Lower Oahe Waterfowl Hunting Areas
Lower Oahe Waterfowl Hunting Field status map
2012-13 Summary report
Recapping the year it was a good season for most of the areas with birds in several areas when the season started and remaining here until the end. Mail Shack Creek probably had a record number of ducks for the area along with good numbers of geese. The birds were able to keep a portion of the creek open most of the season giving some great opportunities for the pass shooters in the pits along with the groups setting out decoys in the walk-in fields. The decoy-only registration fields and trailer were busy throughout the season with hunters having success a lot of the time. The full moon made it a little difficult at times especially when the birds decided to wait until the last hour of shooting time to come out to feed. The warm conditions after a couple of snow falls created some muddy fields which also meant that the winter wheat fields had to be closed until they either dried up or the temperatures dropped. Pass shooters had some good times in the canal and pits this year, the windier days made some of the areas better however those who were patient were able to harvest birds on even the calmer days. The solid and striped green areas east of Grey Goose never really picked up this year it seemed like the birds were staying further west and never really started to get into this area. The striped green area in Stanley County had some real good days early in the season when there were a lot of birds sitting below the dam but with the warm temperatures we had this winter the reservoir was late freezing. When that happened the birds moved back below the dam making this area a hot spot again. There were reports from the weekend of hunters in the walk-in fields using decoys doing well. Access is good into most of the decoy only registration fields even after the snow storm on Sunday; the high winds blew the snow into drifts and helped clear some of the trails Pass shooters in several of the areas had a good weekend with the weather helping to keep the birds flying out lower. The striped green area in Stanley County had a few groups setting out decoys over the weekend and doing well.