Any Snows in SD yet?

[HuntinFreak]

Hello, I am wondering if anyone has a report on the snow geese coming into Eastern South Dakota yet. I am planning a trip out there possibly at the end of next week but If there are not many geese in the area I will hold off.

[ironman]

I dont think your going to find much. It's supposed to be warmer though and some birds are expected to reach there but I wouldn't get your hopes up for anything in great numbers. Leading edge old tough birds for sure.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

one of our service guys said that he saw some small flocks feeding in the yankton/vermillion areas this afternoon.

[kato wall guy]

called the snow hotline claiming few small reports of flocks as far north as huron may head to souix falls this week and road jag back roads to brookings.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

hotline says 50-100K in lake andes area. not sure with the weather we will see much more of a push though.

[HuntinFreak]

Thanks fellas for the reports. It looks like I may have to hold off a week or so to get into the birds. There is some weather coming into the SD area too, so It may push the birds that are there now back or keep anymore from coming north. I guess patience is the key.

[IceHawk]

They are starting to trickle in slowly but as stated this storm may change things around and push them back S a little. Our group is plqning on going out around the 21st or so but will decide on bird activity aqnd weather when the time gets closer.

[reddog]

I went to Chamberlain on Friday afternoon and the bulk of the flight was from Plankinton to Chamberlain, considerably further west than normal.

On the way home this morning, there was a considerable movement for the first few miles east of Mitchell, again, further west than the tradtional I90 crossing near Salem

There is a large amount of whites in the Chamberlain/Ft Thompson area, mainly because of the open water at the river.

There is no open water,(lakes or small ponds, and very few potholes in the fields) between Chamberlain and Jackson Mn. to speak of yet.

Ive never done this before, but I would guess, if you partake, that its gonna be a muddy mess this year, with all the frost in the ground.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

i got out tonight and found a lot more birds than i expected to find, but also ran into multiple crews of guys jumping fields already. did a little ditch piggin, passed up some 50-60 yard shots, and went to the bolt on a flock of blues that teased me at about 45 yards. i guess my bird finding skills are a lot better than my shooting skills right now!

[johnsd16]

I'm going to be in Sioux Falls 3/19-22 if anyone is heading out and is willing to have a tag along let me know. I used to go to NE pretty much every year in the middle of march, but haven't gotten out in a few years. My inlaws live in SF so the wife will be with her family. Miles on the truck and mud on the clothes kill spring snows.

This is a decent link to keep up to date somewhat on SOB movement into SD.

http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/hunting/waterfowl/Springmigration.htm

[carpshooterdeluxe]

a lot of birds were bailing back south riding the heavy wind gusts this afternoon. saw 3 flocks headed over town and talked to a few other guys seeing the same thing. not sure if they stopped in state, or went back to nebraska. saturday could be a good day to get out after friday melts off what will be left of this weather event. anybody planning on crawling for snows better plan on wearing rain gear. the fields will be sloppy! roads were a mess monday night; freezing rain ontop of soft township roads made for a fun scouting trip.

[HuntinFreak]

Well, It looks like it was a good idea to hold off a week. With the warm weather this weekend the birds should make a hard push north and I hope to be right in their path. I am headed out to SD next week to hopefully lay the smack down on some of those migrating white birds. Even if we don't stack em up I love watching those birds work and listening to a few thousand geese in your face is absolutly amazing. I'll post back after the trip with hopefully some sweet pics to go along.

[IceHawk]

Heading out next Wendsday for our first run of the season with the warmer temps things should get rolling real good in Sd this weekend and next!

[carpshooterdeluxe]

next weeks forcast is calling for northwesterly winds during the weekdays; will be interesting to see what if any sustained migration happens after the winds switch sunday.

[berfish]

Heading out to SD somewhere next Friday for my first snow goose expierence. I am really excited to witness the migration. I have hunted ND in the fall and have seen pretty big flocks. But I have heard it is nothing compared to the spring. I am going with my roomate and it is his first snow goose trip as well. I built an MP3-E-Caller with an amp and two speakers. Man is it loud. We also have about 200-300 dekes. We have about 50 full body canadas that we are contimplating using but not sure how to make them snows or blues or transporting them into the feild. We might just put socks on their heads. How often is it possible to drive in the feilds? I have heard it is a muddy mess in the spring. Any advice to the rookies?

[IceHawk]

This yr I expect it to be pretty sloppy. Some yrs we have encountered marginal to dry fields. How we bring our gear in is how the conditions dictate. If it's dry enough and the farmers don't mind we will drive in with our pickups and enclosed trailer. If it's sloppy we unload everything and cart in with atv's and sleds if really bad we hoof by foot and pure manual strength. We always bring along atv's and you may want to bring one along especially this yr! As for the canadas you can cover the whole body's with goose gloves or just put a standard white tubesock over the head. Our group went away from the full body's because of the issues of transporting storeing and getting them out to the fields. Granted they are the best looking decoys and work top notch and add the best realisim, but for us we have decided to run shells and almost all windsocks,deadly's,silosocks etc. By useing these we have been able to set our spread in locations way off of rds etc. This incorporates seeing less pressure on the flocks we are hunting from ditchers and jumpers giveing us a better chance to decoy. Our kill numbers maybe aren't as good as groups running all full body's but we stil get alot of birds with our setup.

[berfish]

Thanks IceHawk! We are expecting to hoof it. If we get some birds I will post how we made our dekes. We think they will work really well. Easy to make shell w/movement and they are stackable. We have quite the gong-show going on making dekes and making the e-caller. So hopefully they work. I hope they decoy for us.

[kato wall guy]

was out in the southern tier on the two cold days this week seen alot of birds they did not seem to want to move the first day. I assume that when the sky cleared it was a bright night with the moon. went to spots that we had put them to bed and they were not there I would assume they moved south again in the moon light

[carpshooterdeluxe]

11 am this morning southern south dakota was open for business. roost my buddies have been watching for the last 4 hours went from under 10K birds to over 500K birds. they started counting cars that stopped to look at the birds and quit at 350. im hoping he can email me some video tonight.

[Bryce]

Talked to the guide I'll be using next weekend. They shot their first juvies of the season yesterday.

[HuntinFreak]

Hey Bryce,

Good to hear, Was that in southern SD where the juvies where taken?

[Bryce]

I would assume so but didn't bother to ask where they currently were basing out of.

On a side note. Had a lone speck go over the yard just a bit ago. Must have got mixed up with all the canadians that are pushing through.

[UMDSportsman]

saw some come through worthington this afternoon.

[rattlem'up]

was hunting south of sioux falls tons upon tons of birds shot 21 for 1 1/2 days and 5 were juvies. going back out friday thru monday.

[InTheSchool]

Check out the States HSOforum. http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/hunting/waterfowl/Springmigration.htm

Looks like they are heading north fast!