Few Roch geese

[johnsd16]

Managed a few geese the other day. We got our backsides handed to us over the weekend. One day we ran traffic in a field that did have a few hundred in it the night before, but thousands going over. 12dz fullbodies and sleeper shells in the snow, and had one bird decoy. Thousands of fly bys. The next day we hunted a field that was being fed in heavily the night prior and the geese were left undisturbed all evening. Sat from 9am until the geese flew at 1/2hr to quitting time, and only two flocks of 30-50 even came back and they just skirted the field. Not anywhere near close enough to the field to have been scared off by us. These Roch geese were getting under my skin.

Anyhow, two fairly seasoned waterfowlers were feeling pretty beaten up, but you gotta take your lumps and keep doing what time has taught you. So we set up in a field with lots of feed left in it that had been holding just a handful of birds each night (less than 20). Set out 12 full bodies and hid the blinds well. Got a lot of fly bys but one flock of 10 finished to 15yds and two of us connected on all 6 shots, unfortunately my 2nd and 3rd shot were necessary to anchor my second bird. One flock, one bird short of a limit, and some well finished late season geese. Felt pretty good to fool a few after getting our salad tossed the two hunts proir.

Well concealed. The geese had been feeding right up to this little pach of grass in a cornfield. The birds tried to finish between the decoys and the blinds which weren't 20yds apart.

[life=outdoors92]

question,

i've always wondered if a group could get away with setting up a 2-4 dozen dekes. i know someone that use to do that and shoot their limit but that was 5-7 years ago and i know times have changed. seems like every hunter down there uses the same "big" spread and wonders why geese barely take a look (myself included).

[Seabass77]

question,

i've always wondered if a group could get away with setting up a 2-4 dozen dekes. i know someone that use to do that and shoot their limit but that was 5-7 years ago and i know times have changed. seems like every hunter down there uses the same "big" spread and wonders why geese barely take a look (myself included).

If you can blow a goose call, anything is possible.

[johnsd16]

question,

i've always wondered if a group could get away with setting up a 2-4 dozen dekes. i know someone that use to do that and shoot their limit but that was 5-7 years ago and i know times have changed. seems like every hunter down there uses the same "big" spread and wonders why geese barely take a look (myself included).

If you can blow a goose call, anything is possible.

We are not amazing callers.

The small spread was primarily because of the small number of geese using the field. A huge spread would have been out of place for a number of reasons. Not many feeing there the day before and a small field.

Time will teach you when to use different size spreads, but generally it is pretty hard to go wrong with 10dz fullbodies, but there are times it is not the best. Sometimes you need a different look. To me location and concealment are number #1 and #2 by miles on the list. For guys that are truly elite callers, you can make up a lot of ground with regards to suboptimal location and decoy factors IMO.

[johnsd16]

We went out to give it one last go on 12/31. We found a field with a large group 1k+ feeding the night before in corn. Didn't get permission for that field but got the go ahead for the hay/beans just downwind and right in the flightpath. We hid in the fence line between our field and the corn they were in the night before. The day brought very low clouds and 20+ mph winds. The geese came out of town and were low. We left the ground blinds at home due to the low cut beans and short hay, along with low expectations. We again ran only a handful of decoys today, 10. I never would have guessed it but we finished a 3 man limit of 9 in under two hours. Geese started flying about an hour after light and flew until 3pm. We actually had the wary late season Rochester geese finishing into our 10 decoys and close to a fence line. We saw 100s if not a couple thousand geese today.

Dogs still watching birds try to work the decoys as we picked up.

Our huge spread