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what are we doing wrong?

5K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  BrokenMojo 
#1 ·
Hi guys, im new to the forums and new to goose hunting as well. I just got into it this year, my friends family has some great property to hunt so we have been going out there this year. However, it seems like we are doing something wrong. We are hunting out of some of the best land in at least the county, maybe even the state. We are in Lasalle county in Illinois, in one of the cornfields right by Lasalle Lake and the Com-Ed nuclear plant. Its a great spot, the lake is a cooling lake for this nuke plant so the water is super warm there and there are geese by the thousands there.

Anyway, back to the point. We see quite a few geese really far off, some get within a few hundred yards but we have only killed 1 all year and have only shot on 2 different occasions, the killing one included. It seems the geese go in every direction except toward us, and the few groups that do come our way never seem to commit. Our setup seems pretty good, our blind is a small wooden hut, it is 12 ft. long but 8 ft. wide by 6 ft. tall. It is not dug in at all. For decoys, we have 3 dozen full-bodies, 2 dozen shells, 1 dozen sillohettes, some flyers on sticks, along with several dozen duck decoys of different variations. We usually put the decoys out in front of us with 2 large groups of full bodies and shells, leaving a runway of sorts between them that leads to the blind. The sillohettes are a bit farther away in their own group. We usually have 4-6 guys hunting out of this blind, and occasionally will put 1 or 2 guys in the field for flagging and calling.

The only thing I think we may be doing wrong is our blind may be a bit big, but we have it camo-ed up with corn stalks very well so im not sure.

That's pretty much all of the basic info, if you would like to know anything else about our setup please ask. I think we are doing something wrong because everywhere around us, people are shooting their limits out of this spot nearly every weekend. We are 3 weeks in and we have 1 kill. Any big red flags that you guys notice in our setup? Any help is very appreciated, Thanks for your time.
 
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#4 ·
@firstflight, by flyers I meant the windsock type that go on top of like a 10 ft. pole, sorry for not being specific.

@legband1, I don't really have a lot of pics and its gonna be like 2 weeks before im out there again, this coming weekend is deer season so ill be busy with that. I have so google earth images I just made that sort of show a birds eye view of our set-up. Their pretty primitive, I know they look like a 10 year old drew them but they'll have to work for now. I'll email them to you because I cant figure out how to post them here. Ill make sure next time im out there to take some actual pics but for now we'll have to make do. Sorry for the inconvienence, but i'll email you the pics I do have, Thanks.

All the Best,
Walker
 
#5 ·
First off you are hunting one of the hardest areas around. Second my opinion, when the Geese get off the water they want to fly farther to stretch thier wings. However, if there is a bad weather day, snow, fog etc, then you might have a hot spot. Not real familiar with the LaSalle area, but if it is like Braidwood and there are hunt club blinds every 100 yards then good luck.

I personally would take the fliers down, use just ground decoys, very little calling and light on the flag.
 
#7 ·
Alright hey I figured out how to upload the pics here so you guys can all see them. Here you go, as soon as I get better pics ill post them too but these will have to do for now.

@fox_hunter42, might I ask why you think we are in one of the hardest spots around? If you ask anybody around here where the best spot is they will probably say either Com-Ed plant/Lasalle Lake or the river. There also are not a ton of blinds, I have seen 2 or 3 others setting up when we go out and they are on different sides of the lake. When we do hear gunshots (which is probably at least once each time we go out) they are pretty far off. Last weekend it was foggy when we went out, we didn't have any shots fired but we had several groups get close. I'll also take your advice and be a little less aggressive with the calling and flagging.

@firstflight, we usually put our duck decoys sort of behind the blind and away from the rest of the group. We sometimes put a 2nd group right in front of the blind, but I'll stop putting them there if its not helping. Also, The flyers are usually not really in the landing spot we have designated, usually they are on one of the edges of it because they are about 10 ft. tall windsocks so we want it to look like they are coming in to land, which hopefully gives the geese confidence when they see their fake friends coming in for a landing. Next time I'll try your tips along with the others and see how it goes.

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciating it. If I need to clarify anything in the pics please don't hesitate to ask.
 

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#8 ·
THe LeSalle area must be different than Braidwood. To the west of Braidwood there are 2-3 pits per field, maybe more. Mazonia Hunt Club, Braidwood Hunt Club, Grundy Honkers etc. If you drive past during prime time it's non stop decoys. I assumed LeSalle would be the same.
 
#9 ·
That's interesting, I wonder why there are so many more people in that area. I looked up braidwood on google earth and checked it out, it looks like a very similar setup to lasalle. nuke plant with a large cooling lake next to it, with fields surrounding it. The braidwood one does look a bit larger though. I know everybody wants to hunt by lasalle but not very many actually do, like I said ive only seen 2 or 3 others and we are all pretty evenly spread out around the lake. I feel like that might change once the river freezes though, because once it freezes obviously there will be signifigantly less geese there so people might move out to Com-Ed. Whatever, cool I guess lol.
 
#10 ·
First question, do you scout your field during the week before you hunt? Are there birds there when you scout it?
Are you basically trying to run traffic birds?

If you are not seeing birds on your field and further more close to your blind your always going to be behind the 8 ball.

From all the decent days i have had a-field it was due to scouting! Ask for permission on fields you SEE BIRDS!, make some simple set up blinds and giver hell!

Having a big spread isn't impressive to birds unless its in The right spot and set up right... I am always messing with the spread if birds are flaring. It never hurts to ttry something!

Basically i suggest you scout before you hunt, and hunt where you see birds. Don't limit your self
 
#11 ·
People can actually hunt Braidwood lake during season. I do not think Lasalle lake can be hunted during season. BIG difference. Can't even get up to the ramp to see where the birds are going into the lake (which area). Can make scouting difficult at times. And yes dwalker there is no where near the amount of people around Lasalle as there is Braidwood. Enough people keep talking about it though...it may very well just turn into that as well.
 
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