If you’re fortunate enough to time things right, fall cold fronts will push thousands of migrating mallards through the Devils Lake area. (Shutterstock photo)
October 06, 2025
By Ken Perrotte
The weather—that all-important ingredient with waterfowl hunting—had been squirrelly in the week or two leading up to my highly anticipated, late-October hunt at Devils Lake, North Dakota. Without cold, nasty conditions to spur ducks and geese to migrate, huge numbers of birds still loafed on Canadian prairies. Fortunately, unlike southern states utterly dependent on migrating birds, North Dakota enjoys vast numbers of ducks born and bred locally in the storied Prairie Pothole Region’s nesting habitat. In fact, hunters staying at Woodland Resort in Devils Lake are greeted with a prominent sign reading, “Welcome to America’s Duck Factory.”
Day one of our hunt with Northern Flight Guide Service saw us tucked into cattails along a field just a few hundred yards from a couple substantial water-filled potholes. Guide Eric Strub set a mixed decoy spread of about three dozen Canada geese silhouettes and four remote-control spinning mallards. It was a classic bluebird morning, with cool temperatures, little wind and sunny skies with a few high cirrus clouds overhead.
Just before sunrise, a solo bird buzzed the decoys. “Wigeon,” Paul Wait whispered. Wait, my hunting partner on the trip, is a senior communications manager for Delta Waterfowl and an expert at identifying birds on the wing.
Pintails are one of the more coveted duck species anywhere, and are relatively common targets in the ag fields around Devils Lake. (Photo courtesy of Paul Wait) That loner bird fell to my Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl 12-gauge and blended Tungsten Super Shot (TSS)/steel Apex Ammunition shotshells. While we experienced slow shooting that day—somewhat expected with the weather slowing the migration the two to three weeks prior—by midday we’d scratched out a limit of mallards, wigeons and pintails.
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COLD COMFORT “We’re finally getting October weather,” said Landen Blanchfield of Northern Flight Guide Service as we began setting his ultimate confidence spread of decoys the next morning. Snow geese are notoriously wary, and other birds know this. We placed about 300 full body snow geese decoys and a couple motion mallards in a J-shape pattern, with the mallards positioned at the inside hook.
“We’ll hide in the short stalks at the edge of this cut cornfield, setting up downwind so the birds overhead won’t be looking at us,” Blanchfield said.
First light heralded the onset of three solid hours of marveling at vast numbers of high-flying ducks. Many big flocks showed interest but remained cautious, staying out of range and not “finishing,” or committing fully to landing. Still, we earned another mixed-bag limit. And we saw thousands of pintails and good numbers of mallards, as well as some wigeon and green-wing teal.
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“It was a great flight, but those birds were surely tough,” Blanchfield said after the hunt. “They were diving into the area from the stratosphere.
“Within five square miles of where we’re hunting, there are probably 15,000 birds,” Blanchfield continued. “There hasn’t been much migration over the last two or three weeks. Anybody can go throw a bunch of goose decoys out with a couple of robos, but after two or three times, the ducks catch on to that. So, we try to throw a little monkey wrench in with a big snow goose spread. It seems like, when they’re pressured like they are now, they feel a lot safer with the snow geese. There were a few hundred snow geese in this spot a couple days ago.”
“It definitely was a numbers game,” Wait said, “requiring a lot of patience to pick off the opportunities when they presented in range.”
Unlike in southern parts of the Midwest, where duck hunting typically occurs over water, most North Dakota duck hunts take place in fields. (Photo courtesy of Clayton Chase) DEVILS’ ENDLESS OPTIONS Interesting—to me anyway—was discovering that most hunting in this pothole region is done in fields. Wait mentioned that we had a typical prairie hunt.
“Most North Dakota and prairie hunters never put on waders,” Wait said. “They hunt the fields. In fact, they tend to get upset at out-of-state hunters who set up on water and push ducks off roost ponds.” The Devils Lake area hosts an incredible diversity of waterfowl. Mallards, pintails and wigeon hit the fields, while the potholes and ponds hold gadwalls, teal and shovelers, along with diving duck species, Wait explained.
Pat Kalmerton, a hunting and fishing guide from Wisconsin who routinely hunts waterfowl around Devils Lake, says hunters making their first trips to North Dakota will fare better by employing a guide. They know the land and how the birds behave, typically have access to quality properties, and they handle the substantial logistics associated with waterfowl hunting.
The author’s guides deploy large, predominantly full-body snow goose spreads with a few mallards when ducks are wary. (Photo Courtesy of Clayton Chase) But after a couple of visits and a few days of scouting, hunters may want to try a do-it-yourself approach. North Dakota has a program called PLOTS, which stands for Private Land Open to Sportsmen (See the “Know Before You Go” sidebar). It creates lots of walk-in public lands, and hundreds of these properties are near Devils Lake.
Kalmerton says jump-shooting birds in the potholes and sloughs was standard practice in his younger years. However, things have changed more recently.
“If there was a lot of pressure, we would set up on a good slough with half a dozen decoys and spend the rest of our day there,” he says. “With more landowners posting fields either with signage or electronic posting, there isn’t the freedom to jump any pocket you wish anymore. Out in North Dakota, if not posted you can hunt anywhere, but there is more competition than ever in the guide world. Guides seem to be working with landowners to lock up those good sloughs.”
PEAK MIGRATION Kyle Blanchfield, co-owner of Northern Flight Guide Service and Landen’s father, says peak migration is late October into early November. However, weather conditions in Canada strongly influence this.
“Some birds migrate based on length of daylight, and some are stubborn and need to be pushed by weather,” Blanchfield said. “We mainly see blue-wing teal in early October, but that flight comes through relatively fast, and most are through our area by October 10. Green-wing teal are part of the peak migration period. Devils Lake—the lake itself—can hold large numbers of divers beginning in mid-October.”
Mixed-bag limits consisting of pintails, mallards, wigeon and green-wing teal were the norm during the author’s late-October hunt. (Photo courtesy of Clayton Chase) Snow geese and three subspecies of Canada geese are in the area all season. And Devils Lake also sees a weather-dependent wave of sandhill crane migration. However, Kalmerton says his favorite Devils Lake hunting window is the first two weeks of November.
“I always watch the weather and go as late as possible, when the pockets and potholes freeze a bit at night, but the birds keep it open where they roost,” he said. “Those early November winds blow from the north and west, pushing new birds down.”
Early season hunters can find good populations of shovelers, wigeon, bufflehead, teal and woodies, Kalmerton says. He believes bigger ducks like mallards, canvasbacks, redheads and pintails don’t migrate until forced by weather.
“They stay north as long as they can,” he says, “where there is colder weather, big water and less pressure. When their roosting areas freeze, they begin migrating south. At about 190,000 acres, Devils Lake is a body of water that’s bigger than most, but—importantly—pretty strong winds help those big bodies of water stay open longer.”
DECOYS AND CALLING “The primary birds that our guests ask to hunt are field mallards and pintails,” Kyle Blanchfield says. “We start with moderate spreads of full-body mallard and Canadian geese decoys in fields that the birds fed in the night before. If migration stalls and the birds get stale and smart, we go to all-Canada full-body decoys or all full-body snow goose decoys. This tends to catch the ducks off guard. We have also been using large silhouette Canada decoy spreads with good success. The trick is to try sets that are not the same as every other hunter is using in that area at that time.”
Calling strategies vary, Blanchfield explains, adding that mallards and pintails are early in their migration process and haven’t begun pairing up.
“Loud highballs will not help and often hurt your hunt,” he says. “Light hen quacks and an occasional feeder chuckle is all you really need. If birds are departing from your spread, then hit them with a highball or aggressive calling. You don’t have anything to lose. For smart Canada geese, calling can really make or break you.”
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Make the most of your Devils Lake waterfowl adventure.The author loved the jagerschnitzel at The Ranch Steakhouse, but there are a number of places to dine and drink in and around Devils Lake. (Ken Perrotte photo) Because of its numbers—and diversity—of birds, Devils Lake is a fantastic waterfowl hunting destination . The area also has a decent amount of public land, including many Private Land Open to Sportsmen (PLOTS) parcels. Beyond that, any private land not posted (physically or electronically) is open to hunting.
To view electronically posted private lands and other public lands, click on the “Where to Hunt” tab on the North Dakota Game and Fish website (gf.nd.gov). You can use the interactive North Dakota Hunting Atlas, download two free mobile apps (Avenza-Geospatial PDF app and ArcGIS Field Maps) and one commercial one (onX Hunt) or print map sheets. All clearly identify public grounds and electronically posted private properties, and most will display landowner contact info, too. You can also always contact an owner directly to inquire about the status of land or to seek hunting permission.
When traveling in and around Devils Lake, avoid fields or prairie roads when they’re wet. Late autumn winds can also carry fine, black prairie silt, which can gum up some shotguns. Use dry lubricants to mitigate this, as wet cleaning solutions collect the silt. And when hunting, always remain farther than 440 yards from any occupied buildings.
Two types of nonresident waterfowl licenses are available: a $153 statewide license allowing hunting statewide for two 7-day periods or one 14-day period, and a $103 zone-restricted license that requires selection of hunting zones. With either choice, a $20 General Game and Habitat License is also needed, as is a $2 hunting certificate. If fishing, nonresident fishing licenses are three-day ($33), 10-day ($43) and full season ($53). In early fall you can experience great walleye and northern pike fishing from a boat, shore or accessible bridges.
For a guided hunting experience, check out Northern Flight Guide Service or contact the North Dakota Game & Fish Devils Lake Office to ask about licensed guides.
Woodland Resort has various accommodations available, ranging from suites and cabins to lodge units and motel rooms. The Sleep Inn and Suites is another option. For food, drink, lodging and gambling in one package, look to the Spirit Lake Casino and Resort .
For good pub grub and excellent brews, check out Black Paws Brewing Co . If craving a burger, visit the Back 40 Bar & Grill in Leeds. For a fine dinner experience, try a steak or the jagerschnitzel at The Ranch Steakhouse. If a late breakfast is your desire, hit up the Cedar Inn .
This article was featured in the October 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
