# Urgent, what to do?



## Codeman (Mar 9, 2010)

Ok, I went scouting for geese this morning. I am planning on hunting tom.

Well I found a area that has tons of geese. That aint the problem. The area is about 3 miles square that they were all in. I am new to hunting so don't have the experience to call geese in from far away. I scouted three different spots. The first spot there were geese about 50 or so on the ground. The second spot I saw geese flying in and it was around 10:50 or so and there were probably 300-400 on the water. The water was surrounded by a cut bean field. Do you think the geese would come into decoys in the bean field? I only have 4 floaters so a water spread is no go, and the water had too tall of rushes to set up a half water half land spread. The last spot that I scouted I am a little unsure about. I was looking as a group flew into an area. I was a little ways off. Then a plane that was crop spraying scared them up. I could not tell exactly where they were in the field since they were below hills. But there were two bean fields side by side. The geese which numbered about 50 flew to a big body of water and there were like 300 ducks with them that took off. I drove over there to look and didn't see any water in the bean field so I assumed that the ducks and geese were sitting in the cut beans.

Ok well that is my report. I just don't know where to hunt tom. It seemed like that area had a lot of geese flying around. SO that works to my advantage. But what would you guys do? I have a total of around 5 dozen decoys. It is just going to be two of us hunting. Ok well give me some input on what you guys think. Thanks.


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## Doc_11 (Aug 13, 2010)

Even though Field #1 had only 50 geese it would probably be your best bet. With only 2 guys hunting and assuming that those 50 birds are broken up into 3-5 groups that should give you enough oppertunity to have a good hunt. And how knows there could be more in there tomorrow morning.

Field #2. My best guess is that these geese are going to a field in the morning and then going to this water spot to loof for the afternoon. This would probably be your best bet to get on a large amounts of geese. One thing would be to check how high the water level is. If its pretty low you could use your motion stakes for your full body decoys or run to a local hard where store and pick up some 2 ft wooden dowels. I've done this before it works really well as long as its not to windy and assuming you have GHG decoys. Those dowels cost like $0.50 a piece if that.

Field #3. My bet is that this field would be a bust tomorrow. With that plane fly over more then likely those geese have already found a new field to go to and won't be back tomorrow morning. There is always that change but in my experience once those geese get kicked off of a field and find a new one that same day, they won't go back to the original field the next day.

Hopes this helps.

If you are scouting tonight what I would do is head over to that pond and check to see if the geese are off of it. If so go out there and check the water level, if not head back towards dusk. Then go straight over to field #1 and see how many groups are coming into that field. As long as the geese are still in family groups and not one big group of 50 you should have enough changes to get those geese in.

Just to cover myself, this is just my opinion and there is always that change that it won't work out like I have described it.


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## Codeman (Mar 9, 2010)

Ok thanks man. Hopefully there will be enough geese in he air throughout the day that I can bring some in.

I am unable to scout again tonight, so lets see how this works.

And the slough with the largest group of geese is about .5 mile away from the field where the 50 or so were sitting when I went scouting.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

EDIT: I think I am going to go with the first field. Hopefully it will be windier tom so they wont want to sit on that water. The water was pretty big.


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

If you are from north dakota then you will have to hunt the first field. No resident of north dakota has ever hunted by or near a body of water. If you are a NR of nodak weather you are a rookie or expert waterfowler you should have instinctively known to go bust the roost.

seriously tho I would hunt the first field the water/cattails/feild sounds like a mess to me. good luck!


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## Gooseguy10 (Oct 10, 2006)

How did it go this morning?

I hope you are cleaning geese as I type.


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## Codeman (Mar 9, 2010)

Well the hunt turned out absolutely terrible.

I went to field number one. I found a tractor with a plow parked in the approach. I then looked into the field to find that half was plowed half was not. So I assumed the farmer was going to plow the rest that day. So I decided there were geese in the area so I found a good field where they had been flying around and about .5 mile away from the water where there were tons.

I got set up and had a good set up. The mosquitos were horrible. Swarms of them. I soaked down in bug spray to no avail and was still eaten alive. It looked promising when the sun came up and geese everywhere. The problem was they would come towards us and fly off. I then saw the farmer plowing which made me happy. Then I saw a car coming and realized that there was a road that I did not konw about probably 30-40 yards from the edge of our spread. So that sucked. We had one group come over us about 30 yards up, looked like they were going to turn and land then they saw the flag that was laying next to my blind wrongside up and bolted. Didn't even get to shoot.

So that was a terrible hunt. :bop: Oh well I guess, I can't get them everytime. I did work on my spread and think I got it set up better.

The only other problem I noticed was shadows. The sun was to our face. When I walked to get the truck I looked at our setup which our decoys were on a hill and our blinds were on the down slope. I could easily see the shadow on the back side of our blinds. What can I do to compensate for that?

I am not too experienced and am hopefully getting better. It seems every time I set up and want the geese to work one way they go the opposite, same happened that day, I wanted geese to come head on but they worked from behind us, which I think the shadow from our blinds gave us away.


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## Gooseguy10 (Oct 10, 2006)

Too bad.

Just remember....while you had your terrible hunt....most of us were at work! :beer:


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## Codeman (Mar 9, 2010)

True to that.

I at least got two ducks out of the deal. One of these times it will all work out.


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

You always want the sun at your back, also wind if possible. If you can't get the wind, keep the sun and quarter on the wind.

Now for the shadows, this is where stubbling comes in. Pile stubble up behind your blind to help make a gradual slope instead of a 90 degree angle. This will help reduce shadows and unusual blobs in the fields.

Geese will almost always land into the wind. So if the wind is at your back they should come in feet down, head up and belly in your face. If you have to quarter the wind they will come left to right or the opposite depending on wind direction.

When you set up, if you have motion decoys, put them behind your blinds, resters around blinds to simulate a safe area, sentrys to the outsides and in front, spread feeders out around and a few( sread apart at least 5 steps) in your landing area. Sentrys can be used to actually steer the Geese into landing areas. Landing areas don't have to be huge, just open pockets with plenty of space.

Some days(later in season) you may have to set your blinds way up front, landing zone behind, or off to sides. If your birds are trying to land outside your spread, move your blinds. If they are landing 75-100 yards away, they are interested, but seeing something they aren't sure of.

Also remember, when the geese get close, you may have to lighten up on the calling. They may want aggressive calling, but turn your head to the side a little, so it's not so loud blowing right at them Hope this helps and Good Luck on the rest of the season


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## Codeman (Mar 9, 2010)

Ok thanks. I will have to try setting up with the sun at my back as much as possible and sloping stuble. Hopefully it helps.


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

won't hurt. make sure those blinds are hidden, I spend almost as much time hidding my blind as i do setting decoys


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## wackemandstackem (Oct 4, 2010)

Kelly Hannan said:


> You always want the sun at your back, also wind if possible. If you can't get the wind, keep the sun and quarter on the wind.
> 
> Now for the shadows, this is where stubbling comes in. Pile stubble up behind your blind to help make a gradual slope instead of a 90 degree angle. This will help reduce shadows and unusual blobs in the fields.
> 
> ...


sorry to say but pretty sure the birds always land into the wind no matter where the sun is at.


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## knutson24 (Feb 16, 2009)

wackemandstackem said:


> sorry to say but pretty sure the birds always land into the wind no matter where the sun is at.


The reason to make sure the sun is on your back is to prevent you face from shining like a mirror and also helps with camo. IE its hard to identify object while looking into the sun.

About the only time you wouldn't be able to have the sun on your back is if the wind was blowing towards the direction of the sun.

I think this is was the point Kelly was trying to make, but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. I'm always up for learning something new :beer:


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

Exactly, and yes Geese will land into the wind as I mentioned. Sometimes you have to set up with a cross wind instead of the wind blowing at you back. This will still present some awesome shooting. When I set up for a cross wind, I will set a few more decoys on the down wind side, and stretch them out a little farther. This makes an imaginary wall, it seems the Geese don't like to cross this and helps park them in the zone.


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## Codeman (Mar 9, 2010)

Sounds like a good plan.

So I am hopefully going out saturday and lets pray i get some shooting I would at least like to get some to decoy nice and close for once.


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

Wish I was going with you. My season doesn't open until the 30th


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