On some of my previous posts I may have painted a somewhat dim view of this years pheasant population. But a few days ago My oldest Lab and I tried a out of the way CRP that had been mowed near the road but in a very back wet area there was some heavy cover that I thought most hunters wouldn't waste there time walking to. It was right next to a harvested corn field and a RR right away. Perfect place. Yep the first flush startled me with 4 Roosters which I proceeded to miss clean. All told in that spot there was 8 roosters and 3 hens. I was shocked! So at that place and time in my life no one could have convinced me ah there is no birds just wasting my time. Just the opposite a memory to carry forever!
Any reports from hunters ?
- Thread starter mwilly56
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benelli-banger
Well-known member
just returned from trip #3...again, hunting was good. Friday, with the wind, made conditions tough, but it certainly changed the birds' habits, and hunting was good. Great dog work, some good shooting, a lot of bad shooting! A very nice trip...
The wife & I just returned from our 15th or so November trip to the great state of South Dakota. Hunting exceeded our expectations, we had good action every day. The bird numbers are definitely down, but as others have previously posted, there are birds out there. It was a important trip for our 2 year old lab, and she put it together. She has her grandmother showing her the ropes. We hunt the Huron area, spoke to a number of locals, and the theme was always the same.....bird numbers way down, hunters way down. That is a fact.
The toughest part of the trip was the substantial removal of habitat thru emergency haying. We saw several
Cattail tracts mowed as well, very tough to see. There was little or no cover in a number of areas we used to hunt. I couldn't help but think of the Governors meeting to address loss of habitat and how to address the continued loss of habitat and subsequent decline in bird #'s. I'm only reporting what we saw, and it was
Worse than we anticipated. The next few years will be critical for the future of pheasants and pheasant hunting in SD. I'll submit another report after our 2nd trip later this season. Good luck to all!
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Reports from public land w/in 1.25 hours of Sioux Falls. These 2 spots have both been quite productive at times in the past, with the 1st one being arguably better (usually):
Saturday Buzz & I got 3 hunting a WPA for just over 2.5 hours late afternoon. Edges of grass. Edges of slough. The works. All surrounding crops picked. Gorgeous weather. 45; sunny; very little breeze. Saw only 4 roosters & 3 hens. 4 of these birds were flushed in a flurry at 4:50 after I’d seen them fly in to roost (they cooperated for a change). All 3 shot were 2nd-year birds. Little concerned we didn't see more hens & young birds.
Yesterday hunted another WPA roughly 30 miles northeast of the first spot. Same time of day; same types of cover; same weather; same guy/gun/shells; same dog. Got 3 in just under 2 hours & could’ve been done in under 1.5 hours had a couple things worked out a little differently. Saw 7 roosters & 6 hens. All 3 shot were 1st-year birds but nice, mostly fully plumed (except Buzz totally de-tailed one of them). Only flushed 1 that was quite young looking. Unidentifiable until he cackled once he got out of range (little strange), so he’s still available. Didn’t stick around to watch/listen the last ½ hour +/- of the day. Pretty typical of what I’m used to seeing this time of year in that kind of spot.
Saturday Buzz & I got 3 hunting a WPA for just over 2.5 hours late afternoon. Edges of grass. Edges of slough. The works. All surrounding crops picked. Gorgeous weather. 45; sunny; very little breeze. Saw only 4 roosters & 3 hens. 4 of these birds were flushed in a flurry at 4:50 after I’d seen them fly in to roost (they cooperated for a change). All 3 shot were 2nd-year birds. Little concerned we didn't see more hens & young birds.
Yesterday hunted another WPA roughly 30 miles northeast of the first spot. Same time of day; same types of cover; same weather; same guy/gun/shells; same dog. Got 3 in just under 2 hours & could’ve been done in under 1.5 hours had a couple things worked out a little differently. Saw 7 roosters & 6 hens. All 3 shot were 1st-year birds but nice, mostly fully plumed (except Buzz totally de-tailed one of them). Only flushed 1 that was quite young looking. Unidentifiable until he cackled once he got out of range (little strange), so he’s still available. Didn’t stick around to watch/listen the last ½ hour +/- of the day. Pretty typical of what I’m used to seeing this time of year in that kind of spot.
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A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
FYI, hunted a WPA yesterday north of Hwy. 34 & somewhat west of 81. Every place that doesn't get sun has a little snow left over. North side of shelter belts. Even north side of round bales. Successfully crossed a little ice on a slough, although it was pretty crackley & I was really trying to think "light" thoughts. Unfortunately it seems this week will be pretty warm. I wish the weather would stay cold & freeze the sloughs good & solid before much significant snow hits.
how much of the public land is mowed down these days (better yet, does the game and fish have a link of areas that were mowed this year?)? the private land we have permission to hunt has been 95% mowed, so we would have to hunt dang near all public stuff, near the woonsocket area. still trying to talk dad into even though hes been hearing all of the gloom and doom...
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Much of my hunting so far has been within maybe 50-60 miles east of Woonsocket. I'm not seeing near 50% mowed. More like 15-20%....maybe. Much more prevalent in the WIA's & CREP & not so much in GPA's & WPA's.
Report from east of Aberdeen and North of 12 morning was slow but afternoon was great! No birds in the bag but got up high teens in roosters and a couple hens . Just out of range and a couple I should have got but someone can't shoot! Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully better shooting!
Riverman
Member
Three of us hunted the third week of the season for 5 days. We hunt an area that is about 100 miles north to south, and 40 miles east to west near Pierre. It covers Gettysburg, Hoven, Onida, Mobridge, etc.
It was windy 4/5 days (i.e. > 20mph) and this made it tough, although it also camouflages your walking. We all have good dogs (labs) and they all have 5+ years of experience (mine is 10 yrs old), plus shock collars to keep them close.
We hunt walk-in, ditches, WPAs, and a few private places. We mostly hit places near crops cause that seems to be where we find them. Other than a few embarrassing moments we are usually pretty good at hitting and killing birds. We found that birds were using standing corn and sunflowers during the day in the wind, although we always found a few napping in the grass. We also saw a lot of crops still not harvested--I would guess well over 50-60%, which will diminish greatly the number of birds that you see. I refer to corn as a pheasant's "National Forest" since it serves the same purpose for them as it does for elk. Yeah, the elk come out of the forest to feed in fields and meadows, but they like the forest since it gives them the advantage to run and hide. Of course the difference is that that pheasants prefer to roost in heavy grass for thermal cover, and they will eat in their corn/sunflower "Forest area." We killed all of our birds for the trip, but at the motel where we were staying the owner said we were the ONLY ones that had that level of success. Keep in mind that each of us averages 5-10 miles of walking per day. We often go on long walks (we call them "death marches") with no birds or roosters. One thing I noticed on this trip was that I shot multiple doubles and one triple, and those made all the difference. One day in particular was not going well, i.e., cold, windy, no flushes, over 5 miles of walking, when my dog finally busted a group of hens then kept moving forward to flush three roosters that came up one-at-a-time. They all paid the price and ended up in the bag. Best part was that my good friend watched it all from 40 yards away, including my dog bringing back two birds at once.:cheers: I liked getting the triple, but frankly I would have preferred to shoot two of those birds a little earlier in the day to keep my morale up!
We are planning another hunt starting this Friday, then a third one in December. I think it might be better this next trip since more crops will be harvested, although I did notice that the weather forecast is calling for more WIND!! UGH! When it is windy you often have to shoot fast when they flush and turn to get that extra speed from 30 mph pushing them! We also noticed that a lot more CRP and ditches were mowed and hayed. I almost think G&F could pay farmers not to mow ditches and it would make a huge difference. In SE Nebraska over 60% of pheasants are produced from road ditches. And this is an area that is intensively farmed. Good luck everyone.
It was windy 4/5 days (i.e. > 20mph) and this made it tough, although it also camouflages your walking. We all have good dogs (labs) and they all have 5+ years of experience (mine is 10 yrs old), plus shock collars to keep them close.
We hunt walk-in, ditches, WPAs, and a few private places. We mostly hit places near crops cause that seems to be where we find them. Other than a few embarrassing moments we are usually pretty good at hitting and killing birds. We found that birds were using standing corn and sunflowers during the day in the wind, although we always found a few napping in the grass. We also saw a lot of crops still not harvested--I would guess well over 50-60%, which will diminish greatly the number of birds that you see. I refer to corn as a pheasant's "National Forest" since it serves the same purpose for them as it does for elk. Yeah, the elk come out of the forest to feed in fields and meadows, but they like the forest since it gives them the advantage to run and hide. Of course the difference is that that pheasants prefer to roost in heavy grass for thermal cover, and they will eat in their corn/sunflower "Forest area." We killed all of our birds for the trip, but at the motel where we were staying the owner said we were the ONLY ones that had that level of success. Keep in mind that each of us averages 5-10 miles of walking per day. We often go on long walks (we call them "death marches") with no birds or roosters. One thing I noticed on this trip was that I shot multiple doubles and one triple, and those made all the difference. One day in particular was not going well, i.e., cold, windy, no flushes, over 5 miles of walking, when my dog finally busted a group of hens then kept moving forward to flush three roosters that came up one-at-a-time. They all paid the price and ended up in the bag. Best part was that my good friend watched it all from 40 yards away, including my dog bringing back two birds at once.:cheers: I liked getting the triple, but frankly I would have preferred to shoot two of those birds a little earlier in the day to keep my morale up!
We are planning another hunt starting this Friday, then a third one in December. I think it might be better this next trip since more crops will be harvested, although I did notice that the weather forecast is calling for more WIND!! UGH! When it is windy you often have to shoot fast when they flush and turn to get that extra speed from 30 mph pushing them! We also noticed that a lot more CRP and ditches were mowed and hayed. I almost think G&F could pay farmers not to mow ditches and it would make a huge difference. In SE Nebraska over 60% of pheasants are produced from road ditches. And this is an area that is intensively farmed. Good luck everyone.
Riverman
Member
Three of us hunted the third week of the season for 5 days. We hunt an area that is about 100 miles north to south, and 40 miles east to west near Pierre. It covers Gettysburg, Hoven, Onida, Mobridge, etc.
It was windy 4/5 days (i.e. > 20mph) and this made it tough, although it also camouflages your walking. We all have good dogs (labs) and they all have 5+ years of experience (mine is 10 yrs old), plus shock collars to keep them close.
We hunt walk-in, ditches, WPAs, and a few private places. We mostly hit places near crops cause that seems to be where we find them. Other than a few embarrassing moments we are usually pretty good at hitting and killing birds. We found that birds were using standing corn and sunflowers during the day in the wind, although we always found a few napping in the grass. We also saw a lot of crops still not harvested--I would guess well over 50-60%, which will diminish greatly the number of birds that you see. I refer to corn as a pheasant's "National Forest" since it serves the same purpose for them as it does for elk. Yeah, the elk come out of the forest to feed in fields and meadows, but they like the forest since it gives them the advantage to run and hide. Of course the difference is that that pheasants prefer to roost in heavy grass for thermal cover, and they will eat in their corn/sunflower "Forest area." We killed all of our birds for the trip, but at the motel where we were staying the owner said we were the ONLY ones that had that level of success. Keep in mind that each of us averages 5-10 miles of walking per day. We often go on long walks (we call them "death marches") with no birds or roosters. One thing I noticed on this trip was that I shot multiple doubles and one triple, and those made all the difference. One day in particular was not going well, i.e., cold, windy, no flushes, over 5 miles of walking, when my dog finally busted a group of hens then kept moving forward to flush three roosters that came up one-at-a-time. They all paid the price and ended up in the bag. Best part was that my good friend watched it all from 40 yards away, including my dog bringing back two birds at once.:cheers: I liked getting the triple, but frankly I would have preferred to shoot two of those birds a little earlier in the day to keep my morale up!
We are planning another hunt starting this Friday, then a third one in December. I think it might be better this next trip since more crops will be harvested, although I did notice that the weather forecast is calling for more WIND!! UGH! When it is windy you often have to shoot fast when they flush and turn to get that extra speed from 30 mph pushing them! We also noticed that a lot more CRP and ditches were mowed and hayed. I almost think G&F could pay farmers not to mow ditches and it would make a huge difference. In SE Nebraska over 60% of pheasants are produced from road ditches. And this is an area that is intensively farmed. Good luck everyone.
It was windy 4/5 days (i.e. > 20mph) and this made it tough, although it also camouflages your walking. We all have good dogs (labs) and they all have 5+ years of experience (mine is 10 yrs old), plus shock collars to keep them close.
We hunt walk-in, ditches, WPAs, and a few private places. We mostly hit places near crops cause that seems to be where we find them. Other than a few embarrassing moments we are usually pretty good at hitting and killing birds. We found that birds were using standing corn and sunflowers during the day in the wind, although we always found a few napping in the grass. We also saw a lot of crops still not harvested--I would guess well over 50-60%, which will diminish greatly the number of birds that you see. I refer to corn as a pheasant's "National Forest" since it serves the same purpose for them as it does for elk. Yeah, the elk come out of the forest to feed in fields and meadows, but they like the forest since it gives them the advantage to run and hide. Of course the difference is that that pheasants prefer to roost in heavy grass for thermal cover, and they will eat in their corn/sunflower "Forest area." We killed all of our birds for the trip, but at the motel where we were staying the owner said we were the ONLY ones that had that level of success. Keep in mind that each of us averages 5-10 miles of walking per day. We often go on long walks (we call them "death marches") with no birds or roosters. One thing I noticed on this trip was that I shot multiple doubles and one triple, and those made all the difference. One day in particular was not going well, i.e., cold, windy, no flushes, over 5 miles of walking, when my dog finally busted a group of hens then kept moving forward to flush three roosters that came up one-at-a-time. They all paid the price and ended up in the bag. Best part was that my good friend watched it all from 40 yards away, including my dog bringing back two birds at once.:cheers: I liked getting the triple, but frankly I would have preferred to shoot two of those birds a little earlier in the day to keep my morale up!
We are planning another hunt starting this Friday, then a third one in December. I think it might be better this next trip since more crops will be harvested, although I did notice that the weather forecast is calling for more WIND!! UGH! When it is windy you often have to shoot fast when they flush and turn to get that extra speed from 30 mph pushing them! We also noticed that a lot more CRP and ditches were mowed and hayed. I almost think G&F could pay farmers not to mow ditches and it would make a huge difference. In SE Nebraska over 60% of pheasants are produced from road ditches. And this is an area that is intensively farmed. Good luck everyone.
Had a good day from morning to this evening. I got one old rooster and missed the other three that were within slingshot range. SD has my number! Seen well over 4 dozen birds today. Mostly just out of range. It's myself and the wife she's along for the ride. If anyone wants to meet up at my public land honey hole Friday let me know I'm heading West river tomorrow and Thursday and will be back in the northeast friday before heading home Saturday.
treedaddy
Member
Not scientific by any means, but I would say that bird numbers are down about 1/3 in the area around Freeman. My buddy and I took home 16 in 4 days of hunting. Saw birds while riding, but not as much as usual. The Walk Ins and CREPs had good cover and some were partially hayed. Plenty of water in the sloughs. We watched some farmers combining corn and were encouraged by the number of hens we saw.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Scientific enough for me. Mostly just commenting to see if my new signature works. Here goes. Update: Yep, looks like it works.
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benelli-banger
Well-known member
just returned from trip #4...good hunt again, still a lot of corn standing...thank god for the wind, kept them in the cover during the day off and on...not in the corn all day.
jackrabbit
Active member
Hunted 4 days last week in SD. Day 1 was public land roughly in the middle of the state, started hunting about 1:30. Must have hit one of those pockets that have birds, because it was up there for the most birds I've ever seen on public land in 1 day the last 10 years. Here was the problem.... I missed 2, hunting partner missed 3, we each had one get up near us when we didn't have a shell in. Partner's dog was a little too energetic on day one and got out too far and ruined a few areas. We certainly had more than enough opportunities to get our 6.
Day 2 was private land in central/south central part of state. Between 4 of us we got 9. I thought that was respectable given the reports to be 3 under our limit. Not too many misses, but certainly could have had our 12 with 100% shooting. Last year we got 30 with 10 people on this piece of land.
Day 3 was private land in south central/south east part of state. We got 4 between 4 of us, however we ran into vehicle problems that knocked out over half of the day. Pickup with 30,000 miles on it stopped in the middle of a picked cornfield and the transmission started slipping. Vehicle turned itself to accessory and stuck in drive, screen flashed back and forth between "Do Not Start" and "Service Transmission." What ended up happening was a harvested cornstalk ripped out a wire/sensor under the truck. Mechanic said he sees it a few times a year out there. Between being stuck in the field an hour from middle of no where, to getting a tow, to loading everything into a loaner vehicle because they thought transmission was out and they wouldn't fix it for 7-10 days, to it then being a quick fix and driving an hour back to get the truck and reload all of our gear, it wasted a lot of the day. I'm pretty confident that we would have ended with around 7-10 birds that day if we didn't have the problems.
Day 4 was back to the same land as Day 3, but just 2 of us this time. Hunted from 11:30-3:30 and only saw hens - a lot of them at that. One rooster that flushed just off the land we had access to, so he got lucky and lived on.
All in all, I would say the bird numbers are maybe down, but not down enough that anybody should be discouraged and cancel trips. If you like full days of hunting and having to work for them, walking 10-15 miles a day, and having a chance to get some birds, then it's for you! If you want to be done by noon and not walk a lot, then stay home.
Day 2 was private land in central/south central part of state. Between 4 of us we got 9. I thought that was respectable given the reports to be 3 under our limit. Not too many misses, but certainly could have had our 12 with 100% shooting. Last year we got 30 with 10 people on this piece of land.
Day 3 was private land in south central/south east part of state. We got 4 between 4 of us, however we ran into vehicle problems that knocked out over half of the day. Pickup with 30,000 miles on it stopped in the middle of a picked cornfield and the transmission started slipping. Vehicle turned itself to accessory and stuck in drive, screen flashed back and forth between "Do Not Start" and "Service Transmission." What ended up happening was a harvested cornstalk ripped out a wire/sensor under the truck. Mechanic said he sees it a few times a year out there. Between being stuck in the field an hour from middle of no where, to getting a tow, to loading everything into a loaner vehicle because they thought transmission was out and they wouldn't fix it for 7-10 days, to it then being a quick fix and driving an hour back to get the truck and reload all of our gear, it wasted a lot of the day. I'm pretty confident that we would have ended with around 7-10 birds that day if we didn't have the problems.
Day 4 was back to the same land as Day 3, but just 2 of us this time. Hunted from 11:30-3:30 and only saw hens - a lot of them at that. One rooster that flushed just off the land we had access to, so he got lucky and lived on.
All in all, I would say the bird numbers are maybe down, but not down enough that anybody should be discouraged and cancel trips. If you like full days of hunting and having to work for them, walking 10-15 miles a day, and having a chance to get some birds, then it's for you! If you want to be done by noon and not walk a lot, then stay home.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
My cousin, my springer Buzz, & I hunted Saturday in tons of wind & enough cold. Hunted 2 WPA's & 1 GPA, all within 1 hr. 15 min. of Sioux Falls. Saw birds at all 3 spots. Primary cover was edges (of either grass or sloughs) all near picked crops. Made a strong effort to hunt what I thought would be the best spots into the wind, slowly & quietly. Capitalized on all 6 rooster opportunities. Covered almost exactly 5 miles in almost exactly 4 hours, for average speed of 1.25 mph. 40 minutes/rooster average. Pretty normal for this time of year. Saw maybe another 35-40 pheasants - plenty close; some far. Maybe 85-90% of the "other" birds seen were hens. Was very happy to see plenty of hens. For the places we hunted, I would call our success & number of birds seen "normal" to "pretty good" for this time of year. Interestingly, 2 of the spots we hunted are about 25 miles apart, north-south. The south spot has a big pond on it that is BONE DRY right now & surrounding grass about 1/2 as thick/tall as usual. Never seen it near that dry in the 11 years I've been hunting this area regularly. The north spot had MORE water in the slough than I've seen in 11 years.
Looking forward to the weekend already. Buzz & I always celebrate Black Friday FAR away from the stores & crowds.
Looking forward to the weekend already. Buzz & I always celebrate Black Friday FAR away from the stores & crowds.
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A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Not intending to be critical here. This has been kind of a theme of mine lately. Right now, shooting hours in much of SD consist basically of 7 hours from 10 to 5. Let's say you take an hour total for lunch, breaks, etc. That leaves 6 hours of actual hunting. In my opinion, if you're covering 10-15 miles in only 6 hours, you might consider slowing your pace considerably. I understand that pace is going to vary depending on several variables, but ON AVERAGE, for a single person or very small group, I think pace needs to be 1.5 miles/hour or less, especially if either you or the dog(s) are in cattails. If my dog is in cattails, my pace is almost always below 1.0 mph. If I'm in the cattails with him, slower yet. I get that faster hunting occurs & is sometimes even appropriate. But you gotta let those dogs hunt. If you move more slowly, they'll respond to that & hunt more thoroughly. And yes, I'm talking about either an older, slower dog, or a young whipper-snapper who really covers a lot of ground. My $0.02.
(This is for flushing dogs. Maybe pointers operate considerably differently. By all means, chime in.)
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jackrabbit
Active member
A5 - I will agree with everything you said, especially the speed while hunting in cattails. When solo hunting, I spend a lot of time in cattails, often which is walking 20 yards and stopping for a bit and letting the dock thoroughly work everything. To clarify, the day that I hit almost 15 miles last week involved no stopping for lunch and hunting pretty much non-stop from 10:00 to sunset. I am also the youngest and in shape guy for our group of 4, so I volunteer to do the most work (by a lot). I probably walk a little faster than I should, but I also zig zag back and forth the entire time- never in a straight line which can also add up the miles really quick. We also hunted lots of smaller pieces that were within a picked field, so hunt this 100 yard stretch, then get through the next 400 yards of picked cornfield quickly to hunt the waterway, etc. All adding up the miles.