Some hunters set up completely away from their decoys during late season, geese being wary and sometimes landing outside the spread. "One of my favorite late-season tactics is to set up from 30 to 70 yards downwind of my decoys," stated Newsom. "Many times that allows me to be in range to shoot at late-season geese that are decoy-shy, but will swing by, just out of range of my decoys, for a look."

Newsom also believes that our late-season goose hunting is predicated on Kansas' migration patterns. "Kansas has two main refuges -- Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira," he said. "Each holds a lot of geese before they come into Oklahoma. If the weather isn't bad in Kansas, and there is still an abundance of food, the geese won't migrate, and our hunting can be dismal except for hunts for our resident geese."

Late-season geese can be a little more predictable than their early-season counterparts, due to their feeding patterns. Early in the year, when there is abundant food on the state's refuges, the birds rarely leave. When they do venture out of the confines of the refuge, there are grain fields everywhere making the geese's patterns unpredictable. However, during the late season the geese have eaten most of the lush food on the refuges, and the area wheat fields have also been decimated, so when you find an untouched field offering protection from man and varmints, you're apt to find geese.

THE X-FACTOR
Goose expert Jeff Stewart believes late-season goose hunting success is predicated by what he calls the X-factor. "Geese have specific areas they want to land in and they won't settle for anything less," he explained. "It is like a map with an X on it -- where the X marks the spot. If you set up your decoys 50 yards from the X-spot, the geese will not land. After scouting for several seasons now I can tell you, geese have precise locations where they want to be, and to be successful you have to be set up exactly in those spots."

Stewart says setting up as little as 50 yards away from the X-spot can cause geese to flare and stay out of range before heading elsewhere.

So if you're hunting a new field and have no prior knowledge of where the geese prefer to land, what do you do? Most experts will tell you simply to arrive at the field early and survey the premises, looking for telltale sign such as feathers and recent goose droppings.

If you don't have private lands to hunt, here are four excellent choices in public venues.

SALT PLAINS NWR
Salt Plains National Waterfowl Refuge is located near Jet and is home to a fair amount of all goose species. The refuge predominantly holds lesser Canadas but also caries a few other varieties.

Winter estimates place the counts at nearly 100,000 Canadas, as well as a combination of 20,000 snows, blues and Ross' plus 500 white fronts.