Ducks

S

Southernboy

New member
Going to try for ducks this year for the first time in combo with our usual pheasant trip. Have family land around Miller and Freeman to hunt. When would be the best time to do this? Are most of the birds local or migratory? How soon do the sloughs usually start freezing over and when they do do the ducks stay or leave? Sorry, kind of a duck novice.
 
last week of october, 1st week of november. by the 15th of november most small water is shut. you are pushing your luck if you go later than the 8-10th. watch the weather but i would shoot for halloween - 10th of november.
 
migration is on by than so most of your ducks will be migrators. that area also sees a lot of cranes passing thru around late october. snows too. harvest should be kicking in full gear and wrapping up around that time too so a combo hunt should be great. best of luck. i've been out swest of miller for the pheasant opener and our local hosts shot a lot of ducks that weekend too. last year south dakota saw a lot of ducks coming thru around the 15th and it continued all the way to freeze up. the locals blew out but because of the pressure and numbers up in ndakota thier locals blew down to sdakota and according to the locals they had great field hunting early. i've been to watertown, north to webster and up to britton and hecla and i've never seen water and ducks/geese like whats out there this year. during that same drive, i saw fewer pheasants than ever. the crops are catching up but way behind last year. last year when fishing waubay we had roosters crowing all morning and evening around us, this year we heard one, maybe two. no kidding!!! it just keeps raining out there. hwy's are closed and a lot of gravel roads are 3 feet under water. the crops that are on high ground look fantastic but every cattail slough is beyond full of water.
 
We have a group of 5 coming up for the Thanksgiving week. Is that typically too late to get some good duck hunting in?
 
no. it depends on the weather and out west by miller you will have some opportunities because of the mo river. last year everything but big water was froze up by thanksgiving and we had some snow. 3 and 5 years ago we hunted ducks around thanksgiving and we only had to bust out small areas of ice on the water but the last two years the ducks are gone in that area. But like i said, if you are hunting farther west the mo river is still open and you can have some good shoots.
 
If you didn't apply for a waterfowl Lic. Your too late. South Dakota as a non resident you have to draw to be able to hunt.
 
best of luck to you guys and pray for no snow and a warm fall. our spring and summer were a month behind so maybe we will have a late fall with no snow until January. cross your fingers.
 
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