Quick Tips for Hunting with Goose Decoys

• Make sure your goose decoys are clean.
• Consider transporting flocked-head full bodies in individual plastic bags and avoid grabbing them by the head or neck.
• Touch up any goose decoys that have lost a little paint.
• Consider the topography of the field when setting your geese decoys.
• Look for the highest spot in the field and consider it or a spot nearby as your centerpoint. Geese, especially migrators new to the area, often prefer to land on the highest spot and walk to feed.
• Concealment of your goose decoy is a bigger issue later in the season. While you can get away with setting up in a fencerow during the early season, hunting later may mean using well-mudded layout blinds hidden by natural cover or dirt pulled up on all sides.
• Start flagging when you're confident the geese can see you, then let the geese tell you when to stop. Some days you may have to flag until the geese are in shotgun range.
• Don’t get stuck thinking the blinds must go in a certain area. Move the blinds if geese show a certain path.

Any hunter who’s spent a few seasons in the blind knows that early season Canada geese are a different breed than late season birds, and thus your hunting techniques should change as well. During the early season hunters are normally out after resident flocks during September. These birds are still family-oriented, often arriving in small flocks and feeding in a similar manner. Your goose decoy spread should reflect this with family groups of 5 to 7 goose decoys.

Early season hunting can be done best with just a couple dozen goose decoys. But as the season goes on, the flocking tendency engulfs those small families and migrating geese begin to arrive. Hunters are wise to then add dozens to their spread and get more sophisticated with their set-ups.

Use the highest point in a field as the center point of your geese decoy spread (knowing that all rules have exceptions depending on the situation). Try a J-hook with the long narrow arm wrapping halfway around the high spot, but always let the first few flocks let you know which adjustments to make.

Give concealment a higher ranking as the season progresses by re-mudding your blind and using natural cover pulled up on all sides and zip-tied to the sides and doors. Keep movement to a minimum.

Check out Carry-Lite's full line of goose decoys.