Breaking The Mold
By: Mike Benjamin
“Ok guys, how are we gonna set the decoys today?” This is probably THE first question that is asked when a hunting crew gets into the field. Though this is an important question, there are many other aspects of the hunt that have just as much of an effect on the day’s success. Blind placement, concealment, flagging, calling, as well as your position in the field must all be added into the equation if you want to get the correct end result, which we all know is geese in the bag. It takes years of hunting to figure out just the right components of the equation, there are some things that can be taught, and some things just have to be learned from trial and error.
During every seminar I have given I always ask “How does everyone set their decoys?” The responses I get all seem to be the same. The responses always seem to be in the letter V, J, X, H, L, and just about every other letter of the alphabet. Though these “Letter Spreads” have been very successful over the years, hunters need to adjust their hunting minds to what it takes to be successful NOW, and not what WAS successful in the past. What hunters should ask is “how were the birds sitting in the field?” Personally I have never seen geese sit in a perfect V, X or a J for that matter. When I see geese in the field typically there are small bunches that make up the large flock. If I am going to traffic birds (hunt a field that does not have birds in it, but instead try and pull geese as they fly to other fields to feed) I will set my decoys in a manner that resembles no letters. Over the years hunters have been accustomed to setting up in the same shape. When geese see this in the field, and get shot at, then go to the next field and see that same looking spread and get shot at, it does not take long for the birds to get educated to this shape. Many hunters use 4-6 dozen decoys. In most cases I will set small flocks (1- 7) of geese randomly around the blinds, and set them out as far as 40 yards. The farther the decoys are from the blinds, the fewer decoys I use. What this does is it keeps the less aggressive part of the spread, or the area that is not packed together as tight. Many of the guys that I have hunted with over the years always question where the geese are going to land in this spread, as I do not like to have obvious “Kill Holes”. The reason that I like to stay away from the kill holes, is the resemblance of the letter spreads. I have found that geese like to land with the tighter group in the field. With this in mind, I Set a group of about 2 dozen decoys fairly tight about 10 yards in front of the blinds. What this also does, is it keeps the focus off the blinds and on the decoys in front of your crew. I like to make a random looking spread.
Another tip that I feel has brought us a lot of success is NOT setting the decoys the same distance apart. How many guys hold 4 decoys in their arms, take 3 steps set one down, take 3 more steps and set one down? Again, I have never watched geese sit exactly 9 feet apart from each other. If you try setting some decoys real close together like less than 2 feet apart, and set some 5-7 feet apart, you will see that your spreads will become more realistic.
I hope some of these tactics have created some new ideas for setting up your decoys. What I like to do is set up how other groups of hunters are not. By giving the geese something new to look at you are going to increase your success.
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