Fantastic waterfowling action can be found on public land across North America. The following highlights five destinations for each flyway to help you plan your next hunt. Atlantic Flyway – The Atlantic Flyway is home to a wide range of habitats, a variety of species, and unique hunting styles. Whether it’s black ducks in the salt marshes, divers on the bays, or sea ducks on the open ocean, this flyway offers an abundance of waterfowl hunting opportunities. Best of all, public access abounds, especially along the coast. The following are five of the Atlantic Flyway’s best public hunting destinations.
Central Flyway – The Central Flyway, stretching from the Canadian Arctic to the Texas Gulf Coast, offers tremendous public waterfowl hunting opportunities. But it’s crucial to be in the right place at the right time when ducks and geese are funneling through this vast flyway. The following are five public waterfowling hotspots where you can meet the migration head on this season.
Mississippi Flyway – Roughly 40 percent of North America’s ducks and geese follow the Mississippi Flyway, which serves as a vast funnel for migrating waterfowl from the Canadian Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico. This flyway provides some of the continent’s best waterfowling, and plenty of good hunting is available on public land. Following are five Mississippi Flyway public hunting hotspots where waterfowl are plentiful and opportunities to hunt them are available to one and all.
Pacific Flyway – Established in 1972 to preserve the vital fish and wildlife habitat of the Columbia River estuary, the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) has evolved into one of the Pacific Flyway’s top public hunting locations. This little-known refuge is located in Oregon near the mouth of the Columbia River, providing wintering and resting habitat for an estimated 1,000 tundra swans, 5,000 geese, and 30,000 ducks.