Early goose season decoy spread

[erikwells]

I have not hunted the early season in a long time. I plan on hunting the early west central goose season (Kandiyohi county). I have the land locked up to hunt but my question is what is an effective number of goose shell decoys to have in the field (we will be hunting over oates and wheat). Also do the hypnotizer goose flags work? Any suggestions or tips are welcome it's been 20 years since I've done this kind of hunting. Thanks, Erik.

[dan z]

Match the flock number that is using the area. Don't forget the magic number doesn't matter if you can't hide.

[UMC]

A couple dozen is usually plenty since the birds are not usually in big flocks during early season. Flags almost always work well. As was said, hiding is usually the key. Most difficult thing about early season is that the birds usually aren't real patterned, by that I mean they change fields a lot (often don't come back to the field you scouted the day before) and often fly at odd times.

[TylerS]

Depends: You may have land "locked up," but if the geese aren't using it, you'll be in tough shape. Geese are highly repetitive. They will use the same fields over and over and over, but necessarily the same exact field twice in a row (especially early season). It's routine, and pulling them off a field they want to be in can be really tough.

If you're in a traffic situation, I'd throw as many decoys out as I could. Put them in family flocks of 4-8 with no apparent "kill hole." Your best bet is to try to pull geese away from their scheduled breakfast, and get them to take a swing.