2015 Season

Grazing and farming of WPAs appear to be the Feds way to improve the grasslands. If they do it once every 6-10 years fine, but if this become some sort of income generator then our duck stamp dollars are wasted.
 
The waterfowl hunting (on average) has been below average if not poor. Of course some have done well.

With that in mind - I suspect many nonresidents were switching to upland to "save" the trip ... plus residents love to hunt pheasants.

One area I hunt is a mix of private and public and not a nonresident hotspot. There were more resident pheasant hunters out on Saturday than I have ever seen including some openers. Then again the weather was perfect.
 
esetter I grew up hunting Kidder and Stutsman counties for waterfowl in the 80s. This was drought years so much less water. No beans anywhere.

We shot grouse in September as we scouted or hunted sandhill cranes and usually would get one or two a day in October often pass shooting as they flew over our duck decoys. Pheasants were very rare then in this area except around NWRs. The CRP enabled pheasants to take hold and do reasonable well.

I used to go watch sharptails spring dance in this area (in a blind).

In the 90s and beyond we hunted other areas of ND because my brother moved to another part of the state. Fortunately to an area with more pheasants.

I drove the region last year and you are right there were whole townships planted in soybeans ... not a wheat field, not a sunflower field. Worse yet none had been harvested by early October. It presented little opportunity to find a field full of feeding mallards and worse nearly no place to run our dogs on sharptails.
 
BRITTMAN said:
esetter I grew up hunting Kidder and Stutsman counties for waterfowl in the 80s. This was drought years so much less water. No beans anywhere.

We shot grouse in September as we scouted or hunted sandhill cranes and usually would get one or two a day in October often pass shooting as they flew over our duck decoys. Pheasants were very rare then in this area except around NWRs. The CRP enabled pheasants to take hold and do reasonable well.

I used to go watch sharptails spring dance in this area (in a blind).

In the 90s and beyond we hunted other areas of ND because my brother moved to another part of the state. Fortunately to an area with more pheasants.

I drove the region last year and you are right there were whole townships planted in soybeans ... not a wheat field, not a sunflower field. Worse yet none had been harvested by early October. It presented little opportunity to find a field full of feeding mallards and worse nearly no place to run our dogs on sharptails.
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I hunt that area today, as I did back first in the late 80's, when I was a kid. there were very few pheasants around back then compared to now. we would walk all day and see a few grouse and partridge, rarely a pheasant. Ducks and geese were the main bird harvested. there wasn't very ideal habitat back then for pheasants.

I will say there is more corn and pea fields around now then 20 years ago.. Not as much wheat or pasture for that matter. But as far as ducks go, if you can find a pea field it will be a great place to hunt ducks and geese.


In the last 10 years we have had some great duck hunts in pea fields in this area.


Jim
 
esetter said:
Was Dry as a bone when we were there. Definitely more upland hunters than ever.
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I will second this, last year it was dry, but this year it was as dry as I ever can remember. We had two neighbors loose there combines to fires when harvesting sunflowers about 2 weeks ago.

Jim
 
Dry in the 80s is even more dry than what you are seing now. ... many of the lakes that hold fish were shallow sloughs. Sloughs were farm land and/or pasture.

Some day when (not if) an extended drought hits ND, you will have all these roads that are built up 10', 20' or more in the air and new people will wonder what the heck is going on.

Yes ... peas have made a steady push from Canada into NW ND and now down into central ND. Used as turkey food mainly. Dry beans are also prevalent in a few areas of ND.

No secret that pheasants like peas too.

Killed a lot of sharptails in those counties in the 80s and 90s ... CRP certainly helped pheasants along with generally milder winters.

Huns simply hate rain and moisture. While certainly not a desert bird, all those spring rains have hit Huns hard. We were shooting dozens ... some times 30 - 40 huns each fall now we are lucky to see one flock.
 
pheasanthunt said:
I will second this, last year it was dry, but this year it was as dry as I ever can remember. We had two neighbors loose there combines to fires when harvesting sunflowers about 2 weeks ago.

Jim
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Had several guys we know up there tell us that it was too dry to harvest beans because of the fire danger. I wore regular 8'' boots in areas that I normally wear my knee boots this year. DRY. I hope some of the beans will be rotated to wheat next year? I love ND , just changing it seems.
 
Red River valley saw a nice influx of wheat planting. I was shocked to see so much wheat compared to past few years. This is not bird hunting area, just land that I see in the summer. Maybe the trend will move west ! :thumbsup:
 
Most of the crops have been harvested within the three hour range i've been out from Bismarck. Lot's of hens, decent number IMO of birds but spotty also. Have not seen a single road bird in the morning yet (4/5 weekends since opener...8 days hunting) but see many in the evening. Got out of the pickup (too close evidently) at a spot and walked 50ft when 15 birds flew the small grassy wooded patch across the road to private land standing corn. No limits yet this year, even with two days of 4 guys and 1 dog. Also, have only hunted south of 94, north last year produced limits but south did very well last year also. Found many roosters in the morning in moderate height grass on an edge close to corn. Crops have held mostly corn also. All public lands for me as well so far, until i've made more "hotspot" regions on my phone maps i'm not asking farmers for permission. Although we did last year at a place, was pheasant heaven. Google earth has been my scouting friend though...plots, wma, wra, wetland data, and crop cover layer data. Has helped me narrow into better habitat without the wasted miles.

Side note my uncle and cousin came to hunt for a weekend and kept the gizzards and a wing for his brother who's doing a study/research on lead levels in said bird parts to determine exactly that - lead levels if any and where geographically. Interesting, not sure when or what the data will show something thats of value.
 
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Intersting . If it shows enough lead we will be hunting them with steel / non toxic. I have killed several with steel up there. If the lead being referred to is lead shot found in the gizzards , I would say most of it is being consumed arounnd heavily hunted private ground. I can't see there being enough lying around on private to be consumed often. We actually did better north of 94 this year.
 
Our trip to ND this year was better than the previous two years. The weather was great for five of the six days. We did not limit out, not everyone shoots straight. My GWP performed wonderfully. Sadie was the top dog of our group. As we age the hunt takes on a different feel. I am happy to be following my dog enjoying the time with friends.
 
bird shooter said:
Our trip to ND this year was better than the previous two years. The weather was great for five of the six days. We did not limit out, not everyone shoots straight. My GWP performed wonderfully. Sadie was the top dog of our group. As we age the hunt takes on a different feel. I am happy to be following my dog enjoying the time with friends.
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West of Bismarck or East ??
 
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