It is arguably one of the greatest thrills in all of hunting: You and your buddies are hunkered down in layout blinds, surrounded by decoys in the middle of a cut corn field. Someone hears a honk and hollers, "Geese!"

Instantly, everyone goes on the alert and adrenaline starts coursing through your veins. A thin, pulsing black line appears low on the distant horizon. As it draws nearer, the line breaks up and individual Canadas take shape, their incessant honking building in volume.

Your crew starts hammering on their short-reeds -- clucks, moans and lay-downs. At some point, the flock stops flapping almost in unison as the birds commit to your spread. They are still out of gun range, but you slide your hand around the pistol grip on your shotgun and rest your thumb on the safety. You know it's about to happen.

As the geese lose altitude on cupped wings and sail toward the hole in your decoys, your heart thumps harder in your chest.

Finally, when the geese are backpedaling 20 yards out, the call comes.

"Take 'em!"

This is the moment that draws goose hunters across North America out of their beds at ungodly hours of the morning each fall and winter to spend time lying in a cold field, often with snow and rain pelting their faces. When you've got Canadas reaching out with their webbed feet to touch the ground just a few yards in front of you, any amount of suffering becomes instantly worth it.

Here are seven sure-fire tips that will help put you in that pulse-quickening moment time and again this season:

SCOUT AND MOVE
The importance of scouting when hunting any game is obvious. You want to be where the animals are. Well, when you're dealing with a migratory critter that flies, the scouting must never end because the birds move. Today's hotspot might be next week's waste of time.

At the conclusion of every goose hunt, my buddies and I take some time on the way home to drive back roads looking for birds feeding in fields or loafing on lakes, ponds and streams. This serves two purposes. It lets us find fresh hunting locations where we can feel pretty confident geese will show up, and it allows us to track flock movements during the course of a season.

Hunt Canadas through a full season and you'll notice ebbs and flows in goose numbers in a particular area. Hunting pressure, weather, food availability and fall migration patterns will cause flocks to shift around. When they bug out of an area -- even if it's just temporarily -- stay on their tails to keep the freezer full of fresh goose steaks.

USE QUALITY GEAR
When it comes to goose hunting cheap gear equals cheap results. The days of tossing quarter sections of old tires out as decoys and blowing a simple honker call are over.

Today's Canadas see the best decoys and hear the best calls every day of the season.