GOOSE HUNTING. LEARNING DECOY PLACEMENTS. PART 2 By DENNIS HUNT When setting my decoys up in a likely field, I make sure: I am more than 200 yards from any roads. I am not close to any wires. Geese will not fly close to wires. I am not near any buildings, groves of trees or fence lines. You will see geese feed next to roads, buildings, trees and fence lines, but they will not land next to them. A goose is a greedy bird and will make mistakes while feeding. They get careless feeding in large groups and can get vulnerable. When I get out in the middle of my likely field, I will check out a couple of things before I begin setting up my decoy spread. I check for natural cover in the field that I can hide in. I am looking for: A dried up swamp. A rock pile. A patch of weeds or weed line. Any farm implements left in the field. These all make great spots to hide. If I find one of the above then, I will plan to hide there and set my decoys at least 40 yards upwind from my hiding spot. I always check the wind when I am out in the field because, geese fly against the wind to land. I will stand up and find "the teeth of the wind". When I do that, I will turn my back on it and that will be my spot of concealment. If the geese want my field then, they will have to fly over my hiding spot to get to it. I will proceed to set my decoys up after I have found my hiding spot. I use Higdon big foot decoys and compliment them with North Wind windsocks and North Wind hovering decoys. I have tried every decoy manufactured and these are the best! I use a big foot for a sentry and place it facing into the teeth of the wind. Geese always feed into the wind but, they do not look directly into the wind. I will take another big foot and use it as a feeder. All my decoys will be three feet apart and in family groups of 7. After I set my two big foots up, I will take 5 windsocks and face slightly left and right as if they were reaching for grain in the field. That completes my family group and I will do the same with another family group that will be 20 yards away from other family groups of decoys. I always remember what the geese in the field looked like as I saw them feeding yesterday afternoon while I was out scouting. My decoy spread has to resemble that if I am going to trick some of them to get closer to my hiding spot so I can get an opportunity to shoot my shotgun. The amounts of decoys I set up depends on the attitude of the geese. If there is nobody else hunting in my area and these geese haven’t been shot at then, I will set up 3 family groups of decoys. This should be enough! Again, if you have a likely field that the geese should come to and a good spot to hide then, you should get some opportunities. Hunting is about opportunities! If you stay in your hiding place and wait patiently then, you should get 3 to 5 opportunities to get some geese. If you plan to use that same field the next day then, make sure there are a lot of geese in your area. If there is then, set out a different spread with more decoys in a different part of the field. The geese you shot at yesterday will not come back to this field. Let me show you a spread of decoys! Note the wind direction and the hiding spot of the hunters in low profile blinds. The geese have to fly over their heads if they want the field. The large squares are family groups and the small squares are North Wind windsocks scattered. There is a foursome of North Wind hovering in front of the spread on both ends of the 2 LINE DECOY SPREAD. There is a large landing zone for the geese to use, right over the hunters.