"WATERFOWL NOTES"

YOUR FIELD OF DREAMS

You have a lease, it has a pond or flood plot of water and the rest is suppose to be dry. Each year the crop on this land changes, one year its rice, next soy beans, next grass or corn and grass. Or what ever. Unlike a guide service you and your lease partners are on a single piece of real estate, not privy to 30, 40 or 50 thousand acres. Some day’s geese and ducks want to be on your land other times they seem to ignore your decoys. But it can be “Your Field of Dreams.”

Remember what you are hunting, if it’s ducks set up for ducks. If it Canada geese set up for Canada geese, if It’s snows, blues ands specs set up for snows, blues and specs.

Well set your Field of Dreams for Snow Geese. Exactly what does your field look like. Is perfectly flat or does it have a high spot or two. Does it have levies through out or is it basically flat. What about the borders, ditches or roads or trees or just another set of levies. For purposes of being together let’s say the field is flat and almost square. With a road on two sides (North and east) and water on the West and a ditch on the South.

Where will be set up? That is first and foremost. Don’t worry about how the decoys and hunters will get to the spot, but where does it seem the best set up. If both duck and goose season is open then the better chance to get both would be a combo of water and field. Snow geese – given a choice prefer closer to the center of a field, if one area is higher then they prefer the higher area. For purposes of “goose thinking” the water and field are one. It’s predators that geese fear, that is why they roust on water. They have a better chance of hearing, seeing and escaping a dog, coyote, fox, etc. in the middle of a pond, lake or river than on land.

Once a spot has been picked and lets assume there are two equal spots, now attention is turned to type of access. If they are equal then type of ground. Obviously dry ground is superior to muddy ground. But, there may not be a choice. The area might be muddy; no hunt is good when the hunters are covered with mud from gun to skives.

There will be these days and hunts. If the ground is just damp and muddy then spreading a canvas about 4 feet wide by 7 feet long couple with wearing waders and a camo rain parka over your cloths will work. If it’s muddy – muddy then a 6-foot by 2-foot plastic sled is the best option. The sleds in black or dark brown (or painted camo) can also be used to fill with decoys and hunting gear and pulled into the hunting spot. Waders are still recommended when the ground is muddy. Remember the decoys have to be put out and pick up.

Once you and the other hunters reach the spot selected to set up check the wind. For purposes of this example the wind is out of the West. The normal set up is to position the hunters with their backs to the wind. But if we do this the hunters will be looking directly into the rising sun. How do we cope?

It is not a good idea to be looking into the sun with geese coming out of the sun. They are difficult to see, especially until the sun gets up off the horizon and the geese are looking directly at the hunters – face to face.

Next decision, do you want the geese coming in from your left or right? In this example we have noticed more early geese moving from South to North, possibly there are roust South of our land. Set up with the hunters facing South. Place each hunter about 10-yards apart one next to the water (the best shot or the hunter with the dog – the dog can retrieve in the water without crossing over the hunters), the others in a straight line east of hunter one. Place the canvas layout pads or the sleds where the hunters will be positioned.

Every hunter should have a laydown board or backrest. They can be made or you can purchase one.  Not only is this a comfort item but a safety item. The hunter has an area to shot – in front of him and a few degrees on the right and left. Keeps every hunter at the same height shooting – no one jumping up and getting shot. Most important, there have been multiple shooting accidents when the hunter, trying to rise from a prone position on his back, accidentally had his shotgun go off on the rise and hit the hunter next to him. Also, the hunters can rest the barrel (with muzzle pointed away) between there crossed legs – past there feet or laying on the canvas beside them. The Field bag under the backrest (out of the way) and the shell bag next to them – flat closed.

How are we going to dress? Camo or white. Either way the parka should be waterproof (when the ground is muddy). It is my opinion that dressed in white offers the best concealment. Why white parkas? Movement – it is very difficult to have 4 to 8 hunters completely still all the time. If the hunter wears a white or camo face mask, dark or white gloves and a white parka with the hood pulled up – assuming his waders are camo or dark green or brown, Any little movement will resemble movement of geese in the spread.

What kind of decoys and where to place them? Again we make the assumption that there will be 4 to 6 hunters. Each hunter will carry (or place a bag on the ATV) a bag of decoys.

Snow geese require a large spread, especially to attract geese to a field that they are not feeding at the time.

700 to 800 Texas Rags white, 50 Texas Rags dark brown, A bag of dark brown and white alert heads, a dozen Goose Magnets – 9 snow and 3 spec, a 36 to 48 All Wind snows and spec decoys, a couple dozen duck decoys, a dozen snow or spec floating decoys, a spinning wing duck decoy, a “Wabbler” duck decoy, a Wing Waver snow, a Wave Magnet snow and a half dozen snow goose balloons.

Packing the decoys – Field =A Wind Sock bag will hold 200 to 250 Texas Rags, so we need 3 bags of 200 snows and a bag with 100 snows and 50 dark rags. A All-Wind Sling bag with the All Wind decoys, A side open 42-inch duffel bag will hold a dozen Goose Magnet decoys with poles (fiberglass or ½-inch conduit), the Wing Waver comes in it’s own bag and the Wave Magnet can be carried in a Blind Bag or in a hunting coat pocket. The 10-foot pieces of ½-inch conduit carried in 5 foot pieces with a ½-inch connector or two each 10 ft pieces (all conduit should be painted dark brown, tan or black – a method of covering that works well is to use wood grain shelf paper, cut into pieces that roll on the conduit, this will last several years with out touch up).

Water = a couple dozen duck decoys, a dozen snow or spec decoys and a spinning wing duck decoy (wind powered if the wind is over 7 mph or battery operated if a still day).

At worst this is 4 bags or rags, a duffel bag, a bag of heads, a Wing waver bag, 1 bag of duck decoys, a bag of goose floaters and a box with the spinning wing decoy.

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