Kansas Coverage
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.
- Northeast Reservoirs and the Kaw, about 65 miles northwest
- Southeast Timber, about 70 miles south
- South Central and the Arkansas, about 125 miles southwest
- Quivira and the Rattlesnake, about 175 miles west
- North Central Reservoirs, about 175 miles northwest
- Cheyenne Bottoms, about 175 miles west
- Southwest Playas, about 280 miles west
- Northwest High Plains, about 285 miles west
Across the state line
- West Central and the Osage, Missouri, about 90 miles east
- Northwest Missouri, Missouri, about 100 miles north
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Kansas Wildlife and Parks. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.