I tried this a few times this last season in front of my house. I put 4-6 Bigfoot decoys out with one or two standing in the water. The geese would swim only so close and wouldn’t come in the rest of the way. I think it is because they had too much time swimming over to see that the decoys were not moving. I got some floating decoys for Christmas hopefully that will help.

Has anyone else had this problem or are floating decoys a must for hunting on water? Would you still put a few full bodies out or only use the floaters?

Thanks
Tom

I hunt this way quite often and use both types of decoys with success. I will usually place most of the decoys (1-2 dozen) on land as if they are feeding and put out a half dozen floaters. Try to concentrate on decoying the geese to land in your set as opposed to landing a distance away and swimming into the set. Good luck

Never had much luck getting geese to swim in that have landed long. We usually just try to kick them out of the slough incase some more come and try to pull them into the spread.

Your problem is finishing the birds. You need some movement which your new floaters should accomplish. I like to set some fullbodies on the shoreline, if exposed enough, some sleepers if on partial ice and relax your calling to make them more comfortable. Flags work good at distant geese on the water too not just in the field.

I hope the movement of the floaters solves the problem. Most of the hunting I do is in the field so it is not a big problem but it would be nice to get some to come in sitting on shore once in a while.

I mainly hunt geese over water. In my opinion when geese come to water that is where they want to be "on water" they leave water to feed in fields. If I was in your shoes I would most deffiantly have floaters out and wouldn't worry about having any on shore, but every situation is different let the Geese tell you what they want. Also if it is late in the year they tend to be smater than in the beginning of the season and will approach with caution if at all. Good Luck