# Geese Everywhere



## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

Went hunting with a friend tonight. We set out 3 doz. decoys in a tilled field. Still lots of corn stubble showing. We set up in a grassy fence row, no blinds. We put the decoys upwind, with a nice pocket to land in. The decoys were on the side of a hill, we were down lower in the grass. The first flock came, then the second,etc. Each flock had lots of birds. We tried flagging, no flag, calling no calling, we had a few motion decoys, but very little wind so not much movement. At 1 time i estimated over 1500 Geese circling around us. The main large flock of Geese stayed about 500 yards away. Several smaller bunches broke off and headed our way, then turned just before shooting distance. Don't think they flared, just veered off.

No matter what we did, or didn't do we could not get any birds to come close enough for a shot. What else could we have tried? In the picture you can see the large flock of geese. OMG the noise was deafening


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## teamshakeandbake (Oct 14, 2008)

who knows could have been many possibilitys... concealment? no wind? just keep trying until they come in keep moving things around little by little


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

They are scared of the fence line set up in the middle of the feild. spend 10 percent of your time setting up decoys and 90 percent hiding your blind. If you dont have a blind dig a little trench for your body and set the fullbodies on the edge of your trench


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

we had no time to move things around, this all happened in about 30 min. went from nothing to WOW

we were well hidden, I don't disagree with maybe the fence row set up was an issue, but it wasn't that big and didn't go very far. It was more of a strip of grass, with cornfield on both sides. it may have helped to have decoys on both sides of us, but the grass was a property line, and we only had permission on one side.


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## Buck25 (Mar 27, 2008)

Had the geese been using the feild prior to the hunt?

Did any geese land anywhere in the feild?

If they were interested in landing in the feild then they had to been seeing you unless there was something about the spread they didnt like. even if they were afraid of the fenceline they would just short drop your decoys and land in the middle of the feild. So i am guessing they saw you? all that being said they are geese and i end up wondering why they do what they do on many hunts


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

if they landed in our field it was a long way away and up over the hill. There are 3 fields side by side, and the past week they have using all 3. We have permission on the out side 2 but not middle. We were in #2 and they were hovering over #1. But several small groups broke off and flew our direction. I don't think they even looked at our spread. But they was so many birds, and so much activity it was hard to watch 1 group. I would be watching birds behind me and there would be birds flying out front. I have never witnessed that many birds all in the air at the same time. WOW!!!! is all I can say


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## cut'em (Oct 23, 2004)

You say the dekes where on the side of a hill. That concerns me a bit,How close to the top edge? If you were to walk up wind past the dekes and over the top edge of the hill looking back, would the dekes dissapear? What I'm thinking is that the hill side would be an unsafe for the normal flock to land on it's too easy to be snuck up on as they would be out of the line of sight just over the edge if you were approaching from the up wind side.
Just a thought


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## rsetty (Dec 5, 2006)

Were they geese or cacklers?


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

it was a long gradual slope. I never thought about the hill issue, good point. Hmmm?? I wondered if the Geese couldn't see the spread being on the slope and a dark dirt field.

I have no idea what a Cackler is. There is some Lessers in this area. They looked like Canada Geese to me. Honestly, there were so many, and coming from all directions, that I didn't have time to study them.


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## keenansnyder (Jan 25, 2006)

cacklers are geese....we also don't have caklers in the central flyway


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

I knew they are Geese, just don't know what they look like. Don't think we have them here in Illinois.


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## cut'em (Oct 23, 2004)

One trick I've done is take a spot light and shine it out across the field at ground height. You'll see high spots light up and low spots that look dark. Then we send a guy out to the highest point he sets a glow stick on a pole. we then carry all the dekes to that spot. You would be amazed at what your eye thinks is flat and actually can be a couple feet higher or lower. They like the high spots there's no dought about that. The glow stick is simply that, a glow stick that we hang from a plant hanger you push in the ground. it works slick for finding the place you set you first load of dekes if you have to carry them a long ways. green works best.


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## Kelly Hannan (Jan 9, 2007)

I use the truck headlights to do the same thing. I set the decoys up and the blinds down. I usually don't have enough guys to do what your saying, but it does sound like a good trick.

This particular hunt was an afternoon, and we set up in a spot that my partner has hunted in the past with success


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