I've spent more mornings than I can count tossing bigfoot goose floaters into the icy water before the sun even thinks about coming up. There's a specific sound they make when they hit the surface—that hollow thwack followed by a splash—that just signals the start of a good day. If you've been chasing honkers for any length of time, you know that your gear is basically an extension of your personality, and for a lot of us, Bigfoot has been a staple in the trailer for decades.
Let's be honest for a second: goose hunting is hard work. It's cold, it's muddy, and you're usually operating on about four hours of sleep and a gas station breakfast sandwich. When you're staring at a pile of gear in the back of the truck, you want to know that the stuff you're hauling out to the bank isn't going to fail you. That's usually where the conversation about Bigfoot decoys starts.
Why These Things Are Built Like Tanks
If there is one thing everyone knows about this brand, it's that they don't break. I've seen guys treat their bigfoot goose floaters with the kind of reckless abandon that would make a delicate high-end decoy collector weep. I'm talking about throwing them into the bed of a truck, letting them bounce around on gravel roads, and then kicking them out into the water.
The plastic they use is thick. It's not that brittle stuff that cracks the first time the temperature drops below freezing. I've hunted over spreads where the decoys were literally frozen into the ice, and we had to chip them out with a shovel. A lot of other brands would've snapped a keel or cracked a neck, but the Bigfoots just took it. That kind of durability is hard to find these days when everything seems to be made to last exactly two seasons before falling apart.
The paint is the other part of that durability equation. There is nothing more frustrating than buying a fresh dozen decoys, using them twice, and seeing the black on the neck start to flake off like a bad sunburn. Bigfoot uses a process that seems to actually bond the color to the plastic. Sure, they'll get some "character" marks over the years—scuffs from the weights or a bit of mud that won't come off—but the core colors stay true.
The Realism Factor on the Water
Now, some guys will tell you that you need the most hyper-realistic, flocked-everything, taxidermy-style decoys to kill geese. And hey, if you've got the budget for that and a heated trailer to keep them in, go for it. But geese are weird. They aren't necessarily looking for every individual feather detail when they're orbiting at sixty yards. They're looking for profile, posture, and color.
The bigfoot goose floaters have a very distinct, chunky profile that just looks "goosey" from a distance. They sit high enough in the water to be visible even if there's a bit of a chop. That's a huge deal. If your decoys are too low-profile, they disappear in six-inch waves. You want that white butt-patch to pop, and you want that classic long-neck silhouette to tell the incoming birds that it's safe to land.
I've noticed that these floaters have a certain way of riding the water that looks natural. They have a weighted keel that keeps them upright, but they still have enough "give" to move with the current. If your decoys are static and stiff like blocks of wood, the geese are going to figure it out. These have just enough wobble to look alive without flipping over when the wind picks up to twenty miles per hour.
Dealing With the Bulk
If there's a downside to bigfoot goose floaters, it's the size. Let's not sugarcoat it—these things are massive. They take up a lot of room in the boat or the truck. If you're trying to fit four dozen of these into a small jon boat, you're going to have a puzzle on your hands.
But here's the trade-off: that bulk is exactly what makes them visible. You can't have it both ways. You can't have a small, packable decoy that also has the massive footprint of a real Canada goose on the water. I've found that I'd rather haul fewer, larger decoys that actually do the work than two dozen tiny ones that the birds can't see until they're already past the hemlines.
Most guys I know who run these decoys don't bother with fancy slotted bags. They just rig them up with some heavy line and a decent weight—maybe a Texas rig style if the water isn't too deep—and toss them in a big mesh bag or right onto the floor of the boat. It saves a lot of time on the setup and teardown, which is a blessing when your fingers are too numb to feel the triggers.
Maintenance and Longevity
One of the best things about sticking with a classic like bigfoot goose floaters is that they don't really go out of style. You can buy a half-dozen this year, add another half-dozen in three years, and they're going to match. You aren't constantly chasing a new "model" or "generation" of decoy that looks completely different from the ones you already own.
Maintenance is pretty much non-existent. At the end of the season, I usually just hit mine with a garden hose to get the pond muck off and check the lines for any fraying. If they're looking a little dull after five or six years, a quick hit of matte black spray paint on the heads makes them look brand new. It's the kind of gear you buy once and then stop worrying about.
The Investment Value
I know the price tag on a pack of bigfoot goose floaters can seem a bit steep compared to some of the "budget" options you see at the big box stores. But you have to look at the math over the long haul. If you buy a cheap dozen for a hundred bucks and they're trashed in two seasons, you're spending fifty dollars a year. If you buy Bigfoots and they last you fifteen years (which they easily can), your cost per season is basically the price of a couple of boxes of shells.
It's also about peace of mind. There is a lot that can go wrong on a hunt. The birds might not fly, the wind might shift the wrong way, or your dog might decide he'd rather chase a muskrat than a downed bird. The last thing you want to worry about is your decoys taking on water or sinking because a stray pellet nicked one. Because these are blow-molded and tough, a little bit of "friendly fire" usually doesn't even sink them.
Final Thoughts on the Spread
At the end of the day, hunting over bigfoot goose floaters is about tradition as much as it is about performance. There's a reason you see these in the rigs of some of the best guides in the country. They work. They look like geese, they move like geese, and they can handle the absolute beating that waterfowl hunting puts on equipment.
If you're just starting out, or if you're looking to replace a bunch of old, leaky decoys that have seen better days, you really can't go wrong here. Put them out, trust the spread, and focus on your calling. The decoys will do their part. Just make sure you've got enough room in the truck, because once you start building a spread of these things, it's hard to stop. There's always room for "just one more half-dozen," right? That's what I tell my wife, anyway.