Scattershooting

The year of the specklebelly

Fri, January 06, 2012

The year of the specklebelly in much of Illinois has hunters scrambling for decoys and tactics to lure these spooky geese into range.

Big flocks of specks arrived in Illinois weeks ago and have been hanging out ever since, enjoying the balmy weather, open water and abundant food.

Speck reports are coming in from all corners of the state. And so are calls for decoys according to the gang at Presley’s Outdoors in Bartonville. All but a few speck shells are gone from the store according to Adam Jaegle, who has shot a few of the trophy birds in his Fulton County pit.

Fulton County is just one of several hotspots for the specks, or white-fronts as they are also known.

Problem with specks is that they can be very spooky. That’s why everybody is buying up decoys in an effort to lure these unique birds into range.

Our own HO blogger Gretchen Steele offered another more affordable answer to attract specks. “Have you tried using a coyote call on them? We use the little cheapy $9 (Primos 323) yote/predator calls from Bucheits for them and they work well.”

Sounds like a plan. Before I head out and waste another day in a field I’m going to pick up a predator call, grab a few snow goose shells (since I think they can work OK too to lure specks in) and hope to get my trophy. Looks like there is still plenty of time so long as this summer weather lingers.

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