Sensing that there’s safety in numbers, geese stay together in huge flocks, and do indeed manage to live longer for it. Many sportsmen who used to deploy hundreds of white rags to attract snow geese have of late concluded that they need to think of better ways to outsmart those veterans. Now, many goose hunters rely upon full-body decoys or shells consisting of the upper half of decoys. Some people also use printed silhouettes. For a three-dimensional effect, many hunters use windsocks.

Some people use "flying decoys," goose replicas attached to long poles. Hunters can adjust the height off the ground of each decoy to make it appear like a goose hovering over the spread on final approach before landing. Some of these twist in the wind, adding movement to the spread.

However, nothing looks more real to a goose than a real goose. To achieve this, sportsmen can thrust sticks into the throats of dead geese to hold them up or prop them up on grass clumps. Such dead geese add a superior degree of realism to any spread.

Mounted geese also add realism to a spread. A good taxidermist can mount a goose in many poses. While these stuffed decoys might not exhibit the degree of artistry in a trophy mount, they fool geese better than does anything else on the market. They cost much more than conventional decoys, but much less than trophy mounts. Sportsmen can use them for several years before they must replace them with newer kills.

"It’s amazing how good the eyesight of a goose is," said David Smith, an avid hunter. "The slightest movement will draw attention. It’s amazing how much geese focus on a little wind movement from feathers of a bird that had been shot or stuffed and used as a decoy. Feathers moving in the wind draw geese. Many people hunt with five or six stuffed geese for decoys. That’s the best decoy anyone can use. In the past, we’ve even cut the wings off dead geese and tied them to decoys just to give that slight movement in the spread."

State law prohibits people from using spinning wing decoys in Arkansas except during the special conservation-order season. According to AGFC laws, people may not use any "battery-powered, electronic, mechanically-operated, wind-powered or manually-powered spinning/flapping-blade devices intended to simulate wing movement" for ducks or geese during the regular seasons.

However, sportsmen can still add a little eye-catching movement to an otherwise lifeless spread with various kites or flapping flag devices. Some sportsmen wave white or dark flags on sticks to create movement. Much like spinning wing decoys, flags reflect sunlight, creating flash. From a distance, geese see the movement and flash. One or two notes on the call might also make them look in the right direction; curious, they might fly over to investigate.

Other goose hunters tie alternating black and white flags to low strings. Still others fabricate goose beacons similar to old-fashioned clotheslines by anchoring two poles and stretching a line of flags 6 to 8 feet off the ground, thus creating flash that geese can see from long distances. They position these contraptions off to the side of the blind and slightly away from it -- wanting their quarry to look toward the movement and away from the hunters’ hide -- taking special care to select a spot that the wind will hit hard, setting the white flags or streamers dancing in the air currents.