If you mix a few dozen silhouettes into your shell or full-body spread, and set them facing all different directions, then as geese in the air circle your position, it will appear to them that there's movement throughout your spread.

Movement in a decoy spread is crucial to luring in wary Canadas. After a few days of being hunted, the birds become suspicious of "lifeless" flocks of geese on the ground. It's just not a natural sight, and most flocks will ignore such setups.

Aside from using silhouettes, you can add movement to your spread by deploying shells and full-bodies that have motion stakes. These allow the decoys to bob and spin when there's a wind. Or -- where legal -- you can add hand-powered or battery-operated motion decoys that flap their wings and/or bob their heads.

How Many Decoys?
How many decoys should you deploy? That's a question with nearly as many answers as there are goose hunters. My advice is to put out as many as you can afford and transport.

My hunting partners regularly put out about 120 full-bodies plus about 100 silhouettes on our hunts, and we do pretty well.

SETTING UP
Now that you have your decoys, it's time to talk about setting them up for a field hunt. Always keep the wind at your back, to keep approaching geese in your face because geese invariably land into the wind.

(What to do if there is no wind? We'll discuss that in just a minute.)

I'm a firm believer in setting my decoys in the general shape of the letter J -- either forward or backward, depending on the field. The hunters spread out side by side among the decoys at the hook, with the wind at their backs. The plan is that approaching geese come in on the long leg of the spread and then land in the open area -- about 30 yards across -- directly in front of the hunters.

When I set up my dekes in the shape of a J, that doesn't mean I create a solid line of decoys in that exact shape. In a field, that wouldn't look natural. I'll scatter multiple family groups -- of four feeders, plus a sentry -- all around the field. But I won't encroach upon the J-shape that forms the open area in front of the hunters. Most of my decoys are spread out in no particular arrangement behind the blinds. That represents the mass of "birds" that incoming geese want to get to.

In my experience, the J-shaped spread is the best way to set up decoys and consistently put geese in front of a group of hunters. Simply spreading decoys willy-nilly around a big cut cornfield might look the most realistic, but approaching geese might land anywhere -- including in places that don't offer a shot opportunity.

Instead, use your decoys to direct the birds into your shooting zone. If you have good decoys and good calling, the birds will come in where you want them.

I know many waterfowlers who prefer to create an X or U with their spreads, and they swear by them. I've tried those setups, but watched more geese land to the side of the whole spread than I've seen with a J.