[Kola16]

Thanks for the quick reply guys! I appreciate greatly I do see way more ducks where I hunt and packing 4 dz. FB goose decoys doesn't sound fun in a muddy field at all. When I do see Canadas in the field, it is probably a flock of maybe 1-3 dz. geese anyway with anywhere from tens of ducks to hundreds of ducks.

I also have a dozen GHG snow goose shells, but I never see only a dozen snow geese in a field so it is probably the best to leave them out too even though the white really stands out. Thoughts?

Side note I will definitely use slotted bags

[chester]

Go heavy on the ducks then and put out a dozen goose decoys. You should do fine.


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[eastsidemallard74]

Over here, in the evenings more than mornings, the duck will decoy better to goose decoys(most of the times) than the geese decoying to the duck decoys. Sometimes the duck decoys flare the geese, or they just won't bother