Hi, pheasanthunt is pretty well right on. Excellent area of the state. As this will be your first time up here, there are a couple things you should know. They've changed the opening day this year. The opener will be on 7 Oct 17, pending approval (which is a mere formality). If you do come on the opener, be advised that non-residents may not hunt any state lands (including PLOTS). You can hunt private and Federal lands. Some of the WPA's can have some great hunting, only you have to use non-tox ammo. If you do come a week or so after the 7th, some of the PLOTS have been hit hard and may not hold many birds. On the flip side, most guys go out for a couple weekend and it's back to football. So these same PLOTS can be real good later in the season, especially when the row crops are down, they sometimes is the only decent cover around.
A word about PLOTS, some are very good, but a lot will have cattle on them or are either hayed, grazed down to a nub or plowed. You'll have to do some scouting to find a good one. IMO the G&F need to re-look at the PLOTS program, fine idea, but too many PLOTS are just plain crappy. The PLOTS guide doesn't show any roads so kind of worthless when try to get to one. I'd pick one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/North-Dakota...rd_wg=oiD60&psc=1&refRID=A9T4FFGH1APAS10K618S
You can use it with the PLOTS guide, I use both of these a lot to find some of the out of the way PLOTS (these are the ones you want to find, not the ones right off the road.)
Your best bet is to just knock on doors and get the ok from private landowners. You may have to knock on a few, but you'll eventually get the go ahead. But, there is also a lot of fee hunting that's starting to creep into this state, so be aware of that. Another suggestion, try and stay off the Rez or tribal lands, you'll need a permit from the tribe to hunt them, and there have been some problems as of late due to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
If you come out in November, that's out deer gun season, lots of land will be closed up and lots of guys out and about.
Hope this helps a little. I sure hope you have a successful hunt here and please enjoy the best of the State I love so much.
Best,
Greg