Thread: Canadian Geese on public land

Pulled some silhouette decoys outa the shed to show what I've been using for the past 30-40 years. The following photo's are of the larger ones I've been using for a few years now, the older ones were about 2/3 of the size. Still have some of the older ones, looking like they need a tidy up, but still work to fill out a decoy spread.



This is the upright, about 800 long by about 470 to the top of the head. I bundle them up using really big rubber bands cut from a tractor tube, about 10-15 in a bundle. The pegs are 25mm wide alloy, I found any narrower and they tend to fold in tough ground. And I step the pegs so that they dont all fall in the same place and scratch the shit out of each other. If you then stack them properly your bundle of decoys is way thinner than if all the pegs were in the same place.



The feeder is the same body, but just with the neck outstretched to the front, about 1100 long from nose to tail. The necks on these are bigger than the naturals, but it makes for a stronger silhouette, and draws geese in anyways. It is important that the black is black, and the white is white. The dark brown of the wings and the light brown of the belly is not critical. I find Resene Colour Shops are the best place to get paint - they have small sample pots that are sufficient for a few decoys and their colours are good. These decoys have seen a few dusty or wet nights in the past couple of months and really should have a good clean down.

When Im making some silhouettes I have several older ones on hand as patterns, and tack 3 or 4 sheets of ply/mdf/ sheet stuff together. Then I cut all the sheets together, saves a whole heap of time.

Its not too difficult to camo up to match your surroundings, but its not the camo, or lack of, that causes problems - its the shadows. You may have the best layout blind money can buy, but if its above ground and the suns still out, then you will have a big arsed shadow. Silhouettes throw a good shadow, and if you place them around your blind or scrim etc, the shadows can help to minimise the effect of your own shadow.
I tend to place my decoys in the classic fish hook shape and hide myself right in the bend, sometimes with decoys only a metre away. Set most of your uprights just downwind of your blind, out to the side a bit. Scatter a few feeders through the bunch. And then set about 5 or 6 feeders in a bit of a small group behind you so that it looks like they're the early birds and are flat out scoffing good tucker in front of the main mob. Geese will land on the high spots, any ever so slightly high bump in a paddock and then walk feeding as they go. They wont land in a depression or hollow.

One of my most memorable goose hunts was on a local backcountry station after work. Time was short so I grabbed my vest with 45 rounds of ammo, one bundle of decoys and a shotgun and walked in to a paddock that had a tiny stream running through it. Put the silhouettes out randomly in front of me and sat in some rough grass beside the stream. No camo, no blind, nothing. Forty five shots later I had 23 geese on the ground in less than 30 minutes, no ammo left, 7 geese for the last 5 shots, and had to leave in good light with geese still coming in.

There are a few here.

I just found this pdf on my phone I had forgotten about regarding hunting Canada geese . Info released early last year ( or maybe year before - time flies nowadays )
Might be worth a read....

Canada-Geese-status.pdf

If it won't download let me know and I will try again....

Interesting and it opened just fine