Ranked · 2026

The Top Five Duck Hunting States for 2026

Do you agree or disagree?

Every year the same three or four states get the headlines, and every year a handful of operators in places nobody talks about quietly put their clients on the best mallard hunting in North America. We work with more than 600 outfitters across the country, we see where the birds go and where the repeat bookings come from, and this is the list that shakes out. Argue with it in the comments. Then go book one.

#1

Wyoming

Image courtesy of Teton Mallard Co.

Nobody puts Wyoming on a duck hunting list, which is exactly why it belongs at the top of this one. Out in the western valleys, spring-fed creeks and river channels stay open when the reservoirs and sloughs of the Central Flyway have already gone hard. The mallards that find that water have no reason to leave, and there is almost nobody out there asking them to.

What you get is a resident, fat, late-season greenhead sitting on a ribbon of open water with a wall of snow-covered peaks behind it. Numbers are not the story here. Quality is. You are hunting a small piece of water with birds that have been loafing on it for weeks, and the limit you carry back across the bridge looks like it came out of a painting.

It is a hunt for people who have shot plenty of ducks and now want to shoot them somewhere that stops them in their tracks.

Outfitter to check out Teton Mallard Co. →Small-water mallard hunts under the Salt River Range in Star Valley. Lodge sleeps five, so it is a private-group operation, and the FAQ on their page walks through species, bag limits and what a day looks like before you book.

#2

Nebraska

Image courtesy of Whiskey Sloughs Outfitters

The Platte River does not freeze. That single fact is why central Nebraska stacks birds in December and January when hunters two states north are looking at ice. Warm-water stretches and shallow braided channels keep loafing water open through the coldest part of the season, and the migration knows it.

Sitting on the north edge of the Rainwater Basin in the middle of the Central Flyway, this ground gives you variety most states cannot match in one trip: river hunts, dry feeds, loaf ponds and sloughs, with geese trading the river as the morning duck flight tapers off. It is a migration highway, and the Platte is the rest stop.

If you want a mixed bag and a lot of birds in the air, this is the state.

Outfitter to check out Whiskey Sloughs Outfitters →Guided duck and goose hunts out of Kearney with heated blinds, scouted setups and a 5-bedroom lodge minutes from town. Groups cap at eight, and pheasant can be added for a full Nebraska combo. Season runs Oct 26 through Jan 7.

#3

Kansas

Image courtesy of Carter’s Big Island Hunt Club

Southeast Kansas is timber-and-marsh mallard country that looks more like Arkansas than what most people picture when they hear the state name. Private, managed water on flooded bottomland pulls greenheads off the big refuges and gives you the kind of close, over-decoy shooting that made the timber hunt famous.

The land here matters more than anywhere else on this list. The best water is private, has been managed for decades, and does not get pressured. When the birds arrive, they are working into shallow timber and marsh a few yards off the end of your barrel, and the strap is almost all mallards.

This is the pick for the hunter who wants greenheads in the timber without the crowds.

Outfitter to check out Carter’s Big Island Hunt Club →Eighth-generation family farm established in 1886, with duck hunting on the family properties dating back to World War II. Half-day guided mallard hunts on private, heavily managed water near St. Paul, Kansas. Their pitch is three words long: mallards, mallards, mallards.

#4

Montana

Image courtesy of Broken Plains Outfitting Co.

Central Montana in December is not for everybody, which is why the birds are still there. The Missouri River and the coulees that feed it hold open water through the deep freeze, and the mallards that stage on that water in late season are as big and as fully plumed as any in the country.

The setting is the draw. You are hunting river bottoms and stubble fields with the Breaks rolling away in every direction and the mountains on the horizon. Straps run heavy on drakes. Pressure is close to zero. And when the wind is right, the flocks come in numbers that make the cold worth it.

It is the hunt for people who want big country as much as they want big limits.

Outfitter to check out Broken Plains Outfitting Company →Guided waterfowl, upland, turkey and mule deer hunts across the Missouri River Breaks out of Fort Benton. Licensed Montana outfitter with lodging on site and a gallery that will make you check flight prices.

#5

Oklahoma

Image courtesy of Prairie Red Outfitters

Oklahoma sits far enough south to be where the Central Flyway birds actually spend the winter, and far enough off the radar that most traveling hunters skip it for Texas or Arkansas. That is a mistake. North-central Oklahoma has dry fields, flooded grain and timbered sloughs within a short drive of each other, which means the hunt adapts to the birds instead of the other way around.

The mixed bag is the point. Mallards, pintails, gadwall, wigeon, teal and geese all show up on the same strap, and the wide-open sky makes for the kind of decoying you can see coming from a mile away.

If you want variety, mild weather and birds that have already decided to stay, Oklahoma earns the last spot on this list and would fight for a higher one.

Outfitter to check out Prairie Red Outfitters →Guided duck and goose hunts across thousands of acres of Central Flyway ground outside Perry, Oklahoma: dry fields, flooded grain and timbered sloughs, with the setup chosen for the day's birds.

The common thread

Look at the list again and one thing jumps out. Every state on it has water that stays open when everything else freezes, and every one of them has less pressure than the states people usually name first. Late-season birds go where the water is and stay where nobody bothers them. Hunt those two things and the map gets a lot more interesting.

Every outfitter above runs their bookings, payments and client communication on Mallard Bay. Find more of them at mallardbay.com.