Serious question-  Where are the ducks and where is the best hunting?


I have chased ducks up and down the MS flyway my whole life.  Grew up in green timber that was epic...limits and back to the dock by 8:15 daily with cupped up birds in your face like they wanted to be there.  Those days are just plain gone.   The woods are fields and the mallards don't migrate that far south anymore.  I am done trying to scratch out a few birds in muddy rice fields with other blinds in sight of me doing the same thing.  It's time to move on.  


Canada is awesome...but I don't live there.


If someone wanted to relocate specifically to chase ducks, where would the best place be?  

I used to be a hardcore duck hunter. Prepping blinds and training dogs year 'round. I am cured now. Gave it up probably 17 years ago. Our bottoms that used to be covered up with Mallards, hoodies, pintail are no more.

Where the ducks are.  Seriously.  I went to Stuttgart on year and was covered up with ducks.  The next year we barely got our limit, but I came home and floated a river in NWGA and got my limit and saw as many ducks in one morning as I saw in 3 days of hunting Stuttgart.

You have to be in certain places to get certain types of ducks, but it's all about the migration and if their schedule matches yours.

Ducks not so many but here in the Wabash Valley I've never seen so many Geese and even these giant Swans. The Swans will stop for a few days at a neighbors pond, walk into the road and refuse to move. I never knew they were that big.

For 20 minutes solid formations flew over head the other day

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neighbors pond
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Swans are really becoming a thing...  I saw a field with 40+ swans this year in MO...crazy, never saw them like that before.  They flew over multiple times a day.  


I am thinking about putting in for a Swan tag somewhere.

Missouri has been the new Arkansas for a few years now. My family owns ground next to some Tony V leases and it's been great... except for this year. This year we were lucky to even get a half limit.

This year the best spot for me has been believe it or not... coastal NJ.

I slammed limits of pintails, wigeon, GW teal, mallards, gadwall, and black ducks.

BUT. It's not a free state, I'd never move there.

South Dakota.
Reasonable private land access, productive public land, relatively low numbers of hunters compared to neighboring states (ND, MN).
one of the top duck production states plus the mix of central and mississippi flyway migrators depending on water & weather.
Hunt any way you want.  Dry fields for geese & mallards.  Shallow wetlands for multi species puddle duck shoots.  Big water for divers.  Missouri river for late season migrators.
More snow geese in the fall and spring than you can imagine.  Cranes.  Fill a swan tag.  Float a eastern SD creek or river for wood ducks.  Bonus...when you're out scouting for ducks, you can whack a few roosters from the road ditch for supper.

Isn’t SD a drawing only state?

Yes for non resident waterfowl.  NR's typically draw 3 out of every 4 years, guaranteed to draw every other year.  There's some private land 3 day licenses (useful if your hiring a guide) that generally are available after first draw, and there's options for tribal tags as well.

I had some great hunts in Kansas last year.

Alaska

Those are Snow Geese

This is a really hard question honestly.

There are places in North Carolina where duck hunting can be every bit as good as a hunt in the Mississippi Flyway.  Usually these areas are controlled by local rules that make it so the "grandfathered" in locals of the area the only show in town.    Those hunts are booked solid by people who have been and get preference since they may have been going on the same days every year for a decade or more.  You can also not fire a shot one day and kill a limit the next in the same spot.   Thats how it goes.

Most of NC is hit or miss but there can be a smattering of really great days.  Wood ducks are the main show in 2/3 of the state.  Down East there can be lots of divers and big ducks.
In NC I've harvested wood ducks, gw and bw teal, mallards, black ducks, pintails, widgeon, gadwall, spoonbill, ringnecks, redheads, lesser bluebills, greater bluebills, gadwalls, buffleheads, hoodies.  I've been on hunts where Canvasbacks were killed but I've never gotten one.  NC also has the largest migration of Tundra Swans in the world.  The most I ever saw at one time was close to two thousand at Skeet.  I have even seen some swan West of I95.

NC has the waterfowl but the public hunting gets worse every year even with less hunters, so your options won't be great until you make some connections or have an obscene amount of money.  There are duck clubs here that membership can be as high as $20K for a season.

I hunted Arkansas for a few days every year for a decade.  You can have a day out there where you see 3,000 ducks and not fire a shot.  I love hunting Arkansas for the variety of ducks and working the big ducks but limit days are not everyday and the guys I go with shoot well above average.  I heard it has been really shitty there the last couple of years.

I've hunted Mississippi and while you don't see as many of the migrating high flying birds as you do in Arkansas it is very very good puddle duck hunting along the rivers.

I've hunted Maryland on the Eastern shore, lots of black ducks and mallards.  Its a lot like down east NC though, the best hunting spots are held by a few.

I've hunted Saskatchewan and well, nothing really compares to it if you are willing to put in the work, and it is a lot of work to scout hundreds of miles, get the permissions, and get the rig up and out sometimes twice a day.

I've got a buddy that guides in LA and its limits everyday down there.  That would be my suggestion even with never hunting it.

Just got back hunting MN opener.  3 geese, 2 BW Teal and 2 mallards.  Kinda a disappointment compared to last few years.  Drought really hit the small pot holes bad.  Usuallynwe pile up the Woodies early season; but just not much flying. They hightlight was my 12 yr old son bagging his 1st goose and a duck...big smiles.

In regards to best state(s) ive only hunted the Dakotas other than MN and had some lights out trips. Big water Blue Bills & Canvasbacks to field hunting geese and Malllards. Like with everything waterfowl timing is critical.  A cold early storm can push all the local out in one day.

Saskatchewan spoiled me.  I went 12 years straight.  Sure we had a day or 2 where we didn't limit out, but we would always have a few during the week that were truely amazing.  We would pile up 40 greenheads in 3 hrs, get back start cleaning, take a small nap and then get back in the car scouting for the next days hunt, get back hang by the fire and set the alarms for 5:00 the next day.  Lots of work but worth it.

We hunted a place up there one time where we killed an 8 man limit of nothing but mallards, pintails and a stray widgeon in 45 minutes.

I’ve seen 800 to a thousand mallards swirl around the spread like a snow goose tornado bank and all lock up at the same time and come right in.

We killed an 8 man limit of Canadas (40) in a couple of hours with the wind blowing 40+ gusting 50+.  Epic goose hunt.

I have had mallards land on my layout blind and stand there before shooting time in Saskatchewan.

I can only imagine specific places in Argentina and Africa holding a candle to it.

“Land of the living skies” is on their license plates.

Sounds a lot like South Dakota.  
Wish I could upload video without having to use a 3rd party host...

Saskatchewan truly is the Waterfowl Hunter’s Mecca.

It’s like SD, but better!

Grew up along the Atlantic Flyway and the 90s were epic for duck hunting in FL. Miss it. The Clinton Administration shut it all down at the end of the decade.

I’m the opposite.. I find myself much more enjoying waterfowl these days than deer hunting.

Don’t forget MI.  Harsens island and St. John’s marsh are great.

The Sacramento, San Joaquin valley.

Oregon Washington Idaho or Kansas

but that's just what I glean from social media. If you really wanted to hunt Canada move to the border in Washington or North Dakota and take trips over the border every weekend