Goose Decoy Spread

[newbie]

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to the sport and had a question about your decoy spread layouts.

Does it matter what time of year on how you stick out your decoys? Area? What "shape" or layout works best for you?

Thanks for helping out a new guy.

[Gman]

The good old U-shape will work in most situations. They key isn't to have your spread look like a U, but to have the landing zone right around you. With a U you split your hunting party into 2, and try to bring them in front and in-between you. Put the decoys in family groups of 4-10, and keep them 10 yards apart. Later in the season the groups should get larger.

[noodlebender]

here in pa we hunt mostly cut corn or bean fields, we use about 3 doz big feet to start out the season. depending on your wind.if wind is blowing 10 or more mph you can set up a nice v pattern or w pattern put wind at your back and position blind in the point of v leave a very large landing area and dont bunch up your decs. if wind is blowing from you side and you cant move blind to face into the wind,you can do a j pattern or hook. place the bend of hook rghit in front of blind and the shank tailing into the wind this is a great pattern when the wind is blowing real hard.if wind is swirling you can place them in an x patern covering all your directions.. most important is to leave a big landing area.geese dont like to fly over decoys.as the season moves on increase number of blocks up to 6 or 7 doz.


" let em land " chris

[newbie]

Thanks guys.

[Gooser]

I like the traditional V or U. We set up with a guy (or two) towards the point of the V or the loop of the U. The geese will land into the wind and the birds in the V or U should be facing into the wind. I don't place every bird straight into the wind or make a perfect V or U (so that there are little areas where the geese can land and so that the family groups look natural) but that's certainly how the majority of the spread will look. I put sentries to the outsides walking into the group and mix up the Big Foots and Mag Shells. I put a Magnet on the extreme outer edge angling in to the spread within a short distance of some shells.

Previously, I did the J set up and it seemed to work out well but the U is pretty versatile especially in the bean and corn fields of the Midwest.

[goosekiller21]

Any formation will work as long as you have an opening that is into the into the wind. Since geese always land into the wind that will give them a comfortable opening to land in.

[sexyspak]

I always set up my decoys in a horseshoe formation. With about 20 decoys on the right and bout 30 to 40 on the left. It seems to work really well having more decoys on one side than the other. Also try add as much movement to your decoys. I have 3 big wind activated decoys in my set up and beacuse of them, I rarely have to call. So more movement in your decoys the better, and try to make it look like the geese are really comfortable and like it were there at, with very few decoys on the lookout or on patrol. I Have bout 4 to 6 decoys with the heads up and the rest all feeding trying to simulate that there is nothing to be scared up. And that’s my set up, good luck.

[Guest]

how do you know which way to put the heads if there is no wind?

[qwahonn]

If there is no wind then the geese usaually face any which way. If you have ever watched geese feeding in a field they feed/face every wich way.

[sexyspak]

Face the heads any direction you want, even if there is a wind from the south all the heads don’t have to be looking into the south(wind). Go to a field or lake if you can and watch the geese, there never just looking into the wind. They’re moving around and feeding. So try to simulate that with your decoys by having the heads looking in all different directions. Good luck.

[LooseyGoosey]

When weather is cold it can help to keep your spread closer together. Geese will stand closer together in cold weather.

[Joliet Dave]

We have 4 different tpes of decoys we use for geese - siloettes, large shells, wind socks, and bigfeet. Usually we put them in small similar clusters in a "U" or "J". Has anyone had any success in mixing the different deacs together. There's a pretty big size difference and I don't think the spread would look natural if we mixed em up. Interested in hearing what you guys have to say. It's 4:00 and I gotta go hunting now.........woooohooooo! ! !

[ducks_rule_17]

This is a great idea :idea:. First you need a sandhill crane decoy. My uncle and I put the sandhill crane decoy 35 steps straight out in front of our layout blinds. This is a confidence decoy and tells us when to shoot. If the geese are low enough and are closer than the decoy they are in range. We use 12gauges with 3inch shells (T or BB). not 10 gauges or 12ga. with 3.5inch

[SD_waterfowler]

At this time of year I am pretty used to hunting big feeds. I tend to use anywhere from 12 to 20 dozen fullbody decoys (GHG and Dakota Decoys). When I first started hunting I would usually set up the spread in the typical v formation and it worked for the most part. Lately I have been trying some new spread formations and found one that I really like. It kind of resemble a paw print with alot of decoys piled in around the blinds resembling a large feed with three to four pods(20 to 30 decoys) set up about ten yards outside of the main mass of decoys on the downwind side. This leaves lanes for the geese to fly in as well as a solid lading pocket. Single and pairs will tend to set down in the smaller pods while larger flocks will fly up the lanes and set on the downwind side of the large feeding mass.

[jon mcgrath]

wow! a 6 and a half year old topic. bringing back the oldies!