BHElkHunter

I've been living/hunting in the Black Hills forseveral yearsnow. On several occasions, I've noticed mallards and the odd canada goose out in the lakes, ponds, and streams of the BH National Forest. I would like to know if anyone has had experience hunting waterfowl in the black hills, and where it is/isn't legal on the lakes surrounded by national forest (pactola, sheridan, etc.).

There isn't any information about hunting waterfowl in the black hills on the state GFP website, because most all of the states waterfowl hunting is outside of the hills on the central flyway.

My interest in duck hunting in the black hillshas recently peakedbecause I have a young Vizsla that I use for upland birds who is starting to enjoy swimming. I'm hoping that maybe someday he'll retrieve an early season duck for me!

mez

Never hunted waterfowl in the Hills, not sure if you can hunt the lakes in the hills? I'll find out though. My brother and I hunt quite a bit on Orman which is just east of Belle Fourche. GREAT duck hunting and public. Tons of geese on there as well but they mainly stay out on the main lake and you can't get to them. There are also a lot of ducks on Bear Butte Lake and I think that is public hunting as well.

SouthDakotaHunter

I've never looked into hunting waterfowl in the hills, so I'm not sure what's open and not.... My thoughts are that you may see some waterfowl in the hills on occasion, but I think you'll see a lot larger number of birds outside of the hills - closer to the cropland or even some of the prairie dug outs can be good at times...

BHElkHunter

Do they allow decoys on Bear Butte lake? Thanks in advance for finding out about BH lakes!