Goose Spreads Part V- Flagging
Over the last few years, besides my gun, the single most important piece of gear I take on a goose hunt is my flag. Flagging is something we started trying a couple of seasons ago. I bought a manufactured goose flag, and started flapping it around when the geese were in sight. The results were immediate. Nowadays, I use a very simple homeade flag, made by taking black mesh football jersey material and cutting a 2′ by 2′ square, and zip tying it to a 2′ long dowel rod. I keep two or three in my layout blind so I can loan them out. I was sold on flagging during the 2005 opening weekend of the September season. We were invited to hunt a piece of property with a couple guys that had never goose hunted before. The morning was slow, but we finally saw some geese way off in the distance, and they were not heading for us. Two of us jumped up and started waving the flags and calling loud, the geese began to turn. We hunkered back down, kept flagging and started calling softer. The geese locked up and a few guys killed their first Canadas that morning out of that flock.
The key to flagging is to know when to do it. Geese that are a good ways off are prime to flag. I start out waving the flag very hard and fast, making a lot of motion, but once they are tuned and coming towards the blinds, it’s time to back off and just flip the flag; kind of like a goose stretching it’s wings a bit. These subtle movements add movement and realism to the spread, and will help geese finish into the hole.
If you have never tried flagging before, I would encourage you to try it this year, it doesn’t always work, but when you can turn some far off honkers and put them on the ground, it is worth the few dollars and effort of doing it.