DuckCast

East Central Lakes Duck Migration Forecast

Clinton, Melvern, Pomona and John Redmond, with the Marais des Cygnes bottoms running east to the Missouri line. Reservoir roosts and creek-bottom feeds.

See today’s live scoreAll of KS

Season dates: Kansas duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing

Where East Central Lakes is

East Central Lakes is drawn from 10 counties in Kansas: Anderson, Chase, Coffey, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn, Lyon, Miami and Osage. Those are the counties its shape on the DuckCast map is built from, so a hunter in any of them reads this region’s score.

When East Central Lakes peaks

DuckCast’s season model puts the pintail peak here around late October. This follows the statewide pintail curve. That is a modelled typical curve, not a prediction for any single year. The actual push depends on cold fronts and freeze-up upstream, which is what the daily score tracks. Always confirm season dates with the state wildlife agency, linked below.

What DuckCast watches upstream of East Central Lakes

3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Falls City, NE, about 105 miles north, Fairbury, NE, about 145 miles northwest and Lincoln, NE, about 170 miles northwest. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.

Radar over East Central Lakes

Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KTWX, the National Weather Service radar at Topeka, about 55 miles northwest of the region’s weather point. That puts the radar just outside the region, near enough to see birds lifting off and passing close by. Radar sees every bird in the air, not only ducks, so it confirms or questions the score rather than moving it.

Locations stay generalized

Hunter reports for East Central Lakes are always shown at the region level. DuckCast never collects or displays exact coordinates, so filing a report here never burns a spot.

Also covered in Kansas

Nearest first. Distances run between the regions’ weather points.

Across the state line

Live migration map

Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Kansas Wildlife and Parks. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.