Perhaps the best way to outwit wary pressured Canada geese is to hunt them in the snow during Michigan's late season. While some waterfowlers have put away their gear, savvy hunters know some of the hottest shooting of the season comes when snowflakes are dancing in the wind. This brand of waterfowling provides hot gunning action, fun-filled adventures and piles of huge birds -- if you follow a few important rules, including scouting to locate private-land hotspots, realizing that camouflage is key, how to set up properly, and using calls and decoys that produce results.

Scouting is the most important variable for goose hunting success. The key to shooting fun is you must set up in the exact location where birds want to land. Forget state or public land for serious hunting, because late-season adventures take place on private property. Begin by learning the fly patterns of southern Michigan geese and locate spots where you can set up decoys that almost guarantee success. The trick is to use quality binoculars and follow flights of birds while using your vehicle. Identify roosting areas and follow flocks to feeding fields. Next, get permission from private landowners. Then set up decoys in the exact location where you scouted birds, and you should be on the road to goose hunting success.

Try not to disturb birds while scouting. Avoid the urge to walk property or allow geese to see you. If you find a hotspot, stay away from feeding locations, keep your vehicle out of the field and observe birds with binoculars from afar. If you spook wary geese, they may not return for several days.

Some of southern Michigan's best goose hunting is found close to metropolitan cities. Geese roost on golf courses, ponds, city parks with lakes, or on rivers in cities like Saginaw, Flint, Ann Arbor, Livonia, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and more. Here, they are protected. They can roost on the water at night and make daily flights to private fields for breakfast.

Geese during late season seek corn fields. They usually fly from the roost at dawn, return to the roost before lunch and make an afternoon trek for dinner. During severe cold weather or when snow gets deep, they make a single daily trip. They will visit a corn field until the crop is devoured, and then "scout flocks" locate new fields that have fresh reserves of the golden nuggets. Savvy hunters find fields that geese are working, which requires plenty of recon work, door knocking and a run-and-gun approach to secure a place to hunt. Smart hunters locate several spots geese prefer, because when one field is burned up from overhunting, they move to the next. This strategy can keep you on fresh geese the entire season.

Fast-paced late-season shooting hinges on how successful you are at scouting geese and getting permission to hunt private land.

Just about any decoy spread will get results if you are lying on a goose's dinner table. I have shot limits of geese in fields by using only a few full-body decoys that I had to carry because the field was too wet to drive or the landowner didn't want vehicles on his land. That's not the way to guarantee success. You want to get permission to drive into the center of the field and lay out a large spread of decoys that will suck any flock of geese into point-blank range. Some hunters like to match their decoy spread to the number of birds visiting the field. Not me. I'm more from the bigger-is-better persuasion, and prefer to place at least six-dozen dekes in any given field. There are a number of quality decoys on the market today that will decoy geese kissin' close, provided you know how to use them. Today's decoys are made with rugged construction, provide outstanding performance and are lifelike. Their exacting realism decoys birds from far and keeps their attention until the shooting starts.