Focus on Goose Decoys

Getting the geese to land near you so that you can bag one is the reason why goose decoys exist at all. They are not new. People who have lived around geese for centuries past have studied their traits. What stirred their imagination to try decoys as a way of persuading the geese to settle where the hunter wanted them to, is unknown. But it appears to have worked, for decoys have been found made out of the simplest material, starting with grass.

Geese are sociable by nature - they flock together. When flying geese see geese on the ground, they have a strong tendency to join the party. This is where decoys come in. Build up your own flock of goose decoys and fool those flying over into thinking they're real and so entice them to land on your carefully prepared canada goose strip.

The landing strip can be on the ground or on the water. Possibly on the ground it is easier for the hunter to hide himself. The geese are wary of predators or of anything that looks unusual. Hunters have been known to hide in a super sized man-made goose until the flock has landed and then pop out and take their shots. The working knowledge is that flying geese cannot distinguish differences in the size of the birds on the ground.
Setting out the decoys is usually preceded by a visit to the chosen site the night before to confirm its suitability. That nothing untoward has changed since the choice was first made - no fresh snow falls, extra mud or any other canada goose
. The goose decoys are then laid out, ready for the break of day.

Lay them out to make them look as realistic as possible. Walking, grazing, alert, snoozing, look sideways - whatever replicates their normal grazing pattern. Their colour should match the type of goose being hunted. An unnatural shine from painting the would not be appropriate. Moving parts on goose decoys have also proved successful in luring them in as flying geese seem to be more comfortable with some movement in the flock which is laid out below.

Some hunters lay out up to 100 decoys for Canada Geese and ten times that for Snow Geese. Such large numbers of decoys are usually the 'rag' variety - a waterproof stuffed goose shape to which you can add details like heads or the 'shell' variety - a hollow goose shape with no legs and feet.

Obviously building up your own 'flock' of goose decoys is just that. canada goose Buying them all at once is expensive, though would be an interesting exercise given the quality and choice available today.