There are two aspects of scouting that should be clarified , finding geese on a field is fine and dandy but the key to long term success is finding roosting water and the general tyravel directions then finding hunts will be easier. it helps you to concentrate your initial search.
On our last hunt we pulled out something old school and something new ( at least new to me), the result was pretty good.
The new to me was to use a J vs. the usual V.
Set the J so the wind blows from the bottom of the j with the stem trailing down wind. When you are placing decoys the major concentration was at bend of the J , with the amount of decoys we have the stem of the J is only about 30 yards long and only 5-6 yards wide.
The old school thing was to have the decoys facing 1 direction though it was more like facing the same point. Years ago I had abandoned that thinking that only spooky geese face the same way so we placed them every which way thinking the flock looked more “relaxed”. We revived the one direction thing for this reason the decoys tell the incoming birds where the food is and being competitive by nature they will be compelled to go where the new food is.
was it was just the day, or there is something to it I don’t know, but I can say the J gives plenty of space for a kill zone and is way more forgiving to minor wind shifts. Same for facing decoys to the same point. , but the only time we touched our decoys was to stand them back up after a dead goose knocked them over. And this was the first time in memory were we did not adjust the decoys at all.
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