Louisiana Coverage
Southwest Rice Prairie Duck Migration Forecast
Jefferson Davis, Acadia and Calcasieu rice and crawfish ground behind the marsh. What holds birds here is whether the ponds are flooded for crawfish, which is a farming decision more than a weather one.
See today’s live scoreAll of LA
Season dates: Louisiana duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing
Where Southwest Rice Prairie is
Southwest Rice Prairie is drawn from 7 parishes in Louisiana: Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis and Lafayette. Those are the parishes its shape on the DuckCast map is built from, so a hunter in any of them reads this region’s score.
When Southwest Rice Prairie peaks
DuckCast’s season model puts the pintail peak here around mid December. 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 Southwest Rice Prairie
3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: El Dorado, AR, about 210 miles north, Texarkana, TX, about 245 miles northwest and Pine Bluff, AR, about 280 miles north. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.
Radar over Southwest Rice Prairie
Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KLCH, the National Weather Service radar at Lake Charles, about 50 miles west 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 Southwest Rice Prairie 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 Louisiana
Nearest first. Distances run between the regions’ weather points.
- Southwest Coastal Marsh, about 40 miles southwest
- Atchafalaya Basin, about 50 miles east
- Catahoula and Little River, about 90 miles north
- Terrebonne and Lafourche Marsh, about 115 miles southeast
- Northeast Delta, about 145 miles northeast
- Barataria and Delacroix, about 155 miles east
- Ouachita and Boeuf, about 160 miles north
- Red River and Northwest, about 160 miles northwest
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.