Best Setup Suggestions for Your Goose Blind
If you are first starting out goose hunting, one of the most intimidating factors is how and where to set up your blind. How can you best set up your blind to give you the best chance at getting your limit? Growing up with a dad who was a professional waterfowl guide and hunting alongside him since I was 12 years old, I have plenty of tips and tricks to share with those who are feeling a little in over their head.
Where to Set Up Your Goose Blind
Your first step is to decide where you are going to hide your goose blind. To find the best place to set up your blind, you should scout for geese for at least a couple of days before making any decisions. You should keep an eye out for any flocks in the air and on the ground; they tend to prefer open winter wheat and corn fields, especially when the field is freshly cut. Freshly cut fields are best within a week of harvest, and geese are quick to find their meal and move on to another field. Once you've found your ideal field, you then want to find where the geese are landing and eating within the field so you can place your blind in that vicinity. When placing your blinds, you would want a spot that lends itself to concealing your blinds. In winter wheat fields, because the crop is cut so short, you would want to gravitate towards the field edge or find a spot that wasn't cut as short. In corn fields, the stalks are usually still tall, so finding coverage is not as difficult.
What Kind of Blinds to Use for Goose
After that, you want to decide what kind of blind you're going to use. The two main options are a layout blind and an A-frame blind; I personally use a layout blind and prefer it to an A-frame blind because you can place it in the field versus on the field edge, which gets you closer to the birds and closer to the action. One of the most important things to take into consideration is the wind direction. Geese will always land IN TO the wind, so you want to place your blind with the wind at your back. This will ensure that the geese land right in front of you and get you the best shot possible.
How to Best Set Up Your Goose Blind
Once you've found the perfect spot, you want to be 100% sure that your hunting blind is concealed as much as possible with where you've placed it and any extra natural cover such as grasses, corn stalks, or other foliage. I tend to use a lot of grass and often find some lying in the field I am hunting in. With a layout blind, because it is rectangular and not a shape often found in nature, you want to cover all the sides of your blind to make it look more natural. If your blind is not totally concealed, the geese will spot it quickly and find another spot to land.
Another way to conceal your blind is by setting up your decoys. You want to set up your decoys around your blind as it helps to hide those corners and edges and make them appear more natural. Also, because your blind will appear bulky in the open field to the geese, it looks like there is more foliage, such as corn or winter wheat, wherever your blind is, so placing decoys right near your blind will make it seem like other birds are also feeding in this bulky area which will entice geese to land there as well.
A better blind setup will increase your chances of geese landing in your spread. Get there early and take some time to be sure you're blended in and will be unnoticeable to the geese above. Nothing is worse than having that first big flock of the morning keep flying because they spotted you due to not having a natural setup. If it doesn't look natural to you, it won't look natural to them. So, use these tips to help you hide your setup so you can have a better hunt next time you're out!
Author
Michael Griffey
I am always on the hunt for the next world class fish. Although fishing is my favorite, I am also a huge fan of waterfowl, deer, and turkey hunting. Having grown up with a dad who was a professional waterfowl guide, he truly fostered a love for the outdoors and hunting during my childhood which has only grown. Outside of fishing and hunting I enjoy spending time training my Black Lab dog, (Burner), watching the Packers, and snowmobiling.
