Delaware Recreational Pheasant Hunting

E

ElevatedHunter

New member
Hey Everyone!

New to this channel, but wanted to give it a try as I recently started Hunting with my GSP June last year for the first time and man did she get me hooked. Personally, there is not greater feeling then being out in the fields with the dog.

I wanted to post on here to see if I can get any advice about hunting the Pike County area of the Delaware Recreational Hunting Area. I currently live in NJ and have mainly only ever hunted the NJ side of the river as well as the flatbrook/Walpack area, that I'm sure most of you are familiar with. This is my first year hunting the PA side of the river and I found my self quite lost this Past Saturday on where to start hunting.

Most spots, closet to the Milford Bridge were quite packed, so I kept wandering down the road till I found a pull of where there weren't as many cars. I have been using the Game Commissions new interactive map to locate areas to focus on, but there is just so much highlighted that I'm not sure where to narrow down my searching.

Is there anyone out there that can point me in the right direction? I know the website shows the stocking dates, but I am so used to NJ with knowing when they are actually stocking rather then a variety of dates.

Is there places I should avoid?

Any Tips/Pointers would be greatly appreciated, I can always return the favor for information on the NJ side as I am pretty well comfortable hunting over here. Even tho PA is the other side of the river, it feels like a whole new world for me!

Thanks in Advance

- Tim & June
 
Tim
Welcome to the site, as you witnessed you've picked one of the more popular hunting areas. It has actually gotten more pressure lately than in the past . This is partially due to the fact that this area was one n that not long ago was a decent location to hunt grouse and well now the grouse there are almost non existent. Not long ago you could hunt the fields for pheasant and then work your way up the ridges and fully expect to find decent numbers of grouse, not so anymore. So if you own a bird dog in this region you hunt the DWGRA for pheasant or travel . I don't think I would ever hunt it on the opener! The good news is that it does receive a LOT of birds and with the available cover there are always birds to be found. In fact when I am shad fishing the river in the spring I hear a few roosters crowing.
If you hunt it during the week you should have little trouble finding birds!
HINT ...Synder Tract !
 
Thank you very much for responding with the very useful information. I had passed the Synder Tract opening day and there wasn't a single place to Park! Currently I work a second shift position, so that gives me a lot of mornings to shoot up 206 and hit those fields real quick.

June my GSP is a great dog, she wasn't trained professionally, but her recall is top notch, stays close, respects other working dogs, and just great pure instinct. She does have a hard time in the beginning of the year until she finds her first bird, then the switch flips on. Ill try and make it up there sometime this week and maybe work the fields down towards the river and see if she can put any up.

Like i had mentioned, this area is so new to me. Its almost overwhelming on how large it is compared to the fields on our side of the river. Sometimes has me second guessing where to start!
 
Jersey has done the tues, thursday, and saturday for decades... Not PA and most of NY... More guesswork but I like that. I would disagree with the other member who says there are few grouse there. you will find them on both sides of the river yes in NJ too. woodcock too but make sure you are registered in hip to be legal. those stocked pheasant move quite a bit. in nj they stock 4 am in the morning. so if you are out at sunrise those birds have not moved much and are still slightly disorientated... Long Island NY, Lower Hudson Valley NY, and Connecticut also have similar stocking regimes to Jersey. But in PA and upstate NY and perhaps other stocking states, it is a different ball game. but depending on where you are, it makes hunting away from the "epi-center" more appealing because birds have moved. Not trying to be a know it all or cross the other guy. you just sound like someone with the potential to become an avid, life long pheasant hunter and I am telling you how I do it (and that I kill grouse where people say there are none and have been doing that for decades)... My way is not the only way, but we do whatever it takes to get away from the other hunters. occasionally that means going home without hunting,but not often... there is a poll on facebook - two jersey release sites have not recorded a single hunter - one surprises me port republic - which was always popular and well known. However Manasquan, which is actually in Wall Township next to Allaire State Park never got many hunters and apparently still doesnt. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of hunters from Monmouth, Middlesex, and other counties would drive right past "squan" to hit assunpink and coliers millls (as well as turkey swamp back in the day) not even aware the WMA existed or that it was stocked... good luck man!
 
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