All Signs Are Pointing Towards A Disastrous Duck Season In North Dakota

More bad news concerning the upcoming 2021 duck season in North Dakota. 

According to an article in the Grand Forks Herald, duck brood numbers have dropped more than 49% this spring/summer.  The North Dakota Game and Fish just released their results from their annual mid-July duck production survey.  It's not a pretty scenario for North Dakota duck hunters.

This years duck flight is going to look similar to something you might of seen in the early 1990's.

To be specific, the North Dakota Game and Fish is anticipating the duck numbers to be down 36% from last year, and similar to the 1970, 1979 and 1994 fall flights.

As I reported a couple weeks back the pond index in North Dakota is hemorrhaging.

Drought has severely impacted our wetlands in North Dakota.  The wetland index has declined by 80% this year.  The decline in wetlands is pretty dramatic.  It's the largest one year drop in the 74 year history of the North Dakota Game and Fish survey.  Chew on that for a while.

Overall, the North Dakota breeding duck index was down 27% from last year.  However, that's still 19% above the long-term average and the 48th highest on record.

The lone bright spot according to the North Dakota Game & Fish?  It should be another pretty good year for Canada Goose hunting in the state.  If you can find fields to hunt them in, you should do pretty well.  The Canada Goose season will open in North Dakota on August 15th.  Finding harvested grain fields in the state will be a challenge in some areas.