A gohuntbirds.com Field Canada Goose Setup
This weekend I had the opportunity to get out hunting with Marc Lapierre of the gohuntbirds crew.
What a great time. Not only are Marc and his team fantastic guys, they are total pros when it comes to hunting birds. It’s all in the name, after all.
I learned a lot on this trip but, in this post I want to focus on a canada goose field setup that we used very effectively. I had never tried this arrangement before.
We set up in a farmers field in front of a fence/hedge line with a North wind at our backs. The end of field met the Ottawa River where geese generally roost overnight. Geese begin to leave the water in the morning, heading into fields nearby where they eat and meet up with other geese. Our set up consisted of appx. 8 dozen decoys in a J shape. Our ground blinds were interspered within the decoys (labelled as “Decoys A” in the drawing below). We also had a small group of 6 decoys about 30 yards in front of us (labelled as “Decoys B” in the drawing below). This small grouping acheived 2 purposes:
1) They acted as a marker for a safe/ethical shooting distance. If any geese were beyond the decoys, we could easily see that it was unsafe to shoot at them.
2) They forced incoming geese to land either before or after the decoys where they could be ethically shot at.
The setup looked like this:
As the morning progressed, geese would come off the water, circle overhead, and then come back around into the wind to land. Minimal calling was needed to bring these circling geese in.
Other flocks from neighbouring ponds and fields would also arrive, and we would see them coming from a distance. These flocks required aggressive flagging to attract them and then calling as the approached. The arrows below shows the general routes that geese took into our decoys
The set up was ingenious. Regardless of which direction the geese came in from, our set up forced them to funnel in front of us. If geese landed to long or short, the small decoy spread was adjusted accordingly.
Thanks again to Marc and the gohuntbirds.com crew for such a great weekend. Their commitment to sharing their love of birdhunting is awesome, we hope to do more hunting with them in the near future. Check out their site: www.gohuntbirds.com
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My cousin loves to hunt waterfowl, but he’s never hunted a Canadian goose. I think he’d really love to read about how you used decoys to get the birds at an ethical shooting distance. I’ll totally share this article with him, and maybe he can get a goose this hunting season! Are there any other tips he should keep in mind?
Hi Bethany! I think two key tips are also important to keep in mind. First: know generally where the birds are roosting in your area. Geese roost on or near water, and often fly inland to feed on agricultural fields. Putting yourself in that flightpath is a good practice. Second, know the wind direction. Geese tend to prefer to land facing into the wind. Finally, if your cousin is new to waterfowl hunting I would recommend shelling out a few bucks to join a guide or outfitter for a few hunts – this can really help your skills if you use it as a learning opportunity. Sorry to be so slow to reply to you, thanks for your comment!