The application deadline for these hunts is early October. Successful applicants must pay a $20 user fee and can bring two hunting companions. There are also weekday hunts held on select Wednesdays during goose season. Hunters must call the refuge office on Tuesdays to make reservations for the upcoming Wednesday hunts.

Hunters pay $10 for the blind they draw, but they can bring only 15 rounds of steel shot. These weekday hunts are filed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hunters can take only geese and sandhill cranes on these hunts, and a free permit is required to take sandhill cranes. Hunters are required to stay in their blinds until 11:30 a.m., even if they've shot their limit. I've hunted the Washita Refuge and found that a limit of geese is generally easy to take.

Noble Stanfield is an expert hunter who has hunted the Foss area for over 35 years and has taken his share of geese. Stanfield says that Foss's geese seem to have definite late-season patterns.

"The geese at Foss seem to follow creek bottoms and rivers when they leave the refuge," noted Stanfield. "Most area farmers are very receptive to hunters because, as a rule, they don't want geese in their fields.

SOONER LAKE
One of my favorite goose-hunting destinations is Sooner Lake, near Perry, where hunters have a chance at a trophy Canada goose. I've taken many big geese in that area and find that most area farmers are pleased to allow responsible-acting sportsmen the right to hunt their properties.

Most of geese there are resident greater Canadas -- "maximas," as diehard goose chasers call them. As their name implies, these geese are big, tough birds that are very challenging to hunt.

Biologists estimate the number of geese in the Sooner Lake area to be near 10,000 and growing, with the majority of them there year 'round. A large percentage of these geese are banded, offering lucky hunters a bonus keepsake for their call lanyards.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation conducts drawings for blinds on a first-come, first-served basis. No user fee is required. For more information, call (405) 521-3851.

One of Newsom's favorite late-season tactics in the Sooner area is to use fewer decoys to draw in the big geese found in that area. To accomplish the task, Newsom places 12 dekes in a well-used spot, and then uses a deeper-sounding goose call to mimic the growling clucks of the magnum-sized honkers.

"For years I have used a flute-type goose call and found that it is deadly on both lesser and greater Canadas," asserted Newsom.