Any reports from hunters ?

I think they're selling just short of 100,000 non-resident small game licenses in SD. At the $120 rate that's around $12 million.

Yes, edge costs money but they are taking in quite a bit of money in non-res small game (primarily pheasant hunters) licenses.

I think it's time to get off the wallet and spend some of that. Nebraska has a great habitat program going. All they need to do is ....likewise.

In the end, they'll have more money if they improve their habitat and non-res public hunting opportunities.
 
Can’t decide if things are as bleak as all the reports from one day of hunting so far for me but they aren’t great, that’s for sure.

Started today just by myself and my GSP and got really lucky. Not long after getting the dog warmed up in a public piece that I knew would be fruitless because of how much it gets hammered, I came across a couple of roosters running from the road into a ditch. I drove past, parked strategically, got the dog out and worked the ditch; both got up, bagged them both. Only worked the dog in one other piece (got a late start as today was still a travel day) of public land that last year had TONS of birds, he pointed one rooster that I bagged. Pretty scarce in there as well.

Spent the remaining few hours driving and scouting. Other than a few pheasant ranches that I stumbled into (each had 30-40 plus stupid roosters strolling around the road and field entrances without a care in the world), I saw an occasional rooster on the fence line and that’s about it.

Most of this was within 30 miles or so of Gettysburg, a new spot that we started hitting last year. First thing in the morning I’ll be heading to meet my hunting buddy in the place we’ve been going for 12-14 years, a ways east of Aberdeen. We ditched it last year when, even with some good private land to hunt, there just wasn’t many birds. We’ll give it a try again for the next 3 days or so and see what happens.

After hitting it these next 3-4 days, I had planned on taking a break for 1-2 days and then going another 3-4 days mid-late next week before heading back to Nevada but at this point, I’m considering heading back after the weekend. It just doesn’t look great, but I’m not making a decision until at least after Saturday’s work.
 
Left Dakotas this morning. Hunted SE North Dakota and NE South Dakota Sunday afternoon through Thursday. High wind Sunday and Monday 50mph gusts. Hunted mostly private and got 24 birds ND was better for us. 2old guys 60 and 67 and 2 dogs both 10 . Less birds but will be back in 23 days.
 
Second year in a row in SD for us, driving back to Manitoba, Canada tomorrow. We found ok numbers of birds, both on public and private, but we certainly had to work hard, strategize a lot and log miles.

Question: we want to hunt a few spots on the drive back tomorrow morning and we are looking for an area or areas in the NE part of the state close to ND and I-29. Does anyone have any suggestions on where we should look in that area? Thanks in advance.
 
2 friends of mine started in ND and drifted south into SD...near border in both cases...got 5 in ND, 17 in SD...hunted all public...in an area that was impacted by last winter and this summer's drought...not going to divulge where they were, but the point is that there are birds...half of what was there means there are birds...they hunted hard, have a good dog each...are good shots...put up lots of singles and doubles...one bigger bunch of maybe 30-40. I just got back as well and had another good hunt...most of the birds appear to be from hatches in May or June...maybe a few in July...most birds appear to be this year's...they do NOT spend the whole day in the corn!!!! especially when it is windy!!!!
 
benelli-banger said:
2 friends of mine started in ND and drifted south into SD...near border in both cases...got 5 in ND, 17 in SD...hunted all public...in an area that was impacted by last winter and this summer's drought...not going to divulge where they were, but the point is that there are birds...half of what was there means there are birds...they hunted hard, have a good dog each...are good shots...put up lots of singles and doubles...one bigger bunch of maybe 30-40. I just got back as well and had another good hunt...most of the birds appear to be from hatches in May or June...maybe a few in July...most birds appear to be this year's...they do NOT spend the whole day in the corn!!!! especially when it is windy!!!!
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I agree with this. Between me and my hunting buddy, and my GSP Tuff, we have 20 in the freezer after 4 days and change, with another 5-6+ that couldn’t be retrieved. No private land, all public and some good ditches. The numbers have been considerably better than I thought, but only in certain areas. Our usual area of the last 10-12 years is essentially a dead end this year (and last year really), but we have ventured away from it to find birds. Lots of driving and lots of working but we’re are finding birds.

The only real downside is the bigger groups of birds we have found have been deep in the cattails; I mean large groups, 20-30+, but tough to get up on them and when you do, if you drop one in the cattails, you may not find it even if you’re almost standing on top of it. Can hardly see your boots.

One other side not, almost NO young birds so far; maybe 3 of the 20 were the recent hatch. Everything we have shot have been big old wily roosters. Fun to see.

Tomorrow will be my 6th day and I’m considering making it my last. Considering the doom and gloom forecast, this has arguably been our best trip in over 12-13 years of coming to SD. It’s been a great trip!!
 
Eleven of us from VA spent Oct 31-Nov 3 in Winner SD - bagged a total of 55 birds during that time. The guide/landowner told us as we left that we bagged about 30 birds more than what he expected. Said we had seen his farm "at it's worst" so far as bird numbers. He was going to have one more group this week and then that was going to be it for the year. He already cancelled the two groups in Dec. Last year we hunted opening week and 12 of us bagged 98 birds. We were thankful for the numbers of birds we harvested this year. And we'll be back next year...Witten Farms.
 
Benelli Rooster said:
I agree with this. Between me and my hunting buddy, and my GSP Tuff, we have 20 in the freezer after 4 days and change, with another 5-6+ that couldn’t be retrieved. No private land, all public and some good ditches. The numbers have been considerably better than I thought, but only in certain areas. Our usual area of the last 10-12 years is essentially a dead end this year (and last year really), but we have ventured away from it to find birds. Lots of driving and lots of working but we’re are finding birds.

The only real downside is the bigger groups of birds we have found have been deep in the cattails; I mean large groups, 20-30+, but tough to get up on them and when you do, if you drop one in the cattails, you may not find it even if you’re almost standing on top of it. Can hardly see your boots.

One other side not, almost NO young birds so far; maybe 3 of the 20 were the recent hatch. Everything we have shot have been big old wily roosters. Fun to see.

Tomorrow will be my 6th day and I’m considering making it my last. Considering the doom and gloom forecast, this has arguably been our best trip in over 12-13 years of coming to SD. It’s been a great trip!!
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good report! good to hear...hats off to you.
 
Benelli Rooster said:
One other side not, almost NO young birds so far; maybe 3 of the 20 were the recent hatch. Everything we have shot have been big old wily roosters. Fun to see.
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BR, glad you're having a fun time. Only 3 of 20 being this year's birds is obviously very, VERY uncommon, particularly on public land. Just out of curiosity, what criteria are you using to age them?
 
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Just got back from a 5 day trip. Hunted south west of Aberdeen in Edmonds County. Managed a limit each day. In my scientific opinion, I would say birds were down 30 to 40%. Still good numbers where we were at, but clearly down. I've been hunting the same areas for years, and there were stock ponds completely dry that have always had water even in drier years. We certainly didn't shoot as many young birds as we usually do. The guys I talked to who were there early struggled, but all the corn had come out the week I got there, and that clearly helped. All in all a good trip. I've had better, but it certainly wasn't doom and gloom. Enjoyed watching all the snow geese migrating through as well.
 
Hunted around Arlington last week. 2 guys, 4 dogs, one who is a pup who was just along for the ride. We ended up with 9 birds in 4 days. Lost one and missed 6 others that were pretty easy shots. Jumped about 25 to 30 hens. That was promising. All public land. Approximately 90% of the birds were found near cattails. Best areas had food plots also. I also won a Winchester pump at the Lake Poinsett DU banquet that we attended Saturday night. That was a nice surprise! Thank you to all the locals who were very friendly and welcoming while we were there. All in all a great trip, we learned a lot, made notes in the public land atlas and are planning a return trip next year. Thanks!
 
Just got back from South Dakota. Took a rookie dog out for her first trip, she ended up learning a lot. First day hunted public land near Mitchell. Plenty of birds there, could easily have had my limit in under an hour. However the theme to this trip was bad shooting. The birds were near the cattails. It was tough walking but paid off. We then went to Pierre and hunted the grasslands for sharptails. The dog performed well for her first time, but my shooting was off. We went back to Mitchell and hunted public land again. Bagged a couple including one really nice bird.

A few things I noticed:

I went to a Crep area where I have always gotten birds and the grass was shorter than my lawn. Saw this in a lot of Crep areas.

This causes all the hunters to be clustered together on land that has not been mowed, so get to your spot early.

I went to a public area in the center of the state I have hunted 4 or 5 times. It is a small area that does not get much pressure. When I arrived it looked like no one had been there. No tire tracks, dog poop feathers where I park. Ther is a spot that always holds between 5-10 birds. This time there was one. The grass there is usually thick about chest high. It was maybe knee high and thin. There is a shelter belt that has good cover around it, but usually have to wade through thick grass to get to it. This time the grass was barely knee deep. The shelter belt was thin also.

The birds are there and cattails appear to be the key. It's hard work but they are there.

The birds I saw were either older looked like second year birds or very small.

I don't know how fast the cover grows back, but my fear is that even with perfect weather next year the habitat will not be back enough to support a large pheasant population. Hopefully it grows fast and there is perfect weather.
 
Ohiouplandhunting said:
I went to a Crep area where I have always gotten birds and the grass was shorter than my lawn. Saw this in a lot of Crep areas.
The grass there is usually thick about chest high. It was maybe knee high and thin.
I don't know how fast the cover grows back, but my fear is that even with perfect weather next year the habitat will not be back enough to support a large pheasant population. Hopefully it grows fast and there is perfect weather.
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That's a pretty common theme this year, especially on CREP & Walk-In Areas. Ditches too. See any cow pies on your pheasant ground? I think some of it got grazed. Also quite a lot was mowed/cut for whatever agricultural reason this summer. The further west toward the Missouri you got, the drought got worse & was in full swing by mid June out that way, especially north. It really stunts the cover severely. But typically, with the possible exception of grazed land, if we have decent snowfall & rain in late winter, there's plenty of cover around for nesting in May/June.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
BR, glad you're having a fun time. Only 3 of 20 being this year's birds is obviously very, VERY uncommon, particularly on public land. Just out of curiosity, what criteria are you using to age them?
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I am just guessing about the new hatch birds; just basing it off of the color and size of the birds. 3 or so were distinctly smaller and the color hadn't come in yet. A majority of the ones we bagged were really big, long-tailed, colorful birds. We slowed down a little the last few days but overall I think the two of us bagged 24 in 5 days. From the sounds of everyone else, I am very happy with that. I'm considering a trip back in several weeks but I doubt that happens. We'll see if the bug to run back up hits!!
 
Benelli Rooster said:
I am just guessing about the new hatch birds; just basing it off of the color and size of the birds. 3 or so were distinctly smaller and the color hadn't come in yet. A majority of the ones we bagged were really big, long-tailed, colorful birds. We slowed down a little the last few days but overall I think the two of us bagged 24 in 5 days. From the sounds of everyone else, I am very happy with that. I'm considering a trip back in several weeks but I doubt that happens. We'll see if the bug to run back up hits!!
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Sounds like you did real well. That's almost a 2.5 bird/man/day average. I'm guessing you shot more 1st-year birds than you originally thought. You'll always get into a few of those real young ones, but so far the majority of the 1st-year birds I've shot this season have been real nice, fully plumed birds. Tends to vary quite a bit geographically, depending on when the most successful hatch occurred in each area. Let that bug hit you hard & get yourself back up here to chase them around some more. Just stay out of my yard! ;)
 
Ohiouplandhunting said:
I went to a Crep area where I have always gotten birds and the grass was shorter than my lawn. Saw this in a lot of Crep areas.
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I thought the emergency haying/grazing only allowed for 50% of each parcel to be cut or grazed? Here's a link to an article that states exactly that. (the article is from ND, but the emergency declaration applied to SD and MT as well)

http://www.agweek.com/news/north-dakota/4298219-crp-acres-open-haying-regulations-apply

So do these CREP spots that have been hayed still have 50% of the cover still there? Or has it all been cut or grazed?

I'll find out for myself when I get there next week, but I'm sure curious about this!
 
Just arrived home, hunted spinks and clark county's, all the public places we hunted for the last 10 days had been hayed, there was some cover but they seem to hay the best grasses and leave small areas isolated like islands of the grasses they don't want.in our findings numbers were way down. We saw three cock birds the entire time driving to places to hunt, we found a few birds but not what we saw last year.
i am not an expert on pheasants but hear are a few things that concern me.
Once the corn is gone there is very little cover there will be very little nesting cover for next year.
The last thing bothered me the most,
I was told that the farmers that hay the crp,crep,and so fourth,don't have to use the hay for them self's but can sell it to whomever they like.
that just doesn't seem right, its sorta of double dipping.If they need it that's another story,or donating it,
just my 2 cents,
still going back next year.
 
We ( two hunters and 2 good Brittany's) just returned from 6 days afield, hunting public land located in four central counties around Mitchell and Huron. Averaged seeing a total of 50 birds a day, that said, it was some of the toughest conditions to bag birds we've experienced in a while. Thought the bird count was close to last year with about a 5 to 1 hen to rooster count. Found much of the old haunts had been hayed as in previous drought years, but there were still ample amounts of cover to find birds, good dog's are a must. Temperatures were a little below normal from past years, along with more precipitation, in the form of a few inch's of measurable SNOW. Add the normal wind and it made a recipe for challenging conditions. We had enough action to keep us focused, but logged lots of miles to do it. We came up short of our limit each day, but the opportunity was there. Will have to check barrels to see if they were bent in transit, seemed to be shooting behind birds more than normal, It definitely wasn't the sun in my eyes. All in all, another good hunt, with some excellent dog work and good time with family. So if your wondering if you should make the trip, I say, GO FOR IT.
 
Tfmdl said:
Just arrived home, hunted spinks and clark county's, all the public places we hunted for the last 10 days had been hayed, there was some cover but they seem to hay the best grasses and leave small areas isolated like islands of the grasses they don't want.in our findings numbers were way down. We saw three cock birds the entire time driving to places to hunt, we found a few birds but not what we saw last year.
i am not an expert on pheasants but hear are a few things that concern me.
Once the corn is gone there is very little cover there will be very little nesting cover for next year.
The last thing bothered me the most,
I was told that the farmers that hay the crp,crep,and so fourth,don't have to use the hay for them self's but can sell it to whomever they like.
that just doesn't seem right, its sorta of double dipping.If they need it that's another story,or donating it,
just my 2 cents,
still going back next year.
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I don't believe that is right, but under which situation did they cut it? I cut CRP as part of the mid term management, that hay I had to donate. The hay that was released under the emergency haying due to the drought I could keep. It is a complicated system.
 
mwilly56 said:
We ( two hunters and 2 good Brittany's) just returned from 6 days afield, hunting public land located in four central counties around Mitchell and Huron. Averaged seeing a total of 50 birds a day, that said, it was some of the toughest conditions to bag birds we've experienced in a while. Thought the bird count was close to last year with about a 5 to 1 hen to rooster count. Found much of the old haunts had been hayed as in previous drought years, but there were still ample amounts of cover to find birds, good dog's are a must. Temperatures were a little below normal from past years, along with more precipitation, in the form of a few inch's of measurable SNOW. Add the normal wind and it made a recipe for challenging conditions. We had enough action to keep us focused, but logged lots of miles to do it. We came up short of our limit each day, but the opportunity was there. Will have to check barrels to see if they were bent in transit, seemed to be shooting behind birds more than normal, It definitely wasn't the sun in my eyes. All in all, another good hunt, with some excellent dog work and good time with family. So if your wondering if you should make the trip, I say, GO FOR IT.
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Nice report. Fun to hear from people who also had fun. :cheers:
 
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