Image: snow_spread

Veteran hunters bunch snow goose decoys close together near the head of the spread to imitate a mass of feeding birds. Photo by Bill Konway.

Every waterfowler knows that spring snow goose hunting is about numbers: big flocks and, typically, giant spreads to attract them.

But when setting those big spreads, hunters often wonder how to configure their decoys. That is, how do you place and arrange them to convince those notoriously wary light geese that they should swing low and want to land in easy shotgun range?

Answers can be vague, so we asked the pros.

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“For us, there are two ways to go about it, and I think it’s kind of changing,” said Mario Friendy, a veteran waterfowler and vice president of brand innovation, marketing and sales for Final Approach. “You’re either going to use 1,000 to 1,500 socks, and you’re lying in the socks with your chair backboard in all white and going that route, which is a good route. But I’m starting to see some outfitters up and down the flyway kind of shrinking down to a more realistic spread of full-bodies, like 10 to 20 dozen, depending on what they can haul in.”

Cooper Olmstead, of Habitat Flats, which runs snow goose hunts in Missouri, said his outfit goes for numbers to mimic the big flocks common in that area during early spring.

“We run larger permanent spreads because the geese seem to jump around from feed to feed and aren’t very consistent,” he said. “We run all full-body spreads with 2,000 to 3,000 decoys per spread. It just depends on the field and area on the size we run.”

When setting those mammoth spreads, Olmstead and crew stretch decoys out downwind and make them longer so geese have something to work over.

“They’ll go out downwind and work back to you over a long tail instead of having them work directly over the top of you and just spin and spin and pick you apart,” he said. “When stretching them out, the decoys get tighter and tighter the closer you get to the pit or blind, replicating a feeding mass. They are greedy birds, so they will also try and land with the large mass, thinking that is where all the food is.”

Friendy takes a similar approach, bunching decoys closer toward the head of the spread, especially placing taller socks or full-bodies around the blind or chairs for added concealment. Also, he places flyer decoys at the head of the spread to make it appear that geese are jumping up and trying to get ahead of each other in the field, which is notorious snow goose feeding behavior. And he creates a hole somewhere in the spread near the shooters and before the flyers so it appears geese have jumped out of that hole. That empty space serves as a kill hole where geese should want to finish.

“There’s got to be that spot,” he said. “There’s either going to be a spot where you want them to land to get into the spread or get over the spread, coming past you to get ahead of other geese. You have to be conscious where your shooters are and where the birds are going to go — in the hole or riding past you. And are they low enough when they ride past you that you’re going to get good shots? They might try to get in the hole in front of you or go behind you, and nobody knows that going in. You should be prepared for both.”

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Olmstead also uses motion decoys and reinforces the illusion of a large mass of geese by running loud e-callers with remote-control capabilities, which is a critical feature.

“We’ll start them loud, and when you get their attention, we stair-step it down the closer they get,” he said. “It’s really no different than working any other waterfowl.”

Ultimately, Friendy said, a decoy spread can only do so much. Depending on conditions, snow geese might want to stick around an area and feed, or they could be in a rush to push north, closer to their breeding grounds. But that’s part of the fickle nature of spring snow goose hunting.

“If they’re pushing through an area and they’re not ready to stop, it doesn’t matter how many decoys you have out,” he said. “They’re going. They’re not going to stop.”