This is a page were we will be adding tips from all the Pro's in the field. Look for tips from Casey Self, Shawn Self, Jeremy Romain, and many others. We will be posting up written tips, video files and sound files to help with your calling and hunting tactics. 

Success in the Fog! (see video on home page for more fog actions!!)


Hunting in the fog can either be a goose hunters worst nightmare or one of the most memorable hunts if you do it right! There are several issues with goose hunting in the fog. One thing is they can see a lot better then you think and when they appear out of the fog they are looking right at your calling and can pick you out in a heart beat if your not hidden well. Secondly they just fly around making lots of noise and can have a hard time finding where they want to feed. Thirdly you most likely have no wind when your dealing with fog. In Kansas this year we were fortunate (or unfortunate) to get 5 full days of heavy fog where being able to see 50 yards was about the max, so we got to put past theories and success tactics back to the test full force.

Calling: When your hunting in the fog you will hear geese normally flying, they are very vocal because they are communicating with there buddies on where the heck they are going. So this helps us as hunters because there isn't many that will sneak in the back door. Many people make the mistake of not calling much in the fog and only give them a little so they no your there. The problem with that is they are talking so much with each other its hard for them to pinpoint you on the ground. They will end up doing a fly by most likely and either moving on to a different spot in the field or give you a pass shooting shot. Me I like to kill them with the feet down so what we have found works best is when you hear them getting close hit them with the call, the more people calling the better. This will get them to drop hard and straight down to the deeks. Then I pretty much let off when they are about to back flap or I see there feet drop. Sometimes we find you can stay on them the hole way, but I have found more times then not, that calling more in the fog is better then not at all or little.

Decoy Set ups: If you have some wind, set up your normal spread like you would facing the kill hole and put a couple small family groups way out in the kill hole off one edge (normally up wind edge) This will allow the birds to lock up on those further out and hopefully get them to drop altitude out in front of you instead of right on top of you, I've put them as far as 50-60 yards out before, but just as far as you feel comfortable and play with the distance some. Then once they start coming down about to back flap hit them hard on the call and pull them toward the blinds. This works flawlessly if done correctly, geese usually will want to center up on the call.

Blind positioning with no wind: Foggy days unfortunately usually mean there is little to no wind. When this happens the birds seam to want to drop down directly above you and then circle and land about 10 feet behind the blinds. A lot of times we make the mistake of listening to the weather report and sticking with our blinds facing with the wind behind our backs. But let me tell you. If there isn't any wind, a goose can come down any direction he wants. If you keep noticing they drop down behind you then you need to turn your blinds because they will just keep doing it. Now I make the mistake a lot of not moving in time because one or two groups center up nice so you get worried that you'll mis out facing the wrong direction. I found something to be very successful in the fog/no wind scenario. Turn one or two guys facing strait left, One guy facing out front (wind at back) and face one or two guys strait right. This way you cover a 360 degree area and you still have a couple guys that can swing and shoot straight out. If one blind is getting all the shooting, feel free to rotate. We've done this a lot and makes for some fun hunting. And one last thing to leave you with. Since you never quite know when the birds will apear out of the fog, stay ready at all times. Leave your doors close so you don't get busted. Geese will see you most often then you see them in the fog!

SCOUTING IN THE DARK!
There is a reason why goose hunting is my passion over duck hunting, its because with goose hunting, you can be in the wrong spot 75% of the time and if you call hard enough and try hard enough you can convince the geese to come to your spread even if they have another spot in mind. With Ducks 95% of your success comes with location, the other 5% is having your crap together when the ducks come to that "location" so that you can seal the deal. How many times have you gotten out in the morning after scouting or not scouting and set up in a spot, put your entire rig out, brushed your boat, or temporary blind to watch the ducks pitch down about 100 yards away from you in a different spot! At that point you have 2 decisions to make, 1) Stay where your at, change up your existing spread, your calling, your hide, what every you can do to increase your chances at getting them to where you are. Or 2) Cut your losses and move your spread to where they want to go, which you've heard me harp a million times, infact I'm most known for creating controversy and picking up and moving at the drop of the hat, even if its right in the (magic hour) of the morning. Well I'm not going to go over moving your spread in this tip, instead I'm going to teach you some ways to make sure you get it right the first time! Many of us have the time or resources to get out and scout for ducks the night before or day before to find the X or honey hole where the ducks want to be and they set up in that exact spot with a lot of success. In fact this is the ideal situation, however for the working man like most of us we aren't allowed the daylight in the day to leave the office early enough on a Friday afternoon to check where the ducks want to be, so we find ourselves fumbling out in the dark to our (old faithful) spots in hopes that it will still be the best spot to be. If your anything like me, most of the time this works for the most part because ducks seem to pattern to the same spots year after year depending on how marshes change and what not. But usually if you find the spot one day, it will continue to produce ducks later in the season when new birds get down. However as hunters tromp around throughout the weeks and nock down cover, food, and even ducks clearing out food in certain spots, you'll find that ducks can move in a day or nights notice to a different spot all together.

Here is something I have used over the years that has proven itself to be a sometimes fool proof method that I like to call (Scouting in the Dark) you got it, you use your god giving skill of listening. If you've even walked into a marsh in the morning to hear ducks going nuts with lonesome hen calls calling out to there friends that something isn't quite right while you bust into their midnight snacking session to find yourself flushing out a big bunch of ducks. Well guess what, if you were there before sunset you would of witnessed those very ducks landing in that spot most likely, now use a little comman since, if you kick out 12 ducks 20 feet from the boat ramp I would suggest setting up there!!. Now many will say this isn't the time to find your spot but as long as you know they lay of the land and get toward your normal hunting spot, creep up on it to hear where the ducks are actually sitting. This goes back to about 8 years ago, when my brothers were up in Kansas City and we had the duck boat loaded down to head to one of my favorite public marshes. I hadn't hunted it yet that year but after viewing the kill board in the headquarters before the morning draw I pulled the number 2 pill from the box and we picked the pool that was killing the most ducks. We launched the boat in the dark not really knowing where to head but I had a good idea from years past experiences we navigated out shutting the motor off about every 100 yards or so and it was about the 3rd time of shutting the motor off we heard ducks in the distance going nuts. As we creped up in the boat we shut it off one last time to flush out a couple thousand mallards and we knew we were in the spot that we needed to be. That day was the 1st of 4 days strait in late December to kill 4 man limits of greenheads in that same exact spot.

Well this year hasn't been any different, the day before thanksgiving Eric Massey, Ben Smolen, and myself found ourselves drawing in for the exact same pool at this public marsh. We motored back in the pitch dark with the cloud covered moon and as I shut off my motor we flushed out a ton of ducks in some standing Millet. We set up in the closest open hole in our Layout boats and soon after we had a very productive day, didn't kill limits but we increased the average of 1 bird per hunter for the week by scratching out 10 big ducks including a pintail drake a piece. Use this tip and I can garuntee you will find yourself filling more limits on your daily card! (See Pic below)

Quick Decoy pick up (ROPE DRAG): This is my Favorite TIP!! If you use all tangle free decoy line on your spread here is an easy and fast way to pick up giant spreads. Although my favorite tip I can't claim this one, an guy I had hunted with this winter taught us this. Only supplies needed are 2 people and a 50-100 foot ski or climbing rope. Spread out at the edge of the spread and walk around your decoys dragging the rope between the 2 people and the decoy line will catch on the ski rope and when you get to the end of the spread all your decoys are clumped together and ready to be put in the boat, or bag. We have found that we can pick up over 100 duck decoys in less then 10 minutes this way. Most folks think it won't work in the weeds but the picture below shows it does. The only thing is we have found the deerp the water the easier it works, just because you don't have to bend down to drag the rope. (see pics below)

Caller positioning: The reason we are able to pull geese into gun range even though we have some decoys stretched out of range is because geese almost always come to the call. Most groups of hunters have one or two hunters that do most of the calling. Use this to your advantage. If there is only one caller in the bunch, place them were the birds will pull into position so everyone can shoot (often in the middle). If you have a cross wind place them on the very up-wind side of the line. What you do in this situation is your allowing the caller to pull the group of geese across the gun line so everyone gets a shot.


Moving to the sweet spot: One thing I'm well known for is never hesitating to make a drastic decoy move. Everyone has been in the situation where you simply set up in the wrong spot for the day and sit in agony watching dozens of ducks pouring into a hole 200 yards away. For this exact reason I have all of my decoys Texas rigged so I can cut my losses, pick up my decoys quickly, and move to that hole. You may waist a bunch of time getting moved over, but it will turn a miserable day into a great day.


Blind brushing: The most overlooked piece to brushing a layout blind is putting stubble heavy around the bottom edge of the blind (where the blind meets the ground). When you do this it not only takes away shadows from the ground but from the air it makes the boxy look disappear into the ground. It makes it impossible for birds to tell that the blind is a big rectangle on the ground. Try this next time in the field and your success at landing geese will improve greatly.

SPIT NOTE TIP

LAYOUT BLIND BRUSHING TIP