Everything you need to know about hunting specklebellies (aka the greater white-fronted goose)

DECOYS

If good cover is the most important factor in fooling white-fronted geese, effective decoying is the ticket for ensuring they finish properly in your kill zone. These geese are particular about when and where they’ll land; they generally won’t fly into Canada goose decoys, but they will land among snows.

Snow decoys can help fill out your spread, and they’re especially helpful in the early morning and on foggy days, as specks will be able to see them from afar. Since approaching specks won’t land in front of snow geese, just be sure to keep your snow dekes on the upwind end of your spread.

As with hunting snow geese, the more decoys in your spread, the better. Six or seven dozen decoys is usually sufficient, but if you have more, use them. Full-bodies, shells and silhouettes will all work, but Claudio Ongaro relies almost exclusively on fully flocked speck silhouettes. They’re not only affordable, he says, but also easy to set up and take down, especially when you have a large spread. If Ongaro expects snow geese to also show up, he’ll supplement his spread with several hundred windsock snow decoys and, occasionally, some full-bodied snow dekes.

Specks respond well to motion, so flagging is beneficial, especially in low-light conditions. Electronic flyer decoys can also be effective, but as with Canadas, specks will shy away from spinning-wing duck decoys.

Much as you would create for other geese, U- or V-shaped decoy spreads will do the trick just fine. Leave a wide kill zone, but sprinkle the open area with family groups of speck decoys.