Any Snows in SD yet?

[Born2Fish]

Wow i sure wish I had the means to go out and hunt some snows in SD. Sounds like everyone will have a blast!! Just make sure to post some pics so I can be even more jealous!!!!

[IceHawk]

Leaving Thursday for a 5 day trip my scouts say they are loading up in the area we hunt so I am pumped!

[LOTWSvirgin]

I know you guys are looking for the SD report but I thought I would throw in that I seem a tons of them fly over Loon lake by Iowa today and wathched them land on the northside of the lake I also talked to a land owner and he said there wer several thousand out there a few days ago so if your hunting in sw minnesota give this a look

[WallyGader]

50,000 birds showed up on sand lake last night, and many more flying around the area. Sounds like the birds are pushing hard in this weather, should be great the next couple weeks for huntin.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

50,000 birds showed up on sand lake last night, and many more flying around the area. Sounds like the birds are pushing hard in this weather, should be great the next couple weeks for huntin.

its like clock work every spring. gotta love it.

[PKretsch20]

Not SD but.. Any reports of snows by Talcot Lake, SW MN?

[chub]

There's a few scattered around the West Central area of MN. Nothing huntable that I've seen.

Heading out to SD in a little while. What I hear is lots south of 90, more moving north by the minute. Most of the Juvies in the south, and even in NE and MO yet.

[johnsd16]

Tons of birds moved into the Watertown and Waubay area on friday evening. Fewer birds now around Watertown and looks like the main concentration is north of there and moving up. Hundreds of thousands of birds moved in on friday night, big long strings going on for miles. Good luck to anyone who heads out after them.

[Hawk Buster]

How was the hunt? Heard the birds were not coming in. Was it the weather.

Hawk Buster

[berfish]

My roomate and I were out in Spink and Clark counties friday and saturday. Birds everywhere. It was our first snow goose experience. It was pretty cool. We saw clouds of birds in every direction on saturday evening. We were very over-matched with 350 dekes. 150 rags and 200 shells. Our ecaller could have been better too. This was a last minute trip so were wernt completely dissappointed. We had only two blues make it into shootable range but there were 10-20 snows coming down too so we waited to shoot hoping the snows would come in too. Everything left with no shots....haha. You live and learn. The roads are very greasy and with the rain yesterday and today I bet it is a real mess now. We drove through many washouts. We walked them with the rubber boots then crossed with the truck. Some places the water was up to the floor boards.

So if you are going to try snow goose hunting, I would either go all out with some quality dekes and a lot of them or just plan on jumping them. That is what I learned on my first trip. I could be wrong though.

[Bryce]

Hunted in the Freeman area. Guides think there are many juvies yet to come. 2 fields put out 50+ birds Thursday morning before we got there and per course, the migration shut down when we started hunting the next morning. We put down 19 birds in 2 1/2 days. Saw very few flocks but got a high percentage of those to work the spread. Other field was only 3 miles east and that group had at least double our count and sounds like their shooting left a lot of room for improvement. These were big spreads. Ours was in the 900 range and the other 1400 with multiple callers. Had a good time. Got a mounter snow and rossie and learned the sport is very addicting. Looking for a guide that targets leading edge birds next year to learn that game and then investing in a spread to become a free lancer.

[takem34]

Hunted the lake thompson area saturday not near the birds there as last week went to watertown on sunday with minimal birds around. Some of the locals said the birds moved north middle of last week. ive heard of lots of birds still in the very southern part of the state.

[Bryce]

Doesn't look like the FM crew did so well judging by the reports. Thought I'd share a couple photos.

[HuntinFreak]

Well, made the annual trip to SD and had a good hunt. Went out Thursday morning and hunted until Saturday evening ended up with 43 Snows, Blues, and Ross's. Friday was a large push of geese through the Watertown area with some good numbers staging a bit north of there. Only dumped one juvie snow and the groups of birds we were seeing were made up of mostly adult birds, so there should be a wave of juvies making there way through soon. Thanks to everyone for all the posts, I was able to hit the migration about perfect and seen some absoulutly awesome shows of birds. I will post some pics when I get a chance....

[johnsd16]

HuntingFreak, I'm pretty sure we ran into you on saturday afternoon. I'm not sure if my boots are dry yet from that walk on the lake. Sounds like you guys had a good trip, we enjoyed meeting some other nice guys out chasing geese. I'd definately agree that friday afternoon was the big push into the watertown area, it'll be interesting to see what comes later.

[IceHawk]

Well I'm back from my snow goose excursion and it was a blast. We had to deal with a few elements but through hard work and persistence we managed to get a fair number of birds. Wet fields alot of sheetwater,low wnds, and bluebird skys made for tough decoy hunting. Did most of our hunting about 10-20 miles N of Doland as there was big concentrations of birds holding on the great expanses of sheet water. Checked out the Lake byron area also but alot of hunters in the area so we opted to new ground with less competiton. Birds defiantely are getting harder to decoy every yr. Our spread consists of over 1200 decoys and that at times seems to small, will have to get bigger next fall. Looking at teaming up with another group we know next yr and combineing our spreads over 4000 decoys should be interesting! All in all a great hunt the people in SD were friendly as always. We met alot of good people that were alwys willing to help us out (stuck trucks,4 wheelers etc). Looking forward to next yr good luck to all ventureing out yet this yr!

[Corey Bohn]

IceHawk,

were you hunting juvies or mature birds? We're headed out tomorrow to the Webster area. Sounds like birds are moving back south from North Dakota with birds still coming up from the south. Hopefully we hit it right.

[IceHawk]

Cory- We shot half and half definately more mature leading edge birdes in the Northern half of SD and into ND. Juvies are gradually makeing there way and are definately easier to decoy. I witnessed some massive migration days Thursday-Sat last weekend. The warmer temps(50-65) got alot of the front edge (breeding birds) moveing fast N. During the rest of our hunt the weather slowed them down makeing them a little easier to hunt. I would personally look around the Brittton area now as I have hunted this area a few times and my guess the birds are going to stack up there. There definately is more sheet water then I can remember out there but if you do some scouting you wil be rewarded!

[Corey Bohn]

IceHawk,

Thanks for the response. I'm heading out at 4 a.m. to SD and am looking forward to shooting some geese. 4 adults, (3) 13 yr. olds and about 1,900 Sillosocks. Loading the Hevi Shot in the truck now. Glad to have the boys along because for us it's all about them getting in some shooting, besides they can set up the socks about 3 to our 1. Will check the Britton area as you suggested. Tomorrow morning through early afternoon for scouting and setting up spread mid afternoon to hunt through Tuesday. Hoping we run into the juvies so the boys can get some up-close shooting over the dekes. Thanks again. Will post when I get back.

[ChuckN]

Good luck Corey.

Thanks for the report IceHawk. I bet it is an ugly mess out there this year.

My trip is a ways out yet. Hopefully things will dry up soon and the blizzards will stay away (not looking like it).

[IceHawk]

She's muddier and wetter than you can imagine!!!!!

[HuntinFreak]

Hey there Johnsd16, Yep that was me and the boys. It was good to meet you fellas. It is good to put a face with a name here on forum. That was a wet one as many were this trip. The waders and knee highs never came off the whole trip and we still ended up wet a couple of times. Well hope to run into you again some day in my adventures chasing critters or dropping a line somewhere.