Goose Hunting Forum banner

South Dakota Goose Hunting

5334 Views 11 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  GOOSEenemy#1
What does a non-resident snow goose hunting license cost in South Dakota and is there any public hunting areas around Watertown and the Milbank area
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
The cost is 45.00 dollars and a 2.00 agent fee = 47.00. There are some walk in ares around watertown but I am working out here and have been told by serveral people that hunting access on private property is not a problem.
There is public land all over the state and most of it is rarely hunted for spring snows. Also just go knocking on doors and just about any farmer will let you hunt them. They hate them!
Don't you have any hunting for snows in Minnesota there. Or is the spring season different?
There is a spring snow season in Minnesota. The problem is that the flight pattern tends to run right on the North Dakota/South Dakota border with Minnesota and is light compaired with the western states. Years ago it was different, but in the past 10 years or so the whole migration swung west with the cash crops and potholes of the prairies. Asking permission, whether you are a resident or nonresident, is always the right way to go. Respect the property of others and remember to thank them even if you don't get permission.
It's not always very easy to find landowners in SD, but when you do I rarely get turned down to hunt geese in the spring.

S. SD is about peaking these days so I'd get on them soon!
I live about 35 miles from the South Dakota Border so it is close and the geese don't fly a lot around where I ive they do fly along the Minnesota River about 10 miles away but they stay in the refuges and in the no hunting areas so it is hard to hunt them I haven't had a shot at a snow goose in amost three seasons
I don't have a problem. The geese just stick around on the refuges so you can't shoot them off of their roost. Otherwise the geese go out and feed in fields on private property. Finding land isn't hard to find because the farmers don't really care and people that hunt don't care becasue they know there is a ton of them.
Today's report:

Weekend reports indicate the light goose migration appears to be back in a northward direction and going strong. Birds are scattered all over northeastern SD. No reports from south of I-90 make it appear the bulk of the migration is located along the I-90 corridor and northward.

Reports for Saturday had birds stretched from north of Beaver Lake (Humboldt area) to Island Lake and Twin Lakes. Estimates reported indicated there were hundreds of thousands of geese.

High numbers of birds were reported in Brookings, Hamlin, Kingsbury, and western Minnehaha counties. More birds have also appeared back in Day County, a few in Marshall County and at Sand Lake in Brown County.

Swan Lake in Clark has a good number of light geese. Long Lake in Day County has been loaded.

Conservatively, 10,000 + snow geese were reported on Lake Poinsett in Hamlin County and an equal number on Oakwood Lakes in Brookings County. Hunters have reported large numbers of birds on the big lakes in Kingsbury County, like Whitewood Lake, Lake Thompson, etc.

Today, Sand Lake Reports approximately 150,000 birds and more arriving and/or flying over Aberdeen. Large concentrations of snows were also seen south of Redfield on Mud Lake.

Reports from Redfield north to Aberdeen then west to Mobridge indicated very good numbers of birds in the Redfield area as well as all along 281 to Aberdeen. There were also very large numbers around the Northville and Mansfield area along Hwy 281. From around the Ipswich area to around the Roscoe/Bowdle area there were very good numbers of birds in the air and feeding in fields on both sides of HWY 12. There was also a large group feeding south of Spring Lake to west of Bowdle.

Large numbers of snow geese are reported to still be using lake Byron in Beadle County.

A good number of birds are reported to still be sitting on the lower end of lake Oahe and in the pocket on Lake Sharpe.
See less See more
Excellent report Gman. Keep it up!
have been hunting snows and blues around mudlake, around hurley, have had good luck setting decoys and calling. snows seem to be hanging around still so i think the hunting will be very good this coming weekend!!! good luck and have fun.
Just got back from sd tons of birds around the desmet- lake preston area.

Get out there and save the tundra 8)
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top