Once you have decided you are planning on setting up for a traffic hunt, how you set your decoys largely depends on how many days you plan to hunt the same field and the size of your decoy spread.
Traffic Hunt Decoy Spread For Single Day Hunts Or Small Spreads:
If you only plan to snow goose hunt for a day I am a big believer in the teardrop shape. It centers the geese up and leaves you flexibility if the wind changes.
You can see a discussion on this setup in the video below at the 1 minute mark. It was filmed back in 2010 but the information is still solid. I even had hair back then!
Traffic Hunt Decoy Spread for Multiple Day Hunts Or Permanent Setups:
If you are setting up on an area for multiple days and have a sizable spread I prefer a star setup. It builds upon the spread shape noted above and is the same teardrop setup going in 4 or 5 different directions based on how many decoys you have.
The benefit of this style setup is the flexibility it provides for various wind conditions. No matter which way the wind is going the geese will center up and finish over one of the teardrop tails into the kill hole. All that a group needs to do each morning is move the blinds, rotary machines, snow goose flappers, and the snow goose e-caller for the prevailing wind direction.
This star setup also has an added benefit of having multiple landing areas for those no wind days. Typically the geese will still finish to the snow goose sounds and motion, but giving the geese options is always good on those tough no wind conditions.
In Conclusion:
By using one of the setups above you not only will get a few more minutes of sleep (sure feels good on day five of a hunt when you have been living off gas station donuts and coffee) each morning but you will also decoy more birds. Choose the spread shape that fits the length of your traffic hunt and shoot straight!
Chris
