Mixin' dekes

[Tucker03]

Guys - got a few questions so bear with me please...Putting this question out there for some diversity of opinions and experience...I'll be hunting mostly residents in Massachusetts this season and have a small spread mixed with BF silhouettes, FA FB's, and a couple of floaters for the ponds...I'm wanting to increase my numbers of birds in the spread on the shore and the field. Different manufacturers have slightly differing colors. How much of a difference is this assumed to make on borderline interested birds. Will putting lessers in the spread make any difference? And lastly, how critical are my numbers of birds on the spread to resident geese? The goose hunting here seems to be nowhere close to the midwest hunting. I'm in more rural country in the western side of the state so I don't expect to see many migrators. Lastly, for early seasons I don't want to educate the birds or put out layouts early on...what's the probability on getting 'em to finish near a hedgerow on open alfalfa fields.
Any insights you can provide are greatly appreciated...new to the geese be a southerner. Thanks guys!

[ProStafferMattOwens]

ok as far as what brand decoys you use it shouldnt matter. during the early season you can put to many decoys out. most of the time the geese know if they go to a field and its loaded with decoys they will know somethin is up cause they havnt seen a big spread for a long time. so see how many gesse are commin to ur field to determine ur spread size first off. it doesnt hurt to use sillos with ur big feet and final approach decoys. dont use to many sentery's, only use about 3 or 4 sentry's and the rest feeders. maybe only use 2 sentrys, u will have to see what will work best. geese cant tell the difference in size because they dont have depth preception, people use bigger decoys to get their attention from farther distances. the color shouldnt matter just make sure your decoys dont cast any glares. watch your local flock of geese and see how they feed and what kinda pattern they are in. some guys hunt over an "x", "U", and a blob pattern. so watch ur flock feed and determine how to spread your decoys out. make sure u have good blind cover and on sunny days use face paint. thats about all i have to offer, if uhave any other questions let me know.

[DEADEYE]

Hey Matt I got a question,when are you going to pay Troy/Riverguide for the blinds you got 26 months ago.You need to take care of this problem now!!!!!!!! :evil:

[Killer Miller]

Tucker, first of all, I definately dont think putting lessers out will help you at all as opposed to regular decoys. Geese have no depth perception (they can't tell if decoys are too big or small), but they can obviously see larger decoys from farther away than smaller ones. So I wouldn't invest in lessers. And by saying you thinking about buying lessers, you were probably thinking GHG decoys. Definately get the GHG Pro-Grade full bodies. The actives and feeders have motion stands and stakes included, and the lookers are incredibly tall and look just like a big gander parascoping, watching for danger and what not. Go easy on the lookers though, I would say 3 or 4 per 2 dozen feeders/actives. Me and Iowamigr8tor's full body spread is going to end with 2 decoys short of 4 dozen full bodies, consisting of 6 lookers, 16 actives and 24 feeders. I think you can get away with mixing decoys, but we are going to try to put only flocked head decoys out this year. They stand out so much better, and I think birds finish better to them. Just my 2 cents

[Tucker03]

Thanks for the replies. I think early season will yield good results if I stay conservative on the spread. Scouting has been good the last few days, got landowner permission for some good corn fields through the late season. I'll post some results for my first goose hunt. Thanks again for the advise. By the way, any body out there do much in this region of the country? Waterfowl doesn't seem so hot with the exception of the coast...we'll see how all this preemptive hard work pays out. Take care.