2015-16 Hunting Reports & Pictures

Report!!

Hunted Two days this week in West Central Mn. was solo on both trips. Finished both days with two bird limit, did not see a lot of birds but made good use of the opportunities presented. Did have fun experience on Monday, working brush, grass mix with corn food plot in middle, had seem quite a few birds while sitting in the deer stand in same area. Dog was extremely birdy along food plot, got to end and place blew up!!!! 4 roosters and 8 hens I think. Missed the first shot big as can be!!! followed up with second shot and bird down. Worked my way to other end of CRP and found a lone rooster tucked in the corner, one shot one dead bird, day finished!!! Wish I could tell a similar story every day. :cheers:
 
Headed down SW MN Friday & Saturday. Been watching temps to get an idea of the freeze we will get. Hoping to get hard ice access into center of cattail sloughs and start busting em' out of there. Seems like its been a challenge with others too so the waiting game for hard freeze and a little snow continues. Noticed Thanksgiving day will be hovering right around freezing and temps will start to drop that night. Not sure if that will be enough by the time we get there Friday morning, others opinions? At that point it looks like it should stay below freezing so possibly by Saturday. Maybe have a chance in areas that were more Marshy, rather than areas that carried an actual water level.
 
FCS post above is dead on. Cattail lined ponds are NOT ready for human traffic and even canines need to be careful.

There is a lot of heat generated in these marshes (decomposition I guess) and soft spots can occur even in the dead of winter.

We were breaking through any run off flooded spots (most of SW MN had 1-3 inches of rain last week).

I would think we need 5 days lows in the low teens or single digits.

Let us know if you see something different.
 
Went out to brown county on Tuesday. There were some birds around but the problem we ran into was flooded grass. Any area with water nearby was almost unhuntable. I'm hoping the water will start to get soaked into the ground soon to open up more areas. Does anyone know how much of southwest mn is like this?
 
mnydir said:
Went out to brown county on Tuesday. There were some birds around but the problem we ran into was flooded grass. Any area with water nearby was almost unhuntable. I'm hoping the water will start to get soaked into the ground soon to open up more areas. Does anyone know how much of southwest mn is like this?
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All of it. From Jackson to Pipestone and north. It's probably not going to soak in this year. It's probably just going to have to freeze.
 
Yeah you wont be walking on water yet. The only reason I did was because of me being determined to get a bird shot. Most miserable hr and failure of my life LOL. And if there has been any snow for sure forget it. That's a big time insulator. If you wear hip boots at least you may stay dry, but your walk will quickly wear you down to near death :). Dry sloughs with just muck to freeze? Might be fine. Our problem here is we had 3-4 days straight rain, so every slough has water. Cold water :). All you can do is hope and keep testing it out. Lakes are still open here in the Alex area. And most times if you aint ice fishing, you aint walking on water anywhere.:thumbsup:
 
PP Fin Renard's Ion Flirt. Three birds from one little slew, north central SD.
The second is one of her pups,15 months old, in New Mexico.
 
Hunted this morning with a good buddy before family time. Flushed 10 hens in 3 hours in 15 mph winds and snow. All birds were on top of hills in thinner cover. West of Atwater
 
Going to try and take advantage of this snow. There's a couple public spots that have some roosters who like to fly early.

We'll see Tuesday if the snow makes them sit!
 
My brother in law came down from Eveleth for thanksgiving and hunted with me Friday and Saturday. Moved 15 birds between the two days. Only one shot at a rooster. He missed it clean. Twice. Birds were on the edges of cattails and corn. Ice was still too thin to be walking on. He was pretty bummed about missing our only chance so today we went to Sand Pines for a little pick me up.
 
It looks like this storm is targeting the prime areas. Let's hope the totals aren't as high as predicted. We don't need a lot of snow on top of thin ice.
 
First MN Bird

New to the area - Tank and I went out and killed our first MN bird on Saturday. Birds were holding very tight, which helped us out since we were hunting spots that had already been walked 2+ times. Just like everyone else, can't wait for the ice to thicken up so we can push the cattails. PLENTY of birds around. Good work by my 11-month-old lab - he's going to be a rock star :)
 
We picked up 3 roosters on Saturday afternoon. A much need reprieve from the wind hunt earlier in the week. Birds packaged and sent with my son as he headed back to his college house.

THIS SNOW WILL SLOW ICE FORMATION and SLOUGH FREEZING and for that matter LAKE ICE FORMATION which inturn makes ice fishing potentially treacherous. Thankfully some bigger lakes have not iced over yet.


I have noticed that once the ice fishing takes hold full force, the pheasant hunting pressure drops off tremendously in MN.
 
Have had tomorrow planned as a day off for weeks now why wouldn't we get a snow storm.. Tracking weather and snow fall totals to see if me and my two buddies are going to brave it. Mother nature cares less about my needs :mad:
 
Thanks for the insight last week Brittman. Was optimistic on cattail slough access. Reality sets in when you take your first step closer to anything but the edges, thankful for waterproof boots and extra socks :)

SW MN Friday Saturday trip went okay. I'd give it a 7 outta 10 success wise, however there isn't much more I'd rather be doing. Got off to a slow start with myself missing 2 layup roosters and my brother adding another in waist high grass Friday morning, were able to salvage the day within the last hour with my brother shooting 2 about 10 minutes apart walking a grovey stretch. Saturday went back to the grass from the day before looking for revenge and were able to pick up 2. Was a great day for Minnesota pheasant hunting on Saturday. I had on a hooded sweatshirt and a stocking hat on through the afternoon, very enjoyable. It's apparent there are lots of birds around, however at this point it's pretty tough trekking with amount of water beneath anything softly frozen. Seen many birds flying into deep slough areas so it's obvious they know they are safe there until we can get to em'. Hoping this provides some promising late season public ground hunting since there hasn't been much pressure in recent weeks with the water conditions.
 
Hunted Tuesday in Fillmore county. Never hunted in that part of the state. Didn't flush a single bird but they have a lot of good looking habitat down there on public land. At least there wasn't a bunch of water on the ground like sw mn.
 
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