A dismal tour of North Valley pheasant country

C

calamari

Member
A friend joined a pheasant Co-Op with 16,000 acres of land committed to the program north of Sacramento. We drove around looking at a large percentage of it covering more than 150 miles on the odometer. Saw scalped fields with one ranch hand spraying the only 15 plants of orchard grass remaining on a 1/2 section of clod less brown pool table being the norm. Saw no dead or live pheasants in the whole drive. It will be ditch running for planted birds in the extreme. I suggested he get a drone with a camera to spot the birds before he commits to the ditch.:)
 
You didn't actually expect to SEE a pheasant, did you? Until they turn them loose from the cages on the afternoon before the opener, you've got about the same chance of seeing a mature bull moose as you do a pheasant of either gender.
 
ditchparrot19 said:
You didn't actually expect to SEE a pheasant, did you? Until they turn them loose from the cages on the afternoon before the opener, you've got about the same chance of seeing a mature bull moose as you do a pheasant of either gender.
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HA! I'm a firm believer in that you have to have a dream to have one come true so I guess I was kind of hoping.
There's moose near Colusa?:cheers:
 
I'm sure that co-op advertised that their "strong population of wild birds" is merely supplemented by some planted roosters.

What a farce! Never again will I pay to tromp up and down rice checks in search of pen-raised birds. There are some clubs around here that provide a far better experience than any of the co-ops.
 
ditchparrot19 said:
I'm sure that co-op advertised that their "strong population of wild birds" is merely supplemented by some planted roosters.
What a farce! Never again will I pay to tromp up and down rice checks in search of pen-raised birds. There are some clubs around here that provide a far better experience than any of the co-ops.
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I don't know about the strong population of wild birds since it's my friend who joined and not me. I didn't see the prospectus. From the number of birds planted I think they've dropped any pretext to having wild bids in the hunting areas. I imagine there are some but the areas are huge with uncrossable ditches that give large sanctuaries for the few that live there. I appreciate what you say about taking the money, buying a bird card and waiting for windy days to have all the sporting opportunity any hunter and dog(s) can handle. It's one of the closest Co-Ops to where my friend lives. Still a 2 1/2 hour drive one way.
 
The first year I hunted Richvale we harvested quite a few wild birds, at least 1 in 4 but they quickly declined until they turned it into a duck club. I wasn't going to rejoin that year anyways but I do miss shooting the breeze with the guys at camp.
 
Calisdad said:
I'll bet DFG will sell you a moose tag if you asked. :)
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If they'll have a pheasant season at all they'll darn sure sell me a moose tag. About equal chance of getting a wild specimen of either animal on public land this year.
Like your new avatar.:10sign:
 
North Valley Pheasant Country

I believe I belong to this same co-op (KLSC) and have been for 4 years now. We have never advertised or stated anything about wild bird populations. There are wild birds out there but they are few and far between and the populations seem to be dwindling more and more every season. This is due to the very small availability of nesting areas. The first year I shot 4 wild birds, and seen probably 10. Last year I seen one and let him fly. I dove hunt around the same area and heard roosters crowing both weekends I went out which is a good sign (I think).

Unfortunately we are at the mercy of the farmers on what cover they leave in the fields and yes its mostly checks and ditches. We ask (beg) for them to leave the rice stubble, corn stubble etc, but many times its already disk'ed before opening weekend. There are a few Alfalfa fields that we plant and getting birds up out of them can be challenging but fun. Many of the guys that have been in the club for years site the good days where most of the fields were alfalfa, corn stubble or milo stubble and they shot lots of wild birds.

Yes there are probably better "clubs" around if you want to pay $30 a bird but I cannot afford $800 plus a season. I would rather pay $250 for the entire season and take a 3 bird limit nearly every time I go walking the ditches and checks spending time with the dogs. There have been days it takes me all day to get a limit and other times had a limit in under an hour off the same ditch. Yes there are days I get skunked too but even then I have never had a bad day hunting. To me the put and take clubs are anticlimactic and I know exactly where the birds are. Our co-op does not plant every field every time nor do the birds always stay put. To me this makes it a bit more interesting and closer to hunting wild birds (at least in my mind anyway).

I also dove hunt in the afternoons , and have jumped ducks out of the ditches as well. Many of us camp at the same site and all meet back in the evenings for dinner and a couple beers to compare stories and accounts of the days hunts. I sometimes pull my boat down and hunt in the mornings and fish the river in the afternoons. This to me gives me much more flexibility than a put and take club.

Yes the club has its problems but there is a small core of us trying desperately to resolve them and bring the club back to its former glory.

Anyway we still have memberships available on opening day at the annual pancake breakfast at the Robbins elementary school from 5am - 9am for $250

-John
 
Any day spent with a dog and gun is a good day in my book. Whether it's getting skunked on public land, going to a club, or walking ditch banks it's better than watching the pheasants forever show.:cheers:
 
Bunkthe clown, that's the one we looked at. Actually it was feast or famine as far as cover. There were 1/2 to full sections of rice stubble in some areas that would take the whole membership to hunt adequately. There's a variety of hunting experiences available on the Co-Op but it really seems to come down to ditch running.
I think you do it the way it should be done. Don't treat it as an industrial harvesting operation but as an experience that is just part of the bigger picture. Salmon fishing in the river, catfishing in the sloughs, hunting in the mornings and making up huge lies at night is more than a great way to spend time outside in the fall. There's a lot of days in the season so if you've got the time to devote to it you'll be able to have the experience of you're family wondering, "Who's the stranger at the dinner table tonite, mom?" when you go home. I'm a big believer in the song lyric, "How can they miss you if you don't go away?":cheers:
I hope all the members have weather that will allow the hunting to be fun. Slogging through damp gumbo isn't even close to fun.
 
calamari said:
Bunkthe clown, that's the one we looked at. Actually it was feast or famine as far as cover. There were 1/2 to full sections of rice stubble in some areas that would take the whole membership to hunt adequately. There's a variety of hunting experiences available on the Co-Op but it really seems to come down to ditch running.
I think you do it the way it should be done. Don't treat it as an industrial harvesting operation but as an experience that is just part of the bigger picture. Salmon fishing in the river, catfishing in the sloughs, hunting in the mornings and making up huge lies at night is more than a great way to spend time outside in the fall. There's a lot of days in the season so if you've got the time to devote to it you'll be able to have the experience of you're family wondering, "Who's the stranger at the dinner table tonite, mom?" when you go home. I'm a big believer in the song lyric, "How can they miss you if you don't go away?":cheers:
I hope all the members have weather that will allow the hunting to be fun. Slogging through damp gumbo isn't even close to fun.
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The last 2 years I have hunted opening day in shorts and a T shirt. Hoping for cooler weather this year and pray for rain as it keeps a lot of guys at home watching football. I am still young so slogging through the gumbo does not bother me much. Your correct on the cover, either feast or famine and it changes throughout the season. One weekend the field is great looking rice stubble , and the next weekend plowed and barren. Most of the time the birds find their way to the ditches or checks anyway. To me its an experience like you mentioned and I try and make the most of it. Hope everyone has a great season no matter where you go!

-John
 
bunktheclown said:
To me the put and take clubs are anticlimactic and I know exactly where the birds are.
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That's what separates the club in Corning from the vast majority of such operations -- I never know where the birds are unless I see one fly and land somewhere. I only go on weekend afternoons and hunt the perimeter (they've got 1,400 acres with a wide variety of cover) for birds that have already been flushed and missed at least once. I never have birds put out for me unless I have a guest along who's unable to walk very far.

Sometimes I don't come across any, and that's just the way it goes.

Everybody has their own preferences, but to me, that beats the heck out of rice checks. And those birds are small, fast and spooky -- if you don't have them hard-planted, they'll almost certainly run on you (even the hens) and they've got lots of places to go.

I also should mention that cost isn't a factor, as I work off my birds by doing all of the public relations work for the owner.

Note to Cal: Last year I got the owner to sell just a few birds to Ed Smith so he could get some extra work for his young dog. Ed was so impressed that he bought a full card for this year.
 
bunktheclown said:
The last 2 years I have hunted opening day in shorts and a T shirt. Hoping for cooler weather this year and pray for rain as it keeps a lot of guys at home watching football. I am still young so slogging through the gumbo does not bother me much. Your correct on the cover, either feast or famine and it changes throughout the season. One weekend the field is great looking rice stubble , and the next weekend plowed and barren. Most of the time the birds find their way to the ditches or checks anyway. To me its an experience like you mentioned and I try and make the most of it. Hope everyone has a great season no matter where you go!

-John
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It appears the weather will be dry for the opener. Supposed to get a bit of rain this weekend and then clear for the next couple of weeks. Maybe extreme Northern CA might see something within the next 10 days or so but most of CA will be dry
 
ditchparrot19 said:
That's what separates the club in Corning from the vast majority of such operations -- I never know where the birds are unless I see one fly and land somewhere. I only go on weekend afternoons and hunt the perimeter (they've got 1,400 acres with a wide variety of cover) for birds that have already been flushed and missed at least once. I never have birds put out for me unless I have a guest along who's unable to walk very far.

Sometimes I don't come across any, and that's just the way it goes.

Everybody has their own preferences, but to me, that beats the heck out of rice checks. And those birds are small, fast and spooky -- if you don't have them hard-planted, they'll almost certainly run on you (even the hens) and they've got lots of places to go.

I also should mention that cost isn't a factor, as I work off my birds by doing all of the public relations work for the owner.

Note to Cal: Last year I got the owner to sell just a few birds to Ed Smith so he could get some extra work for his young dog. Ed was so impressed that he bought a full card for this year.
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That sounds like a good place, long drive for me but I would like to check it out sometime. We plant birds on Fridays and allow them over night to settle , move around before getting after them on Saturdays. The birds we got last year were very lean and spooky most often they ran until you could really pin them down, had them double back on the dog multiple times. Not sure where we get them from but I think there is a breeder fairly local to Knights Landing. Now two years ago was a different story. Had a few dumb fat chickens that tried to hide behind dirt clods on the edge of the fields. I think several members complained and we did not use them again. Damn all this talk is getting me excited for the opener!!!

-John
 
ditchparrot19 said:
Ed was so impressed that he bought a full card for this year.
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Sorry I didn't reply sooner but I had to go to the dentist to have my jaw put back in place after it dropped so hard it got disjointed. If Ed Smith will buy a card of birds at a club I can't think of a better endorsement for the operation or a worse comment on the state of the wild pheasant population.
If you don't want to know where the birds are planted just tell them so. They'll always do as much as they can to accommodate any members desires on the clubs near Zamora or Dunnigan and I bet at Corning too. You'll have to strain the whole place to find what they plant if you wait to have them put out in the afternoon after everybody leaves. Like I said pick a windy day and you'll be lucky to hit 1/3 of the birds you flush.
 
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As a lifelong SoCal guy, I spent many years envying the hunting opportunities I believed were available to you NorCal guys. When I hear you talk now, I'm almost embarrassed to think of the riches available to me in the Imperial Valley. Despite incredibly clean farming practices, we have a small but very tenacious population of wild pheasants and currently scads of mourning and collared doves (most of the whitewing have left). I will be enjoying pretty good hunting at least two days a week until get this - we head north to Oroville to spend Christmas with the grandkids and their parents.
 
Sportnlyf said:
...currently scads of mourning and collared doves (most of the whitewing have left)
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There's a growing population of Collard Doves around Oroville but in my experience they are the Einsteins of the dove world. For example, there's a very small closed area on a wildlife area near their check station that all the local Collard Doves go to after the first shot on shoot days. The Mourning doves just lower a shoulder and keep flying through the gauntlet to the food plots but the Collard Doves "don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" and go sit it out for the day.
Is that your experience with them in an area with a higher population of them?

Sportnlyf said:
I will be enjoying pretty good hunting at least two days a week until get this - we head north to Oroville to spend Christmas with the grandkids and their parents.
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HA! Bring a fishing rod. There's a few steelhead in the Feather and other opportunities to fish. Pheasants, not so much.
 
There's some pretty decent quail hunting on Oroville WA if you decide to bring the dogs and a gun. There may even be a pheasant or two around the afterbay but I'd stick with the quail.:cheers:
 
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