When I first started chasing the white goose in the spring, I was running a rag spread and killing a good number of birds. The ticket back then was to have a loud e-caller. Boy have things changed. The snow goose has gotten smarter, hunting pressure heavier, and the flow of information on what works and does not work on geese happens overnight thanks to the internet and smart phones.
There are no secrets anymore!
What does all the above mean? It means you have to be on the top of your game to consistently decoy snow geese.
In this article I will be focusing in the decoy spread.
I used to run a large spread of full bodies when possible. Hands down this kills the most geese! High winds, no wind, sun, no sun, it simply kills the most geese. But at what cost? Besides the heavy investment in decoys, large gas bill pulling around an oversized trailer, you need a crew of guys that can go on no sleep to set the spread each morning. If you can do this each day, you will optimize your kill.
As hunting pressure increased and land access made it harder and harder each year to get on the “x”, I started hunting known migrator fields. The maximum amount of full bodies that could fit in my trailer (400) was not getting the attention of the migrators. I started adding supported socks. The more socks I added, the more birds I killed. Eventually I was leaving all my full bodies at home, running 1500 FeatherTek™ windsock snow goose decoys, and smoking the geese.
I receive a lot of phone calls asking what kind of decoys to buy, how to set them etc.. My advice is always changing as I learn more. If you can easily get permission to be on the “X”, you can afford to buy 400 plus full body decoys, and you have a crew of guys to help you deploy them all, a full body spread of 400 plus decoys is tough to beat. If this does not work for your hunting situation (it does not for me anymore) I recommed building yourself as large of supported windsock decoy spread as you can afford, and build this up each year. I also like to run 20% headed windsock decoys.
Buy using the above suggestions I know you will kill more snow geese!
Chris Holste