Missouri Coverage
The Bootheel Duck Migration Forecast
Ten Mile Pond, the rice ground and the drainage ditches down to the Arkansas line. The warmest corner of the state: it fills in December and the best hunting is often the last week of January.
See today’s live scoreAll of MO
Season dates: Missouri duck season 2026-27, dates and migration timing
Where The Bootheel is
The Bootheel is drawn from 5 counties in Missouri: Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Scott. 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 The Bootheel peaks
DuckCast’s season model puts the mallard peak here around late December. The Bootheel carries its own mallard timing rather than the statewide curve, because the season here runs on a different clock from the rest of the state. 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 The Bootheel
3 upstream stations feed this region's freeze line, nearest first: Havana, IL, about 255 miles north, Spring Valley, IL, about 325 miles north and Muscatine, IA, about 340 miles north. When those stations ice over, the score here starts climbing before anything changes in the local sky.
Radar over The Bootheel
Each morning DuckCast reads the night’s NEXRAD data from KPAH, the National Weather Service radar at Paducah, about 55 miles northeast 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 The Bootheel 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 Missouri
Nearest first. Distances run between the regions’ weather points.
- Mingo Basin, about 50 miles northwest
- The Ozarks, about 155 miles northwest
- The Confluence, about 155 miles northwest
- Missouri River Valley, about 235 miles northwest
- West Central and the Osage, about 250 miles northwest
- Northeast and the Upper Mississippi, about 255 miles northwest
- North Missouri, about 300 miles northwest
- Northwest Missouri, about 365 miles northwest
Across the state line
- Northeast Delta, Arkansas, about 70 miles southwest
Season dates and regulations change. Always verify with Missouri Department of Conservation. DuckCast forecasts conditions, not legal seasons.