jackrabbit
Active member
When the pheasant counts come out for the year I wasn't too worried, I am going to take my 2 trips regardless.
Trip #1 was in mid-November and featured all of the hunting within roughly a 80 mile radius of Mitchell, 1 day on Public Land, 1 day private on one farm, 2 days private on another farm. Bird numbers may have been down than in previous years, but it certainly wasn't anything noticeable on the public land and on one of the farms, the other farm it was probably down 40%. In fact the public land hunting was possibly the best public land hunting I've ever experienced in 8 years of SD hunting, must have just hit the right area that held a pocket of birds.
Trip #2 was this past week and was a mix of public and private. Day 1 was in the same public land areas as mentioned above, and the same results. Then headed to the Winner area for Days 2 and 3. To say that the bird numbers are down in the "Golden Triangle" is almost an understatement. Day 2 started on private where we have had luck in the past, but after not seeing many birds we moved to some public. Walked a lot of cattails and sloughs and saw one hen. Group of 4 didn't even fire a shot on Day 2. Day 3 was private land, and the farmer told us that he released 20 birds for us a few days ago. We didn't know that he was going to release birds for us, nor has he ever released them before this year (has had to every weekend this fall now). Honestly though, we ended up being thankful they released them. We hit everything we saw, which was most of the released ones and one wild bird. Without those released birds it would have been a long day/trip. And wow, released birds are quite a bit easy to hunt and shoot, for both humans and dogs. Either way, it was still fun.
Landowner said that the guy he bought the birds from has sold about 49,000 roosters in the area this year. He said that any farm that has somebody hunting on it for more than 1 weekend this fall has had to release birds, and they are lying to you if they say otherwise. 3 different landowners I was talking with while out and about all said the same thing to me, "the season needs to close for a few years or else the bird numbers will never come back." 2 of the 3 also said they may need to start the "preserve rule" on all private land that requires hunters to pay - you need to release a bird for every bird shot on your land. If 300 roosters (even if all wild) are shot on your land in the fall by paid hunters, then sometime before the following season you need to release 300 roosters. Not sure if I agree with that or not, but almost sounded like landowners may be willing to.
Trip #1 was in mid-November and featured all of the hunting within roughly a 80 mile radius of Mitchell, 1 day on Public Land, 1 day private on one farm, 2 days private on another farm. Bird numbers may have been down than in previous years, but it certainly wasn't anything noticeable on the public land and on one of the farms, the other farm it was probably down 40%. In fact the public land hunting was possibly the best public land hunting I've ever experienced in 8 years of SD hunting, must have just hit the right area that held a pocket of birds.
Trip #2 was this past week and was a mix of public and private. Day 1 was in the same public land areas as mentioned above, and the same results. Then headed to the Winner area for Days 2 and 3. To say that the bird numbers are down in the "Golden Triangle" is almost an understatement. Day 2 started on private where we have had luck in the past, but after not seeing many birds we moved to some public. Walked a lot of cattails and sloughs and saw one hen. Group of 4 didn't even fire a shot on Day 2. Day 3 was private land, and the farmer told us that he released 20 birds for us a few days ago. We didn't know that he was going to release birds for us, nor has he ever released them before this year (has had to every weekend this fall now). Honestly though, we ended up being thankful they released them. We hit everything we saw, which was most of the released ones and one wild bird. Without those released birds it would have been a long day/trip. And wow, released birds are quite a bit easy to hunt and shoot, for both humans and dogs. Either way, it was still fun.
Landowner said that the guy he bought the birds from has sold about 49,000 roosters in the area this year. He said that any farm that has somebody hunting on it for more than 1 weekend this fall has had to release birds, and they are lying to you if they say otherwise. 3 different landowners I was talking with while out and about all said the same thing to me, "the season needs to close for a few years or else the bird numbers will never come back." 2 of the 3 also said they may need to start the "preserve rule" on all private land that requires hunters to pay - you need to release a bird for every bird shot on your land. If 300 roosters (even if all wild) are shot on your land in the fall by paid hunters, then sometime before the following season you need to release 300 roosters. Not sure if I agree with that or not, but almost sounded like landowners may be willing to.
