Went out saturday afternoon, drove by my secret spot and there were two hens and a rooster out pecking up lunch. My buddy met me 10 minutes later and we started hunting. I just knew we'd get a crack at these birds. My buddy lost sight of his 6 month old pup and she ran way ahead and we got to see all the pheasants as they took wing and beat it. He doesn't really work with his dogs much so not a surprise. We went to a 2nd spot for the golden hour, and right away near some brush a rooster flushed, I only heard the cackle and swung around and shot, but he dropped into a massive cane break and I saw his head up. My recovery has been really good this year, but this one was never seen again. While all this was going on my buddy turned and saw a rooster run behind us, right in front of our trucks in the parking lot. We tracked him all down the ditch and eventually he ran across a barren field towards an old country home. Sunday morning I saw 3 roosters in a cornfield across from the slough I was gonna hunt. This spot is privately owned but open to public hunting. There were two trucks here, so I moved on to plan B, where I only saw one hen. I took off the midday to watch some of the Vikes game, then hit a spot where I saw two roosters but no shots fired. Finally I went to my Uncle's and tried it. As we were walking I saw a group of 4-5 birds flush way in the distance. Getting closer to that area the dog got REALLY hot. She was going full steam and I knew the scent was really strong. She worked and worked and finally out jumped a rooster from the edge of the slough and I got him with the second shell, he fell into a tall phragmites patch. Every time a pheasant drops I think, "I hope we find him!" For me one of the most important things is if the dog visually marks the fall. After the flush I was only looking at the bird so don't know where Skye went, and I began plowing into the cane to look for the bird and figured she would follow me. Turns out she had already found him and was way ahead of me. I saw some birds this weekend but getting one in the bag wasn't easy, so it felt good to have it all come together.